I am always a little envious of people who work in places where they can nerd out with their coworkers. Maybe they can discuss Game of Thrones with everyone in the office the Monday after it comes out. They might know someone else who is waiting with bated breath for Star Trek: Discovery. Other people might know a coworker or two who loves anime and manga on the down low. I don’t have that luxury. There are no such geeks in my department. But there was a curious change this year. People, where I work were, discussing New York Comic Con. 

Now most of the conversation was catty and uninformed. It is not like everyone I work with was magically educated by Felicia Day while I was not looking. These are still the people who actively wish harm on people who play Pokémon Go. The important fact was that they were discussing it like a piece of celebrity gossip or a general interest piece of current events. There might have been bigger signs that New York Comic Con has become an event of much magnitude in has entered the mainstream consciousness but none of them are as personal.

By the way, I did not engage with any of these conversations. I am not a moron. I just wanted to note they existed.

So as always Kate and I will try to cut to a slice of the giant pie that is NYCC. You would need a team of a dozen writers to cover everything that happened and you would still miss a dozen events and points of interest just because of the fluid nature of the event. We never try to give our readers that sort of overview. What we hope to do is share our experience that hopefully is a little more inline with what people who read the blog might be interested in.

Hopefully, you will come away with a better idea of some of the unreported parts of the colossal convention.

Look guys, New York Comic Con 2015 was kind of a high-point in my life so I made sure not to setup crazy expectations for 2016. That worked out for the best since I had an abbreviated visit to the convention. There was nothing wrong with NYCC 2016 as far as I could see, it was simply a solid if not especially remarkable year.

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A round-up of the manga and anime stuff going on at New York Comic Con 2016. We’ll continue to update this as we get more information. And let us know if we missed anything.

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The saddest parts of Japanese guests in America is when a skilled director, animator, or artist sits in front of a half filled room of mostly press, podcasters, and bloggers despite the fact that their extensive resumes that would wow most of the attendees if they were aware of who they could be listening to. That is no longer an absolute given as some conventions like AnimeNEXT have figured out how to sell certain high-profile guests in a way that can fill a medium and even larger sized panel room. But all of that paled in comparison to the crowd that showed up to see Masashi Kishimoto.

The mere fact that Mr. Kishimoto was able to fill a hall that seats about 3,000 people is proof positive that he is one of the handful of guests who could draw such a crowd. It showed two things very clearly. The first is that Naruto is still really popular in America. The second is that New York Comic Con is the sort of event that can draw a manga guest that prominent despite not being an anime convention.

But the anime and manga content did not end with just Mr. Kishimoto. There was actually a good deal things to do related to Japanese entertainment all weekend.

A few years ago, it seemed like anime and manga being part of New York Comic Con was slowly evaporating. But now, it has its own place both on the guest roster and the show floor.

The amazing talent that VIZ is consistently bringing over to interact with English-speaking fans is beyond impressive at this point. It is anybody’s guess what they’ll do next! Continue reading →