As much as there is still a certain sentiment of there being “no anime and manga content at New York Comic Con,” there are still a good deal of anime and manga companies in attendance and plenty of casual fans who show up to the convention looking to see what is being presented. The companies at the convention have an opportunity to connect with a part of the fandom that might otherwise not know what is going on outside of the most popular titles.
Therefore, while New York Comic Con might not get the announcement blitz of a convention like Anime Expo, the anime and manga companies tend to save some of their bigger cards for the convention to play to a larger audience.
Anime and manga is just part of the larger pie of New York Comic Con, much like the big West Coast show in San Diego. It is the biggest thing going on on the East Coast so you better believe anime and manga companies are turning out and playing up their new announcements as much as anyone else. There were the usually licenses of new and recent anime and manga but also some big surprises during the con as well.
Gundam Returns to U.S. Home Video
When Bandai decided to cease anime distribution on January 2, 2012, one of the big questions was who would bring Gundam to the U.S. now? Considering the size of the franchise, it was not an easy undertaking for other companies. For a time, between Daisuki and the Gundam Official YouTube channel any new Gundam we see in English is only of the streaming variety. But even that seems precarious; the future of Gundam in English has stayed uncertain.
Then at NYCC’s Sunrise panel they announced a new partnership with the RightStuf.
The RightStuf will be releasing original Mobile Suit Gundam TV as well as Turn A Gundam. Mobile Suit Gundam was already officially released in the U.S., there were two versions (the easily found English dub and the rarer original Japanese language track) but both are now long out-of-print. Turn A Gundam is a sadder story, Bandai announced a release to much excitement but closed its doors before actually getting to it.
The RightStuf has released quality works, but the Gundam franchise is a much bigger commitment than anything they’ve done before. The new question on Gundam fans’ minds is now whether RightStuf will be jumping into the BD market or not.
Thank you Crunchyroll for ending our days of piracy!
You might be wondering why this wasn’t first on the list. The answer is simple: we are planning a big post soon in regards to this, shocking! For now, let’s just say this is certainly the most surprising and most detective-y announcement of the year.
No date yet on exactly when Detective Conan will be hitting the Crunchyroll airwaves but you better believe we’ll be shouting it from the rooftops once we know. We’ll try not to get too greedy and ask for the entire 800+ episode back catalog.
Most people found the manga artist Kaoru Mori via Emma – A Victorian Romance anime. But if you remember that series the first anime ended at a point that all but demanded that you run out to read the manga as several stories past the ending were never animated.
And those last few volumes were released just as CMX was going out of business. So you either got those volumes when they were released or you have to pay through the nose later. It is hard to recommend a series, despite how good it is, if the manga requires someone to pay a king’s ransom for it.
Yen Press has saved everyone’s wallets.Yen’s release of A Bride’s Story, also by Ms. Mori, has had a lot of fanfare, so this acquisition makes sense. Their re-release lets a whole new wave of fans experience Emma’s charm while also letting the established readers complete their collection. The fact that the series is getting a prestigious hard covered omnibus release is double bonus points!
Yen Press also picked up the A Certain Magical Index manga license. It will be a nice companion to the light novels which they are also releasing. It always seemed odd that the spin-off series A Certain Scientific Railgun manga was licensed but the manga of the original story languished in obscurity. If nothing else, it will hopefully get the A Certain Scientific Accelerator series picked up as well.
More New York Comic Con 2014 posts:
The Speakeasy #058: Gods of Death Love Apples, NYCC 2014
New York Comic Con 2014: Anime & Manga
New York Comic Con 2014: Show Floor & Artist Alley
New York Comic Con 2014: Panels
Reverse Thieves 
Not just biggest on the East Coast… biggest in the US, possibly in North America.
“We’ll try not to get too greedy and ask for the entire 800+ episode back catalog–”
YOU may not be too greedy to ask, but I will xD