https://blackgirlnerds.com/top-black-owned-fashion-brands-for-anime-fans/

For a long time, Blerds struggled with finding spaces in the anime fandom that accurately reflected their distinctive style, tastes, and culture. However, the 2010s saw a new generation of Otakus take matters into their own hands. They created brands to fill voids they felt were desperately missing from the fashion industry: a brand representative of the Black anime fan. If you’re an Otaku looking for high-quality fashion that reflects your love for Japanese animation and adoration for Black culture then get your credit card ready. Prepare to be blown away by the five entries on this list.

Everyday Cosplay 

Everyday Cosplay is a Black Woman-owned fashion brand straight out of Dallas, Texas, created by Quency Bonds: a digital entrepreneur and content creator whose diverse portfolio includes digital art and graphic design. Everyday Cosplay’s colorful collection features original, high-quality graphic prints, designed by the owner herself, inspired by popular anime titles like Demon Slayer and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. The effeminate woman’s line is chock full of statement pieces guaranteed to turn heads, including sneakers, swimsuits, and bold-print waist-adjustable joggers.

Everyday Cosplay is a prime example of a brand made for women by women. It offers a little something for every woman’s taste, whether your vibe is a curve-hugging sexy slim-fit or casual, relaxed, and oversized. The brand also prides itself on inclusivity with sizes that run from 2XS – 6XL to cater to every woman’s body. 

According to the brand’s official IG, Everday Cosplay fills a void creator Quency Bonds felt was visibly missing from women’s fashion. She made body accommodating anime apparel with original artwork that pulled inspiration outside the mainstream options of Dragonball Z, Naruto, and Sailor Moon. With prices that range from $5 – $95, Otakus worldwide will fangirl over Everyday Cosplay’s vivid designs and vast selection.

Bad Waifu

Bad Waifu creatively expands on the basic idea of Otaku apparel and elevates it to the level of grown and sexy. Linda Walton — a multi-lingual entrepreneur who hails from the Southside of Richmond, Virginia — created the brand to help women feel cool and sexy without sacrificing their nerdy identities. The result is an Earth-conscious, woman-empowering label that proudly commits to its Black-owned standard throughout its production process, from the company’s CEO down to its NYC-based production team. 

Bad Waifu not only offers oversized cropped tees, high-waisted sweats, and vegan-friendly silk pajamas but will also soon include a sexy Demon Slayer line composed of sculpted body suits, a two-toned cropped blazer, and matching high-waisted shorts. Its racy collection includes original anime-inspired designs created by illustrator Shanice Penn with references to Dragonball Z, Naruto, and Jujutsu Kaisen. 

Despite its popularity, which has countless items selling out online, Bad Waifu is big on Blerd branding and support. Its IG page is full of Blerd models and cosplayers, and the company encourages collaborations on its official site. Its latest collab with Blerd content creator Fantastic Frankey birthed a fly, unisex bomber that’s definitely for the Culture. 

 Hypland

Hypland is the quintessential anime streetwear brand, setting the tone for Black-owned Otaku apparel since 2014. What started as a hobby exclusively shared between friends has now become one of the biggest anime streetwear brands in the United States. Hypland was created by Jordan Bentley — a young Black entrepreneur from Los Angeles — to promote diversity and interculturalism through fashion. 

Bentley trademarked the brand in 2012; however, according to an interview with Netflix, he didn’t include anime in Hypland’s designs until 2014. The inspiration behind the switch? To use his passion for fashion to promote the anime artform and unite the masses through shared fandom. Since then, Jordan’s pledge has blossomed into quite the underdog story as Hypland’s distinctive designs have reached fans all over the US — from anime expos and fashion conventions to pop-up shops throughout LA, NYC, and Chicago. 

Hypland’s unisex designs, although original, are all officially licensed collaborations backed by some of the biggest distributors in anime, including Viz Media (Naruto), Funimation (YuYu Hakusho), Konami (Yu-Gi-oh!), and Toei Animation (Zatch Bell!). Hypland’s vast collection ranges from colorful, minimalistic graphic hoodies to bold, color-block puffer jackets. Since its launch, the streetwear brand has expanded to home decor. They offer plush rugs that feature intricately detailed designs of famous anime characters such as Hunter X Hunter’s adorable twosome Gon and Killua. 

Adorned By Chi

Adorned by Chi is another famous brand that has been making waves in the anime space since the 2010s by carving out a lane for Black fans. When creator Jacque Aye — a Nigerian-American author, business owner, and self-care enthusiast — didn’t feel there was enough representation for the Black anime fandom, she took matters into her own hands. 

Aye created a brand, which includes a fashion line and a manga series starring an all-Black ensemble of collegiate heroes. Not only are some of the brand’s pieces inspired by anime like Sailor Moon, but they also feature original artwork and characters from the Adorned By Chi manga!

Adorned By, Chi’s fashion label, is a product of Aye’s adoration for the magical girl genre — a subgenre of Japanese entertainment that focuses on young girls with magical abilities. She has an affinity of promoting self-love and Blerd representation. Most of the brand’s best-selling graphic tees and sweatshirts contain affirming pro-black messages like “Coco Cutie,” “Melanin Mermaid,” “Black and Proud,” and “Pretty Girls Like Anime.” 

Adorned By, Chi’s womenswear collection, offers cropped sweatshirts, bodysuits, and tees that are soft, feminine, and whimsical with vibrant designs and bold fonts inspired by Mattel’s Barbie. Although the online store is currently on hiatus, you can check out their collection of graphic tees, tanks, and hoodies at Hot Topic, or browse their recent ‘Hello Kitty’ collab with Sanrio – a Japanese company that specializes in kawaii gifts and products.  

Oh My Senpai

Oh My Senpai is an up-and-coming brand from California that has found success quickly thanks to its hype on social media and branding which has kept its premium loungewear in demand since the Summer of 2021. Oh My Senpai is a made-to-order Black-owned brand manned by a one-person army of Taylor Senpai, a popular content creator who was inspired to make their anime-inspired lingerie and sleepwear when they noticed the lack of options available. 

To keep up with this exclusive brand, whose popular online shop is password-protected, you have to pay attention. Oh My Senpai announces the sales of its exclusive drops via social media. Each drop includes a new line inspired by a new anime and is only available for pre-order for a few weeks. This exclusivity has built up quite the buzz, causing drops to sell out as quickly as 24 hours. 
With Oh My Senpai, nerds of color can look forward to loungewear and accessories that were designed specifically with them in mind with the inclusion of natural hair care essentials like satin bonnets and du-rags. In addition to dressing your kinks and coils with stylish patterns and designs (with the help of Black artists like Jazmin Anita), Oh My Senpai also offers premium robes, nightgowns, wrap-tops, lounge pants, and t-shirts inspired by popular titles like Sailor Moon, Naruto, and Demon Slayer. With the option of VIP boxes that include bundles of up to four items, Oh My Senpai is the perfect gift idea for Black anime fans.

https://www.thenerdelement.com/2022/06/17/special-one-night-only-d23-oogie-boogie-bash/

Get ready for a special one-night-only Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party, available just for D23 Members. The after-park-hours event is on September 10, 2022 at Disney California Adventure^® park. Tickets can be purchased starting June 28, 2022, for this special one-night event during D23 Expo weekend.

Event highlights:

• Early Admission to Disney California Adventure^® Park – Enjoy admission to Disney California Adventure^® Park beginning at 3 p.m.—no theme park reservation required.
• Immersive Treat Trails– Collect goodies—M&M’S, SKITTLES, SNICKERS, and other Halloween favorites—along trails offering Halloween-inspired music, fun décor, and the Villains themselves, as they oversee the festivities from their thrones. You may even spot more familiar faces.
• Character Experiences– Seize the chance to meet some of Disney’s most popular characters decked out in their Halloween costumes.
• Special Decor and More– Enjoy unique decorations, lighting, music, and effects sure to set a not-too-spooky, family-friendly tone.
• Limited-Capacity Admission to Disney California Adventure^® Park – This event lets a limited number of guests explore the park after it closes, offering shorter wait times at some favorite attractions. Plus, no theme park reservation is required for the park mix-in and event with your event ticket.
• Frightfully Fun Parade– Don’t miss this spirited masquerade cavalcade starring Mickey, Minnie, and some of your fave Disney Villains!
• Mickey’s Trick & Treat– Watch Mickey and friends as they headline a live show filled with not-so-scary Halloween tales.
• Villains Grove– Explore Redwood Creek Challenge Trail like never before, as the worlds of Disney Villains unfold via ethereal scenes replete with hauntingly beautiful color, sound, light, and shadow.
• Carthay Circle– Hold onto your hats as clouds of black bats coil ’round Carthay Circle’s Bell Tower while spellbinding effects transform the building.
• Commemorative Keepsakes– Receive a souvenir credential and event guide, and unlimited downloads of Disney PhotoPass^® digital photos taken during the party. (Credentials and guides are limited to one per ticketed person.)

Tickets are $179 per guest (ages 3+) and can be purchased HERE

The post Special One-Night Only D23 Oogie Boogie Bash appeared first on The Nerd Element.

https://www.thenerdelement.com/2022/06/17/prime-video-is-bringing-middle-earth-to-comic-con-with-an-exclusive-early-look-at-the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power/

Showrunners J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay and their acclaimed ensemble cast will take the Hall H stage to greet fans in person for the very first time

Prime Video confirmed today that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series will be coming to Comic-Con International: San Diego this July. Creators and stars of the much-anticipated new series will take to the coveted Hall H stage for the very first time, inviting fans of the much beloved franchise to experience Middle-earth as they never have before.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power panel will introduce the international team of actors bringing the show’s roster of new and legendary characters of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Second Age to life. 

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is led by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay and stars a celebrated cast led by Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani.

Joining Payne & McKay are executive producers Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, J.A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado, as well as producers Ron Ames and Christopher Newman. Wayne Che Yip is co-executive producer and directs, along with J.A. Bayona and Charlotte Brändström.

The multi-season drama will premiere in multiple languages and in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide on Friday, September 2, exclusively on Prime Video, with new episodes available weekly.

About The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and one of the greatest villains that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared reemergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the farthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/review-stanley-nelson-hits-the-ball-out-of-the-park-with-the-documentary-after-jackie/

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became a civil rights legend as the first Black baseball player to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. After Jackie is a nuanced film that chronicles the stories of the Black men who were brave enough to play baseball after the color barrier was broken. 

Documentaries about integration are hard on my soul. Whenever I watch films that involve the Jim Crow/segregation era, I know I will be exposed to the trauma my Black ancestors endured and I end up feeling a heavy burden on my soul that my body will have to do the extra work to heal. 

Watching the screener of After Jackie, I felt at ease. I knew with Stanley Nelson as co-executive producer, I don’t have to do the internal work to prepare myself for being exposed to “Black trauma porn.” When I’m watching a documentary  Stanley Nelson is involved with, I know that care has been taken in sharing these stories as revered testimonies with reverence. We live in a binary world that loves to provide simple, quick, and easy explanations so that the dominant culture can attempt to rewrite history — erasing the insane toxicology that is the construct of white supremacy. Director Andre Gaines weaves an inspiring tale of resilience.

Some conservatives are strategically whitewashing the authentic brutality of segregation. They ban books and protest photographs that show white people all over this country tormenting Black people who wanted to go to school, swim in a pool, or sit at a lunch counter deemed as “white only” to erase history.  The first civil rights movement has been diluted into marketable sound bites sanitized to ease the white conscious. 

When a Black person breaks a glass ceiling, the people who come up behind them have to deal with the cuts and tend to the wounds from coming through the shards of glass left behind. After Jackie notes that when Jackie Robinson was the only Black man playing baseball, he was sent to Canada and Cuba to spring training. Black players after Jackie had to do spring training in the Jim Crow South. 

What a living nightmare. 

Culture always wants to focus on the first without examining the work that those coming up behind have to do. For every first Black person to do x, y, or z, the second, third, and fourth Black person must deal with the subtle and blatant racist fallout. I never knew about Kurt Flood, Bob Gibson, and Bill White. Nelson features their stories in After Jackie. These talented men are American national heroes. 

The craft of storytelling in After Jackie is evident. Gaines covers Jackie Robinson’s career and the introduction of Black players into baseball. The film is all about complexity and nuance. As I watched After Jackie, I thought of the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Ketanji Brown Jackson. I thought about how those white senators sat there for hours inspecting every word, doubting Justice Jackson’s intellect and challenging her values. Not only did she have to endure that racism for days, but she has also been examined and constantly persecuted on conservative media. 

Through it, all, Justice Jackson has been stoic. She has been humble, upstanding, and polite in the face of white fury. As a Black woman, the expectation is for Ketanji Brown Jackson to behave politely in the face of racism. Over fifty years ago, the expectation was for Jackie Robinson to behave politely in the face of racism, making me wonder, why doesn’t the dominant culture expect white folks to not be racist? 

Why must Black people consistently have to quietly endure white supremacy and turn the other cheek? The film elegantly teaches us that not every Black person was designed to be the “we shall overcome” kind of Black activist who can be silent in the face of rage.

After Jackie reminded me that we all play different roles in the movement. The documentary shows that when some Black baseball players in the 1960s and 70s advocated for fair wages, they were dragged in the press, and white fans threw beer bottles at them while Black players were on the field. 

In many cases, any time any Black players would speak up for themselves, management would trade them to a club in the Jim Crow South, the press would drag them, and fans would turn against them. Some white fans and conservative media outlets command Black and Brown athletes to just “shut up and play” when athletes take a knee to protest police violence or support the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Sports have been one of the few areas where Black folks can break caste. Athletes who choose to be activists have always played an essential role in the civil rights movement. When I see Black excellence on the ball field, it inspires me. The documentary states that the games in the Negro Leagues were so good that Black churches scheduled Sunday sermons so that everyone could attend the Negro Baseball games. The Negro league was so entertaining that white people also attended. The style of Baseball that we see played today would not exist if Black players did not integrate the game. 

Jackie Robinson died young. He was only 53 years old. Kurt Flood mainly went through so much as an athlete/activist, and his bravery left professional sports with the free-agent system that baseball players of all colors benefit from. Still, the stress of racism took its toll and Kurt Flood also passed away at a young age his wife believes, due to all of the racial trauma he endured. 

I loved experiencing After Jackie because it dives deep into the whys and hows that are rarely discussed when it comes to the facets of Black activism. Near the documentary’s end, columnist Clinton Yates says, “What we brought to the game made the entire game better. Everybody knows that, and it’s just a matter of educating people.” 

After Jackie is inspiring, the kind of film to watch to remember that advocating for equity is a team effort. We can witness the actions of our elders, learn from the impact and grow as we do our part to make the American Dream into an equitable reality while practicing self-care, and when we do, everyone wins.

After Jackie premieres on The History Channel, on June 18, 2022, at 8:00 pm ET/PT.