ronaldhennessy will be at the New York Anime Festival – Taking pics as usual

Coming up September 26-28 (That’s this weekend), the 2nd annual New York Anime Festival will be held at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC. As I am a local in the Tri-State area (Long Island to be exact), this will be the first time I’m going to my “local” con. No, I-CON is lame and so is it’s Anime track and AnimeNEXT is moving to Central Jersey next year, which makes it a bit harder for me to get to. The con is run by Reed Exhibitions, the same folks that run New York ComicCon and the first ever East Coast Penny Arcade Expo coming to Boston in 2010. With unlike non-profit cons like Otakon, this one is driven by pure profit and they have the VIP packages to prove it. Me and my friend picked up the Rie Tanaka VIP package, which will ensure us a ticket to the autograph session held on Sunday. Rie Tanaka is the Japanese voice actress who is best known for doing “Chii” in “Chobits”, a favorite of mine. In addition to that perk, I get to cut every line for every panel, sans the other autographs sessions. (The complete VIP package which gives you access to EVERYTHING is sold out).

Once again, I’m bringing my DSLR to snap cosplayers. This time, I have business cards to hand out! These aren’t normal business cards, they’re MOO business cards. Thanks to MOO.com for the wonderful cards. They came out great and I can’t wait to hand them out. Each card is unique and contains a different picture that I took with my contact information on the other side. The only way you’ll get a card is by a). Cosplaying, b) Going to NYAF and c) I choose to take your picture. Sorry Naruto/Final Fantasy/Bleach/Death Note and other played out cosplays, I won’t be taking pictures of you. Show some variety! Lurking on the NYAF boards shows me that the cosplay is probably not going to be as good as Otakon. I’m hoping reality proves me wrong.