Before I get too far into this month’s event roundup, a quick shout-out is in order to Joelle Lee and the rest of her Moanalua High School team — mentioned in this space last month — which made it to the finals of the Vans Custom Culture contest. While they didn’t take home the $50,000 top prize for their school’s art program, they did earn a $4,000 runner-up prize, as well as an additional $15,000 for being chosen as the Journeys “Local Attitude” award winner. Nice job, everyone!
OK! Let’s take a look at what’s coming up for the rest of this month:
MangaBento presents “MaidenCraft”: It’s the sixth eighth annual show — one at the former Contemporary Museum, seven at the current Honolulu Museum of Art School location! — by the group of anime- and manga-inspired artists. Some of the young artists who had pieces in the first few shows have gone on to nice professional careers elsewhere. MAN, I feel old. But I digress. Last year’s show, “This is Fighting Spirit” (part of the layout of which is shown above), featured a number of pieces focused on a shonen (boys’ manga) theme; it’s the girls’ turn with this year’s show, “MaidenCraft.” Honolulu Museum of Art School (1111 Victoria St.), second-floor gallery. Opening reception, 2-4 p.m. Sunday; show runs through June 24.
Friends of the Library of Hawaii 69th Annual Book Sale: Lovers of print media, this is your sale. (Not just books, too; there are CDs, DVDs and even artwork available.) Lovers of comics and manga, this is even more your sale this year, as one of the big promo points is a larger inventory of comics and manga, priced at the holy-cats-that’s-really-low price of $1 each. There are also more cookbooks than usual, which means that if you stick my mom and I in there on the first day, we may not emerge until the last day. Heck, we may have to empty our bookshelves now so that we can fill them back up again. Free. McKinley High School cafeteria (1039 S. King St.), June 18-26.
Hello Kitty food truck in Honolulu: Sanrio may be getting more in tune with the real world’s jaded/bitter tone — consider their last two most notable characters have been Gudetama the unmotivated egg and Aggressive Retsuko, the harried red panda office lady who blows off steam with death metal karaoke — but at least they’ll always have their iconic cat-who’s-not-a-cat, Hello Kitty, as the face of their company. To that end, there’s been a Hello Kitty food truck touring the country, selling mini cakes, cookie sets, macarons and exclusive merchandise at every stop. This month, it’s Hawaii’s turn, so the truck’s (presumably) hopping on a boat and floating on over here to spread its special brand of happiness. In front of the Sanrio Store at Ala Moana Center, June 17-19.
Neko Cafe: If you like your cats to be shorter than five apples tall and less cartoon-like, Mori by Art+Flea will be the place to visit for Hawaii’s first cat cafe. You know those places in Japan where you can stop off for a cup of coffee with a side of cuddles with feline friends? Same concept. Morning Glass Coffee will be providing the noms and drinks for both humans and animals, the Hawaiian Humane Society will be providing the cats — all of which will be up for adoption, by the way, in case any of them capture your heart and refuses to let go — and several artists from the Art+Flea community will be selling cat-inspired works. Ward Warehouse, 1050 Ala Moana Blvd., unit 1550, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. June 25.
Aiea Library Polar Bear Cafe & Friends Anime Club: Every month, I joke with young adult librarian Diane Masaki that she ought to change the name of the Anime Club to the Polar Bear Cafe & Friends Club, seeing as how the screening schedule for the past few months has consistently been two episodes of the 2012-2013 anime followed by two more episodes of something else. (June’s “friends” remain the ship-gals of KanColle.) It hasn’t happened yet. And it probably never will, now that she’s running out of Polar Bear episodes. Sigh. At the library, 99-374 Pohai Place, where, yes, there’s still plenty of parking. For more information or to RSVP, call 483-7333 or email aiealibraryanimeclub@yahoo.com. 3 p.m. June 25.
Otaku Ohana 