The Secret Santa Stats:

• 60 Participants
• 65 Reviews in total
• 5 Reviews still have not come in
• 56 Different shows reviewed

Dennou Coil – 4 reviews
Baccano! – 3 reviews
Ah! My Goddess TV – 2 reviews
Kino’s Journey – 2 reviews
Kurenai – 2 reviews
Tokyo Godfathers – 2 reviews
.hack//Sign, 5 Centimetres Per Second, Aoi Bungaku, Armor Hunter Mellowlink, Asatte no Houkou, Bakemonogatari, Bamboo Blade, Bartender, Birdy the Mighty: Decode, Black Lagoon, Bokurano: Ours, Bungaku Shoujo, Cowboy Bebop, Cromartie High School, Dead Leaves, Fate/Stay Night, Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight, Haibane Renmei, Hatenkou Yugi, I My Me! Strawberry Eggs, Inukami!, Invincible Super Man Zambot 3, Kaiba, Last Exile, Le Chevalier d’Eon, Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Now and Then, Here and There, Pale Cocoon, Pani Poni Dash!, Paprika, Patlabor: The Movie, Perfect Blue, REC, Roujin Z, SaiKano, Saki, Seirei no Moribito, Seraphim Call, Seto no Hanayome, Shigofumi: Letters from the Departed, Shigurui: Death Frenzy, Simoun, Sketchbook: ~Full Color’s~, Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, The Sea Prince and the Fire Child, Tokyo Marble Chocolate, Welcome to the NHK

As a bonus we also gathered together all entries we had for the 2010 Holiday Giveaway. To win our collection of fabulous prizes we asked readers to tell us what anime or manga license they are hoping to see in 2011. Hisui made an easy to read master list to see what titles were most popular and to look at any major trends in our little sampling of the desires of fandom. Notice that NisiOisiN was a bigger winner with overwhelming support for Bakemonogatari and Katanagatari. But the Noitamina block was the biggest winner of them all. While most unlicensed Noitamina shows only got one or two votes almost all the U.S. friendly titles were voted for by someone. 

Holiday Giveaway Stats:

Bakemonogatari 4 votes
Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto 3 votes
Time of Eve 3 votes
Dennou Coil 2 votes
Detroit Metal City 2 votes
Flying Trapeze 2 votes
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai 2 votes
Katanagatari 2 votes
Mononoke 2 votes
Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture 2 votes
Natume Yuujinchou 2 votes
Nodame Cantabile 2 votes
Angel Beats!, Cross Game, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, Kaguyahime, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Kaze to Ki no Uta, Kodomo no Jikan, Letter Bee, Mind Game, My Girl, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, Princess Knight, Sailor Fuku ni Onegai!, Saint Young Men, Sket Dance, Souten Kouro, The Story of Saiunkoku S2, Umineko no Naku Koro ni

• Shinmaru reviewed I My Me! Strawberry Eggs recommended by Crusader
• Eeeper reviewed Roujin Z recommended by Shinmaru
• Ryan reviewed Tokyo Godfathers recommended by Eeeper
• Gerjomarty reviewed Shigofumi recommended by Ryan
• Otou-san reviewed Dennou Coil recommended by Gerjomarty
• Emilio reviewed TBA recommended by Otou-san
• Stig reviewed Shigurui: Death Frenzy recommended by Emilio
• Emperor J reviewed Sketchbook: ~Full Color’s~ , Black Lagoon, and  Ah! My Goddess TV recommended by Stig
• Tom M. reviewed Gundam 0800: War in the Pocket, Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight, and Aoi Bungaku recommended by Emperor J
• mDuo13 reviewed Dennou Coil recommended by Tom M.
• Digitalboy reviewed Bungaku Shoujo and Asatte no Houkou recommended by mDuo13
• lvll n reviewed Kurenai recommended by Digitalboy
• Opinion Prone reviewed The Place Promised in Our Early Days recommended by lvll n
• Schneider reviewed Dennou Coil recommended by Opinion Prone
• Link reviewed Armor Hunter Mellowlink recommended by Schneider
• Patz Prime reviewed Princess Tutu recommended by Link
• Tim reviewed Le Chevalier D’Eon recommended by Patz Prime
• Andy reviewed Pani Poni Dash! recommended by Tim
• Ghostlightning reviewed Baccano! recommended by Andy
• Animemiz reviewed Macross: Do You Remember Love? recommended by Ghostlightning
• Otaku no Podcast reviewed Ah! My Goddess recommended by Animemiz
• Ink reviewed Fate/Stay Night recommended by Otaku no Podcast
• Reverse Thieves reviewed Dead Leaves recommended by Ink
• Jasmine reviewed TBA recommended by Reverse Thieves
• Big N reviewed Bartender recommended by Jasmine
• Bradley reviewed .hack//Sign recommended by Big N
• James reviewed Haibane Renmei recommended by Bradley
• lwelyk reviewed TBA recommended by James
• Jaren reviewed Perfect Blue recommended by lwelyk
• Mikey reviewed Baccano! recommended by Jaren
• Calaggie reviewed Hatenkou Yugi recommended by Mikey
• Joel reviewed Paprika recommended by Calaggie
• Elliot reviewed Baccano! recommended by Joel
• warriorhope reviewed TBA recommended by Elliot
• Anthony reviewed Tokyo Godfathers recommended by warriorhope
• Zanaikin reviewed Seirei no Moribito recommended by Anthony
• Andika reviewed Seto no Hanayome, Inukami, and SaiKano recommended by Zanaikin
• Serdar reviewed Now and Then, Here and There recommended by Andika
• Scamp reviewed Legend of Sirius recommended by Serdar
• Scott F. reviewed Kino’s Journey recommended by Scamp
• SDShamshel reviewed Patlabor movie 1 recommended by Scott F.
• Greg reviewed Invincible Super Man Zambot 3 recommended by SDShamshel
• Spring reviewed Bokurano recommended by Greg
• Vamptvo reviewed Last Exile recommended by Spring
• Owen S. reviewed Whisper of the Heart, Millennium Actress, and Cowboy Bebop recommended by Vamptvo
• Landon reviewed Kaiba recommended by Owen S.
• Sanderz reviewed Cromartie High School recommended by Landon
• Travis reviewed Bamboo Blade recommended by Sanderz
• Hige reviewed Birdy the Mighty: Decode recommended by Travis
• Steve reviewed Tokyo Marble Chocolate and Dennou Coil recommended by Hige
• Executive Otaku reviewed Simoun Part 1 and Part 2 with spoilers recommended by Steve
• Shance reviewed Bakemonogatari recommended by Executive Otaku
• flak reviewed Saki recommended by Shance
• Baka Tanuki reviewed Umi Monogatari and Pale Cocoon recommended by flak
• Charles reviewed Kino’s Journey recommended by Baka Tanuki
• Drmchsr0 reviewed 5 Centimetres Per Second recommended by Charles
• Mercedes reviewed REC recommended by Drmchsr0
• mefloraine reviewed Kure-nai and Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai recommended by Mercedes
• Mike F. reviewed Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind recommended by mefloraine
• Janai reviewed Seraphim Call recommended by Mike F.
• Crusader reviewed Welcome to the NHK recommended by Janai

Here: Just in case someone does not know what traditional Secret Santa is.

The idea of this project is for everyone who participates to be reviewing a show that they might not normally watch or might have overlooked. Everyone will get someone else in the project to review a series of their choice and in return review something picked by one of their fellow bloggers. The goal is threefold for everyone involved:

1. Mixing up what you watch and review on your blog.
2. Getting other people to watch things you feel deserve more attention.
3. A way to interact with other bloggers thus creating possibilities for cross blog readership, also it fosters an environment to try other cross blog experiments.

Here is how this little experiment will work: If you want to participate send us your Name, Blog, and My Anime List (or some other equivalent listing) page via e-mail (reversethieves [at] gmail.com) subject: Secret Santa Participant. Due by Wednesday, October 13th. Make sure that your MAL is updated as much as possible before you submit it. Also, if you are uncomfortable with watching certain types of shows or will not watch fan-subs mention that in the e-mail, too.

We will then make a circular list of everyone involved in the project that only we will know the order of. The order of the list will be made completely at random. Everyone will then receive the name, blog, and My Anime List of the person they are the Secret Santa for. You will then suggested three shows for the person all of which must be 26 episodes or less (yes, you can suggest movies, too). The shows must be subtitled in some fashion. Remember that you are picking shows that you hope the other person will like and give an honest chance. Look over their My Anime List and their restrictions then try to pick out something good but unexpected.

Once we get everyone’s lists we will then pass on the shows to the recipients. No one except us will know the names of the person who gave you your choices. You then pick the show your are going to watch. Everyone is responsible for getting their own material for the review. If for some reason you absolutely cannot abide any of the shows you are given, we will allow 1 and only 1 mulligan.

You then have until late December to watch the show you were assigned and write a review. On the week of Christmas everyone will post their reviews for the Secret Santa Project. We would prefer you post your review on Christmas Eve but you can alter it as to the schedule of your blog. On the Christmas Day we will reveal the name of who had who as a Secret Santa along with a small post about the project.

Again: If you want to participate send us your Name, Blog, and My Anime List (or some other equivalent listing) page via e-mail (reversethieves [at] gmail.com) subject: Secret Santa Participant. Due by Wednesday, October 13th.

TOP SECRET – FOR GIN’S EYES ONLY

Subject: The Progress of the Detective Duo known as the Reverse Thieves in the Aniblog Tourney.

Briefing: It seems that despite the combined efforts of various low-level agents of the Organization, Hisui and Narutaki have progressed to the third round of the Aniblog Tourney. Our attempt to kidnap Kohaku in hopes of using her as leverage to force the Reverse Thieves out of the tournament merely lost us the lives and more importantly the resources of ten skilled agents. The three assassins we sent after Narutaki were equally ineffectual and have aroused his suspicions more than before.

My cover is still intact despite a close call in Berlin. I cannot observe them too closely or I will surely compromise my surveillance. I have filed the following information on their former cases in hopes that there is some clue to their weaknesses within: The Reverse Thieves Dossier for the Aniblog Tournament

Conclusion: I fear that every report puts them one step closer to uncovering the truth. It is my opinion that only you can dispatch these two meddlesome gumshoes. The longer they are in the tournament the greater the chance they will discover our involvement in the proceedings. We cannot assume that no matter how well camouflaged our involvement that detectives of their prowess will not discover something that would be detrimental to our overall goals.

Until your response I will send as many agents as possible to the Aniblog Tourney in order to thwart their efforts.

Here is the link to the voting for Round 3.

~Vermouth

Considering this is a lazy Saturday we assume that a majority of our traffic will be from the Aniblog Tournament with the rest being people looking for pornographic doujinshi and Berserk season 2. If you haven’t heard of the games, it is a little something being put on by Scamp, you can get full details here. It’s a gathering of all kinds of anime blogs, variety abound, and it’s a great way to find something new or different to read. For those kindly souls checking out Reverse Thieves for the first time, we give you this handy guide to this humble detective-themed blog.

• We like a variety of genres, decades, and series from Original Gundam to Aishiteruze Baby and everything in between, sample it in our IN THE YEAR 2000(…through 2009)! post.

• There are some meaty editorial articles like our bit about death in anime, the movement towards realism, and some posts on visual novel logos or more recently a little piece about Shinra in Durarara!!

• This is a tag-team blog, but we do go solo on occasion like Narutaki’s post about screentone use in OEL and Hisui’s thoughts on the popularity of childhood friends and incest in anime.

• We cover cons and special events like Otakon 2009 (be warned of its lengthy nature) and the New York International Children’s Film Festival’s theatrical screening of Summer Wars.

• Fandom experiments like the Otaku Diaries crop up in our pursuits to know our fellow fans better and we enjoy the random cross-blogging project like Secret Santa.

• We recently started a podcast, The Speakeasy, our first episode was about strong female characters.

• You shouldn’t be surprised to know that we like to check out detective related series, we have a listing of detective anime and manga, and a feed dedicated to all our detective related posts.

• If you are curious about anything else we have a meticulous filing cabinet in the sidebar plus archive and index pages for you to peruse.

Other than that we hope everyone involved with the tournament finds some great new blogs to read and maybe a new appreciation for the anime blogging community.

Cast your vote in the polls!

Tezuka and the 108 Stars of Destiny

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. ziti pasta
• 26 oz. jar of pasta sauce
• 32 oz. ricotta cheese
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• salt & pepper

Preheat over to 350 degrees.
Boil pasta for 8 minutes then drain (it will finish cooking in the oven).
In large bowl combine ricotta, parmesan, 1 cup mozzarella, 1 egg (beaten), salt & pepper. Mix well until it is all the same consistency.
Coat the bottom of a 10X13 baking dish with some of the pasta sauce.
Then alternate pasta, sauce, cheese mixture for 2 or 3 layers.
Top with remaining cup of mozzarella cheese.
Cover pan with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake til top is bubbly and slightly brown (10-15 minutes).
Take out of the oven and let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

*Add punching people and/or food to make this recipe have anything to do with Zeta Gundam.

• Ani-Gamers reviewed Kannagi recommended by Thinking Thoughts
• The Anime Chop Shop reviewed Haibane Renmei recommended by Stig of T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews
• The Anime Life reviewed Dennou Coil recommended by Otaku no Podcast
• Anime Loveu reviewed Hidamari Sketch recommended by Ogiue Maniax
• Anime wa Bakuhatsu da! reviewed Soul Taker recommended by Patz of Insert-Disc
• Colony Drop reviewed Only Yesterday recommended by Anime Loveu
• Drastic My Anime Blog reviewed Princess Tutu recommended by Powered by Sugar
• Insert-Disc Patz reviewed Irresponsible Captain Tylor recommended by Reverse Thieves and lwelyk reviewed The Big O recommended by Colony Drop
• Insane Journal reviewed Bartender recommended by One Piece at a Time
• Memories of Eternity reviewed Kamichu! recommended by Reverse Thieves
• Nigorimasen! reviewed Texhnolyze recommended by Memories of Eternity
• Ogiue Maniax reviewed Lovely Complex recommended by Nigorimasen!
• One Piece at a Time reviewed Hatenkou Yuugi recommended by Drastic My Anime Blog
• Orz reviewed Martian Successor Nadesico recommended by Insane Journal
• Otaku no Podcast reviewed Twin Spica recommended by Anime wa Bakuhatsu da!
• Powered by Sugar reviewed Le Chevalier d’Eon recommended by Ani-Gamers
• Reverse Thieves reviewed Texhnolyze recommended by lwelyk of Insert-Disc
• Shameful Otaku Secret reviewed Iriya No Sora recommended by Orz
• T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews’ Brad reviewed Daughter of Twenty Faces recommended by Reverse Thieves and Stig reviewed Natsume Yuujinchou recommended by Reverse Thieves
• Thinking Thoughts reviewed Asatte no Houkou recommended by Brad of T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews

I’m really surprised by the turn out and overall positive reception for the Secret Santa Project. Most everyone picked innovative shows for the people they got. I was impressed by the shows most people selected for the project. They were almost all shows I enjoyed. I hope that people enjoyed the shows they watched and maybe will try something new again after their eyes have been opened by this project. I was only expecting to see half the reviews to be completed by the 25th but I have received all but 5 by the time this was initially posted. That fills my heart with goodness and hope. Also I’d love for someone to figure out a way to do this type of project with manga. I think it would go over well.  If they do you know you can count Narutaki and I in as participants. And finally, if nothing else the project got me interested in Vertical’s release of Twin Spica and made we want to go back and finish Bartender.

I was more than happy by the response we had for this fun little project. We could also do this project evil style in which everyone tries to pick a show the other person would completely hate just to fulfill any latent (or active) sadistic desires of people. But that is for another time. As for this project, I had a good time with it, even if we were less than thrilled with our show. It really seemed to get people chatting and I even had a few people lamenting that they didn’t find out about it in time. Don’t worry folks, this will certainly be brought back for 2010! Good thinkin’ Hisui!

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.

I had heard so many stories about Yoshiyuki Tomino but it is still hard to say what I was expecting. To be very brief, Tomino was quite chill from the moment he cut the Opening Ceremonies ribbon to the insistence that he finish answering all the fans who lined up to ask him a question at his Saturday panel. To expand more thoughtfully, Tomino in the past has made some pretty harsh remarks about all his works and most notably about Gundam but at this convention (and quite possibly because this year also marks the 30th anniversary) he seems to have accepted its value, its popularity, and become more content because of it. During his keynote, he remarked that he wanted Gundam to be remembered even more fondly than Star Wars. Tomino also gave the impression of being proud that he created something that is still watchable and relevant thirty years later then going on to discuss his use and philosophy of cinema which made Gundam the show it was. Though the audience may have been missing out on more wisdom from Tomino due to a poor translation at the Keynote, but thankfully at his Q&A this was corrected. The Q&A started off very lively as they showed a reel of Tomino’s work, many members of the audience sang along to the theme songs and of course there was mass cheering for many pieces on the screen (surprisingly Gundam ZZ had a rousing reception). Tomino then finally took center stage and got down to the nitty gritty of tackling fan questions. It was pleasing to see, after a couple of questions submitted online were answered, Tomino signaled that he would much prefer to answer those standing before him. He clearly understands how many people came from varying distances just to see him in the flesh, and frankly they should get the priority. The people helping to the run the Q&A went down the line hearing everyone’s question first, and making sure it was actually Tomino related. One could have probably heard the collected booing a mile away from the Keynote when a con-goer stood up and began to ask a question about Gundam 00. Tomino’s visit ended (not counting a final autograph session) with a showing of Ring of Gundam, his short 30th anniversary film. Tomino left the room with a standing ovation and there was little doubt that he made many a fan happy this past weekend.

I was expecting Tomino to be a man of very little words but for those few words to be extremely cranky and point blank. However, he  seemed genuinely happy and upbeat at the convention but you could tell that the cranky old man Tomino we all knew and loved was there. While his answers were always pleasant, he never seemed to be holding back. As expected there were a few lame question, a few rephrased and then repeated questions, and a few super egotistical questions from the attendees but overall selection was very good. Tomino mentioned that he always had regrets on all his series because he always felt they could be majorly improved in retrospect. But he also felt that feeling makes him always strive to do better in every project he works on. He said that one of the major themes of Gundam was that adults who were rigid in their mindsets were the enemy so therefore since he was super old that made him the super enemy now which got a good laugh out of the audience. Tomino seemed to have a fuzzy memory on any sort of details of the projects he had worked on. He thankfully remembered a little something about Sayla so I did get a partial answer to my question about what her role would be if she was in Zeta Gundam, he seemed to think he would have left things as is. I was also thrilled we got a good answer to the one Turn A Gundam question about why no newtypes appeared in the series. Tomino clarified the confusion by saying the people in Turn A would later become newtypes but the story couldn’t have been told as it was had they already evolved so. The way he dodged questions about Gunpla and his time at Mushi Productions told volumes but his actual feelings. When someone asked him about the possibility of Double Zeta Gundam compilation movies he stated that he was ignoring the fact that he was asked that question. Thankfully no one brought up Victory Gundam or Brain Powered. On a side note, during a reel of Tomino’s work they played almost every one except for Garzey’s Wing. I wonder if that was an accidental or deliberate oversight. Everyone who went to the Tomino panels and autographs sessions got a unforgettable experience out of it. Just look at that man’s face on the picture above. He seems down right giddy and it’s not just because he is holding a book with a page turned to Sochie although that is a good reason to be giddy.

So NYAF marked the first Bloggers Roundtable, it was an interesting experience, a learning experience if you will. You always have to have the first of these things and often times it has many flaws. Biggest being, there were just too many people but it’s such a difficulty because you want to get as many great people as you can! Also this panel was our first technical difficult in a while, and it was never actually corrected. We just did the best we could, and since the panel mainly involved talking it wasn’t a major issue. It started to get more lively as the panel continued, people got comfortable, and the discussions became more interactive. When first deciding what this panel was about, we thought asking only blogging questions might seem too blah (perhaps people wanted to know these bloggers on a more personal level), but they really engaged the audience so that would be the majority another time around I would think. In any case, it was fun and we did end up with plenty to talk about (even spilling over a bit since we were the last panel of the night).

Overall I think the Bloggers Roundtable went well despite the fact that it had major flaws. Several things will have to be changed if we ever run the panel again such as a maximum of five participants. I was a little worried that people would not have enough to say on certain questions but everyone had a good deal to share. In fact they often held back because of the size of the panel. We should also try to go to audience questions quicker, I was impressed by the number and quality of the questions from them. After this first round, we got a better understanding of what questions worked and what questions fell flat. Despite all the flaws I know I personally had a good time on the panel. I had fun hearing everyone’s answers and the playful banter of the panelists when things got rolling. I hope the audience had a good time, too. We even got a question from Zac “Answerman” Bertschy over the internet. I would definitely run this panel again if I could get people to do it. We will take what we learned from this attempt and make the panel even better.

We once again presented our Anime Recruitment panel with a good 30 or so people in the audience. This was a pleasant surprise considering the time slot of 4PM on Sunday, essentially the last panel slot for the convention, but hey someone has to go last. As always the Q&A portion where we answer any and all recommendation questions to the best of our abilities is the most fun and interesting part of the panel. This time around we were hit with some difficult requests like something gothic in style but with robots or a gore comedy. We were also called experts which was a little unnerving but kind of cool at the same time. Each time we do this panel we hone it just a little better and our ability to come up with a show for anyone increases. This is a panel that will be around for a long time with us because it goes over well and it is a lot of fun!

It is always fun to see a premiere at a convention. The ability to go a screening of something you will before everyone else is exciting. Much like Voices of a Distant Star it turns out that Cencoroll is the almost entirely a one man project done by Atsuya Uki. Cencoroll is the story on a bored teenager named Tetsu who has a shape shifting monster that is forced to do battle with another boy with a similar creature. Tetsu’s female classmate Yuki gets drawn into this conflict  when she discovers Tetsu’s secret. It was an amazing little piece especially since it was done by one person and used no CG. I had a very good look and feel. I am curious to see more work like Atsuya Uki. I would like to see him as the next Makoto Shinkai.

I didn’t really know much about Cencoroll till it was announced as a premiere title for NYAF. Then I began to hear things about it, most prominently that it was another one man show and put together without the use of CG. A fascinating part of this short was the discussion of what is acceptable in a short film verses a series. Cencoroll tells you virtually nothing about the why of its world or its premise but that was fine for a half hour jaunt. Beyond that, the relationship between boy, girl, and Cenco was well formed with some humor and moments of surprise. This 30-minute short ended up being a highlight of the convention.

There was a good amount of manga news and manga licenses at NYAF. While the manga market might not being growing anywhere as quickly as it used to it is not sickly from what I can see. I missed out on the Vertical panel because it was against Tomino but they announced four new manga titles, including Chi’s Sweet Home. More obscure titles were Peepo Choo from Felipe Smith that did the comic MBQ for Tokyopop before he started doing manga from Morning 2 in Japan; and Twin Spica and Needle which are two very different sci-fi manga. Tokyopop still seemed to be alive despite what everyone fears, for how long is another question. They admitted to switching to a cheaper paper company but had to switch back after a huge number of customer and retailer complaints. They had some new title announcements, including the next installment in the .hack line .hack//Link, so they still are in the game enough to get new manga. VIZ seemed to be doing extremely well as they announced not only some new manga but also anime and sci-fi novels. The most interesting announcement was that they will be streaming Inuyasha: The Final Act. I had a feeling that this was going to happen but it was never definite. I am curious how well this new fiction line is going for VIZ. All the other manga companies have been delaying or seemingly canceling their novel lines. Del Rey did not have a lot to say but they did pick up Rave Master. If there was any sure sign that Kodansha has cut off its ties to Tokopop it was the fact that they gave Samurai Deeper Kyo and now Rave Master to Del Rey despite the fact that both series had almost finished under Tokyopop.

The majority of the panels that I attended were industry related which in recent years have become fairly entertaining rather than tedious. Funimation always puts on a good show but I was shocked to find them making an announcement at NYAF. An announcement that personally made my draw drop, Initial D Fourth Stage. Actually, they have acquired all of Initial D and will be repackaging it. I nearly wept with joy. They also made mention of their upcoming ShoDojo site which is going to be a sort of social networking tool. The piece of the site that sounds fun is the ability to chat while watching streaming video. The launch of the site has been delayed but it could be another thing Funi does right for fans. Bandai didn’t have too much new stuff to say though they did have dates for things like the Eureka Seven movie on DVD (January 2010) and mentioning of things making the move to Blu-Ray such as the Escaflowne movie. These companies and others sat down on Sunday for, what has become a standard, State of the Industry panel moderated by Chris MacDonald of Anime News Network. There was not much new ground covered at this one, topics like watching digital media and reading digital media differing greatly as well as the difficulties in simulcasting (seemingly ignoring all the successful ones currently going on) were well discussed. One thing that leapt out thanks to so many anime companies finally doing streaming video is the inability to monetize such ventures, yet. It was pointed out that most likely their day will come but DVD/Blu-Ray is and will remain king for quite sometime.

I went to the How to Become Famous on the Internet panel which was an informative presentation on how to promote your work on the Net be it a blog, podcast, webcomic, or anything else that shows your skills as a artist or writer. It was pretty solid advice from panelists who knew their stuff. As always the most important thing is to go out there and honestly connect to other people. The How I Broke into the Anime and Manga Industries panel was nothing I did not know but I think it was a good wake up call for anyone who did not realize how hard it is. Kevin McKeever made it clear that it was extremely difficult to make your way into any entertainment industry because everyone else wants in as well. Sacrifice and the ability to deal with repeated failure is essential. The CPM Retrospective was a nostalgic look back on working at Central Park Media. I had heard quite a few stories from various people on how crazy Central Park Media and John O’Donnell could be for better and for worse. Although everyone spoke glowingly about their times at CPM is was obvious they took their fare share of lumps as often as had great times. It was a fitting tribute for a former major player in the anime industry.

The artist alley was located in a much better spot this year, and it was really hopping! And most importantly, it was open until the convention closed up at 10PM. I saw some familiar faces among the artists but plenty of new people to go around. In fact, while I had set a strict no buying policy for myself at this con, I broke it in artist alley for a piece of Cloud fan-art by a very talented fellow, ningyee7. I was much better at resisting in the dealer’s room. There were visibly more booths but the merchandise itself didn’t seem to be too special or rare for the most part. I was also sad to not see Ultimate Doujinshi. While I avoided this section for most of Saturday, I did move through it a little and found it cramped but not wholly deadly. Still is there ever enough room in the dealers room anywhere?

One of the biggest draws of any convention has nothing to do directly with the convention itself and that is meeting with your friends who you do not normally get to see and to hang out with your regular friends in a dynamic setting. I think that meeting One Great Turtle in real life was almost as awesome as meeting Tomino and that is saying a lot. I also got to meet the infamous Wild Arms Heero. He was unsurprisingly normal and quite amusing in real life. It was extremely fun going out to karaoke, stores, arcades, and meals with people you have only met online. Hey, I even got to play Melty Blood: Actress Again on an arcade machine. Speaking of karaoke, I am always fascinated by other people’s song choices. I wish I had enough Japanese knowledge to sing the Japanese songs like many others but people had to settle for my lame renditions of Queen and the Police instead.

New York Anime Fest brought many familiar faces to NYC this time around, some of which I already knew and some I would meet for the very first time during this event. So instead of having a big dinner at this convention, the theme was karaoke with many bloggers in tow (and friends) on Friday night. My Japanese is about pre-school level but others among me belted out all kinds of fierce Japanese tunes including Holy Lonely Night from Macross 7! If I practice really hard maybe I can pull some opening off in the near future. But there was also plenty of English songs being sung,  most memorable being On A Boat from SNL. This was the latest night of con and really wrecked me for the rest of convention. There were also various dining and chatting experience a plenty during the con and after hours. NYAF overall became a rather large hang out and meeting convention.

I am always most interested in the Japanese guests and the panels at any anime convention. They tend to be my meter stick of how much fun. Tomino pretty much assured that NYAF won completely and utterly in the guest department. My now signed Turn A Artbook was worth the time and money I spent on the convention alone. I would have liked to have seen one other big named Japanese guest but that was hardly a requirement. I did enjoy several of the panels but for some reason I felt this years panels were lacking. The ones I went to were excellent but there was a good deal of dead space for me on each day. It did give me time to hang out with people and have leisurely meals but I would have rather had to decide to either have a leisurely meal or a quick bite to eat like at Otakon. I am also a little bummed out that next year there will not be a single solitary NYAF but instead it will be combined with NYCC. I liked having a anime convention and a comic convention in Manhattan. I could do my anime events at NYAF and my comics events at NYCC. Hopefully NYAF will not just be a name tacked on the NYCC but only time will tell. Still I will remember New York Anime Festival with fond memories.

While I don’t want to be running without a moment to spare at a convention, I found myself too often with time on my hands. If there was one of two more rooms for panels or workshops this problem would be solved. Also the lack of fan run panels is certainly getting better but still wish to see more of a fan presence in the presentations. It will be interesting to see how it combines with New York Comic Con in the coming year. So really the highlight and reason for NYAF 2009 for me was Tomino and everything else was just something I went to in between. It can’t be said enough that having a chance to see and hear speak a director of such importance is a rare chance which makes NYAF one of the most memorable anime events I may ever attend. As Dave said during the Bloggers Roundtable, “Tomino Con 2009 was great!”

Top 5 Tomino shows I want to watch that are not Gundam
5. Aura Battler Dunbine
4. Invincible Super Man Zambot 3
3. Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3
2. Space Runaway Ideon
1. Combat Mecha Xabungle

If you have never been to Otakon, let me just say that it is like a whirlwind of anime, manga, costumes, music, fans, panels, guests, and friends. You are practically going non-stop from the moment you touch down in Baltimore. Maybe it is just the way my mind works, but it seemed to be ten-fold this year! The amount of things seen and done in just one day sound almost impossible. I distinctly remember some of us talking on Friday night about how things done that morning felt days in the past rather than just hours before. But I’m not complaining, I call Otakon the highlight of the summer for a reason! This year only went on to prove that statement further.

Otakon came and went in an amazing and thrilling blur. I remember the highlights but the details even a few days later are still sort of fuzzy in my head. So in many ways this con report is just as much for me as it is for anyone reading it. This is my chance to sort out what I felt and what I did in my own mind because there was just so much information to process. I was almost always doing something. In fact, I wore myself out so much there was two or three times I just had to stop and nap or get food even if it meant missing out on something awesome. At first I was worried that there were not going to be any Japanese guests worth talking about but in the last few weeks before the con they pulled some great guests out at the last second and turned my perception of how great this was going to be right around.

Friday
No Means No, Defense against Fanboys and Fangirls panel
Know Your Creators panel
Yutaka Yamamoto panel
Mobile Suit Gundam: Celebrating 30 Years panel
Anime Recruitment
Legend of the Galactic Heroes: History’s Future panel
Mecha Appreciation panel
Opening Ceremonies
Kikuko Inoue panel
I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This!
MELL concert
Guess the Melons 18+ panel

Saturday
Gundam Model Building workshop
Funimation panel
MELL press conference
Maruyama, Ishiguro, Kikukawa, Matsubara press conference
Anime and Manga Studies panel
From Kenshiro to Kenshin: The Neo-Shonen Revolution panel
Fred Schodt panel
Fred Schodt autograph session
Return of the Anime Old Timers? panel
Otaku TV panel
The Problem with Otaku panel
Review Anime the Right Way panel

Sunday
Without Watching the Anime: Opening & Ending Themes panel
Hidenori Matsubara panel
Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy, and the Manga/Anime Revolution, with Fred Schodt panel
Naomi Tamura concert

Narutak, Kohaku, and I all met up at my apartment. The anticipation was practically visible! Before we left I got an early birthday present of some very choice pencil boards, one of manga art Hayate No Gotoku and a cute Gakuen Kino one. We fortunately got a ride to the MegaBus pick up in front of Penn Station. I must agree with Mike Dent, MegaBus rocks! I will never ride a Greyhound again unless forced to. The free WiFi was awesome and the ride was smooth and clean. We took over the back of the bus where we pretty much had a pre-Otakon party. The Baltimore public transportation was a little slower than we had first anticipate but we arrived at our hotel by about 6:30PM. Here we encountered the first and only real major problem of the convention: the Radisson overbooked the con rooms. They tried to throw us into a super small single when we had booked a double. Thankfully Narutaki is a master of getting what he needs and they eventually gave us a bigger room.

If you saw the amount of stuff being lugged to Otakon, you would think we were moving there. Heck, at the very least you would have thought everyone was a cosplayer bringing gear, but no. However to be fair, when I say we, I mean 9 people and also a lot of it was free stuff for our panels and food that was quickly eaten up. I wouldn’t say I was nervous about MegaBus, I had done some research, but a new experience is always a little worrisome in these cases. Though really with so many friends along, a misstep can easily turn into an adventure! Luckily we didn’t have to prove that rule as the bus was great, well-organized, and on time. While the bus stop is certainly far out from the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, the price tipped my hand and everyone seemed satisfied. I was a bit miffed at the Radisson because they have served me so well in the past. In the end, things turned out fine once a larger room was acquired, remember: calm persistence! I will just mention that I use quite a bit of the tips in our Con Survival guide and they serve me quite well.

Since getting into the hotel took a bit longer than expected, we had to rush over to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. We met Clarissa from AWO, Patz Prime from the Gaming Dungeon, and Ed from Comics Worth Reading for the first time in real life. I wish I had gotten more time to talk to everyone there. I know they made a good impression on me. After dinner we saw the crazy long pre-registration line. I have never seen it anywhere that long. I was quite glad to be able to just stroll in and get my press badge. Some of our friends said the wait wasn’t too long. We all stayed up shooting the breeze since the first night is usually the first and last time everyone is in the same place at the same time before the trip home. I don’t know about everyone else but I was so amped up I hardly got any sleep.

Thursday night is the only planned dinner that I have, everything else is on the fly based on who I run into when the time is right. In fact, I wasn’t even going to do the usual Thursday thing, but hey everyone’s gotta eat so why not do it together! You would have found many voices from the internet at our table including Carl (Ogiue Maniax), Scott (Anime Almanac), Evan (Ani-Gamers), Keith and Joe (The Pokemon Times) who we traveled with plus the new faces that Hisui mentioned. It was quite a gathering! Every year it seems to be more and more true that a big part of Otakon is meeting up with people. I was planning on picking up badges before dinner but the unexpected delays prevented that from happening. Considering the line, there was no way our friends were getting badges before dinner anyway. Press Ops was fully operational so the slue of us were in and out in a matter of minutes. Most troubling was that a lot of our contact information didn’t seem to be entered in the database. This lack of communication seemed to fluctuate throughout the convention. However, there were no interviews in our future and I wish this was communicated to us rather than me finally giving up on the notion. Their twitter account was very informative though giving us little tidbits of info during the con including attendance numbers and the like. Also from talking to staff, it seems they got almost 10,000 badges out on Thursday night! While line management seemed to be handled, I did see people still waiting in line for non-pre-registered badges around 4PM on Friday.

No Means No, Defense against Fanboys and Fangirls was a fairly light panel and most of the advice was common sense. The girl who ran the panel was rather amusing and she had a good collection of pictures to go with each slide so everyone was having a good time. I missed the part were the audience shared their stories and I am sure there were some good stories because I had to get to the press briefing. I went to Know Your Creators with natural born enemies Daryl Surat and the Geek Nights guys it was an entertaining panel to watch just for the natural amount of underlying tension. Still they had a good mix of prolific and influential anime and manga creators, what they had done, and why you should care about them. They mentioned the panel would have new creators on it all the time so it is always worth checking out. It is a great panel for anyone who is just starting to get into anime but wants to go deeper into the art.

I was truly sad to miss out on Otakon’s opening animation last year, so I made it a priority this time around. Opening ceremonies was actually in the mid-afternoon of Friday, probably to make sure all the guests had arrived as well as having as many attendees already in the building. We were first shown a reel of all the guests with music and clips of the things they are best known for. Since the room was filled to capacity it was telling to see who people cheered for the most, not too surprising to me after so many years, but the American voice actors were easily who the crowd favored. Matt Smiechowski the con-chair talked to us a bit and then introduced some of the Japanese guests. Yutaka Yamamoto, Naomi Tamura, Yukio Kikukawa all said a brief hello to the crowd while Kanon Wakeshima made a surprise appearance. And at last we were privileged to see the Madhouse produced introduction to Otakon staring their two mascots, the con staff, and a deluge of references from anime and science-fiction. It had a lot of energy and we all laughed to see our favorites parodied so it was a nice way to officially open the convention up to what would be a memorable weekend. It was a sad moment at the end when were were informed the director Takuji Endou had passed away just a short while ago.

My first panel with a Japanese guest was Yutaka Yamamoto’s. He was quite amusing as he looks like a mild-mannered salary man. I was surprised by the detail he gave in his answers. I did not expect him to so frankly talk about his feud with Akiyuki Shinbo and his views on the industry. Japanese guests usually give very polite but ultimately empty answers. I noticed this year all the guests starting with Yamamoto were rather frank while still being polite and cautious. Some joker had to ask him about him getting fired from Lucky Star but Yamamoto gracefully deflected the question. Omo did a great transcript of the panel if you want to learn more. I also saw Kikuko Inoue that day. She was very charming and answered all the questions with a smile. I was a little miffed that I never got to ask her a question but the panel itself was enjoyable. We all got to hear her sing “My Heart Iidasenai, Your Heart Tashikametai,” “Cruel Angel Thesis,” and “Seikan Hikou.” That was without a doubt the highlight! Welcome Datacomp has all the highlights of the panel as well as some from Yutaka Yamamoto’s panel.

I seemed to hit a lot of robot related things on Friday. I had heard good things about the people who run the Gundam panel at cons, so this time I decide to catch it for myself. The Mobile Suit Gundam: Celebrating 30 Years panel was a quick run through of the major parts of the Gundam franchise that have been animated though they didn’t mention the MS IGLOO OVAs. The “celebrating 30 years” part of the panel consisted of talking about the 1:1 scaled Gundam recently erected in Japan as well as a little speculation about the coming Unicorn anime. It was lightning fast information with an anecdote thrown in here and there, so while I didn’t learn anything new, recent fans to the franchise would do well to attend this. I skipped out on the last half which was a quiz show. I also attended the Mecha Appreciation panel because everyone should really appreciate such things. This started off in rather a flurry as we all yelled out “Sieg Zeon!” The panelists were really knowledgeable especially regarding Go Nagai which got a lot of attention unsurprisingly. They went through an explanation of Super Robot vs. Real Robot (and something they deemed Super-Duper Robot!) There were many good laughs had at the expense of robots everywhere. They really got caught up in the 70′s shows so had to rush through the rest practically skipping present day series. They also lacked any visual materials which was a shame. I would love to see them do this again with a bit more organization, it was a lot of fun.

The two guys running the Legend of the Galactic Heroes: History’s Future panel were appropriately dressed as Wenli Yang and Reinhard von Lohengramm. Besides being dressed for the part they were quite knowledgeable making it a great intro to what Legend of the Galactic Heroes is and why you should care about it. I am pretty sure that most of the people who went to the panel were already LotGH fans but if they were not the panelists’ enthusiasm hopefully got them to check out a great space opera. Later at the convention I talked for a bit with the man cosplaying Reinhard. It turns out he is one of the people behind Hero Legends and is extremely knowledgeable about Gundam in addition to LotGH. I wish I had caught his name because he seems like someone you should check out whenever he does panels. I peeked into the Evangelion panel which looked to be going well but I was really starting to fall apart due to lack of food. So I went back to my room and got a snack that carried me to 7-11 to get a more substantial snack. I actually could feel my spirits rising as I digested food. I made sure for the rest of the con to never let myself get that hungry again.

Both of our panels took place on Friday which was actually quite nice since it meant we’d have the rest, and busiest, day of the con to concentrate on events. Panel Ops was efficient and quick, they even allowed us to leave some stuff in the room for later in the day. Anime Recruitment was held in the very panel room where it premiered in 2007 so it had a nostalgic feel to it! We had a good crowd, definitely more than 50 people, and a plethora of questions that we just plain didn’t have time to get to. With so much extra free stuff leftover it was kind of a free for all at the end. While I was happy with Anime Recruitment, nothing could have prepared me for I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! which was held in a very, very large panel in the new Hilton section. We easily had more than 250 people in the room . . . YIKES! Since this panel line-up changes every time we do it, I was a little uneasy. Plus, we were also doing this panel for the first time showing the openings for each show. But somehow we pulled it off and had a happy crowd by the end. We had zero time for questions so once again a mad dash that made us look like celebrity superstars was done in the pursuit of free swag. I can say though that I won’t ever be scared about doing a panel again, after that many people we can handle it!

Anime Recruitment went fairly well as it usually does. One day we will learn to be more snappy in our answers but I think we did okay in our Q&A section. As always people loved the free stuff. It was good I took the time to recharge myself before our I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! panel because we were in a huge room and had an overwhelming turnout. It was the first time that we ran the panel with the openings before we started talking about the shows. We had to cut down the number of shows we talked about but I think that the shows we talked about had more impact this way. Whenever we run these panels I am always surprised by what people know already. The amount of reaction to Princess Nine caught me off guard. Shows how little I have my finger on the pulse of fandom!

One schedule conflict that came up was our panel butted up right next to the MELL concert and since we tend to be chatty after a panel it was inevitable that I was going to miss a bit of it. After we skedaddled we jogged over to the other side of the con where the concert was being held. Luckily the press area was near the stage and we were able to jump in rather easily. MELL started off in a very elaborate Victorian-esque costume dress and fan which made it a feat that she was able to move around so fluidly on stage. She did several numbers of heavy beats then exited the stage for a wardrobe change and returned in another white dress that was only slightly less complicated though it was missing the wide skirt. She sang some slower and more melodic pieces before amping it up with the Black Lagoon opening and others then rocking so hard she broke her dress! For her encore she came back on stage in a red kimono and started off by singing the opening from Rideback which was really the one thing I wanted to hear most of all. Easily one of the best parts of the convention, I would certainly love to see her back in the U.S. I was also able to attend her press conference where she was very gracious and talkative. I asked her about the process for doing an anime opening, she went on to explain that the production studio contacts her. After her manager has laid down some sound she then starts to work on the lyrics. MELL also mentioned that this was the first time she was invited anywhere because of her involvement in anime openings and endings. Afterward she was kind enough to even take a photo with me!

After the concert a bunch of us hooked up with Clarissa and had dinner with a big crew at a local sushi place. It was another delightful dinner and I got to meet Daniel Briscoe from The Anime Chop Shop. After that I tagged along with Gerald and Daniel as they went to the Guess the Melons late night panel. It was a game show where they showed you the cleavage of an anime, video games, or manga character and you had to use that to identify who they were. There was one guy on the panel who was pretty good at the fighting game girls were but other than that most of the people from the audience were more knowledgeable. Gerald would have schooled them all had he been picked to play.  It was a funny panel but I found it most amusing that despite being an 18+ panel there was no nudity. Even when they had a Queen’s Blade character! Daniel and I left about 3/4 of the way through because it was getting late.

If it was not absolutely clear that I am a mere amateur when building models, the Gundam Model Building workshop made this fact 100% obvious. The man giving the panel was extremely knowledgeable and skilled. He quickly went past where I was and went straight to advanced techniques to make your kits look both professional and unique. He mentioned he has a web page but I sadly did not stick around long enough to get his card. I popped in on the Otaku TV panel with Viga the Otagal of the site of the same name. She looked at various anime about otaku and then played clips to show how they each had a different look at fandom. She looked at shows like Genshiken, Cosplay Complex, Comic Party, and Welcome to the NHK. After relaxing for a bit I went to the always entertaining Return of the Anime Old Timers? panel. It was fun to see some of the first wave of anime fans tell about their experiences. I asked what shows they felt everyone else had over looked and people should check out. I was surprised that everyone on the panel said Sentou Mecha Xabungle.

There was a last minute press conference with 4 of the major Japanese guests at Otakon. One has to wonder why this was planned at the last minute to begin with. So entered Masao Maruyama, Noburo Ishiguro, Yukio Kikukawa, Hidenori Matsubara to a fairly empty press room. Maruyama and Ishiguro tried to slip in the back row and were amused by us and the rest of the press room pretend interviewing their interpreter. Once they were corralled on stage they were very talkative and each answered the questions with solid responses. Kikukawa talked a bit about the production of Legend of the Galactic Heroes going on to say that he thinks it went on so long because the top people at the studio just didn’t notice it. When a show was just staying in the middle they had free reign to do what they wanted. Matsubara mentioned that he would really like to do a Dororo anime and in addition to that Maruyama said they were considering the project very seriously at Madhouse. Ishiguro hinted at a project he has had in his heart for many, many years but fears he will never be able to make it. He also talked a bit about Nagahama Tadao, the long deceased director, and gave us some insights into how he worked. Near the end Ishiguro went on to talk at length about the lack of preservation for film in Japan and how envious he was of the care given to American films, even bad ones. The press conference went on longer than expected and was really diverse in the questions, good job press!

I took a little nap before catching the tail end of the Funimation Industry panel. The couches in front of the panel rooms at the Hilton are quite comfortable let me tell you. I got  in pretty much as they were announcing licenses so I got to hear what everybody really cares about. I was surprised that they got Eden of the East. Narutaki and I expected it to be picked up by Bandai. I was sort of shocked that they picked up Casshern Sins. I have heard it was an amazing series but I wonder how many people care. I will probably pick it up based on sdshamshel’s recommendation alone. I am still a little surprised no one has picked up Toradora! or Rideback yet but the con season still has a little while to go. I guess they have to save something for NYAF. 

Fred Schodt was one of the guests I was looking forward to the most. I read his book Manga! Manga! many years ago and have recently read both Dreamland Japan and The Astro Boy Essays making me a certifiable fan of the man. His Q&A was just that, there was very little introduction and for the people in the audience there seemed little need for it. From the moment the first question was asked it just went non-stop until the panel ended much too soon. He was very soft-spoken and patient with the audience which created a very comfortable atmosphere. Schodt started off by telling us the answer to a question a lot of us were asking each other over the weekend, “how do you pronounce Schodt?” apparently it is simply “shot.” Other highlights included Schodt’s telling of how he met Osamu Tezuka, what cultural parts are hardest to translate, and the Pluto manga which he is currently working on for VIZ. When asked about the rise in manga and anime studies, Schodt replied simply that people should read more and watch more, that was the most important part. He also seemed disinterested in writing another book about manga because the awareness had grown so much. I didn’t have a chance to ask if he would think about writing commentary on manga, but he did say he hoped to translate a biography about Tezuka in the future. Directly after his panel was an autograph session that I rushed over to and happily got my copy of The Astro Boy Eassys signed. 

I tried to get into Daryl Surat’s Anime’s Craziest Deaths panel which had a huge line on which I ran into Dave and Joel. We were eventually told that there was no way on God’s green earth we could get into the panel so we all went down to the video games room. Unsurprisingly, I hung out by the Type-Moon fighting games. It really made me want a PSP and Fate/Unlimited Codes. I then ran into Ko Ransom who mentioned that they shut down Anime’s Craziest Deaths for being a 18+ panel despite not being marked as such. Daryl argued that he came close to the border but never crossed the line. This would quickly become a constant topic of conversation. Yet again AWO almost gets kicked out of Otakon. That is why you have to love those guys. Maybe next year Clarissa will run a panel that will come close to the danger zone and they can have a hat trick. I sort of lost track of time browsing doujin so I was a little late for From Kenshiro to Kenshin: The Neo-Shonen Revolution. I missed the first third of the panel but it was rather good. Daryl was really well spoken and proved that he can be very even handed and moderate when he wants to be. He gave an excellent analysis of how shonen has changed over the years which I found fascinating. Not that I really have to tell anyone but Daryl is another person who you should go out of your way to see if you get the chance.

I attended Reviewing Anime the Right Way because quite frankly who know what we do on this blog? The panel consisted of Mike Toole of Anime Jump, AWO/OtakuUSA‘s Daryl and Clarissa, and ANN’s Bamboo Dong. Since all of these people get paid for their writings I was hoping to at most pick up some tips, and at least see an amusing panel. Throughout the session each person gave examples of how they work and talked about their own approaches to things like having your own voice and writing consistently. I wouldn’t say I was surprised that everyone said they take notes while watching shows but I know it is not something I subscribe to doing. Of course hearing that made me reconsider my position so we will see. I found the advice about how to avoid falling into the trap of just summarizing helpful as well as their suggestions to write too much and edit down rather than the other way around. They finished off the panel by mentioning how to get paid writing gigs and answering a few questions. So if you were just thinking of writing reviews for the first time it was worth a listen and a laugh.

I eventually fluttered over to Anime and Manga Studies which was an overview of how to look at anime and manga from an academic perspective. Alex Leavitt, who was on the panel, was surprised how many teachers and professors asked questions about ways to convince their school to let them do anime related programs. It was a good panel for anyone who wanted to start looking at anime from a more intellectual perspective. After that I headed over to the The Problem with Otaku also chaired by Alex. This panel looked at the word “otaku” and how it has evolved in Japan and the U.S. I did not learn much I did not already know but it was a good and even-handed discussion on a somewhat controversial topic in the U.S. that has inspired myriads of debate in the fan community. It definitely helped me organize my thoughts for our next Otaku Dairies article though!

As I mentioned previously, dinner plans during Otakon after Thursday just sort of happen by chance. So on Saturday evening a gathering emerged of some familiar fellows from previous dinners and some new faces like Alex Leavitt of Department of Alchemy who we’ve met briefly before and Link. The gang rounded up and headed over to the food court with the insane notion that since the masquerade was in full swing it wouldn’t be as crowded. Once it became apparent there wasn’t much room for us people grabbed food to go and we ate and talked leisurely outside one of the con entrances for a bit. Some of us headed for Mike Toole’s  Dubs That Time Forgot panel but to no avail! Wow, what a line!

Narutaki, Kohaku, and I all went back to the hotel to rest up for the Big Dave and Joel party. This was a good idea because me and Evan ended up there until about 3AM. Without a doubt I don’t think Otakon would feel right without going to Dave and Joel’s extravaganzas. It is a excellent chance to talk to everyone you would ever want to at a convention who was not a Japanese guest. Dave and Joel were charming and hysterical as always and everyone else was equally chill. Some people in attendance were the Ninja Consultants, Viga, AWO, Matt Burnett of For Tax Reasons, and Mike Toole after his panel. I was utterly drained by the time I left the party. It did take us a little while to get to bed because someone accidentally locked the deadbolt to the room so we had to keep calling people until someone unlocked. This always has to happen to someone during a con.

Early on Sunday morning was the Without Watching the Anime: Opening & Ending Themes panel run by Alex Leavitt. His mission statement was to show us the history of anime with just openings and endings and to show how they have evolved over the years. We started with some classics like Astro Boy and Mazinger and even a hilarious English version of Mazinger! A little too much time was spent on the openings to Cutey Honey. He went on to talk about the lack of synchronization of animation with music which has changed in more recent times, the example he used was K-ON! Additionally he talked about experimental openings that don’t necessarily reflect the show at all like the opening to Honey and Clover. There was some weird scheduling conflict that seemed unknown to our host so the end of the panel was rather rushed along. While I liked the overall concept of the panel since I too am a big fan of openings, I think the examples could be more effective and diverse combined with more discussion. Also I wouldn’t mind seeing the focus possibly switched to the more experimental or innovative openings.

The Hidenori Matsubara panel maybe had a dozen people so we did a little roundtable discussion. Link and I both asked a bunch of questions sometimes following up each other’s inquiries. It was a shame more people did not attend because he was very open and talkative. I got to gush a little about Sakura Taisen and mention that I really liked Gemini Sunrise’s character design. He was willing to give some insight into the Rebuild of Evangelion movies as well. I was surprised how casual about the movies he was, according to him there is almost no chance that the 3rd and 4th movies will play together in theaters like originally planned. I did notice three things that Matsubara and Yamamoto both mentioned. Both had very vague definitions of moe when asked about moe. This leads me to believe that the Japanese are just as confused about moe as we are. Both felt there was an increasing trend among Japanese otaku to want nothing bad or horrible to happen to characters. And both conveyed a fondness for American conventions were they can sit and talk with fans. Why they don’t have these type of conventions in Japan is an eternal mystery. After the panel I got his autograph which made me happy. It was the best panel almost no one went to.

Since the panel with Matsubara ran on as late as it could I was a little late to the Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy, and the Manga/Anime Revolution, with Fred Schodt panel. Schodt comes off as an amazingly scholarly asset to the anime and manga community in the U.S. And I must agree with Mike Toole’s assessment that he looks remarkably like Revolver Ocelot. It was a  good overview of Osamu Tezuka and Astro Boy much like a live action version of his Astro Boy Essays book. At the end someone had to ask the age old question about whether or not Disney stole the idea of the Lion King from Tezuka’s Kimba. While Schodt has written and probably spoken about this numerous times over the years he didn’t bat an eyelash at the question and in fact answered quite succinctly. I think everyone came away with a little more knowledge after the panel.

Dave Wujcik/Copyright 2009 by Otakorp Inc.

There was a double concert session on Friday. No I’m not talking about Becca, I’m talking about the rockin’ tunes coming from the Otacafe where on Sunday you could find Carl, Big N of Drastic My Anime Blog, and Omo of omonomono singing! And then the Naomi Tamura concert rounded out the con with a very exciting performance. Naomi is best known, atleast to me, for her songs from Magic Knight Rayearth and I hadn’t really looked much further into her repertoire. She quickly proved to me that I should have as she had some very hard rock sounds to share with the audience in addition to her Rayearth more pop-rock pieces. I am happy to report that she ended her concert (minus the encore) with my favorite piece Yuzurenai Negai the first opening to Rayearth. I jumped up and down, I waved my hands, I screamed, and I clapped for the song I had been waiting for! I was very worried I wasn’t going to hear it because we had to catch a bus but the con gods smiled upon us. It was the perfect way to end the incredible weekend.

The dealers’ room was impressive as always. There was a wide variety of items and a huge amount of dealers. As per our Con Survival guide I only looked at what I had priced beforehand (expect doujin) so I was easily able to keep my spending under control. I mostly looked through the doujinshi because I did not see the Maria figure from Jun Planning. I got some good stuff and picked up a doujinshi for OGT I thought he would like. I also picked up a Nirvash kit as a birthday present for Patz, and then grabbed up some items for my travel companions that couldn’t get to the dealer’s room again which included a Souther Revoltech for Carl, and a Red Comet Gundam action base for Narutaki. Patz got me the Gundam Double X with G-Falcon as a birthday gift earlier in the convention. Did I mention that I love Paula Cis? It is only tangentially related but I figured I would bring it up again. I wish I had had a little more time to just look over the dealers’ room in hopes of finding something rare but my schedule was a little too jam packed for that. While my heart was sad my wallet was happy.

I really didn’t get a chance to spend as much time as I normally like to at the Artist Alley probably because there were so many events going on I barely even had time to eat let alone meander. However, I did make a point to check out the art auction and to see the very large Big O model that was for sale. A mere $9500.00 could net you that behemoth, atleast that was the starting price! I haven’t heard anything about what it sold for. There were other unique pieces like quilts and door shades as well as traditional paintings and the such. I am always amazed to see people willing to pay top dollar for prints, PRINTS, of stuff that you can buy right over in artist alley just because they are framed. They aren’t even numbered or have a limited printing. The alley itself seemed to a little less crowded but the artwork seemed to be a bit higher in quality over all.

I had a ton of fun with people I have known for years, people I know casually, people I only know through the Internet, and with people I just met for the first time. My biggest problem was usually deciding what to go to because there were too many good options. If your major problem is too much fun then that is always a good thing. Without a doubt Otakon once again proves that there are major benefits and experiences you can only get out of a big convention. I know that Narutaki and I are already planning to go next year.  If you are on the fence I suggest you attend as well. The only other conventions that are going to give you anywhere as much bang for your buck on the East coast are New York Anime Festival and Anime Weekend Atlanta. So I hope to see everyone I met at Otakon next year and I hope to see some new faces as well.

Otakon is a special convention that is not without its problems but they more than make up for it in enthusiasm for the fans themselves. With the new addition of the Hilton the convention seems poised to continue growing in the many years to come in Baltimore. Crowd control over all never seemed to be an issue for me and congestion seemed to be kept to a minimum. The events were top notch and very rarely started late, even the concerts were efficiently run on their time schedules! Being our first year as press we still have some things to get used to and learn. And while I would have liked better communication about interviews and the such, it didn’t wholly overshadow the experience. I can honestly say overall praise is what Otakon staff deserve this year! If I haven’t made it clear in my report then let me say plainly that Otakon was amazing, full of people and events that were second to none, and plans for next year have already started taking shape in my mind.

Top 5 Model Kits I would like
5. 1/144 PTX-003-SP1 Alteisen Riese & 1/144 PTX-007-03C Weissritter
4. Moebius Zero & Sky Grasper 1/144 Scale EX-15
3. MRC-F20 Mobile Sumo / Gold Type (1/100)
2. 1/100 MG Nu Gundam
1. 1/35 AT-05E Rodeo-Star

Narutaki and Hisui’s schedule:

Friday
Anime Through the Generations Panel
Anime’s Pirate Legacy Panel
Anime Princesses Rule Panel
Japanese Crime Fiction in Anime Panel
My Stereotypes are More Offensive than Yours Panel
These are a Few of My Favorite Scenes Panel

Saturday
I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! Panel
Psychology of Anime
Vertical Panel
ParaPara Dance Workshop
Directing! Panel
Funimation Panel
Bad Anime, Bad! Panel
As the Otaku Grows Panel

Sunday
History of Manga Panel
Otaku Perceptions and Misconceptions Panel
Anime Blogging Basics Panel

Aren’t cons exciting? No matter how many I go to, I always look forward to another one. This has become especially true in recent years as I meet more and more people from blogosphere and other outlets. AnimeNEXT usually kick starts my con season every year and this time around is no exception. It was one of those inbetween conventions that holds a special place because of the dates it usually lands on. There was a major location change this year so it the con had a bit of a unknown factor going in.

I have to agree with Narutaki. As I am more and more a part of the menagerie that is the anime community, I look forward to going to conventions more than ever. It is a great opportunity to see old friends, meet up with people you have only talked to on the Internet, and discover awesome people you have not yet met. I know people are always disappointed that I am not actually an emotionally dead red-headed magical maid when they meet me. Then again I am actually emotionally dead so that is something, right? AnimeNEXT also has very good panels thanks to some very knowledgeable old time fans attending every year. There is also a strong and growing blogging presence. Since the thing I like the most about anime conventions, besides Japanese guests, are the panels it is always nice to seem some quality lectures about fascinating topics.

So around 1PM I hopped on a train bound for the unknown (or New Brunswick, New Jersey) with two of three people I would spend a good portion of the convention with, Carl from Oguie Maniax and Ko from datacomp (the third, and missing, companion being Hisui). A short amount of train trouble later and we had arrived, kind of. As we were waiting for a shuttle from our hotel to pick us up, we were hit up for change a number of times. To be honest, I was rather unhappy with having to grab a hotel at the last minute but the location is just not conducive for commuting to three days in a row. They also seemed rather unhappy to have con goers in the hotel. I had to implicitly insist that we get a coffee maker in the room. In any case we checked in with relative ease and the room was decent enough. There was a small walking path to the convention that got a lot of use over the weekend. Getting panelist and press badges was virtually painless though they did spell our blog name wrong (REVERSE THIVES). Once all of these details were taken care it was time to dive in! 

Friday started off a quite the rainy day. I was stuck at work with various misfortunes until late so I myself did not arrive at the convention until after 9PM. The hotel would not send me a courtesy driver to pick me up from the train station so I had to take a cab. Upon further thinking I wonder if the fact that I mentioned I was going to AmineNEXT had anything to do with it. The woman I was talking with very suddenly changed her tone after that and overall the hotel seemed less amiable to AmineNEXT guests. A guest is a guest in my opinion and should be treated as such. After I got to the convention and got my press badge I was off to the panels. On a side note, I got the Keroro Gunso badge because the Code Geass badge did not have Euphemia. No pink princess equals no badge.

We peeked at the karaoke room and I was told their song selection and set-up was only so-so and we quickly exited. Not that I was planning on doing any anyway. We then headed to our first panel for the weekend: Anime Through the Generations. I was unsure what to expect here but it seemed like a place that interesting discussions might arise. I was surprised to see the panelists were fairly young. It ended up being basically a group discussion with large amounts of audience participation. Topics were thrown out and the fans answered along with the panelists. The room was a mix bag of older and younger fans. They also ran a panel on Sunday called Otaku Misconceptions and Perceptions. Not sure if it was their first times with these panels but it seemed that way. In group discussion panels its important to keep things on target and not to let the panel runaway with itself. I think if they just exert themselves a bit more this will be corrected. Would enjoy seeing these discussions again.

I stated off on a good foot by going to a trio of panels by Brian T. Price, Walter Amos and Rob Fenelon. They are knowledgeable guys and it is always a pleasure. They are well versed in a variety of subjects including anime, manga, history, literature, and philosophy. If you attend one of their panels you will always walk having learned something while still making it entertaining. First, Anime Princesses which looked at various strong female anime princesses who act like real princesses. I was really disappointed that I missed them talking about Princess Euphemia. Next, My Stereotypes are More Offensive than Yours which sounds much worse then it really was. It was mostly a discussion of tropes and ideas that were unique to anime. They realized that anime could be just as cliched as any other form of entertainment but sometimes a formula can uplift the medium. Last, These are a Few of My Favorite Scenes where they took a couple of scenes and tried to sell you on the series. I especially liked the series of super weapon scenes. My only real complaint was they often had a decent number of non-anime shows as they did anime ones in all of their panels. I would have liked to have seen just straight anime in their panels but they always picked shows worth watching. I had wanted to chat with the panelists but it was 2AM when all the panels were over so I went straight to bed. I hardly even saw my fellow roommates. Apparently they need more and 4 hours of sleep a night and went to bed way before I did.

We ordered pizza to our hotel room and regained our strength before heading back for more convention going action. I missed a bit of the beginning of the Anime’s Pirate Legacy panel. Without having a panel description to consult I thought it was going to be about piracy’s history in anime fandom. It turned out to be a panel about pirate anime or atleast kind of. It started off fine talking about all kinds of shows from space pirates to traditional but at the half way mark it deteriorated. They ran out of titles so started talking about tangentially related shows like Gurren Lagann. They then showed the 12-minute OVA of it. There was also a lengthy discussion of Dragonball thrown in the middle. The same people ran a panel later called Japanese Crime Fiction in Anime which mostly consisted of Golgo 13 and a brief mention of City Hunter. This was rather a let down, they seemed very enthusiastic but certainly needed to do more research. The subject matter certainly interests me so I would love to see it revamped and done again. I then caught the tail end of Anime Princess before dropping off to sleep for the night.

Saturday stared with a delicious breakfast of instant Sukiyaki Udon otherwise know as the breakfast of champions. Then we wandered over panel room to give our I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! panel and I had some coffee and trail mix. That was certainly important because I did not really wake up for the panel until about half way through. I think the panel went well and got a decent crowd considering how early in the morning we were scheduled. Carl was a new addition to the panel but he was an excellent speaker and brought some shows we we not have normally had in our lineup.

Despite our panel’s terrible time slot and also the omission of the panel description in the guide book, we had a decent turn out. The location of our panel room was a good spot right near the artist alley. We had almost 40 people listening to us babble on! It seemed like all of us including the audience were still half asleep till about half way through the panel then we hit our stride. Since this was only our second time running this panel it still had an uneasy quality to it. Also since we switched out a deal of shows for new ones, it wasn’t and probably won’t ever be as natural as Anime Recruitment comes off. Still I think the panel is getting there and will probably end up in our rotation of panels. We are updating it and presenting at Otakon, too. The Vertical panel was a little later. Their panel had no major new things to say, yet. Ed hinted all over the place and has so on his Twitter that there should be some upcoming manga licenses that will be buzzing. They mostly talked about their current catalog and also gave some things away. One thing that was awesome was these Sayonara, Mr. Fatty! notepads. I was also able to snatch up a copy of the book which doesn’t street until July!

After the panel I checked out the game room and watched some Tatsunoko vs Capcom. It looks like a fun game that I will have to get for the Wii when it comes out despite the fact that I am rather horrible at fighting games. I then went to the Psychology of Anime panel. Although it was listed as a workshop it was more of a talk. But it was certainly a fascinating. The lecturer showed how various psychological theories were used by anime to enhance their stories while other psychological theories could be applied to analyze different series. The guy running the panel was very good at getting the audience involved while making sure that it moved forward at a decent pace. It went over rather well and he promised he would run the panel next year with new material. At one point Narutaki and I went back to the hotel room to chill and eat and we got to see a sneak preview of the blogging panel. It was fun to see the powerhouse team working their magic. After shooting the breeze with everyone I tried to go to the Japanese Sweets and Snacks panel but it was all filled. I therefore went to Directing! Panel. It had Toshifuma Yoshida and Tom Wayland talking about directing anime DVDs in America. They answered questions about directing and the American side of the anime industry. I did not learn anything new but both panelists were friendly and well informed.

After the rain let up I went back to the con in time to catch the ParaPara Dancing Workshop. It was run by the same girls from last year who are from ParaPara NY. It was the same general set-up hosted in the “arena” area of the exhibition center. There are bleachers in the back for chilling out and watching what is going on. It is rather populated area since its one of the more open sections indoors. They upped the amount of dances from 3 to 5 over last year but I was quite done at 3. I am not good in the least but its a lot of fun and I highly recommend it at any convention. I tried to go to the Funi panel and as per usual it was packed to the gills for no reason under the sun. I promptly deserted and went to stick my head into the Restricted Rock Paper Scissors panel. I came in too late to actually play but Carl was able to join in. It’s a game from Kaiji where you use cards that are either rock, paper, or scissors. You try to beat other players and gain points. Obviously in Kaiji its a bit more cutthroat and you have more to lose! The panelists seemed surprised how many people showed up and it threw them off for the beginning. Once the game got underway things seemed to go fine. Though they seemed anxious to rush everyone out because the Masquerade was soon after.

Since the Funimation panel was in the same room as the Directing! panel, I fortunately had a seat for when everyone streamed in. I always find it funny that so many people show up to Funimation panels hoping to get free stuff but they never give anything away. I must have heard three separate conversations about free stuff before the panel. There were no big announcements but I did notice one thing. When the topic of picking up Central Park Media’s old licenses came up I did notice that the Funimation rep said they were interested in all of the titles including ones with pink-haired girls. I am glad to hear they are looking into getting Utena because I would certainly buy it again they they cleaned up the video from the mediocre job CPM did on the first 13 episodes.

After all this, somehow most every blogger we knew (and a few we hadn’t met yet!) came together to get some much needed grub. This ended up being perfect timing because a good portion of the con attendees were at the masquerade. After a game of musical cars we were all seated at the Ruby Tuesday’s a couple of minutes away. The table was large and you could essentially talk to everyone. I was sitting nearest to Carl, Brad from Japanator, Ko, Moy from 11-15% suki, and Super Rats from Happy Soda. Dinner was good, the place serves endless fries! Conversations were varied and laughter was plentiful. These dinners are really becoming one of the things I look forward to most at conventions.

The dinner round table was definitely one of the highlights on the convention. It is a nice chance to speak with people outside of the hectic environment of the con. It worked better than the dinner at NYAF because I got a much better chance to speak to everyone as opposed to speaking to a small group of people like the last time. I loved talking with the people at my table at NYAF but I was essentially cut off from the other 2/3 of the bloggers. Though I was seated closer to Omo from Omonomono, Trish from AnimeNEXT, Scott from Anime Alamanac, and Brad. Dinner with good conversation is always very nice. This time around, dinner topics ranged from anime to politics and everything in-between. I had a delicious buffalo burger and, of course, endless fries.

I’m pretty sure I experienced my first Bad Anime, Bad! panel at an AnimeNEXT a couple of years ago. It has certainly become popular, though I also wonder if that is because it was a little earlier than normal. Anyway, this time was solely devoted to the monstrosity known as Dracula Sovereign of the Damned which was brought over and dubbed by Harmony Gold so you can imagine where this is going. I had only seen pieces of this previously and admittedly he still cut parts during this showing as well. I can now see why it needed to be seen. Not only is the story bad, the dialogue is incredibly inept, and the voice acting even worse. It is one hilarious moment after the other and just when you think it can’t get worse it has . . . an explosive ending let’s say. It’s a show you don’t care about spoilers for but it just wouldn’t be as funny unless you see it for yourself!

After dinner I made the very poor choice of going to the As the Otaku Grows panel. I have gone to panels that I felt could use some polish but I had never been to a panel that was worthless. Until this panel. It was essentially what if Paul “Otaking” Johnson ran a panel about 90′s anime instead of 80′s anime. He basically ran a panel about why 90′s anime is the best ever and everything else is garbage. I had to leave the panel halfway through. It’s not the fact that he loved 90′s anime so much. Everyone is entitled to have a favorite time period in anime history. But I won’t stand for people saying that everything else is worthless. There are great, mediocre, and horrible anime from every time period and saying otherwise is both ignorant and closed-minded. The scary part was the audience mainly seemed to be agreeing with him! I wanted to stay and argue but I decided against it and just had fun elsewhere.

On the morning of our last day we finished off the last bit of food I had brought along. Yes, that is right, my con survival talking about how to save your pennies on food for the weekend in practice right here ladies and gents! In any case, my load was still pretty heavy thanks to a couple of purchases as well as some free books I had acquired. Checking out was also painless thank goodness. We headed over the con about a hour or so before the first panel began. This is a rather magical time that is kind of frighteningly quiet. We also took this time to get refunds for our badges since we were press. I also took this time to take one last look around the Artist Alley. It had a decent turn out this year with talent ranging from fan-art to crafts. I picked up a button of Kanda from D.Gray Man and contemplated a nice print of Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle but decided against it.

Sunday started with an apple and cupcakes which is another power breakfast. I then attended the History of Manga panel. After some technical difficulty the panelist launched into his lecture. It was a good overview of the history of manga in America. He hit all the high and low points and it was very good for the amount of time that he had. I did notice he had a bit of more of an emphasis on OEL manga than I assumed he would have but it is not as if he neglected anything so I was fine. It was just an unusual choice. As Ko said you could tell he was an old school fan due to his obvious interest in furry titles like Fred Perry’s Gold Digger. Still it was an informative panel and a great introduction to how far manga has come in the U.S. The next panel was Otaku Perceptions and Misconceptions. The panel started late as the members rushed to get to the room. The idea was interesting. It was panel about what how anime and manga fandom feels about itself and how does it think that other people perceive it. They seemed to have a list of topics they wanted to talk about but since it was a discussion panel with the audience their speaking points quickly got cast by the way side as the audience took over at many points. Still it was an interesting panel as I always like to see fandom’s views about itself.

Even with some crazy scheduling changes the Anime Blogging Basics panel ended up being our last event of the convention. Unfortunately with a sudden time change and room change the panel mostly consisted of other bloggers. Besides Carl, the panel was Omo from Omonomono, Moy from 11-15% suki, and Super Rats from Happy Soda. These guys put together a good outline and all seemed to work quite differently with different philosophies about blogging. It was a pretty relaxed atmosphere for the most part. I think handouts would help for anyone who was actually wanting to get tips on starting to blog. Hisui also swooped in to ask some hard hitting questions!

The dealers room was nice but I am bit on a budget so decided that I was only going to look for two things. The only way I would buy anything else is if it so shocked me I had to buy it. I was looking for a model kit of the RX-78-2 Gundam or Nu Gundam and the Jun Planning version of the Maria figure from Hayate the Combat Butler. I never saw the Maria figure but I did stumble upon a prefect grade original Gundam. I was informed that it has light up eyes and I am merely a mortal so it was not easy to resist that siren’s call. But I eventually decided to wait for Otakon. There I will most probably get some form of Amuro’s Gundam. There was a bunch of nice stuff but nothing worth splurging on. I almost bought a Mylene pencil board for Mylene’s fan #1 but at $12 I decided against it. But I partially blame my mad net skills on that fact. 

The dealer’s room seemed larger than last year which is certainly a plus. There was also much more room to maneuver around making Saturday even pretty decent to go into the fray. Since I have a strategy when going in, it makes things less chaotic and makes me seem less like a maniac with no worries about money. I needed up with just a couple of purchases most happily is the one pictured above. When they guy was willing to go down to $10 I was in! But most dealer’s were not making deals, very sad times. I wanted to walk away with Athrun’s Aegis 1/100 scale but no dice. I also saw a decent amount of people selling doujinshi which keeps increasing every year it seems. Also I barely resisted getting some Record of Lodoss War pencil boards since I had never seen them they snuck up on me! As usual the dealer’s room is not my priority at cons but this one was manageable enough to be worth exploring.

AnimeNEXT is like spaghetti with plain sauce when there is no solid Japanese guest. It is satisfying but you feel like something major is missing. So just as a meatball would make the meal complete, likewise a Japanese guest would have rounded out this con. I like AnimeNEXT but I’m not sure I would go next year because it has shifted from being a New York City/New Jersey convention to being a New Jersey convention. The old convention site was super convenient to get to from New York City and there was no reason to have to stay overnight. Being so convenient, there was no reason not to go AnimeNEXT. Now that it is harder to get to, I am no longer 100% locked into going again. I will only go if two things change: if they move the convention back to the old site or if they have a have a decent Japanese guest. Otherwise I might as well spend a little extra and go to Anime Boston instead. AnimeNEXT is an excellent New Jersey convention but if I am going to an out of state convention I want more bang for my buck.

Once again AnimeNEXT proves that some of the best parts of conventions are the fan run panels and the people that you meet. Unfortunately, that is just not enough this time around. I have to agree with Hisui, this location is not New York City friendly mainly because the convention itself is not close to the train station. The train ride is a mere hour but then you have to get to the con. While the shuttle was super plush it just wasn’t running often enough for me to do it three days in a row. Also the location has very little food close by. Really this is a con for people with a car. And thanks to that fact I have to assume their attendance was down this year. I like NEXT, I always have a good time, and I want to go back but not if I have to stay in a hotel.

Top 5 panels I would like to attend (These might exists but I don’t see them enough)
5. The Hidden World of Light Novels
4. Secret Shopper: A Guide to the Best Otaku Stores in Japan
3. I Don’t Know These Characters: The Best Original Concept Doujinshi
2. More Than Just Option #3: JAM IT IN! – A Beginner’s Guide Visual Novels
1. You Have to Get This: A Guide to the Most Awesome and Wackiest Anime Merchandise

If you are willing to experience them, there are benefits to every size of convention. Castle Point Anime Convention is a small college con in New Jersey at the Stevens Institute of Technology. It was a Sunday only event from 10AM to 7PM with a MC Frontalot concert after.  I was invited to participate in a panel by Evan from Ani-Gamers. It’s not that hard to get to from New York City so I was only too delighted to help out while having a Sunday activity at the same time.

I started my short trip with the NYC subway to the PATH Train. After that it was only a few blocks to the campus which was very convenient. There was a on and off drizzle the whole day so not having to brave the elements too long was greatly appreciated. The path I took to the college due to me remembering the map oddly threw me off a bit so it took me more time to find registration. I got my ticket then ran into Evan on my way to the Otaku History panel. Otaku History was run by Walter Amos and Rob Fenelon. It reminded me of what they said during their guest spot on Anime World Order but there is always something new to say. They went over how anime fandom started in America and how is has grown and changed. Most of the focus was on the earliest days since those are what most people don’t know about. They had some cool old American anime fanzines and I learned the origin of incredibly long and descriptive anime titles.

Next up was our panel about how to start your own blog and/or podcast. At first it was just me and Evan. Ink Adam aka DJ Ranma S from Anime Jam Session came a little later but made a big splash when he arrived. Ink was dressed at as the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight from the Tick. There were not a lot of people and most of the people who showed were friends of one of the panelists. But it was Evan’s first panel so it was rather relaxed which is always nice. If anything we had a a little too much material so we did not do any Q&A. We hit all the most important points and I felt we were informative and entertaining. It was somewhat unpolished but that was my fault for not trying to organize a run through over Skype. Still Evan’s notes from the group Google Doc were well done so all we really had to do was expand. I rambled on a bit like I usually do whenever I am nervous. If any readers came, I would love to hear what could be improved on for next time.

Next was These Are a Few Of Our Favorite Scenes with Robert and Mike again. It was essentially I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! panel with clips. It was two hours long but they played fairly longs scenes to give you a good idea of the show they were selling you on. It was a good mix with new shows like X’amd and Heroic Age and old ones like CB Chara Nagai Go World and Space Battleship Yamato. There was distinct bias towards space opera but they did not try to hide it. They mentioned they made sure that all the titles were fairly easy to find. They used to play much more obscure stuff but then no one could find it. They also played some good non-anime titles, they seemed cool as well. Apparently the panel was originally going to be a panel about strong female princesses that had actual leadership roles titled Anime Princesses Rule, Disney Princesses Drool. However, they did not get a key DVD in time to make it. After the panel we all went into the hallway and had a grand ole roundtable. Got to hear some good stories and participate in some intelligent conversations.

As our conversation wound down Evan and I went to lunch. I twisted his arm into going to Five Guys Burgers mostly because I was interested in trying them after hearing about the chain from Dave and Joel. Just like they said it was satisfying but not spectacular. We talked about this and that. I might have talked his ear off a bit too much about Gundam but I am sort of on a kick.  After that we went to the dealer’s room. It was a small affair but for a one day convention it was decently stocked. I picked up a very nice Ryogi Shiki I had had my eye on for a while at 10% off. I almost got a Caren Ortensia figure but I kept myself in check. Evan picked up the Metropolis manga and a random volume of Astro Boy for ten dollars so it was a good trip all in all.

I finished off the day by attending the Gundam panel. It was by the same crew that ran the panel at New York Anime Festival 2008. It was essentially the same. Apparently they had plans to update the panel but time constraints prevented them from doing so. Still they are an entertaining bunch so it was a good time. The trivia section made me realize one thing: Even after watching a good deal of Gundam I will never be the type of person to memorize serial numbers. I then started my trek home and picked up some ice cream on the way.

Overall, it was an enjoyable little con. The major advantage of a small con like this was you could talk to everyone at the con if you were motivated to do so. This would be impossible to do even at a mid-sized con. This tends to give smaller cons a sense of community and comradeship. There were also several panels I did not get to attend which is always nice as it proves there was a good selection of things to do. I wish I had seen the translation panel, the obscure manga panel, and the Gundam customization workshop. Hopefully they will be run again at another con I attend. The convention was well run as I never ran into any major problems. A convention like Castle Point will never get a big name Japanese guest but you don’t go to a convention like Castle Point for that. You come for a little gathering of friends around your mutual interest in anime and manga and hopefully to discover someone or something interesting as well. Castle Point successfully provided that environment.

Having a few free vacation days I decided to check out the ICv2 conference on Thursday before the NYCC proper. Since I was going to NYCC as press, ICv2 was allowing those same people into their conference for free. Two major themes popped up again and again. One was obviously the economy and the other was how the internet is affecting comics.

Every panel touched on the economy and its ramifications on comics without fail. It was an unavoidable cloud over the whole conference. Everyone mentioned that while the entertainment business is often thought of as recession proof, it is anything but. No one was telling tales of apocalyptic visions but it seems like everyone was bracing for impact. The assumption is that best-selling titles will see little to no drawback but everything that is not A-list will be hit hard. Smaller publishers could be in trouble and small titles might start dropping like flies. Everyone also expects to see a lot less experimentation this year.

The other major theme was how was the Internet is going to affect the comic industry. Everyone agreed that it is was an excellent tool for promoting comic sales, getting out information, and developing comic communities. However, everyone also agreed that they need to develop a greater Internet presence. The major problem is still not having fully figured out how to use unique features of the Internet. No one has successfully created a way of selling comics for download and companies have yet to truly realize the potential of web exclusive content. If there was a universal portable book reader this would change quickly but so far the iPod of book-readers has not appeared yet.

I noticed two major things on the manga side of the equation. The first was the big news that everyone has been taking about. The manga bubble has clearly burst. Manga sales were down approximately 17% in 2008. Despite the fact that most companies kept insisting that the growth would only level out it has in fact gone down. I predict we are going to see a bunch of manga companies disappear in the next couple of years. Those who stay around are going to start to being more conservative about their licenses. Unless they are VIZ and have crazy amounts of Naruto money to back up their lesser titles. Another thing I noticed was an increasing amount of resentment for scanlations within the manga industry. This struck me because I feel the anime industry did the same exact thing. They started out seeing fan-subs as a necessary evil. People were using them to watch stuff for free but it gave the companies a good idea of what to license and was publicity for the commercial product. But as time went on and fan-subs improved, anime companies began to take an increasingly negative view of them. The same thing is starting to happen with fan-scans. While they are different industries and there are different factors that weigh into their markets, I am sure that we will see an increased number of people in the manga industry complaining and possibly going after fan-scans sites.

The highlight of ICv2 was Art Spiegelman’s keynote address. He is obviously a very knowledgeable man and his lecture of the history of comics was both fascinating and well researched. He starts with the earliest proto-comics and works his way to the present while hitting most of the major milestones including the popularity of newspaper comics, the Comics Code Authority, the rise of manga, all the way to web-comics and the Internet. He examined the unique nature of comics as an art style and means of expression with its own language. He was a little too insistent in a comic equivalent of the Auteur theory. He seemed to push the theory that all the great works are produced by individual artists over long periods of time. I think that is a narrow perspective. I can’t say I agreed with everything he said but it was a well informed opinion from an expert in the field. Heck, he even knew what yaoi was.

If anything was obvious from this conference it was that 2009 will be an important year for comics in general but manga specifically. A bad economy, an increase in pirated materials, and the challenges of adapting comics to new media are all important issues. I am sure that we will see the death or shrinking of several manga companies this year. I also see many B and C-list manga titles being dropped, put on slower release schedules, or put on hiatus. These are not really radical predictions. It is obvious that these things are going to occur just by looking at 2008. But every year has major challenges that have to be overcome. I am curious to see which companies are going to rise to the challenge and which are going to fall behind.

Narutaki and Hisui’s schedule

Thursday
ICv2 Conference
Pre-Con Party at Dave and Buster’s

Friday
NYCC Focus Group
News Flash Teen Girls Read Manga Panel
Teaching Comics Panel
MARVEL: X-Men Panel
The Business of Web Comics! LIVE!
MARVEL: Dark Reign Panel
Batman: The Brave and The Bold
Vertical Publishing Panel
Yatterman Premiere
Wonder Woman Premiere

Saturday
How Not to Break into Comics
Del Rey Manga Panel
Gabe and Tycho Spotlight Panel
MARVEL: Cup o’ Joe Panel
Yen Press Panel
Robot Chicken Panel
FUNimation Panel
Men Are From Kyrpton, Women Are From Paradise Island Panel
The Venture Bros. Panel
Bloggers Dinner

Sunday
VIZ Media Panel
Scott Pilgrim vs. The Panel!
Mondo MARVEL: 70th Anniversary Special Panel

So with 18 guests of honor (J. Michael Straczynski and Grant Morrison had to drop out), 6 living legends, 7 special guests, 32 featured guests, 79 artists and writers, 31 literary guests, 7 anime and manga guests, and 8 performance guests, plus dozens of premieres and sneak peeks for movies, video games, books, comics, cartoons, and TV shows. There had to be something for any type of nerd at NYCC 2009. Narutaki and I practically attended two different cons for the amount that we crossed paths. And we didn’t cover half of what was offered at the convention. In many ways it is the clearest example you can find of how our taste may vary when it comes to things outside of anime and manga.

Good lord, NYCC you never cease to wonder a person. The guest list was insane as proven by the statics mentioned above. The amount of panels to go to was overwhelming creating endless schedule conflicts as you are pulled in three directions at once. This was made twice as difficult because no one seemed to have the chart/grid of all the panels. Apparently there was one, no one we met ever saw it. It was also amusing how other bloggers seemed to only see one of us each day. No one could find me on Friday, likewise Saturday Hisui was missing till the end. Not only was there a ton to see and do there was also a huge amount of bloggers and friends to pal around with for the entire length of the con and after!

So my co-worker and me practically ran out of work to get to the Pre-Con party because they were giving away swag if you were one of the first 200 in. This ended up being mostly nothing worth having. Though I did keep the Ultimate Spider-Man 100 Project which has a ton of pics drawn by lots of artists. I was hoping Dave and Buster’s would have more Comic Con related stuff and atleast a discount on game credits! But we made our own fun. I played 88 games of skeeball and gave all the tickets to kids randomly. We bailed pretty early and went to dinner. My co-worker did get to speak with Joe Quesada for a minute though!

I was barely at the Dave and Buster’s party. It was just a good place to meet up with people after the ICv2 conference. I met with Scott of Anime Almanac and Dave of Subatomic Brainfreeze. I didn’t really spend any money at the arcade but I guess I am one of the reasons they are dying in America. Then again the Deal or No Deal game is not something that particularly makes me want to spend my money anyway. From what I understand the food at D&B’s is hideously overpriced and merely okay so we went to the nearly empty Applebee’s downstairs. I finally learned of Dave’s opinion of Type-Moon which made the whole convention a success. It was a good warm up for the upcoming convention.

I started the convention proper by attending the News Flash Teen Girls Read Manga Panel. It was a well run and Brigid Alverson from the Manga Blog was part of it. I did not learn anything new but it was a panel for librarians and store owners to learn about manga and its appeal to girls. All the panelists were quite knowledgeable and the panel was well run. The Teaching Comics Panel was putting me to sleep. It was basically was a panel for teachers and how they could teach language and theory behind making comics in their class. The high point was an exercise at the end: they had everyone draw one panel and then tried to make a complete comic out of it. Being interactive it woke me up to participate.

I came to the convention after the professionals panels (I worked a half day). I was sad to miss those few special hours but I took advantage of the early entrance into the exhibitors hall when I got there. It was certainly the most calm time for the convention. I always look forward to Marvel panels, they are always a good time. Luckily my first panel of the con was X-Men. It was amazing seeing so many creators up there at once, not the least of which were Chris Claremont, living legend himself, and current Uncanny writer Matt Fraction. They talked quite a bit about the upcoming Messiah War. They also hinted around at a lot of things like the new mutant child named Hope. And she has red hair and green eyes, don’t draw conclusions. . . but draw conclusions! Looks to be an exciting time to be an X-Men reader. A couple of hilarious moments occurred, as per usual. A guy stood up and asked Matt Fraction why he refused his friend request on about Xbox Live. Everyone was cracking up till we realized the guy was actually serious! Also a guy asked about Scarlet Witch, Jim McCann told him to ask at the next panel where Dan Slott would be. This seemed reasonable enough but the guy walked out and yelled “coward!” This then became a running joke at all the Marvel panels for the con.

I decided to pop into The Business of Web Comics! LIVE! panel with Scott Kurtz and Robert Khoo. It was interesting to see under the hood of how big name web-comics make their money. It was a great panel if you wanted to draw your own web comic and hopefully make money off it one day. Robert Khoo lent the panel a serious and professional quality whereas Scott Kurtz make the panel entertaining and quite funny. Both had good insights for the audience. Scott Kurtz mentioned that most professional comic artists seem mystified by the concept of putting up their work for free then making money on merchandise only.

The Marvel fun just never stops! The Dark Reign panel was awesome. Probably my favorite comic writer now is Brain Michael Bendis so I was ready to here about all the coming plans for this crazy twist. Certainly keeping a lot under their hats but they love throwing out hints to get people all excited. One guy in the audience was going on and on about how Doctor Doom would never take a backseat to Norman Osborn. Doctor Doom then became the default answer for everything in the panel. Of course there is always one guy who stands up to say how much he DOESN’T like what is going on, as if the rest of us agree with him? Joe Quesada is really great at taking the wind out of their sails. He basically says, our sales are better when big events are going on, if people weren’t buying them believe me we wouldn’t be doing them. And that was that. In other great news, they are doing Dark Young Avengers!

I then went to the Batman: Brave and the Bold Panel. Since I don’t have cable at my apartment I was sadly unaware of this show which is a shame because it seems to be rather awesome. Batman teaming up with a variety of other superheros it seems to have a good amount of Batman style and action while retaining a tongue in cheek sense of humor. They really sold me on Aquaman. I think the line, “He thinks he is an awesome hero and does not realize you all think he is lame” really sold me. They then played a rather cool episode had Batman go to an alternate Earth where all the heroes were villains and all the villains where heroes. When the leader of this alternate Earth’s heroes is the Red Hood you know you have a Comic Con episode.

The Vertical panel and my first industry panel of the convention started off slightly depressing. They have very few books coming out in the next year and only four of which are manga, all Black Jack. They talked about some of their crafting series and about how the word “cute” in the title helps them sell better. I think proposed they start calling it Cute Black Jack. Luckily there was a bright spot, apparently they are getting new investment and teaming with a Japanese publisher who they have yet to reveal. I also asked about more Shinjuku Shark novels. They said they will at least do the third book but would like to do all ten. At the end they gave away signed copies of To Terra . . . by Keiko Takemiya! I didn’t win one and I was really jealous!

I attended the first half of the Vertical panel but I wanted to make sure I got to the Yatterman premiere on time. There I met up with Scott of Anime Almanac, Gia of Anime Vice, and John of Japanator. We had a nice conversation about various things including Kaiba. The audience that was not press seemed to be mostly made up of crazy Sho Sakurai fan-girls. This was made painfully obvious because anytime anything Sho related was mentioned or appeared on the screen the audience went nuts. The squeals when Yatterman No.1 kissed anyone was simply amazing. The movie itself felt like a Stephen Chow movie. It had that same mix of goofy comedy and over the top action that made it feel like a live action cartoon in every sense of the word. I think that Stephen Chow does it better but overall I enjoyed Yatterman. You just can’t go in expecting Ichi the Killer. It’s a dumb movie but it never wants to be anything else. I am sure Yatterman fans are going to get more out of it. There was some question and answer after the panel with Sho Sakurai and Takashi Miike.

My last excursion of the night was the Wonder Woman premiere. My friend and I also caught the last few minutes of the Futurama movie before it. It seemed reasonably funny. As we waiting, the IGN theater showed a bunch of looks at things on the screens like at a regular movie theater. We saw a first look at the G.I. Joe movie which will probably be awful. They also mention how they were really making it diverse but I saw about 80 white people in it and one black guy and one Korean guy so whatever. Apparently Cobra Commander won’t be in it?! We also saw some stuff about the upcoming Chun-li movie which looks worse than the G.I. Joe one. All the fights they showed where in the shadows probably because this girl playing Chun-li can’t fight worth a damn. Anyway, the Wonder Woman movie was really great! D.C. has really done some great animated productions over the years and this ranks up there with them. There was some adult humor and was more violent than I expected! Bruce Timm along with the director and writer did a Q & A after the showing. He said he thought this was the best yet, even better than Mask of the Phantasm. NO WAY, but it was still really good.

Saturday was my big day so there was quite a bit to do. I started with the How Not to Break into Comics panel. I was hoping it was going to have a lot of funny stories. It definitely had some good ones but it was mostly a very serious look at how to try to get a job in the comics industry. Apparently people constantly don’t put any contact information on their submission making getting back to them impossible. A very useful panel for anyone who is serious about doing their pitch right.

Bandai is going to be okay people! They are going to be doing a lot more online, including having Code Geass and Gundam 00 available. Also they picked up the Gundam 00 manga and novel! YAY! I am hoping they do similar packaging with Gundam 00 as they did with Code Geass with including manga in the awesome box. Looks like Hayate the Combat Butler will be released subbed only in 13 episode boxes. This seems like a smart move, plenty of fans wanting to pick that up but not enough to go through dubbing it. I’m sure they will have a few more announcements coming this year, all of them good.

Like many east coast residents I have never had to good fortune to get out to PAX so it was really awesome to be able to Tycho and Gabe at NYCC. You definitely see where the characters in the comics come from when they talk. I found it amusing that Gabe would constantly pick people from the audience to ask questions and Tycho would have to force Gabe to stop and let him pick someone from the audience on occasion. They were very personable and entertaining and had an excellent chemistry with each other and the crowd.  It also started the trend for Saturday, every panel I attended was standing room only.

Attended Del Rey panel with a good portion of the anime/manga blogging crew. They mentioned doing some “manga” versions of X-Men at NYAF 2008. But what I saw was quite unexpected. Emo-boy/Bishonen Wolverine? Turning X-Men into a reverse harem romance comedy? It just seems like a strange way to approach things. Wolverine is rather beloved. Oh, and he is a totally crazy, deadly, bad-ass. It was really off putting. The same goes for the X-Men story. While I like Kitty Pryde, as do all, and am glad to see her staring, this wasn’t what I had in mind. One of the great things about X-Men is their strong female cast which was mentioned in this panel. I asked about the decision to then exclude most of them in favor of this school comedy bit. It was basically like “well this is just what we decided to do.” I am clearly bias and not the target audience but come on!

I barely got into the Robot Chicken panel due to a good deal of madness. It was the least organized of all the lines I saw. Staff pulled the press out of the line to get us in, then security refused to let us. I eventually got in but had to stand along the wall after one of the other press guys pulled out an class-A ability to complain politely but loudly. It was worth it. The main question and answer consisted of Seth Green talking about everything with backup from Robot Chicken crew and the Cartoon Network representative trying reign things in. Seth answered all the question (other than being super precise about their budget) but once he started talking there was almost no stopping him. He told a hysterical story about dressing up as Spider-Man at San Diego Comic Con. It turned out that he received just as much attention as Spider-Man as he did without the costume. There was also a amusing story about how they bought a vintage Batmobile off eBay and the woman who sold it to them wrote them a letter about how glad she was it was going to a good home. They tried their best to use the car without damaging it but wound up having to trash it beyond all recognition. I also loved the Star Wars joke they could not use for the show. After the Q&A it took about five minutes to get Seth to stop talking so they could play a ten minute clip. I only watch Robot Chicken on DVD so I am not sure how much of it was new stuff and how much of it has already been on TV. It was definitely worth the hassle of getting in.

One of the key things that has made Marvel a fan favorite in recent years is their off the cuff interactions with fans. So one of the highlights of every convention, for Marvel fans, is the Cup o’ Joe panel with head man himself, Joe Quesada (and usually a few guests along). It is essentially just a panel to ask questions to Joe about anything comics related. This time around he had Jim McCann, Brian Michael Bendis, C.B. Cebulski, and Marvel’s publishing director with him to help out. There were actually a lot of questions directed at Bendis which is no surprise with Dark Reign in effect. Some memorable moments included a woman dressed as Black Cat, very well done, asking when she will get her own comic; a semi lengthy discussion about the rising price of single issue comics; and me telling stories about other Marvel panels with the guys sitting next to me.

Men Are From Kyrpton, Women Are From Paradise Island Panel was packed which for some reason surprised me. There was hardly a free seat in the room. I was tempted to go to the Dr. Who panel because hey, it’s Dr. Who but I was curious to see an analysis of gender in comics. The discussion was lively and the panelist did broaden the discussion as race and homosexuality started to come up. It was all interesting and the moderator let people go off on related tangents while making sure that everyone got back to the topic at hand. I really wanted to state that it’s important to keep in mind you can’t force sensitivity or diversity into a story. If people want stories about females, minorities, or gay characters you can request that they do so and hope that someone listens. If you force people to do it then the stories will come out as disingenuous and be horrible. The best solution is for people who really care to go out and write those stories themselves but not everyone has the time or ability to do so. It can be frustrating to not see the topics you want  addressed in a sensitive and entertaining manner. I am not sure what to say other than people have to be patient but politely vocal. Though I was unable to express this to the panelist because everyone was so engrossed.

So, so much anime and manga industry stuff on Saturday. Next up was Yen Press. Everyone was excited to see they grabbed Yotsuba&! People couldn’t be happier! Though the surprise was kind of spoiled by a flaky PowerPoint presentation. They gave books galore and it got a bit crazy. This also explained why when most industry panels and empty this one was packed. Soul Eater was clearly the crowd favorite, unfortunately for me and great for Yen Press. Funimation was right after that. I liked the new Funi media player plus they are getting a lot more series online for free. I am yet to check it out since but I plan to. They showed a lot of trailers and two dudes behind us were so annoying and loud yelling DBZ and Afro Samurai the entire time. I had a major headache after that. I also found it amusing that when people realized there would be no free stuff the room emptied fast before the panel was over.

I finished of Saturday with the Venture Brothers panel. It did not have as many panelists as last year but it was still fun. I came in just before it started so I had to sit all the way in the back. It was actually great because everyone just sat on top on their chairs to get a better view. Since they did not yet have a trailer for the fourth season, they played some deleted scenes from the third. The rest of the panel was Q&A. They kept bringing up that they killed number 24 but in their defense so did the audience. I enjoyed Doc Hammer and Jackson Public saying they were going to make sure to keep the murderous moppets around just because they were universally hated. The same Triana cosplayer that made such a big splash last year showed up again and invited the cast to have coffee with her. This of course set everyone on the panel and the audience off like nobodies business. And speaking of Triana the inevitable topic of the inexplicably popular friend Kim came up. The panelist all but said they would make sure she never came back just because people keep asking for her. I really hope they do the panel again next year because it is always one of the highlights.

My last panel was industry related, as a lot of Saturday was given to. CMX did a great job. I love this company anyway and they are truly one of the under appreciated manga publishers out there. They do a lot of good smaller manga, more obscure stuff. They did announce anything new but we got to see covers and interiors for upcoming releases. One was a mecha series that looked cool called Broken Blade! I asked them about the marketing strategy of releasing different series by the same author simultaneously rather than one after the other. It was as I hoped, they are trying to build a fan-base for the manga-ka. Also they hope you don’t feel like there is too long a break between titles if you are reading my series by the same manga-ka. I like this a lot and it does seem to help name recognition. They also seemed receptive to my and Kohaku’s opinion on some licenses, like Yoroshiku Master (which was my manga of the month recently!). This panel also became the unofficial gathering place for all the bloggers going to dinner.

I met up with everyone after the Venture Brother Panel. It took a bit of herding but we got everyone to go to dinner. At final count we had a group of 15 and had to be  separated into three groups. I was seated with Gia and John along with my old friend Eric. Gia and John were nice conversation. I was interested to find that John liked Diebuster more than Gunbuster despite seeing Gunbuster first. That is almost never the case although he made a convincing argument about the themes of Diebuster being more relevant to him. After dinner I went with Dave from Colony Drop and Carl from Ogiue Maniax to karaoke with some anime podcasters. It was awesome seeing Erin and Noah again and no one can ever get too much David Riley. Ed Chavez did an awesome rendition of Metamorphoze by Gackt. Seeing Dave and Carl back to back singing giant robot openings was quite awe inspiring especially King Gainer Over!. I was also quite happy that Carl did Century Color from Turn A Gundam. Mike Toole showed up later on to kick it up a notch. I was happy finally be able to sing karaoke with people who were not all gods but merely mortal men. It made me much more comfortable. I myself got home around 5 in the morning.

The bloggers dinner, as we are calling it, was definitely a highlight of the convention. Some of the people in attendance I had only just met at the con. There were also a few that I have hung out with before, and of course good friends too. After we split into our booths all after each other, I was with Kohaku, Carl, Dave, and Evan of Ani-Gamers. This led to many amusing discussions (and the showing of video clips when Dave’s phone felt like working). On the menu for talking was creepy teachers, never drinking Snapple again, giant robots, and Segata Sanshiro. At one point we heard what sounded like a intelligent conversation going on behind us but then we promptly put it out of our minds. I had a blast, laughed a lot, and ate a yummy cheeseburger. I took part of it home but then forgot to refrigerate it, I was rather sad about that. I went home early with Kohaku and Eric in toe.

I really only went to two panels on Sunday. I went to the VIZ panel with everyone else. The there were two big topics and several smaller announcements. First they talked more about Japanese science-fiction line. It seems to have a wide variety in the first four titles upcoming. This could open up new avenues for VIZ and anime fans if these do well. The big announcement was the licensing of Rumiko Takahashi’s new manga. As far as I can tell they licensed her new manga sight unseen. Rumiko Takahashi equals money no matter what she does. I am very curious what it is going to be about. Also it seems that this will be an almost simultaneous U.S.-Japanese release if they want it to be. I am curious how simultaneous the release will be.

What most excited me at the VIZ panel was the announcement for the Natsume Yuujinchou manga. If you have been keeping up with my ongoing investigations, I have a gushed about this series a few times. After this, Evan corralled a few of us and we headed to the press room to do a podcast for Ani-Gamers about the convention. On the way there we must have been yelled at five times for allegedly trying to cut the Joss Whedon line. Podcasting ensued with the likes of yours truly, Hisui, Scott of Anime Almanac, his friend Greg, Brigid of Manga Blog, and of course Evan himself. The conversation was lively and fluid covering topics like crowds, licenses, Yatterman and state of the industry. Go take a listen!

I then went to the Scott Pilgrim panel. I have heard quite a few good reviews of the series so I was interested to hear the author speak. Most of the audience wanted to hear about the upcoming movie but Bryan Lee O’Malley could not really say anything more than what was on the Internet. I have to say comics like Scott Pilgrim are OEL done right. American artists should take their interest in manga and let it influence their  art and their storytelling but not try to adapt the “manga style” wholesale. I can’t say the panel made me want to rush out and buy Scott Pilgrim but I will probably pick it up the next time I see it.

My final Marvel panel of the con was Mondo Marvel. It had a good number of writers and artists there. About 14 in all plus Seth Meyers and Bill Hader from SNL showed up much to the surprise of the audience. They are doing a one shot Spider-Man story called the Short Halloween. The crowd chuckled at the name in a knowing fashion which lead to Seth and Bill making the comment that this was the only crowd that would get that joke (if you have no idea what I’m talking about, there is a famous Batman story called the Long Halloween). They kind of stole the spotlight, unsurprisingly. One other cool announcement was The Marvels, it is will be taking us back to the origin of origins, the Marvel universe itself. We know certain characters came from experiments, accidents, etc. but we are going to get a look at how those organizations that caused these things came to be. Sounds like a really interesting project.

Sunday I finally got to spending some cash in the dealer’s room. I bought five Revoltech figures since it was buy three, get two free and there were only 20 dollars each. I got an Ingram, King Gainer, Gurren Lagann, Yotsuba, and Dark Saber. I was a little sad they did not have Revy but that was not unexpected. I almost got the two Valkyries but decided to have some restraint. I also went to the Yen Press both as they were giving away manga but it had been mostly picked clean. I got a copy of Black God three but not one or two.

The Exhibitors hall as always was giving away some free stuff, but seemed like less than last year. I did get a copy of the first issue and a poster of Watchmen which was cool. Sunday was the first time I set foot in artist alley and it was great! Comic cons version of this is a little different because there are actually famous comic artists and writers sitting right there! There are also amateurs, too. We saw Ryu Moto (who we have interviewed) and talked with him for a few minutes. He seemed really impressed with the convention as well. I happened by the Jim Lee booth and he was actually there! The line was also fairly short, what luck! If I had come by ten minutes later he would have been gone. I got two signatures plus he took a photo with me! This man started my love for American comics, it was a really amazing way to top of the convention.

After the con we met up with some friends. We went down to Kinokuniya and Book Off. I did not spend any money but I came very close to buying the new Kido Senshi Gundam-san manga. Mostly because it has Sayla on the cover but also because it looks funny. I learned about Blaster Knuckle and Jesus manga from Dave. Both of them seem like epically horrible, but therefore enjoyable, manga. Blaster Knuckle is about a African American in the south who has to fight flesh-eating KKK members with magical brass knuckles. I can’t casually find anything about the Jesus manga I saw at Bookoff but it was about an assassin codenamed Jesus. There is a manga called Jesus about the biblical Jesus, a romantic comedy called Jesus!, as well as another romantic comedy called Jesus Christ that was in Bessatsu Friend. I was dead tired by the end of it.

I think many of us were reluctant to have the convention end! So meeting up right after we were being kicked out seemed like a way to prolong the inevitable. And a good number of us spent even more money that we didn’t have! But really, Bookoff was having a sale, how could I resist? I was also lucky to make it out of Kinokuniya with any money at all considering Gackt was in three magazine this month. I only bought one, sigh. At about seven or so we parted ways and the magic was over. Leaving a con is like having been in another dimension for three days then coming back to reality. I came out of this con with great deals, hilarious stories, and some new friends. Overall it was one of the best, and best run, conventions I have ever been to. Next year I expect great things but I have to wonder if they can top my experience this year.

I don’t think I have ever been to a convention that was so jam packed with stuff to do. I really regret not being able to go to more anime and manga panels but that is what anime conventions are for. I wish I had been able to see Joss Whedon but I did not feel like hacking through the crowd to hear him talk on Sunday. I also regret not being able to see the Dr. Who panel but such is life. There were just so many to events attend!  There were dozens of minor problems but overall I had a blast. My greatest criticism is that next year it may be almost impossible for them to duplicate the sheer amount of things as they did this time around. NYCC is clearly become a force to rival San Diego. I am curious how the date change for NYCC 2010 will effect things but we shall cross that bridge when we get to it.

Top 5 Anime songs that must be sung at karaoke
5. Tobe! Gundam by Koh Ikeda
4. Cha-La Head-Cha-La by Hironobu Kageyama
3. Rinbu Revolution by Masami Okui
2. Yuusha-oh Tanjou! by Masaaki Endo
1. Ai wo Torimodose by Crystal King

Posted in Conventions, Events Tagged: anime industry, bloggers, fan community, fans on fans, manga industry, New York Comic Con, panels, press, Sho Sakurai, Takashi Miike, Yatterman ]]> http://reversethieves.com/2009/02/16/new-york-comic-con-2009/feed/ 6 reversethieves http://reversethieves.com/2008/07/03/animenext-2008/ http://reversethieves.com/2008/07/03/animenext-2008/#comments Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:29:13 +0000 reversethieves http://www.reversethieves.com/?p=104 ]]>

Hisui and Narutaki’s Saturday Schedule

New York Anime Festival Panel
Anime Dating Game (Cosplay)
ParaPara Dancing Workshop
Media Blasters
Gaijin in Japan
Anime and the Revolving Door of Culture Panel
Anime Recruitment

AnimeNEXT has been the convention to fill the void for the New York area since the death of BAAF (and now we have NYAF). So I have always had a fondness for it, for a small convention it has done pretty good for itself. I remember when it was still in the hotel that now houses MangaNEXT. But this year it just wasn’t quite up to the task, where are you Japanese industry guests? And you American industry?

I have always liked that AnimeNEXT was the good small local con. It’s big enough to get decent Japanese guests and a good selection of activities but small enough to really interact with the guest if you so choose. From what I can tell AnimeNEXT is not fully responsible for the lack of industry presence this year. Apparently the Japanese guests backed out at the last minute and they could not schedule new ones in time. I’m curious who they had coming. The American industry seems to be doing poorly enough that they are only focusing on major cons everyone has to attend and local cons that don’t require too much travel. Since Media Blasters and Del Rey Manga are local they showed up but for everyone else it was too much of a journey in these leans times.

As with most conventions, this one started out with a line. With all the horror stories about 6 hour line waits for registration I was a bit apprehensive. The line was no longer than normal, less than 30 minutes to get our tickets. And at least the line was in the shade and actually the weather on Saturday was really perfect for the event. Weather is extra important for NEXT because the convention is split into two buildings. I have always found this unfortunate but they really have no alternative, the convention center isn’t growing.

The line moved pretty quickly. If we had pre-registered we would have been done in seconds. I can’t say that we have ever had a problem at AnimeNEXT. For some reason anime conventions have yet to be as efficient as sci-fi/comic conventions. But I have been been lucky so far in avoiding major hassles. Also since they gave out the forms you had to fill out while you were waiting in line, it made everything run more smoothly. I have never had a big problem with the convention being split into two buildings. I definitely see how it can break the flow. But from what I saw, the cosplayers loved it because the strip between the two buildings was an active area of people hanging out. Ideally you have a situation like Otakon where the cosplay section is off to the side and the events are together in one continuous area. As you said though there really is no great solution without changing the venue.

However, we did miss the first panel we wanted to attend which was Tokyo Bound. I am always planning for my imaginary trip to Japan. So instead we headed for the dealer’s room because my next panel wasn’t for a while yet. Not too much to say about it, it was fine, good even. I found the two things I was looking for (doujin and a Kyrios 1/100 scale Gundam model) so I was pleased with the selection. There was no line for it which is indeed good management.

I myself picked up some pretty sweet Gundam 00 figures of Sumeragi and Feldt for under 20 dollars a piece so I was very happy. I was looking at a nice Kaleido-Ruby figure but was a tad overpriced and out of my spending range anyway. I was sad when I heard the doujinshi dealers missed getting their big shipment so they was less selection than we could have hoped for. They still had a good selection but I’m curious what they could have had. I almost got a very nice Phoenix Wright art book but neither me or my roommate decided to get it. Ah well, there is always Otakon.

Anime Dating Game is one of those things we went to expecting it to be really bad. Cosplayers pretending to be contestants on the dating game? But it wasn’t, it wasn’t great either, but it actually had potential. The cosplayers just needed more rehearsal but the audience was eating it up. The only other thing is you have to familiar with all the characters or it isn’t as funny. I felt like the guy playing Ace for One Piece was the most memorable and well done. He had perfect timing with his “I have a smokin’ hot body” comment.

The problem is that they tried to improvise when no body there was an improv actor. Improvisational comedy is hard for professional actors let alone random untrained cosplayers. The way to do a skit like that is to write out a script and rehearse it several times before the con. I think that way you can get some real gems. Despite my critique, the audience really loved it. I think that the Anime Dating Game is merely an idea that if pulled off with more preparation could be so very good.

ParaPara Dance Workshop was one of the highlights. None of us have done it before and we thought what the heck? We have no real qualms about embarrassing ourselves. The girls running it were enthusiastic and encouraging, so bravo to them! Though for newbies they went a little fast on the steps. I only started to catch on to one song by the end. I would like to see the panel be longer so we could go over the steps more times or cut it down to two songs instead of three. It was a lot of fun, I will definitely do it at the next con I go to. A workout at an anime convention, who knew?

Ever since my mother watch Super Gals she always asks if I go to the ParaPara demonstration at cons; my mom is an odd woman. Overall, it was fun and the instructors seemed to be having as good at time as the audience. We were rather tired after the workshop and we only had to do half as much as the girls on stage. I’m not sure they could have lasted another hour. I think that you are right in they should have only taught the dances for two songs and slowed it down a little. That ParaPara Paradise song was rather infectious. I kept singing it to myself the whole day. On a related note, I think more cons should shell out for ParaPara Paradise machines they could be the next DDR.

Unfortunately, the Cutting Edge of J-music panel was canceled. Media Blasters, there isn’t much to say about it because they didn’t say much. Though I was glad to see some industry presence there. I know industry related stuff isn’t the biggest draw at cons so maybe it is just me feeling their absences but I was really disappointed. They don’t have to make announcement (we know they save them) but at least be there hyping stuff and giving out things. It is dark days!

The fact that Media Blasters ended their panel after a half an hour because they did not have much to say was a little bit frightening considering. I assume everyone is saving their big announcements for Anime Expo, San Diego Comic Con, and Otakon. I guess it is good that no one is over licensing themselves out of business, but it is a distinct sign that times are lean. I remember at previous AnimeNEXT conventions we would get one or two title announcements. Now we have almost no industry presence and no new news. With ADV’s current health I think it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.

We did make our way to artist alley at some point. This was a completely new area for the convention, the parking lot under the hall. It was hot and sticky and smelly! There was no ventilation, awful. I don’t do well with heat and almost passed out in artist alley by the end of it. However the artists this year were great! And a lot of them too. I talked with two girls who work on show with Nickelodeon. One for a new show called Three Delivery and the other for Dancing Sushi. Their work was strong and playful, this snagged me and ended up being my only purchases from the alley.

The stink of unwashed gamer and otaku was quite strong. I did see a group doing the Haruhi dance, the Lucky Star dance, and Caramelldansen down there. I can’t see why anyone would want to dance in that pit of stench but to each their own. I liked a lot of the artists this year. They had a good mixture of art styles. I really wanted a Saber in a suit picture from Fate/Zero or a picture of the Straw Hat Crew. But I forgot to bring reference materials. Oh well, another thing to do at Otakon.

Are you trying to make me jealous by constantly mentioning Otakon? Hum. One of the first panels I knew I wanted to attend was Gaijin in Japan. I am just uber curious about anything like this. The guy running it really seemed to know a lot, have good advice, and great stories. But the poor guy needed a longer panel or some serious time management. He barely got into the actual living and working in Japan part before it was over. I did get some good resources including the site Gaijin Pot, oddly enough Japan is in need of IT people! Of course that doesn’t help me much.

He did seem very knowledgeable and interesting so it was a shame his panel was not longer. I did like his section about the different dialects and certain speech patterns in Japan. Kansai-ben and Osaka-ben are things you always getting an inkling of in anime but never understand the full ramifications of on Japanese society. I was also interested to learn about the Japanese bus system and how it differs from the Japanese train system.

I went to the Revolving Door panel alone but since it was run by the Bad Anime! Bad! guy I was assured that it would be interesting. It was basically a look into how Japan and America keep ping ponging influences on their media back and forth. One of their examples was how William Gibson wrote Neuromancer which heavily influenced Ghost in the Shell. Ghost in the Shell and Megazone 23 in return heavily influenced The Matrix. The Matrix went on to pioneer bullet time which is used in anime. The panel was a constant stream of the back and forth between the two styles of media. Although the panelists had notes and the panel never dragged, it was run in a very conversational manner. The audience was encouraged to participate in the discussion while the panelists kept the conversation on track.

We ended the night on a high note with a panel of our own! Anime Recruitment strikes again! I am becoming less nervous as we continue to do these and one day I will be totally comfortable. I was surprised to have no tech problems, I really think that is a first. Plugged in the laptop and it was there on the screen, boom! And the panel proceeded with success. There wasn’t as many people as I was hoping for. I had forgotten that at smaller cons there are few attendees who don’t attend the masquerade. Whereas at something big, there are always lots of people about. But everyone who came seemed to leave with new knowledge. Also there were these great girls in the front row who were very excited. It was a lot of fun!

I think the panel went well and everyone got something from it. We did as well as we could with what we were given. It seemed like certain people in the audience got as many new shows to watch as they got shows to show other people. Those two girls in the front were writing notes constantly. There was one guy in the audience who was cosplaying Sean from Streetfighter who had a girlfriend that totally seemed to be dragged along to the con against her will. By the end of the panel she seemed interested in Monster and all the Satoshi Kon movies we mentioned. If nothing else it proves to me that our panel works.

AnimeNEXT was still fun, but it is hard not to have a good time with friends along. Also the convention was well run, although we are still waiting for our refund. The people running NEXT do a good job they just had some bad luck this year. And while I did attend some panels I never normally would have (even liked them) it doesn’t quite make up for it.

As far as I can tell for Kohaku and Narutaki this was a TM Revolution concert with a comic convention thrown in at no additional cost. The comic convention was fun for both of them but I have a feeling they would have paid the same price just to see TMR and been just as happy. I myself had fun at the convention but I don’t think I had anywhere the near orgasmic time that they had with the convention.

Okay, that too! But hey I still would have gone to comic-con regardless of TMR. It just so happens that he was there and I was super excited about it. But since you brought him up I will say that the concert was a lot of fun and a good length, 90 minutes. It also, surprisingly, started on time. There were a couple of girls from Japan in front of us and they knew all the dances. Me and Kohaku tried to follow along but I think we just ended up looking silly. Not to mention I have about -5% rhythm. He played all of his songs from various anime (since most of the audience probably knew him from those more than anything else). He didn’t however play my favorite song. We also went to his panel which was basically useless and annoying. He had his own interpreter and the guy never really said anything or asked any good questions. It mostly consisted of him saying, You guys love TMR, right? insert audience cheering. Same went for his event at Kinokuniya which was on Sunday. The did play the b-side from his upcoming single release which was exciting! Also me and Kohaku were a mere three feet from him and he waved! We rule.

Although I did not attend the Bandai panel they did announce some very interesting things. The first was they had the license to Gundam 00 and Gurren Lagann. I don’t think anyone was really surprised that Bandai is releasing Gundam 00. I think it has the potential to be the next Gundam Wing here in the states. It’s certainly not guaranteed but it is possible. Gurren Lagann on the other hand was out of left field. Nobody knew what has going to happen to Gurren Lagann after the whole ADV/Sojitz deal fell apart. I know there are a lot of people predicting even more doom and gloom for ADV now knowing that Bandai has stepped in and snatched away ADV’s guaranteed hit of the year. I’m not sure this is any more or less of a sign that ADV is on it’s way out but it is something worth watching.

Well, you know they had Gundam Seed on TV and no one cared. So I dunno. But I only care about getting my lovely Gundam 00 DVDs so I am a happy camper. I wonder if they will start coming out before the second half is done. I would really like them right now. RIGHT NOW. The whole Gurren Lagann fiasco kind of makes me chuckle. But really I would hate to see the death of another anime company in the near future. There have been few announcements and that just does not bode well. The bubble is bursting and quite frankly I’m not surprised.

Their second announcement is that Bandai hinted/practically said outright that is there is little to no chance of Gundam X and Turn A Gundam being licensed in the U.S. in the foreseeable future. It clearly shows that Bandai is being more conservative about its already somewhat cautious outlook towards Gundam in the states. I’m pretty sure that Bandai’s mishandling of certain Gundam series in the past has a lot to do with this. I’m looking right at the original Gundam and Zeta Gundam. I think it also shows even beyond Gundam that if you are an older series your chance are slim to none of getting licensed. More and more companies are realizing that the current market schemes are not working enough as it is. Old shows will not work at all with the current methods used in the U.S. The problem is this: they are basically giving up on older titles rather than trying to find better way to sell them.

That is not really an announcement, it’s more like a confession.

Viz announced that they will be releasing Vagabond in 3 volume omnibuses and that they will be releasing One Pound Gospel to usher in the first time release of the final fourth volume of the series. I’m sure that Narutaki is thrilled that he can finally start collecting Vagabond in a slightly cheaper format. I’m probably going to be a sucker and re-buy One Pound Gospel even though I have already bought the original three manga. Because if I don’t Rumiko Takahashi will surely starve to death, penniless, in the gutter.

It seems like every time I decide today is the day I will buy Vagabond the place I go will not have the first book. So as long as they can keep this in stock for more than ten minutes hopefully I can get myself a copy. I wonder how fans of Inu-Yasha like this series in comparisons, haha. I really like One Pound Gospel in fact, it was my first encounter with Rumiko’s work. I am down the middle about her series though.

Del Ray Manga said a lot but there were only two announcements that mattered to me. The first was the fact that Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei was licensed and the second was more details on Del Ray attempt at making a manga version of the X-Men. I mean I can’t not buy, Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, the manga representation of my life if I were a Japanese school teacher. Despair. Despair. Despair. I am in Despair because it so accurately captures my essence.The manga versions of the X-Men just looked so silly that I’m curious how they turn out. I mean they had a version of Beast that looked very much like a certain Studio Ghibli character that rides a cat bus. Plus Kitty Pride is the main character. That makes me happy. Oh and they are going to have a separate Wolverine comic. Gosh I wonder why? Wolverine is such a minor and unpopular character. It would be like giving M.O.D.O.K. his own comic and we all know that would never happen.

Yen Press had two of the most shocking announcements of the convention. The first was Yen Press has the license for the Haruhi manga and light novel series. People have been asking for the light novels since the first episode of Haruhi popped up on fan-sub so theoretically this will make a lot of people very happy. The only thing that might make people a little wary is that Yen Press had to bring in the big guns and get Little Brown and Company to license it with them. While that means they will have a much better chance of a better translation, it could also mean that they will insist on making the story as Americanized as possible. Now I don’t think they change Haruhi and Kyon from Japan to Holly and Kyle from California but they might try and reduce the number of Japanese references as much as possible. I’m sure we can all image how the internet is going to light up if they change a reference to Ayumi Hamasaki to Britney Spears.

Yen Press fills me with love. They are nice to talk to and they happen to be picking up some really great work. I will take this moment to say I love Spiral! Two thumbs up. I am definitely curious to see how the Japanese-isms for go over in the Haruhi books. Although with the covers they have, people are going to be mistaking it for manga at first glance. I doubt it will end up anywhere else in the bookstore. Also Ayu is 1000% more talented that Britney Spears. So there. Yes Press also brought Judith Park, a manhwa creator, to the convention. They gave away the first book in her series they are releasing and you could jump right in line to get it signed. Which we did. It took a while a we read a bit of the manga before we got up to her. She was drawing pictures for everyone! What a treat! And on the last day of the con, as an added bonus, all the books at their book were just 5 bucks! Score.

The second shocking announcement was that Yen Press is starting their own manga anthology line much like Shonen Jump USA. I think it is definitely something to watch. It looks like it has enough going for it that it might succeed but enough against it that it could crash and burn with force of a thousand suns. The anthology will be called Yen Plus and it will contain a mixture of manga, manhwa, and American comics. All the manga in the magazine will come from Square Enix for the first two years. So it will be running Soul Eater and Nabari No Ou. Narutaki and I are both assuming that those titles maybe the two shows that get the most chatter on the fun-sub circuit this season. Also Higurashi, Bamboo Blade, and Sumomomo will be seen. I like Higurashi, heck I made it my anime of the month, but I’m not sure how much fandom it has outside of a cult following. From what I know of Bamboo Blade it seems generally cute but I can’t see it as being a huge seller. Sumomomo Momomo looks very silly but other than the general story and that it has an anime I don’t know much about it. As I mentioned in our first article Svetlana Chmakova is the only OEL artist I like so I guess she is the best pick for the OEL section. I had never heard of Maximum Ride before the Comic Con but it seems wildly popular. I know next to nothing about manhwa so I don’t know how good or popular Pig Bride or Jack Frost are.

While I like the ideas of anthology series, I don’t buy the ones that are out now and this one seems an even less likely buy for me personally. But it is a nice way of sampling a whole lot of things at once. There are so many other resources for helping me with my choices. Beside that, the manga has either already finished or is far ahead in Japan which seems to take away some of the point of the monthly anthology. And while I do steal Shonen Jump USA from Hisui’s brother to read Bleach I find it more of an annoyance than anything else. I would rather my manga be coming out faster.

I remember Dallas Middaugh mentioning that the only way he felt that a new manga anthology could succeed in the U.S. was for it to have a popular title on Television and I have to agree with him. I feel in order for this magazine to succeed they need to get either Soul Eater and/or Nabari No Ou on Cartoon Network. The Maximum Ride manga will help the magazine greatly but I think it needs both of these factors to be financially viable.

Yes, James Patterson is insanely popular. Personally, I can’t understand why. And although I have never Maximum Ride, I’ve actually talked to quite a few people that thought it was quite terrible along with its sequel. But he does sell well, though I don’t know if that is just adults buying is younger literature. I suspect a good portion are.

I’m not sure if I’m the only person who did not know about this but it seems that Dark Horse has picked up the rights to CLAMP’s Clover and is releasing all four books in one 20 dollar collection. I wonder if this means that Dark Horse is going to pick up all of the old CLAMP series that TokyoPop’s licenses have run out on. I also wonder if this means that Dark horse is interested in building more than just a seinen line or if they just realize that CLAMP is money in the bank. It might also just be part of the deal for that new manga CLAMP is writing for Dark Horse starting in 2009.

As far as the dealers room went there wasn’t a whole lot of anime and manga related stuff to speak of. TokyoPop had a great big set-up but the price of manga was the same. There were quite a few industry booths displaying figures but most of it was not for sale. However Square Enix had some very nice pieces for sale but the most enticing stuff was the preview for the coming year of their figures. Like the amazingly beautiful Leneth from Valkyrie Profile at a whooping 420 dollars!

Comic Con is one of those professionally run conventions where it would be more surprising if it did not run smoothly. It had a wide vareity of comics, anime, and video game related subjects. A nerd paradise. If nothing else I really enjoyed the Venture Brothers panel. The Venture Brothers panel is always livey and fun. The fact that I got to see a preview of season 3 was just icing on the cake. All in all I think we both had a great time.

Everything went fine for me. Though I did see the IGN theater was running behind thanks to those pesky technical difficulties. But really the whole experience was wonderful! I definitely think it fills me up with geek culture, rather than just anime. I saw Stan Lee. STAN LEE. So if you have hobbies outside of anime in the nerd realm it is a perfect catch all.

Narutaki Currently!
Watching Kaiba
Reading Dragon Eye
Listening to Chihiro Onitsuka

Hisui (Brainwasher Detective) Currently:
Watching Macross Frontier
Reading With the Light
Listening to DANZEN! Futari wa Precure by Mayumi Gojo

Top 5 things I did at Comic Con
5. Getting exclusive Marvel Civil War Minimates
4. Going to the Cup o Joe Panel
3. Getting my book signed by Shannon Hale
2. Going to the Stan Lee Panel
1. Seeing the T.M.R. concert