Category: NYCC

NY Anime Festival & Comic Con 2010: Exhibitors Hall

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The exhibitors hall is the biggest draw of most big time media conventions housing all types of companies from comics to video games to anime to novels with money to burn and products to promote to the eager masses that pass their way as well as a hodgepodge of comic, anime, and merchandise dealers hocking their wares. Most attendees spend a good portion of their time trolling around this section picking up free swag, playing the latest games, and finding deals. In my early con days, I too rarely went outside of such an area. NYCC really did it up big this year and it left an impression no doubt.

hisuiconYou can always tell how healthy an industry is by how vibrant their booths are. With a few exceptions the companies that are flush with cash will have lavish booths with fantastic giveaways. So while the anime and manga companies mostly had simple booths with a few (if any) giveaways on the other end of the spectrum the video game companies had gargantuan affairs with giveaways galore. The NYCC reminded of my times of going to technology expos like PC Expo were the exhibitors hall is the entire convention and 80% of the reason people go is to get freebies. Theoretically the other 20% of the time you were looking for hardware and software for your home and office but the second free t-shirts came out you wonder if 20% was being generous. But if you were not in the mood to go a panel or a screening there was plenty to do in the exhibitors hall especially if you wanted to go home with a few treats.

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NY Anime Festival & Comic Con 2010: Anime and Manga Industry

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hisuiconIn the current anime and manga market a little good news is nice to hear among all the doom and gloom. Despite major hits to the anime and manga markets in the last year I was happy to see a larger industry presence at the convention this year. Yen Press was able to make it this year which is hopefully a good sign since I was worried when they did not show up at the NYAF last year. There were hardly an Anime Expo level of announcements but there were some interesting tidbits in the mix.

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NY Anime Festival & Comic Con 2010: General Impressions

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Even with just the preliminary numbers out, an estimated 96,000 attendees, New York Comic Con (and Anime Fest) far and away had more people than any other convention I’ve attended in the past. It made it exciting but also daunting, however at the end of the day things went pretty smoothly considering the enormous crush of people during points of the convention, especially and not surprisingly on Saturday. All different sized cons have their own magic, but there is no denying the elation felt at something huge like Comic Con and you can only expect it to get bigger in the coming years.

hisuiconI have never been to the madhouse that is the San Diego Comic Con but I got a bit of a taste of what that is like by going to the New York Comic Con. At a busy time during the weekend it was like being thrown into a sea of humanity (some of which could use a little more exposure to water). I saw a ton of people I knew but hardly got to interact with anyone for an extended period of time because everyone was always running off to do something. The convention itself had a bit of something for all variety of geeks, nerds, and otaku. There were panels, premieres, and announcements for anime, manga, video games, comics, movies, television shows, and almost anything else you could imagine. The broader your interests the more you could get out of the convention and in an ironic note the more you missed out on. But unless you had extremely narrow interests there was always something for you to participate in every day which is the greatest benefit of such a huge event.

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