Yes, this post is extremely late, almost three weeks late, but I felt other things took priority on the site. Any other excuse I won’t bore the reader with because they shouldn’t be bothered. While much of what I have to say has already been said… I hope you enjoy my Convention Report:

This is the first year that New York Anime Festival had been merged with New York Comic Con and the numbers speak for themselves. Last year around 21,000 people attended NYAF and 71,000 attended Comic Con, so the merge wasn’t exactly even. The fear before the event was that Comic Con would completely overshadow the Anime Fest and in a way, it did.

The Convention was divided into two main sections: The Comic Con section featured the massive Exhibition Hall, the Comic Con artist alley, the autograph area, the variant stage, and the Comic Con panel room. Then the Anime section which featured a modest artist alley, the maid cafe, screening rooms, panel rooms, and the massive screening room where Haruhi and other major releases were shown. While it was convenient to have all the anime events in a single area it felt like we were brushed aside, placed in a corner while the “big boy” convention was going on. I could live with that, as strange a dynamic as it was, because those fans that could care less about Comic Con could stay in the Anime section and be completely happy, right? Wrong.

The separation wasn’t complete enough to make the “two cons at the same time” scenario work. The Amine dealers and distributors were in the Exhibition hall mixed in with Comic Con. The worst part was that the anime stuff was all jammed into the back corner of the hall and due to the amount of fans that went for the Anime Festival and wanted to see Anime merchandise those two allies in the back were impossible to navigate. There was a jam of people wanting to get in and see what the dealers were selling but just by stopping and trying to look they made the jam worse. Granted, this was the first time the two conventions merged perhaps the management figured that those dealers wouldn’t be in high demand, but the management knew that at least 21,000 people wanted to see the stuff in those two isles. Had they put it more towards the middle it wouldn’t have been a problem because there is more room for the crowd to disperse, they aren’t locked against a wall on one side and could move into one of two isles around them, and the isles towards the middle felt bigger. They could have put something more niche, like the custom art toys, in that corner and not had the massive jam. Just because of the difficulty of getting near those booths I’m sure the vendors lost some serious sales over the weekend.

Comic Con did bring plenty of crossover potential to the show by attracting the large video game companies. I’m sure anime fans appreciated being able to play upcoming games from Nintendo, Rockstar, Hudson, Square Enix, and Sega. It also allowed me to discover a new aspects of the toy collector; custom art toys. There was half a row dedicated to these artistic toys specifically designed for other artists to come and customize them. It was cool to see how creative people can be on a plastic form and the ability wasn’t going unnoticed either with the custom versions having markups as high as $150.

In terms of guests, Minori Chihara in attendance was something spectacular and the big bands they got, X  Japan and Puffy AmiYumi, were a treat for fans but I doubt the merger with Comic Con affected their attendance to the convention.

If they are going to continue to have the joint convention they need to do one of two things, either completely separate them or merge them entirely. This half-separate, half-combined thing that happened over the weekend wasn’t the best solution. The anime section felt ghettoized and less respected than the large glittery booths of the Comic Con show floor. The fact that the Anime dealers booths were swarmed almost constantly means they need more space and placing the anime dealers in their own dealers room may be the only way to go considering it is impossible to make that exhibition hall any larger.

Highlights:

Exhibition Floor

The Exhibition Floor, as I said above, was massive due to the presence of ComicCon. All the major video game companies had booths, including a massive booths for Square Enix, Sega, Nintendo, and Ubisoft. The anime presence was sparse, at best, and constantly crowded but Bandai managed to have a fantastic booth right in the front of the room where Minori Chihara and other starts signed autographs. Apparently, they also gave away free K-On! posters that I was unaware of at the time. Anger.

The second half of the Bandai booth showed off almost every model kit they had at the show. Dozens of Gundam, including the new kit from the Gundam Unicorn OVA, alongside Bandai’s other mecha properties. I picked up a Guren Mk II from Code Geass, it’ll be my first large Bandai model kit s so… hopefully everything goes well.

The hall was chaos, and looking back all I remember was chaos. The crowds were tough to manage, the most popular booths had unapproachable lines, and some obnoxious booths blasted loud music to disturb the people browsing in the Manwa booth.

I avoided the American comic booths, having no real interest in buying classic comics. But the ComicCon artist alley was filled with a ton of interesting things. Again, because of the crowd and sheer size of the hall it was hard  to give everything as thorough a look as I would have liked. While I was mostly uninterested in the Hollywood stars giving autographs there was at least four cast members from Battlestar Galactica that I was fanboying over. I even got Nicki Clyne’s autograph! Squee!

The only other thing I purchased on the exhibition floor was a movie poster for “The girl who Leapt Through Time,” which was a great deal at $5 for the full sized poster. I might have bought I lot more if I didn’t have to take cabs and trains the whole weekend, but that is the problem with holding such a large convention in New York City.

The Exhibition hall was incredible and I wish I spend even more time there, but there should have been a little more organization to the place. Even late on Saturday I continued to discover places that I hadn’t seen before and while that was a magical feeling it doesn’t bode well for someone who sets out to see the entire convention.

Anime in Academia Panel

As someone who wants to approach anime from a more serious viewpoint that most would (hey I need to get some use out of that English Literature degree) I made it a point to check out the Anime in Academia Panel run by Alex Leavitt a stellar blogger and MIT researcher. I have approached anime from a literature studies point of view, focusing on the narrative; themes; how we as Americans are supposed to interpret those things, and reflections those ideas have on society. The panel that Alex assembled ran the gambit of areas of study that I wouldn’t have considered, most notably Sociology. The panelists were more concerned with the people who watch and make anime than the content as it exists.

The best advice they gave for anyone wishing to study anime on an academic level is that you must adapt anime into whatever interdisciplinary you wish to pursue in order to study it. So if one was a history major, they’d have to find a way to write about how Anime impacted history in a profound way, a socialist would look at Anime’s impact on society or study anime as a reflection on society. The primary topics of research that were most focused on were Toys, Collectors, Anime, Anime consumers, and Toy consumers which, when broken down, really show the varied niche topics one could study when the broader categories are broken down so finitely.

If one wanted to study anime seriously, as in any field of study, the panel suggested one to read widely and in many different media. So if your focus was manga than you should consume normal novels, American conics, ect in order to gain some perspective on what makes your media unique, what it does that sets it apart from other media. One should also experience the world and fold those experiences back into your field of study. The image of monks focusing their entire lives on study is a noble one but in order for anything to have context or to be relative to a good number of people it needs to be grounded in some real world experience.

When preparing your research there are some points to remember. The first is to always place the study in context, what does the study mean to someone outside the specific topic? Writing about anime for anime fans is great, but academia’s goal is to apply knowledge to all fields of study, so again this is where context is important to any field of study. The instinct is to write about something that is “shocking,” like an obsession with boys love manga, but focus should be on things that are genuinely good not topics that’ll draw controversy.

One drawback the panel pointed out in the academic world is the dominance of English. Japanese scholars are widely ignored by the American academic world unless they are published in English. While this is unfortunate the benefit is that being published in English is a great honor to Japanese academics so what little English language work we have from Japan is superb.

During the Q&A something was asked about the state of the industry and one of the panelists made a solid point, publishers ignore scanlators when times are good and villainize them when times are tough. Just an interesting point that reflected the recent crackdown on scanlators as the sale of manga has begun to drop.

List of suggested academic books:

• Master’s thesis on Oshi: Stray Dog of Anime: The Films of Mamoru Oshii by Btian Ruh
• Helen McCarthy’s work on Anime and MangaGod of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-World War II Manga by Natsu Onoda Powers
• Tezuka is Dead by Ito Go
• Hiroki Azuma, Japanese literary critics
• Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga and the Fan Arts
• Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. by Roland kelts
• The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation by Thomas Lamarre
• Anime and Manga research circle.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

My full review of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya should be up in the next few days.

I have never seen an anime film in theaters, for whatever reason. Watching a film with a large audience is much different than watching alone or with a small group of friends , but that much more of an experience when the audience are massive fans of what they are about to see. There is a crowd reaction that is infectious. If you have a chance to see a really great anime film with a huge group of fans, or any type of film with a group of nerds, do it. Without question.

Minori Chihara Concert

The concert experience was strange, the crowd seemed to be divided to people who were extremely into the music and those who were just there to enjoy a show. But when she played the classic Haruhi closing theme, Hare Hare Yukai, the crowd went wild. Despite the fact that filming wasn’t allowed I couldn’t help but try and get that performance.

 

Hatsune Miku screening

The Hatsune Miku “concert” was the most disappointing event at the convention , I actually believed it was going to be some sort of concert but instead it was a screening of the Miku live concert DVD. It was enjoyable, but nothing I couldn’t have watched on Youtube. I love Miku… if you haven’t watched any video of the live concert it is amazing, the way the crowd reacts to a 2D idol is unbelievable.

Posts from New York Anime Festival 2010:

• Literally, a cloudless con day

• Waiting for the doors to open.

• Lost at New York Anime Festival

• Let the Wookie Win

• Figures from Square Enix booth

• Crazy robot dances to “Ladies night”

• Minori Chihara introduces Haruhi Movie

• Ubisoft demos The Micheal Jackson Experience for Wii

• GoldenEye 007 Wii demo

• Minori Chihara performs Hare hare Yukai

• Crunchyroll Q&A

• New York Anime Festival and Comic Con 2010 Cosplay Part 1

• New York Anime Festival and Comic Con 2010 Cosplay Part 2

I have yet to go to a convention and be disappointed and that fact continues after my weekend spent at ConnectiCon 2010. The only disappointing aspect about conventions is that there is never enough time to do everything that I want to do. ConnectiCon is unique for an Anime fan because it is not primarily an Anime convention. Anime is only one of the many subjects that convention covers. If anything, I’d call ConnectiCon a gaming convention because of the massive amount of space dedicated to games of all types: Board games, video games, Table top RPGs, LARP, Minitures, and CCGs. ConnectiCon is also unique in that it attracts a large number of webcomic guests from all over the world with names as large as Brian Clevenger , Mohammad Hawqe , Jeph Jacques, Scott Ramsoomair, and (in 2006) Greg Dean.

If you are looking for just an Anime Convention with anime programming ConnectiCon might disappoint you. Not that there is a lack of Anime programming, I’ll go into more detail about it below, but it is more of a celebration of all things geeky. It’s like a large gathering of friends where some wanted to play Magic and others just wanted to watch Anime… blown up to an impossible scale.

For more on ConnectiCon 2010 please listen to Episode 23 of the podcast

Star Wars Steampunk

This was a strange panel where a group of hardcore steampunk fans (they were all dressed in full steampunk attire) asking the question “Is Star Wars Steampunk?” approaching from the aesthetic side they had a point… but it is far more likely that the elements that are similar, like Han Solo’s outfit, were inspired by Star Wars. I was a bit irritating they didn’t mention the possibility that Steampunk took elements from Star Wars but just went with the theme “Star Wars IS steampunk.”

Anime you should watch  

I caught the tail end of the Anime You Should Watch panel but walking into a room filled with people watching Daicon IV was amazing. The list of shows, and the way the GeekNights crew sold them to the crowded, was very impressive. A few notables were Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer, They were eleven, and Master Keaton. Check out the PDF of their presentation here.

 

 

Anime and Kawaii Culture

 
This panel was a big deal at the convention because former anime producer Minoru Ohno (I’m gonna be an Angel, Minky Momo in Tabidachi no Eki) and University professor Marie Aizawa Phelan set out to explore the concept of Kawaii. While the presentation was interesting I don’t know how the findings were anything new. It seemed to follow along the normal established concept of Kawaii. The presentation also jumped back and forth between Ohno’s career and the findings of the study, which became tiring as it went along. Overall it was good but nothing ground breaking was discussed. I recorded the majority of the panel and it can be viewed on the live page:

Kawaii anime and culture panel video
Kawaii anime and culture panel Q&A

Uncle Yo

For the first time I was able to catch an entire standup skit from Uncle Yo and it was surprisingly funny. I’ve heard a lot of negative things about him and I can certainly see why; he panders to the fan girl crowded. But I can’t blame him for taking advantage of such a rapid and eager group of fans, and he probably has no choice if he wants to succeed as the “Otaku Comedian”. But, despite that, he has a huge amount of talent and executed all of his material well. Check out the set on the Otaku in Review Live page, I was a able to record most of it.

Uncle Yo: Nerd Moon on the Rise

Hatsune Miku

After the Uncle Yo show I was able to catch the tail end of a panel about Hatsune Miku, the virtual idol. I’ve been a fan of Miku since her original viral video but the panel, given by GeekNights, attempted to put her in perspective with the history of animation and the conclusion that all animation has attempted to merge live action into it, and Miku is the ultimate realization of goal as she continues to break into the real world. It is pretty incredible that technology has been able to take a 2D character with a computer generated voice and place her on a live stage. It’ll be shocking what we’ll see ten years from now.

 

Update 7/18/10

Scott Rubin contacted me and wanted to make sure that I didn’t misrepresent the panel. The most interesting fact that I took from the panel was Miku seems to be the end result of a long attempt to marry live action and animation but Scott didn’t want the message of creativity to be overlooked. The reason he showed Daicon IV was in order to show what a group of geeks were capable of with inspiration and hard work. The group that made Daicon IV, who would later go on to form Gainax, didn’t even have a computer when they compiled would would become one of the most important short pieces of animation ever made. Instead of playing World of Warcraft go out and make Miku dance and sing. The power of the Volcaloid  2 software has made creation amazingly simple and with it even you can one day create a hit with Hatsune Miku leading the way.

 

Dealer’s room

The dealers room in my greatest weakness and while the ConnectiCon dealers room is nothing compared with Anime Boston (and I’m sure Otakon and AX) the vendors had some amazing things. Here are some notable items that I left with:

 

 

I stumbled across this in the back of someone’s booth late on Sunday. It was marked as $50 but he immediately took $20 off the price. I have never seen anything quite like it before and after doing a quick google search found it sold out with a price of $120! This is such an interesting piece that after I bought it someone who walked into the booth after me and saw it offered me $50 for it. Perhaps the dealer isn’t going to hide things in his booth anymore.

An Evangelion 2.0 era Asuka figure beautifully sculpted with an interested transparent effect on her hair. This was the most expensive figure I picked up over the weekend and well worth the price. Now if I could only see the movie…

Minorin! I love Minorin! I love most anime girls with red hair (which will be a trend on all the figures I bought). After missing out on the Angelic Taiga figure at Anime Boston I needed to get some Toradora! love in my figure collection. Of course now I’m going to have to hunt down bunny suit Taiga in order to complete the set.

A small, yet large headed Bunny girl Kallen which I couldn’t resist and a set of K-On! beach figures which I haven’t had a chance to put together yet.

Yes, I know. This pretty much completes the “generic Otaku room” theme I’ve been building for the last few years. But I couldn’t resist because it is so damn comfortable! Also, Haruhi.

Hayate the Combat Butler manga volumes 2 through 15 piled on high. Trust me, I got a great deal.

 

Finally I had Applegeeks volumes 1 and 2 signed by the authors. This is a painful story but I brought both books for them to sign but with the dealers room bag policy I couldn’t bring in my messenger bag. I grabbed a plastic bag and put them in just for convenience and it turns out the inside of the bag was wet which ruined my Volume 2, forcing me to buy another one. I raged, but it was worth it.

Cosplay

 
All of the pictures I took over the weekend are up on the live page and I’ll post the links after the images. These are a few of my favorites from the weekend. There was lots of Team Fortress 2, remember there is a large gaming section at ConnectiCon, and it seems that Durarara!! is very popular among the con attending crowded with Cross play being a huge trend.

 

Officer Jenny from Pokemon

 

Lightening from Final Fantasy XIII
 

Three Ghostbusters
 

Weeping Angel from Doctor Who
 

Durarara!! crossplay

Utena

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ConnectiCon in Pictures Day 1

ConnectiCon in Pictures Day 2 part 1

ConnectiCon in Pictures Day 2 part 2

ConnectiCon in Pictures Day 3

The Borg

 

It’s tough going to an Anime convention for a single day especially one as large as Anime Boston. Describing the experience, the rush, the thrill of walking into a giant hall filled with people who you know you could connect with that, in fact, you are connecting with due to the fact that you are in the same place at the same time. It’s overwhelming and almost impossible to absorb during a single day. It maybe impossible to come to terms with if you had the entire weekend!

Here are my highlights from the convention:

Nobuo Uematsu

The main reason why I wanted to go to Anime Boston this year was to met the composer for the first ten Final Fantasy games Nobuo Uematsu . But I think it was clear that the Anime Boston organizers completely underestimated how large a draw the musician would bring. I waited in line for an hour and ten minutes before the staff finally came by and told everyone still waiting in line, and there was probably a hundred people in front of me, that there was no chance of getting an autograph. Disappointed and angry from waiting in line for so long with no result I moved on to the dealer’s room.

Later when attempting to get into the Uematsu Q&A I made the same mistake and arrived much too late. The line was far too long and one of the staff told me that I’d probably not get in. Fail.

Character design panel

I sat in on this panel, actually meant for artists, on character creation. The panelist did a good job of describing the main differences between Japanese and Western character design and then showed slides detailing what factors make up a good character design and what makes up a boring, ordinary character design.

Masquerade

Most Masquerade’s at conventions are fairly dull but the quality of the Anime Boston Masquerade was outstanding. The hosts were hilarious, the skits were creative and well executed, and the sound quality and visibility was great. They hit a home run with this event, one that I normally prefer to avoid. Out of Time Productions should have the entire show up on their Youtube channel soon if not already.

Funimation Industry Panel

Finally made it to a Funimation panel. It was fun to see the people behind the largest licencing company in the United States, get the trailers, and be on hand for the announcements. Unfortunately all the announced shows were fairly obvious. Chobits had to be rescued since that was a big money maker for Pioneer (Geneon), Spice and Wolf Season 2 was a given, and if they weren’t going to get the Eden of the East movies there was no point in releasing the series.

They also announced that they have acquired the music rights to the Eden of the East opening theme. I didn’t even know that was a problem and it highlighted my ignorance of the licensing process.

Plan ahead

Don’t be like me. I was completely unprepared for the size of this convention and lacked the skills needed to get around and make it to the panels and events that I really wanted to do. Plan ahead if you are going to any big convention. Read the schedule before you go, show up early to panels you want to see, and most importantly go all three days. The artists gallery and dealers room require so much time, especially if you are as crazy as I am, that you end up missing out on a lot. Friday should be Dealer’s room day because it’s a much slower day than Saturday and all the dealers will be fully stocked. Don’t hesitate if you really want something, like the Yoko body pillow I missed out on, because it will be gone. Remember, there are 17,000 people just like you who will swoop in and take it away.

 

Now to the best part of any convention: Merch!

Dealer’s Room

I went nuts in the Dealer’s Room. Overwhelmed is the only word I can use to describe how I felt when I walked into the massive hall that held the seemingly endless number of vendors. Jumping from booth to booth I was absolutely frozen when I reached for my wallet. How could I buy something at this booth when there might be something I want MORE three booths down? It was incredible. Being the most indecisive person in the world I spent hours in the dealers room looking for figures, checking prices, and trying to talk myself into spending $110 on a Toradora figure.

In the end I did walk away with some merch but no, not the $110 figure I lusted after.

Alicia from Valkyria Chronicles.

Probably the best PS3 game before the release of Final Fantasy XIII Valkyria Chronicles is a fantastic experience and the games heroine makes a fantastic figure for sitting next to the game console.

Minorin with a flower out of her head

The cheaper alternative to the $110 Taiga figure is this adorable little Minorin. But she still didn’t come cheap at $15. How could I resist that smile, though?

Tenchi mini figures

This is probably the only Washu and Kagato figures I’m ever going to find so I had to pick them up at a cheap $10.

Mio plushie

Moe moe!

Artist Alley

The artist alley was just as overwhelming as the Dealers room. There was all types of art from prints to key chains and custom made plushies. The aisles were so crowded that it was difficult to move. IT was good to see some independent artists get to sell their work. 

Art Prints

Kefka and Terra

Being a very Final Fantasy heavy year so far how could I miss this piece featuring the series greatest hero being tormented by the series greatest villain?

Karen

Karen from Code Geass looking very hot and very awesome.

Moe Kallen and Mio

This artist basically turns any anime character into a moe character. Mio and Karen were among my favorites but I was also very tempted by her Asuka.

 

Cosplay

I never take as many pictures as I want. After a few hours I’m normally weighted down by too many bads to handle my Camera. Here are some cosplay highlights:

Cat Bus!

Kefka crossplay

Kenpachi

Kallen (Karen)

Washu (FTW!)

 

 

Overall

The event was a blast and highly recommended. Now that Anime Boston is the sixth largest Anime convention in the country, and growing every year, they will continue to get top guests and put on an amazing show. I suggest going for the entire weekend if you can as one day is no where near enough time to see and experience everything. Hell, one day isn’t enough to see the entire dealers room in full. The convention is well organized, the venue is next to a ton of hotels and inside a mall (cheap food is not far away), and the fans involved do a great job to put on many fantastic panels and a perfectly executed Masquerade. I look forward to next year.