Category: NYAF

NYAF 2008 Lance Fensterman Interview

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When the hurly-burly’s done, When the battle’s lost and won. So with New York Anime Festival nothing more than a fond memory, after all the numbers have been tallied, and as everyone has finally stared to recover from an enjoyable but exhausting weekend we reflect on how NYAF turned out. Let us a look under the hood of New York City’s largest anime convention with NYAF’s Lance Fensterman.

We were lucky enough to talk to Lance at length about the goings on of one big convention that is just two years old!

Reverse Thieves: So, how did New York Anime Festival go overall?

Lance Fensterman: I’m completely thrilled with it. It’s always scary, I’m not gonna lie. It’s always scary when you decide to throw a party at your house and you’re like, “Boy, I hope people show up and everybody has a good time.” It’s really not that different of a feeling except it’s between 15 and 20 thousand people. It’s a lot bigger of a matzo ball hanging out there if they don’t show up and have a good time. Anyway, I was thrilled. We had great turn out. By all accounts everything went smoothly. There was plenty to improve on but there were no fires. . .no stampede.  So I count that as a pretty big win! [laughs] And lots of really happy smiling fans so I’m happy.

RT: Was there anything that went off without a hitch?

LF: The biggest of them all was the bad weather. The days leading up to the event, the day before the event, the morning of the event I was checking the weather. I was thinking, “My God, are people going to show up? How bad is this going to be?” They were talking huge winds and huge rains. So that was the big thing I was relieved about because the storms never came and the people did.

RT: On the flip-side, was there anything that had a lot of unforeseen problems?

LF: There were two minor things. One was the masquerade, we just have to do it better. We were closing the [exhibition] hall and so everyone was leaving and running into a line. The room was too small, it was the biggest room we had, but it was too small. There was a line but people were trying to get in from four different directions. And it just needs to be done better and in a bigger space. The second was one guest, it’s not important who it was, we just didn’t have everything they needed and were expecting. It was no one’s fault, it was literally lost in translation for a few things. So we had to scramble and take care of it and then the event was fine. But you never like to be scrambling at the last minute though in events like this you can’t avoid it. Those were the two biggest things that caught me off guard a little bit.

RT: So attendance was up 24% from last year, according to the blog [Medium at Large], how does that compare to what your projections for the show were? Did this year just blow them out of the water?

LF: Yeah it kind of did. We might even be able to say it was up 25.3%, I got the last of the retailer tickets in last week that were sold on Saturday during the show. Yeah, we were thrilled. You have to keep in mind that creating an event is a breeze, getting people to show up that’s hard. It has been an interesting year for anime in general in terms of how the business is doing. So we really weren’t sure what to expect. We knew the fans were still growing, rabid, and excited but the industry as a whole was kind of struggling. And we moved the dates from December to September so it was almost like creating a new show all over again. Some of the companies that were with us last year that were really big were not there this year. Not because they didn’t want to be but because financial they didn’t have the wear with all to be there. So you look at it that way, new dates, new companies, only second year running it so it felt brand new. Our projections were exceeded by quite a bit. I’m really grateful to all the fans who came out and had a great time because it was overwhelming increase. It’s a quarter, that is huge!

RT: So you guys revamped the layout of the convention, how did it help or hurt it?

LF: Our goal was to try and make things follow between the exhibition hall and the panels, try to get more integration between the two. It worked in some ways and didn’t in others. I think taking the main stage off the show floor was a huge win. It was so much better having it in its own self-contained space. Now where it didn’t go well was having the little theater stage in the panel area. It was too loud and disrupted the panels sometimes.The other thing that didn’t quite work, well it could work better, if  we had the artist alley folks where people could get to them after the show floor closed. I’m not sure how to do that because I don’t want to remove them from the show floor. It is a really important part of the experience but they need to stay open later. We have started kicking around ideas of how to do that. I don’t want to bore you guys too much but Anime Fest is really different even from New York Comic Con and certainly the big publishing show I run as well in that the show floor isn’t necessarily the main attraction. So you have to find ways to keep it lively and popping because it is important but not always the focal point. You have to find clever ways to keep it as one big community but at the same time it closes earlier than everything else. And that is the way it needs to be so it is an interesting challenge. I can come up with lots of ideas but we are limited a bit by the Javits Center. We are creative people we will figure something out.

RT: You brought up artist alley, so lets talk about it a little more. The layout seemed very odd, with a long narrow aisle. Also I was talking with a lot of the artist and they expressed concerns over the price of tables. NYAF tables were about four or five times the price of other anime cons. Do you feel that NYAF is giving them more so it makes up for it?

LF: That is actually interesting because it is about a third or a quarter of the cost of a table at New York Comic Con. From our scale it is fairly inexpensive. The reality is that being in New York City is five times more expensive that being in a third tier city like Baltimore. And that’s not a knock on Otakon or the city of Baltimore, it is just a fact. It is more expensive to do business in the Javits Center and we see it with everything we do there. In full disclosure, NYCC is an expensive show. It’s more expensive that San Diego [Comic Con] and it is truly the cost of doing business here. We always try to keep the price point in artist alley at the lowest we can possibly do. The Javits Center just costs a lot of money. My favorite example is, a keg of beer at the Javits cost $800.00 and that does not count the union labor to pour it. It’s Javits, it’s the way it is. And I’m not being dismissive of Artist Alley concerns, they are there to make money and have a good time. It is one of the pains of being in that building. Our job is to build a really kick ass event and give them the most bang for their buck. And being the second year the show has ever existed, we are getting there. We aren’t there yet but we’re getting there. Our job is to deliver all the fans, we are in NYC there are a lot of people outside those doors. And we have to change the structure or the layout that will give them what they need. I talked to a number of people down in Artist Alley as well. I’m sure we heard some of the same conversations. We are very committed to making it work for them. The show needs them, the show isn’t good without the artists.

RT: I think every agreed the Maid Cafe was improved over last year. The most common complaint seemed to be it was hard to know it was there. How did you feel it went? And also the website said there were going to be butlers and atleast one person here was disappointed.

[laughs]

LF: Unfortunately, I didn’t get my tux back from the dry cleaner in time. I really apologize for that. [laughs] Honestly, I can’t answer why we didn’t have butlers. I’m not privy to that information. I know that we had planned on it and it was a goal. But perhaps none of the gents stepped up to the plate. We did discuss it as being something important and I’m not exactly sure why it didn’t happen. We will have a commission looking into that. [laughs] I thought the Maid Cafe was better without a doubt. Part of the reason it was better was because it was on the show floor this time as opposed to the conference side. But again the Javits makes it a challenge because there are really strict rules on who can server food and how much you can bring in. We had to jump through a lot of hoops to try and do our best to create the experience we knew the fans desire while still adhering to the labor regulations of the building. That is so boring, edit that out. How can you take the fun out of a Maid Cafe? Start talking about union rules.

[laughs]

RT: What about moving the cafe to the front?

LF: We like to have a lot of open space at the front of the hall. As people come down that escalator there needs to be space before you hit the booths or anything else for safety and flow. I would actually think about moving it to the center of the show floor. We know it is something that is important and a draw so when you put things like that at the back it makes sure people come all the way through. We don’t want them to stop at the center, we want to ensure they keep moving. It is like why the milk is always in the last aisle of the supermarket.

RT: How did having a music venue outside of the Javits Center work out?

LF: It did work, it was fairly well attend from what Karate Rice told us. There were two reason we did it this way. One was philosophical and one was pragmatic. The philosophical one was we really want the fest to spill out into the city. We had events the whole month leading up to the show and we had the after party at Morimoto’s; we want this to become more that just one place. The purely pragmatic is the Javits center doesn’t have a space great for acoustics or to build a stage and have a band. So we thought, “Why force it? Why not have it a true music venue?” We didn’t want to try and replicate it and we thought it would be cool. The Knitting Factory is an institution. So we were happy with it.

RT: This was the first year for a large amount of fan run panels, was it a success?

LF: I think it was good, they were well attended. We haven’t got our official feedback from people on the quality of panels yet. This is one I’d like to ask you about.

RT: We were really happy. We have been running panels for a couple of years now at a lot of different conventions. But we had our best attendance ever at NYAF.

LF: Then I can decisively say we were happy with the fan run panels then with that information! [laughs] Everything went smooth, no major issues at all.

RT: Many cons have water coolers around, in the panel rooms, and for the panelist did the Javits prevent you from providing this?

LF: We just didn’t think of putting them in. It is on my list though, you just put it on my list! At NYCC we have water coolers in the offices and some of the panel rooms and such but we’ve never had them on the show floor. And a piece of feedback we got from other panelists was that we need to improve the green room and making sure that all the panelist have water. It needs to be done.

RT: You mentioned getting feedback about these, how do you go about gathering information about the events?

LF: We aggregate all the attendance and send out extensive research to exhibitors, professionals, attendees, and panelists. And it is a random selection of people, we typically send it to around a thousand to two-thousand people to get a representative sampling. It is pretty in depth research from everything from general satisfaction, to what kind of guests do you want to see, to how far did you travel, to how do you plan to spend with vendors. It helps us gauge where we need to improve as well as what the fans and exhibitors what from us. It is also partly how I get paid so if you liked it I get to keep my job.

RT: After so many conventions have banned signs and yaoi paddles why did NYAF decide not to?

LF: You know, it wasn’t a conscious decision. We never made the decision not to ban them, to be honest we didn’t even address it. It wasn’t something that was discussed before the show and it wasn’t something that showed up a lot at last year’s show. So it really wasn’t on our radar.

[Hisui tells Lance a story about Anime Boston, see the Providence Anime Conference 2008 Report]

LF: We really try to, with all the shows, the best we can, have a “Don’t be a dick” policy. Just don’t be a jerk! [laughs] We don’t want to have a bunch of rules. We did put down specifics about weapons because that is something we need to be on top of. Besides that, there really aren’t too many rules and we want to keep it that way. It is one thing if it is an aesthetic case, that signs are distracting, but that is an opinion. But if it is a safety issue, a solicitation issue with people asking for money, that is a whole different area. I’m not fond of the color orange but I won’t tell anyone, “No orange because it distracts me.” But if it an unsafe thing it is a different deal so it is clearly a conversation we will be having this year that we haven’t had before. At New York Comic Con it is has never been an issue. Some people have signs but there is nothing untoward about them, it is typically is in a playful way. We don’t want to be cumbersome with rules but we do want to make sure everyone is safe.

RT: Comic Con had more of a podcasting presences than NYAF have you considered ramping up the podcasting section and podcasting guests for next year?

LF: There are sort of two questions there. We didn’t feel an “official” podcast by us was necessary because other podcasters are doing it already. Maybe we could add something to the mix, but really how much? It is already being done well. I have looked at it really closely, I do a really big podcasting program on the book publishing show I do. So we can do it well, but it isn’t necessary. The second question, having a more organized effort for the podcasters. And we do that at NYCC and we partner with an organization and they help us with our “podcasting alley.” We give them space and we give them electricity so they can do their work and interviews. It is almost like a podcast press office right on the show floor. We could totally do that for Anime Fest but we didn’t approach anybody about it. We didn’t consider it, but we would after all it has worked out really well for NYCC. They are really an important part of the show and community and we want to embrace them.

RT: How did the special events, like the dinner and tea parties go? Are you going to do more next year?

LF: They were both sold out! The dinner went great, I didn’t go but the second hand feedback was great. All the seats were taken so by all reports they were very good. We absolutely would do them again. Any time we can do something different and any time fans can get to hang out with the creators in some sort of different setting we love it. For last year’s NYCC for example, we didn’t  end up doing it because it became unmanageable, but we were going to do this huge creator cruise. Where we were going to have about a hundred creators that had agreed to do a three-hour cruise around Manhattan. There would be a bar and you could just hang out with all these awesome comic creators. But we had to cut something because it was still in the early stages. The whole point is that it is cool to go to the con, it is cool to get a signature, it is cool to hear someone talk but having dinner or going on a cruise [with these creators] is a once in a lifetime experience.

RT: About autographs, there were only fifty autograph tickets [for each session] unless you had a VIP ticket. So what is the thinking behind the amount you give out?

LF: It is based on the what the talent is willing to do. Willing or able. In some cases it was depending upon the amount of time they had for us or what their preference were. In almost every case we were able to talk them up a little bit and we ended up handing out more than fifty. We tried to set the expectation lower. If we say we have fifty but only end up with thirty-five, for whatever, reason it is a disappointment. If we say we have fifty and we end up actually having seventy that’s a little better situation. That is not totally our decision, it is something we have to manage through the talent. 

RT: There lots of different VIP passes and there were more added nearer the con. It was a bit confusing, what was going on with it?

LF: There was an all inclusive VIP pass and when that sold out there was a lower priced VIP pass. So what we tried to do was if we had extra stuff we wanted to put it out there. And what happened was, the all inclusive VIP pass we didn’t have extra of all the pieces that made up that pass. So, we took what we could and parsed those out into different packages. We didn’t mean to confuse people, but at the same time we want to make sure people have that opportunity. 

RT: Have you ever considered having the guests run panels, almost like fan run panels? Especially English speaking guests who might be an expert on something.

LF: That is a great idea. I will pass that along, I don’t run the programing for the panels. But we would definitely be open to it.

RT: Did you have a good turn out for volunteers?

LF: I felt like out of all the events we’ve done that have volunteers, this one went the best. We were really pleased. We always need more and need them in the right place. You always notice where they are not and sometimes we forget to notice where they are. I was so pleased with the crew. Some of them have been volunteering with us for as far back as four years. We have some who have done every NYCC and both NYAFs. I have to say these shows would not exsist without them. I don’t mean that they show runs better, I mean the show wouldn’t happen without them. They are amazing. 

RT: You’ve run NYCC which is a much larger convention, but are there any problems unique to running an anime con?

LF: Yaoi paddles? [laughs] Not that I can really think of. Though one of my biggest concerns at NYAF was undesirables for lack of a better term; people, older males that had no business being there. That worried me more at NYAF than at Comic Con and making sure the appropriate actions were being taken by security. We had plain clothes security to make sure there was not anyone inappropriate there. We’ve never had a problem in the past. But it is a large gathering of mostly younger kids that are more female than male. Safety is the first concern with the younger crowd. We don’t want anything to happen, ever. If you look at it from my vantage point, with a little bit of objectivity, it’s a setting that you should be, as an organizer, concerned about and aware of. And we took the necessary steps.

RT: What is the process for bringing over Japanese guests? Do you work in tandem with American companies, do you contact them directly, or is it different for each one?

LF: It’s really different for everybody. But the typical model, if you will, is to work through a publisher or a distributor and that is usually how we go about it. But we also have agents and partners in Japan. So much of what we do at these shows is a network, knowing people. The more people you know the more opportunities will come to you. Morimoto is a good example of that, why not make it about Japanese pop culture and not just anime or just manga. So we just approached him, I happen to have connecntions in the book publishing world, and he has done some cookbooks and so we sort of worked through his publisher. So it happens all kinds of different ways. 

RT: How do you feel NYAF is stacking up against bigger or longer running conventions?

LF: I really don’t think about it. We are our own entity and we’re still new. This was a huge step for us from year one to year two. You look at other shows, like Otakon, and it is such a fabulous show and they’ve been doing it for a long time and do it really well. And we would love to do some of the same stuff, but at the same time we want to do our own thing. It is never something we talk about like, “We want to be more like …” or “Are we as good as …?” We do everything we can to the best of our ability and put on the best show in NYC.

NYAF 2008 A Walk Through Artist Alley

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GUEST REPORT BY SKEITH

As I’ve been going to cons over the past half-decade or so, my reason for doing so has changed. Originally, I was there to gaze at the cosplayers and meet people that (gasp) actually shared my interest for this niche entertainment. Eventually I graduated to actually cosplaying. With that out of my system, I settled down and now spend most of my time at panels or Artists Alley.If I could, I would probably spend the entire day at an Artists Alley, talking with the many interesting people who come from far and wide to set up shop. But that was not possible at the New York Anime Fest, not only because the alley closed with the dealers room, but because there were several things it lacked to make it an immersive place.

For starters, the podcasters’ alley, which complimented the AA quite nicely last year, was not present. I thought there was a good flow, going from one group to the other, since they are both amateur mediums and they both are groups that seem to be just as interested in sharing their art as they were selling you something.

Also, there seemed to be a short supply of manga and comics in the alley. Ever since I first stumbled upon “Directions of Destiny” at Otakon several years ago, I make it a point to purchase at least one book from each alley I visit. Though the pickings seemed to be slim here. Only about four or five tables actually displayed a manga or comic prominently, and of those only 2 caught my eye for a deeper look. One was a colorful comic-strip with fantasy characters, and the other one was a Suikoden doujinshi which gets my attention by default.

Being able to engage the artists in conversation is probably paramount in importance to making a great Artists Alley. Otakon makes for the best alley because it’s so large and the visitors are spread out; that lets you talk more easily. NYAF’s alley lacked size, and that means the artists were flooded by lookey-loos. Even though most of the people weren’t actually buying anything, it was hard to engage any of the artists in a conversation for long, let alone ask for a sketch after I bought their stuff.

None of this is to say that the quality of the art was anything but great. While the overall size was smaller, the ratio of good to mediocre artists was better than anyplace I’ve been to before. There was a fairly wide variety of art styles as well, from gritty western comic styles to super-shiny eastern ones. I was also embarrassingly gleeful at finding several great pieces of Pokemon art. There was also a good variety of trinkets crammed in there, from buttons and patches to window stickers.

Though technically not part of the alley, the adjacent booth for Alteil.com (my favorite CCG) became part of my art hunt. As the game is founded on tapping famous anime/fantasy artists for every card, they gave away several beautiful posters and postcards. I was also able to meet the entire American crew even got their artist to draw a sketch for me.

While I felt the Artists Alley was strong, it wasn’t something you could list as a big reason for going to this con. The limited number of people and the fact that it was pressed right next to the loud, though not very busy, dealers room really detracted from the alley experience. In short, I felt it was tacked on and wasn’t given the respect it deserves.

New York Anime Festival 2008

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Hisui and Narutaki’s NYAF schedule
Friday
Bandai Entertainment Panel
Funimation Panel
Ryu Moto Interview
Hideyuki Kikuchi Panel/Q&A
Vertical Inc. Panel
Anime Recruitment Panel (This was us.)

Saturday
Mobile Suit Gundam Panel
Cooking Manga Panel
Media Blasters Panel
Anime Blogging Panel
Del Rey Manga Panel
Yoshitaka Amano Panel/Q&A
Anime News Network 10th Anniversary Q&A
Rie Tanaka Performance

Sunday
Rie Tanaka Panel/Q&A
I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! Panel (This was us.)
Hideyuki Kikuchi Birthday Party

 Reverse Thieves kicks off back to back anime convention reports with our take on the New York Anime Festival. It was our second year attending NYAF but our first year as press. Being press changes your view of the convention but it certainly doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. Yet. Maybe in several years time I will be drinking and smoking my way through NYAF 10 to kill the pain that is my existence but for now it was merely a bonus. So how has New York’s corporate run anime convention changed and grown? How has Reverse Thieves changed now that we wield a modicum of influence? Who will revolutionize the world? These questions and more might be answered below.

Being Press was just a mite too dangerous, I am drunk on the power! Well, okay, maybe that is an exaggeration but I don’t want to go back to being a regular citizen at conventions. We were seated at the front of all panels and never had to wait in line, chatted with the heads of the convention (and get an upcoming interview with Lance, coming soon!), plus had the extreme pleasure of interviewing Ryu Moto who is best known for his Petite EVA work (this interview will be in a separate post coming soon!). Also the weather held out, this had nothing to do with us being press however, just enough to make it not a miserable weekend for a  convention. Though it was incredibly humid.

It’s always intriguing to meet people you only know from the Internet. Most bloggers don’t plaster their site with their pictures so it isn’t easy to know what they look like. You get this image in your head of what people look like from from the way they write. It is fun to see how much of your guesses are accurate and how much of it is wildly off base. I can’t say that anyone looked exactly as I pictured but I was pleasantly surprised how on target I was about certain things. It also makes me curious how accurate our fellow bloggers were about our appearance. Do people picture me as Kanako Ohno and picture Narutaki looking like Makoto Kousaka? I know that is how I always picture us and I know Narutaki in person.

I have always known that one of the best parts of any convention is socializing. We were lucky enough to meet some of our fellow bloggers, Scott over on Anime Almanac and Oguie Maniax, who were terrific guys. Though I have to admit to not fully picturing them in my mind as what we encountered. At the same time I am quite sure they didn’t think we looked how we did. We also took this opportunity to take a poll of our fellow anime fanatics, the results of which you’ll see sometime after Providence Anime Conference.

The first thing you see when you walk into the exhibition hall is the Bandai booth. I don’t know if Bandai was out of control at Otakon this year, too, but seriously their booth was a constant stream of free stuff (behold at my Gundam 00 and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time posters) and screaming fans mixed with Gurren Lagann cosplayers. This series certainly dominated the con with fans, merchandise, and events. But I am happy to report the Japanese guests had plenty of people clamoring for them. NYAF was the first convention I can remember having to turn away people from guest panels. It is usually the autograph sessions that take precedents but perhaps with the implementation of ticketing for autographs, the people who are turned away for that are coming to the talks.

I heard we missed out Vertical giving away syringe shaped pens for Black Jack which is a shame but we the get the squishy Phoenix Wright gavels from Del Rey which were cool and Haruhi slap bracelets from Yen Press. Wait what was that you said? People being interested in the Japanese guests and what they have to say? That is clearly impossible but somehow true! I’m thinking they had to turn people away because they had big enough guests that people cared even if they were “only” Japanese guests. Maybe that is the greatest things about a corporate run convention. They can get the big names, that draw the crowds, even in their second year.

 We both went to the Hideyuki Kikuchi panel. His translator was Kevin Leahy who also translated the Vampire Hunter D books. Of course almost all of the questions were about Vampire Hunter D and he answered them with pretty substantial answers. I also asked him about his time at Kazuo Koike’s Gekika Sonjuku. I wished he had talked more about his time there because it seems like a fascinating place. Kazuo Koike seems eccentric enough that any classes he gives must be entertaining. He seemed surprised that I knew that he had gone there which filled me with a warm happy feeling that I had done some good research. I loved the part when Kikuchi stared to talk about Amano not releasing he was in the audience. He was definitely embarrassed when he realized what was going on. It was definitely a high point of the panel.

Yoshitaka Amano was probably the most talkative guest, telling stories and what not. He really made the audience laugh as he regaled the story of Tako-Man, his part octopus superhero. He promised us we would see him in a project soon. I was rather disappointed than NYAF didn’t put something together to show some of his work at the convention. It would have been great to have a small gallery space. I was also really surprised at the lack of Final Fantasy questions. Maybe if there was more time they would have come up, but I was impressed by the queries about his fine art and film works. He also brought along some t-shirts, which featured Final Fantasy and Vamprie Hunter D, I didn’t get a close look but I thought they may be the ones from UNIQLO. The crowd was randomly called on to tell everyone why they liked Amano in order to get a chance at playing Jan-Ken-Po against him. Never in my life have I seen more people openly cheat.

Rie Tanaka was just so cute! Got to see her perform three songs right before the masquerade which seemed to be a bit of a secret event. I only knew about it thanks to the forums; a few people were really disappointed to learn about it after the fact. She was bright, funny, and very happy to interact with her fans. At her panel she even had everyone gather around and take a photo with her. It was especially hilarious to hear her talk about being a huge gaming otaku. I was lucky enough to throw a question out there which was did she feel any difference between voicing for a large franchise like Gundam and a smaller project. She responded by saying there isn’t much of a difference though she feels more pressure when doing something big because of all the money, time, and people involved.

Rie Tanaka was definitely a cutie. When she was talking about gaming I could easily see why she has the fan following she does. She is a nerd boy’s dream. Rie is super easy on the eyes but just geeky enough to seem obtainable. I joked that she seem more like a Nagi than a Maria in real life. Her mini concert was not long but it was enjoyable. She put in a great deal of effort for someone who was not an official musical guest. The greatest injustice was I came in seconds after she had already used her Maria voice at her panel on Sunday. Damn you cruel fate. Damn you. Maria is love. Oh, they gave away prizes at the end by have the audience play Jan-ken-po against Rie.

 I went to the Mobile Suit Gundam panel with Phatbhuda on Saturday. The Gundam panel had a woman on it dressed as Fa Yuiry from Zeta Gundam! It seems that women can like Gundam enough to do a panel about it and she spoke about more than Wing and 00. I was as shocked as much as you are. The three people who did the panel were pretty knowledgeable but it was mostly a overview of Gundam for people who had only seen the most popular parts of the franchise. It was hardly the most in-depth review but you could do several panels off each Gundam series so this is understandable. They had a fun little Gundam Jeopardy at the end which easily proved my Gundam Kung-Fu is mad weak.

Cooking manga was underwhelming. I am aware of all the cooking manga currently licensed and was expecting this panel to be about those plus all the great stuff we haven’t got yet. The only titles mentioned were the few that have an English release so I was visibly disappointed. The woman heading the panel seemed to genuinely like some of the titles but at points it was more like an industry pitch. It was a decent first try, but I would like to see a more fleshed out version.

I had mixed feelings about the anime blogging panel. The panelists were obviously seasoned bloggers. They gave everyone in the audience all the information they needed to start their own blogs and they a lot of basic advice. I felt after that the panel sort of petered off. They seemed to assume the room would be filled with people wanting to ask questions so they left too much time at the end. My personal opinion is you should always have enough material so that questions run over to outside the panel room. That way people get what they came for. Still it was a panel with potential and I hope they run it again with added info.

I am always completely terrified before we do a panel, but then I hit some sort of stride and it all melts away. We had great turn outs for both our panels; more than 70 people in our I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! panel and a slightly smaller crowd for Anime Recruitment. The crowds were really great, asked a lot of good questions, and seemed genuinely interested in what we were going on about. We even had some great conversations with some girls after Anime Recruitment and one of them took our picture (we are famous?). It is a bit hard to get feedback on panels but the general feeling seemed to be good. They went smoothly although both times we had to search for staff to get some tech support.

I was slightly surprised by what got big reactions and what did not at I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! I was worried that everyone and their mom would know Hayate but it was not a total audience recognition like I had feared. I was shocked by the number of people that cheered for the Dirty Pair. That made me happy. Hopefully some people will go out and watch Kekkaishi and Saiunkoku due to the panel. We are definitely going to keep the I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! panel. They are enough really good overlooked shows that there is no reason not to switch it up. Phatbhuda made the good point after the panel that we should throw on at least one robot show considering how unloved the genre is in the U.S.

Industry panels were basically the usual with a few announcements sprinkled in. I was probably most excited about the Mushi-shi live-action coming out from Funimation. Oh, funny story from the Bandai panel. So they were announcing something new and decided to let the audience guess by just showing the trailer. We get an overhead view of a street and then a 1988 date and Neo-Tokyo. I thought I might know what it was, then the whispers of EVA start and culminate in buzzing, chattering excitement. I thought maybe I was just crazy, everyone was pretty sure. Then there is an explosion of Tokyo and the words Akira come up on the screen. I almost burst out laughing because I was right all along. Akira on Blu-Ray, not very funny to call it something “new.”

The Del Rey panel was amusing as always. The oddest announcement in my mind might be the fact that they have licensed Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture which is about a college student who can see and talk to bacteria. It is a cute but bizarre series. I wish them luck on it. It seems like something that is going to be a horrible failure in the U.S. like Nodame Cantabile but I admire their persistence in pushing new and inventive series. I feel since Hisui is a maid I should also mention that they licensed something called Maid War Chronicles. That looks like a series in which you instantly know if your going to like it (or want to burn it in cleansing fire) by the name alone. We really wanted to go to the Yen Press panel but since it was during our I Can’t Believe You Haven’t Seen This! we didn’t have the chance.

The Media Blasters panel looked like it was going to be a real turkey what with having no presentation, trailers, or announcements. However, it ended up being entertaining and rather candid. I learned the writer of the Twelve Kingdoms anime had a bit of a breakdown and that is why the TV series didn’t continue. Also heard that Gonzo isn’t a happy place to work. And she [the Media Blasters rep] also went on a bit about how the decrease in retail space has hurt the anime industry possibly more than fan-subs.

I theorize that it is more like a circular relationship between the two than one killing the market more than the other. People download more fan-subs so they buy less DVDs. Since people are buying less DVDs they get less self space which means that there is less diversity among the shows on the self which means people download more fan-subs. This continues until the market is in shambles for everything but the best-selling titles.

Vertical didn’t have any manga to announce but man I am very curious about one of their series of novels called Shinjuku Shark. Apparently, he is one of the pinnacles of Japanese detective characters, kind of like a Sam Spade type. Plus he has a totally awesome name. Someone asked them about licensing more Keiko Takemiya work (I was going to ask this!) and they said unfortunately the numbers for To Terra . . .  just don’t justify it. Needless to say I am sad about this. Only stayed long enough at the Anime News Network panel to ask a question (and gain a L figure!). Funnily enough Anime Almanac mentioned my question without realizing it was me. I wanted to know if they planned to continue their reviews of first episodes of the new shows in Japan. They answered in the affirmative.

Overall the exhibition hall was same ole, same ole although I felt prices were a little higher this year (sorry 2 bucks off a Tachikoma on Sunday is not enough to make me buy). The hall had a lot of space which was great because I never felt the nauseating push of too many bodies. I tend to stay away from the dealer’s on Saturday but with the wider aisles it wasn’t as necessary. Friday night was pure chaos after the exhibition hall closed. It was a free for all in the panels hallway, the atmosphere was odd. But atleast Friday was free of sign people and yaoi paddles. These are two major things that other conventions have put their foot down on and I was disappointed to not see the same measures being taken at NYAF.

The Artist Alley was much better organized from my point of view. But it was a part of the exhibition hall which closes rather early. It wasn’t huge but it had a wide variety of styles to choose from. Though I did hear about the price of tables being quiet high by anime convention standards. I picked up another piece from ProdigyBombay this time it was Cloud fan-art. I had scooped up a picture of Allen from D.Gray Man at Otakon 2007 and was pleasantly surprised to see her again here. It is becoming harder for me to pass up these sensitive and beautifully rendered pieces. She really captures nice expressions on the characters.

I keep meaning to bring pictures with me to get commissioned works but I never remember in the end. I really should have gotten a Hisui and Narutaki. That would have been cute. One year I will remember and it will be glorious. Be sure to look for full artist alley coverage from our friend Skeith which will be up October 7. I was sad that there was no podcasters section like their was at Comic-Con. I am always on the look out for new anime podcasts worth listening to.

I capped off the convention with the Hideyuki Kikuchi Birthday Party at the Jekyll and Hyde Club. For people who don’t know about the Jekyll and Hyde Club it is a quirky themed restaurant with okay food but excellent atmosphere. The theme of the restaurant is horror so it was the prefect place for the birthday party for the author of Vampire Hunter D.  The Club has its normal waiters but they also have actors constantly interacting with the patrons in-character whether it be a vampire or a mad scientist; there are animatronic statues of things like Zeus, the Wolfman, and talking Voodoo masks that perform little comedy routines; there is also a periodic stage show. Everything is a production and if you are in the mood it can be a blast. Narutaki’s advice: Go on Thanksgiving. The place is dead so you get the most bang for your buck.

Unfortunately Amano did not show up for the dinner but I did get to sit down next to two representatives from Dark Horse. I was at the opposite end of the table from Hideyuki Kikuchi so I did not get to interact with him much. I did chat a lot with the lady who does the Dead Sea Scrolls 606 blog. She was very charming and apparently has also seen Macross 7 and enjoyed it in only the way one can love Macross 7. I felt bad for the two girls that showed up late. One of them used to live right next to the other Jekyll and Hyde location on 7th Avenue so they went there not realizing there are three in the city. The conversation was very free flowing and several people took everyones’ email addresses. At the end Kikuchi gave everyone cute little sketches with his autograph. Peter Tartara promised that everyone there would get sketches from Amano due to him being unable to attend. If they offered such a experience next year I would consider it again depending on who the guest was.

For me, this is my last con of year and I think I’m going out on a high note. With it only being the NYAF’s second year, there are still improvements to be made (is there any con that doesn’t need those?) but the event shined brighter than it did previously. It was vastly more populated but never felt overwhelming. And with dates for the next already announced, September 25-27, I look forward to bigger and better things in 2009!

I on the other hand will return next week with my report from the Providence Anime Convention. Considering I came back from NYAF rather worn out I am curious how much of a number PAC is going to do on me. I enjoyed New York Anime Festival more than last year and look forward to the next one. I hope they keep improving and expanding like any convention does. NYAF is still going through its growing pains as compared to established conventions like Otakon and Anime Expo but it is still enjoyable. I felt that I always had something to do which is my litmus test of an enjoyable con. See you in 2009.

Top 5 Anime Maids
5. Kogarashi from Kamen no Maid Guy
4. Emma from Emma – A Victorian Romance
3. Karinka from Steel Angel Kurumi
2. Maria from Hayate the Combat Butler
1. Hisui from Tsukihime