Relay 2009

The Japan Engineering University (Nihon Kogakuin) Creator's College has a program that teaches a variety of majors, including medicine, technology and sports. During the weekend of Feb. 27 to Mar. 1, 2009, the school put on an exhibition of the works from their graduates from the "creative field". This exhibition included anime, manga, video games, trading card games, board games, clothing, and even a live action music video drama. A number of the pictures had been turned into advertising posters of the school, and many were also turned into freebie postcards.



As is the case with any collection of students, the exhibit is a mixed bag. Some of the works are incredibly well-done and high quality. Others, not so much. The difference, though, is that the high-quality work outstrips that most art and design schools in the U.S. And, the variety of themes and scope of storytelling is what we've come to expect from Japanese artists.



In short, Relay is not just a way of advertising the school, or of students to attract potential employers; it's also a great way for anime, manga and video game fans to witness the possible release of the next generation of talent to come out of Japan. There's also a lot of freebies in the form of small posters, a sampler DVD and a 4-color sampler book.



While all the event was open to the public for all three days, Friday was also a "business" day. One part of the display space was set aside for snacks and beverages (tea and soda).



All in all this was a great event to attend, and I'd expect next year to be just as good, if not better. I especially liked "FoDxoll", a concept for a guitar duo featuring a fox spirit and what seems to be an animatron. The guitars displayed looked to be standard off-the rack electrics with some hand-painted embellishments, but the overall display, including a fox mask, spirit ward, guitars and poster were very well-thought out. And I wouldn't mind playing a couple of the board games.



Not all the photos turned out well, because I wanted to keep the flash turned off to avoid distracting everyone else in the exhibit. As far as I could tell, I was one of the few people actually using a camera at that time.