The Kansas Union might soon be full of people dressed up as Japanese cartoon characters.

The KU Anime club is hosting Naka-Kon, an anime convention, at noon, Sunday on the fifth floor of the Kansas Union.

Anime — also known as ‘Japanamation’ — are Japanese cartoons characterized by futuristic themes, robot-like characters and colorful imagery.

Naka is the Japanese word for “middle” and Kon is short for convention, said Brian Smith, KU Anime club president and Bonner Springs senior.

The purpose of the convention is to get everyone from the University of Kansas and Lawrence interested in anime in the same room, said Kristina Dobbs, Atchison senior and KU Anime club vice president.

“We want to bring in people who are interested and meet people like themselves,” Dobbs said.

The event will include a viewing of about 10 recently released anime titles and music videos.

As with most anime conventions the costume contest will be the most popular aspect of the event, Smith said.

“It’s always the biggest event at an anime convention,” Smith said. “People like to show off how they make them.”

Inuyasha, Naruto and Dragon Ball Z characters are usually the most popular characters during costume contests.

Winner of the contest will receive a plush Grunty, a character from the anime “.hack//Sign,” pronounced “Dot Hack Sign.”

A karaoke room will be set up for participants to sing along to Japanese pop music and anime show tunes.

The KU Anime club is expecting members from similar clubs at Kansas State and Emporia State to attend the convention, Dobbs said.

There will also be a manga — Japanese comics — drawing workshop and a video game competition.

Anime has been surging into the mainstream with the popularity of Pokemon and DragonBall in the late ’90s

The Cartoon Network features anime daily on “Toonami” and “Adult Swim.”

More recently, full-length anime movies such as “Cowboy Bebop” and “Ghost in the Shell” have played in mainstream theaters.

Liberty Hall Video, 642 Massachusetts St., has some anime on VHS but wants to build it up on DVD, said Doug Redding, manger of the video section.

Redding wants to attend the convention to get insight on what’s popular with the anime crowd, which he describes as a selective group of people.

“I’m basically looking for the top anime collections,” Redding said. “I’m trying to cherry-pick the best.”

Smith is expecting 300 people to attend the convention.

As of Wednesday, about 100 people have already preregistered via the KU Anime Club’s Web site, kuanimeclub.com. The event is open to the public and is free. Anyone interested in attending the convention can either pre-register at the site or show up at the event.