Cosplay · Nairobi · Kenya
オタ祭コスプレ絵巻
Otamatsuri Kosupure Emaki · The Cosplay Picture Scroll
Ten frames of Otamatsuri cosplay, shot in and around Nairobi by Nataka Inc for the Otamatsuri film. Kenyan cosplayers, armour and blades built by hand, real Kenyan locations, lit and graded like a film. Read it top to bottom like a scroll. Every frame has its name in kanji and the story of how it was made written underneath it.
Look at what this scene builds. A full ODM harness with canisters and grips, a horned helmet cut panel by panel, an axe shaped and painted by hand, uniforms patched and stitched to match the source frame for frame. People here put months into one costume, and work like that has earned a camera that can keep up with it.
Nataka Inc directed and produced the promo film for Otamatsuri, the anime and manga festival organised by Movie Jabber. We took Kenyan cosplayers out of the hall, onto real locations, and shot them on cinema glass. These frames are what came back.
A Survey Corps cosplayer at the top of a shopping centre staircase in Nairobi, ODM gear strapped down both thighs, the whole centre lit and empty behind him. The rig is handmade, canisters, grips and holsters included, and it is worn standing for hours at a time.
Close on the uniform: wings of freedom on the chest and the shoulder, the belt rig cinched, gas canisters and grips sitting on the hip. This is the part of a costume that takes the longest to build, and it is worth a frame entirely to itself.
Blade over the shoulder, red light raking across the jacket, warm lanterns thrown out of focus behind. The wings of freedom sit on both shoulders and the sleeve, cut and applied by hand like the rest of the uniform.
A hard backlight blows out behind him and the whole figure drops to an outline with a rim of light around the head. Ordinary Nairobi lighting doing the job of a film lamp, which happens more often than people expect.
Close on a face in red light with the costume collar just inside the frame. Held tight and held quiet, the way an anime cuts to a face a beat before it cuts to the fight.
Two cosplayers mid move under shopfront light, ODM gear on one and an orange jacket on the other. A Nairobi shopping centre standing in for a city street, which is exactly the kind of substitution that makes a small production look large.
Two characters nose to nose, one in a Survey Corps jacket, one in an orange and black jacket with a wrapped blade across the back. Both of them shouting. Cosplay is performance as much as it is construction, and this frame is all performance.
A green horned helmet, a respirator and a grey hood, shot from below against a blank sky. Every panel, strap and buckle on that helmet was cut, shaped and fitted by hand, and it reads cleanly even this close to the lens.
Daylight on a Nairobi rooftop, and two builds that could not be less alike: a teal horned helmet and a large blue and coral axe on the left, a grey coat and a respirator on the right. Both weapons shaped and painted by hand.
Red clouds on a black robe, chin lifted, shot from below into a white sky. High key and almost weightless, sitting completely apart from the night frames around it, and a good place to end.
祭 · The festival
Otamatsuri is Kenya's anime and manga festival, organised by Movie Jabber. The 2026 edition goes fully outdoor on Saturday 22 August 2026 at The Carnivore Grounds in Nairobi, with cosplay competitions, anime vendors, community meetups and an afterparty from 7PM.
Nataka Inc directed and produced the promo film. The festival is theirs, the film is ours, and the cosplay in both belongs to the people who spent their own nights building it. If you are going, the date, the venue and the tickets are on the event page.
Right here. This page holds the cosplay frames from the Otamatsuri film Nataka Inc directed and produced in and around Nairobi. Otamatsuri itself is Kenya's anime and manga festival, organised by Movie Jabber, and the 2026 edition runs on Saturday 22 August 2026 at The Carnivore Grounds in Nairobi.
No, and that is worth saying. These are frames from the film, shot on location around Nairobi with Kenyan cosplayers rather than on the convention floor. That is why the light, the framing and the depth of field read the way they do. The festival floor is its own kind of brilliant, and this simply is not it.
The cosplayers did. The Survey Corps uniforms, the ODM gear, the horned helmet and the axe in these frames were all cut, layered, painted and fitted by hand by Kenyan cosplayers and prop makers from the local anime community.
Yes, for personal use. Repost them anywhere you like, just keep the credit to Nataka Inc on them. Six frames from an earlier Otamatsuri shoot are also cut to 1080 by 1920 as free phone wallpapers on the community page.
Yes. We shoot cosplay, conventions and fan films in Nairobi and across Kenya, on the same cameras and the same grade you are looking at. Message us on WhatsApp with the character and the date you have in mind.
撮影 · Get yours shot
Nataka Inc shoots cosplay, conventions and fan films in Nairobi and across Kenya, on the same cameras and the same grade you just scrolled through. Tell us the character and the date and we will tell you what it takes.
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