Sunday, the third and final day of the New York Anime Festival and New York Comic Con, seemed slightly subdued compared to the controlled chaos that filled the Javits Center on Saturday, but there was still good energy in the air and outlandish cosplaying on the floor.
Large groups of costumed fans of Japanese anime, generally in their late teens, converged on the lowest level of the convention hall. Some danced and sang on the Maid Cafe stage; others posed for pictures. Most of the cosplayers spent a lot of time and energy on producing their creative and eye-catching anime ensembles. Sure, this reporter, a novice at these kinds of pop culture conventions, probably didn't notice a missing stitch here or an overlooked detail there, but you have to appreciate the passion of these youngsters.
A line snaking four rows deep formed in front of Room 1E09. The fans in that line waited more than an hour to see the premiere of the movie Gundam 00. One young man, to the delight of the capacity crowd, wore the head of one of the mechas.
As a convention volunteer yelled "If you're here for Double-O, turn back. The room is full," to disappointed mecha lovers who didn't plan well enough to get in line more than ten minutes before the movie began, across the hall from the screening there were two interesting manga-centric panels. First, Ninja Consultant's Erin Finnegan and her husband, Noah, and Sam Kusek, who reviews comics on his blog, A Life in Panels, hosted "Culinary Manga." Erin, Noah, and Sam introduced the assortment of manga devoted to Japanese cuisine. Included in their slideshow presentation were pictures of Erin's and Sam's attempts to make dishes from recipes in different manga such as Oishinbo, Addicted to Curry, and Kitchen Princess, with hilarious results. At times the slides were a bit unorganized (out of order), and there were too many of them to go through in their one-hour time frame. But overall it was an engaging panel on an interesting topic that showed how the Japanese can put anything, especially their love of food, into manga form to entertain and teach.
Another manga-related panel was "Voice and Art," which was later renamed "Animate It!" by the panelists, Misako Rocks! and Veronica Taylor. Misako Rocks! is a Japanese-born, Brooklyn-based manga artist whose books include Biker Girl and Detective Jermain. Taylor is a voice actress best known as the character Ash in the English-language version of Pokemon. The two collaborated on an interactive session. After watching Misako draw a couple of characters – which was pretty tough since she didn't have an easel – a handful of audience members were chosen to draw characters of their own. While they were drawing, Taylor put the rest of us through a voice exercise regimen. (The neck stretching felt great.) Then another set of audience members was chosen and charged with creating voices and personalities for the drawings. With Taylor as their coach, the new voice actors crafted names and activities to go along with the voices. The enthusiastic participants did a great job of spontaneously creating 11 mini animations. It was a pretty cool panel to experience.
The New York Anime Festival and New York Comic Con combined for the first time to create one giant convention. Going into the event, yours truly was more than a little intimidated. Having never reported at a con, I didn't know what to expect, especially since I'm still learning about anime, manga, and cosplay. Now that it's over? I can't wait until next year.