Cosplayer and overall winner of the cosplay competition Yvonne Chockey poses for pictures with fans while cosplaying as Angewomon, a character from the popular Digimon anime series, during the Otamatsuri convention in Nairobi on August 22

Cosplayers and Japanese culture fans create content for social media as they gather during the Otamatsuri convention in Nairobi. The event is a parade of characters from manga series such as One Piece and Naruto, among others, whose character arcs inspire cosplayers with themes of “perseverance” and “rebirth”, they explain, while noting that their community is still often misunderstood in Kenya

At the same convention, another cosplayer dressed as the character 'Roronoa Zoro' from the popular manga and anime series One Piece, at the entrance

Among others, a fan dressed as a clown gestures during the Otamatsuri convention in Nairobi on August 22. Enthusiasm for the cosplay world is growing in Kenya, where more than 4,000 people attended the Otamatsuri convention in the capital on the day

A cosplayer dressed as Riyo, a character from the popular manga series Gachiakuta, poses for fans to take pictures during the Otamatsuri convention. The annual gathering, held since 2019, brings together fans of anime, video games and manga and culminates in a cosplay competition

While there were cosplayer, manga and anime fans also browsed for comic books at a stall during the Otamatsuri convention in Nairobi on August 22, one of many anime conventions around the world