New York Anime Festival 2009
September 30, 2009
Everyone’s question was would NYAF live up to, exceed, or fail compared to the two previous conventions? There was quite a bit of talking with the announcement that NYAF would join with NYCC for 2010 so there was also the question of what would NYAF do as its last year as an independent convention? Although those are all pressing questions my main question was if I was going to have fun? Was I going to be able to do as much as I wanted to? We were also running two panels one of which had a lot of people looking forward to it. The Bloggers Roundtable had some big names on the marquee but it was a the first time we ever ran the panel. I had the most expectations for the panel because I felt it could succeed or fail so much more than any of our previous panels. On top of all that I had two guests staying at my humble abode during the convention so I had to play host as well as press.
It was no secret that we were looking forward to New York Anime Festival, probably more than any other con previously thanks to a killer guest, director Yoshiyuki Tomino. This sent NYAF which I always enjoy but never as much as say Otakon right to the front of the line this year. That being said, the rest of the con experience remained the same though I was happy to see quite a few license announcements this year. Since NYAF’s space has basically stayed the same from its first year, there weren’t too many surprises but that also means it still has some of the same problems. Javits, is Javits, its a bit of a walk from the train, the hotels, and most food. Though it also means that for the most part events went off without a hitch and things seemed to be well in hand with the staff.
The convention for me started on Thursday night since most of my main convention group went to see the Eureka Seven movie. Although not officially a part of the convention experience it felt like a great way to spend an evening before the big show. The movie itself was bizarre. I will never forget the line, “I am an enemy alien spy robot” as long as I live. It was a visually appealing movie but otherwise a utter train wreck. I appreciated their attempt to do something new with the original story but their execution left something to be desired. Though I was happy to watch a film with my friends and be able to talk about it afterward because I often feel like I hardly watch any anime at anime conventions. On Friday morning my two guests the spectacular OGT, the amazing PatzPrime, plus the remarkable SDShamshel all met up and went to the Javits center early to get Tomino autograph tickets. We were all a little worried when we heard that people were already starting to line up at 7am. We finally arrived at 10 and got progressively worried when we saw how the VIP line was growing but we were able to get our autograph tickets. Since we got there before the con officially started getting our press badges was a snap. We all went for some delicious Go Go Curry before starting the convention. Starting the con with curry is a tradition I could get behind.
Once again, the staff of NYAF as far as tickets goes were on top of it. Not a moment more than one was I in line for my press badge, which incidentally looks very different this year. This goes for the weekend con badges and VIP ones as well and only half for individual day passes. I’m not sure what to make of them, on the one hand I really like the hard plastic but on the other hand the badges aren’t very fun. Maybe that sounds like a stupid complaint, but too bad, many of us have a grand time trying to guess what show or characters will appear on the badges before going to a con. The speculations can even spawn forum threads, so it has become a popular and expected part of anime conventions. And I was surprised to not at the very least see the badges sporting the logo from this year’s contest winner. Since I never made it to the convention center before opening time, I have no idea what the lines looked like but from the massive crowds on Saturday I can imagine there was a pretty good wait in the morning. However, panels seemed to be well organized in this regard though having a press badge prevented any problems for me. The Javits space allotted for NYAF was insufficient for Saturday but was tolerable on Friday and Sunday. Happily this mean the Tomino panel was rightfully full.
Ballads of the Earth and the Moon: Turn A Gundam, UNIVERSE!
September 28, 2009
I will go on the record, so far I consider Turn A Gundam my favorite Gundam series which is no small accomplishment. Much like Gundam X, I had really only ever heard people bad-mouthing Turn A Gundam the few times they would talk about it. Then I saw someone jump to its defense claiming it was only a bad Gundam series if you hated character development. My original plan was to watch all of UC Gundam and then watch Turn A, but Turn A kept tugging at me. Since I knew one or two oddities of the plot I thought I would be better severed by watching all of UC first but I quickly found that was unimportant. It lets you catch one or two little things but Turn A is completely stand alone from any other Gundam.
Loran Cehack is a man from the moon sent on early reconnaissance to see if the Earth is fit for recolonization. The problem is they have to displace the people who stayed on the Earth since the Moonraces’ exodus long ago. The Moonrace is equipped high technology that includes space travel and mobile suits while Earth still has the far inferior science of the early 1900′s. Once on Earth, Loran quickly falls in love with the Earth and is conflicted when the Moonrace starts a forceful colonization of the planet. When the fighting breaks out, Loran uncovers the Turn A Gundam which he uses to turn the tide for the otherwise outclassed Earth forces. Soon the people of Earth discover other deposits of mobile suits and begin to fight back turning what should have been a quick battle into a prolonged war.
Live Action Gundam Sousei at New York Anime Festival
September 23, 2009
Eventhough New York Anime Festival is still a baby compared to most other big cons, it has grown up rather quickly! Since it is in my own backyard I look forward to it but this year it had a special surprise in store that made me and others drop our jaws: Yoshiyuki Tomino. A guest this big just blows everything else out of the water for me. If there was nothing else to do at this convention, it wouldn’t matter one bit. I’d pay $50 to see Tomino so this is just like having a bunch of bonus features. And a press pass. No, don’t worry readers, I won’t actually only be reporting on the Tomino related goodness. Another feature of the con I am really looking forward to is the Cencoroll showing and we have a new panel this year! There is plenty to see and do, as always, though some industry absence is mysterious (Yen Press?). I have a feeling it will be good times again at this year’s New York Anime Fest!
Year three of New York Anime Festival has a lot to live up to. The past two years have been amazing for the con and prove that there are definite merits to being professionally run. There is a certain feel that can not be replicated by anything but being fan run but NYAF has the ability to get people like Yoshiyuki Tomino which is enough for me. I am curious how much of Tomino’s pure insanity is going to come out during the con. I mean this is the guy who just said video games are evil. I am sure whatever comes out of his mouth is going to be gold. Other than Tomino the thing I am most looking forward to is our Bloggers Roundtable panel. It’s our first time trying it out but I feel it has a great amount of potential. You take a bunch of people who are known for being insightful and eloquent then have them talk about fascinating topics. This is why people always talk about the Industry roundtable but this is a good deal more personal. We are going to have bloggers from About.com, Ani-Gamers, Anime Almanac, Anime Vice, The Gaming Dungeon, Ogiue Maniax, Reverse Thieves, and Subatomic Brainfreeze, all on one panel. If you are not attending the masquerade I really hope you can stop on in. We are also running our trusty Anime Recruitment panel on Sunday so if you are still around visit us there as well. Other than that we will be around all three days. We will have our homemade Reverse Thieves badges and t-shirts so look for us and say hello!
Our tentative schedule is as follows:
Friday
Opening Ceremonies
FUNimation Industry panel
Basics of Intellectual Property Rights panel
How I Broke Into the Anime and Manga Industries panel
Yoshiyuki Tomino Keynote
Aniplex Industry panel
Games from Japan vs. Games from The U.S. panel
Fighter’s High: Extra Curricular Battles panel
Cencoroll Premiere
Saturday
Del Rey Manga Industry panel
Steampunk in Anime panel
Bandai Industry panel
Yoshiyuki Tomino Q&A
Anime News Network Industry panel
Spoiler: The Panel
Bloggers Roundtable (We are on this panel! 8-9 PM)
Sunday
Convention War Stories panel
VIZ Media Industry panel
State of the Anime and Manga Industries panel
CPM Retrospective panel
Anime Recruitment (This is our panel! 4-5PM)
As a reminder: No Ongoing Investigations this week!
Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, A pocket full of tears.
September 21, 2009
There is an interesting spectrum in the three Gundam OAVs we have watched recently. On one end is Gundam 0083 which is the biggest in scope and totally focused on the mobile suits. It deals with the events that make Zeta Gundam possible but I highly doubt that anyone claims their favorite characters come from 0083. In the middle you have 08th MS team where the story is more personal while still having a good mixture of mecha to character importance. Then you have Gundam 0080, everything about this series is personal. The objectives, the feelings, and the missions are all clearly motivated by the characters not the politics. There are mobile suits but they are almost MacGuffins to move along the individual stories within 0080. I won’t claim that 0080 is the Gundam series for people who hate robots, that Gundam series does not exist. However, this is the Gundam series for those who care most about the people behind the machines and how they are effected by war.
Since we decided to watch the Universal Century OVAs in timeline order, this was our second stop and truly I felt 0080: War in the Pocket had much to live up to since I enjoyed 08th MS Team so very much. I knew this OVA was going to be different from other installments in the Gundam franchise merely because I had been told so, but I didn’t fully understand what that meant till actual viewing.
Maybe just to prove that this OAV is very different from any other Gundam series, we start with an elite commando team trying to steal an experimental mobile suit from a secret facility. While this seems extremely formulaic it deviates when after two attempts the Zeon unit cannot waltz off with it like it was a free sample of cheese and crackers at the local supermarket. During the second attempt Bernard Wiseman is shot down and crash lands in a deserted part of the colony. Bernard is discovered by a young boy named, Alfred Izuruha, who is a mobile suit fanatic. As Alfred beings following Bernard they become friends. Bernard soon discovers that the Zeon fleet has decided they will just destroy the whole colony. Will Bernard try and save his new friend or will he leave everyone on the colony to die.
From what I have seen, the 0080 OVA may be the Gundam series that deals the least with robots and pushes the development of its characters and the moral ambiguities encountered in war. Also of note, Gundam tends to do away with young children protagonists except as background or minor characters, but not so in 0080. But hold on there, no Alfred isn’t a super annoying (okay sometimes he is annoying just not all the time) and irrelevant child character. He shares the screen with Bernard and is equally vital to the telling of this story.
