As one of the presidents of the University of Chicago Japanese Animation Society, I help plan and administrate UChi-Con—a free-to-attend, student-run convention held by our RSO. It features panels, performances, an artist alley, and much more. UChi-Con 2024 took place on January 27, and we had a confirmed registration at around 1650 people (which leads to an estimate of just about 2000 attendees considering unregistered individuals). To learn more about our convention, check out: uchi-con.com.

Collegiate Education on Japanese Animation

During my third year, I took a class on Japanese Animation, and I ended up writing two essays. 

The first essay was about techniques used in Tetsujin 28-go that helped establish the sense that the robot was present and affecting the environment within the anime. 

The second, final essay was elucidating the influence of magical girl transformations on transformations seen in Bleach.

In addition to Japanese animation, I am also interested in Japanese graphic novels—or manga. During my fourth year, there was a class on Tezuka taught by Ada Palmer. I ended up taking this class, both because of my interest in the "God of Manga", as well as my interest in the professor—an established novelist. My final in this class was with a group with two others, and we ended up writing a volume for Tezuka's unfinished magnum opus: Phoenix. I wrote the first part of the volume, writing and designing the graphic for chapter 1:

I also designed the visual for Chapter 3 of this volume that we wrote: