Tomorrow, Anime and Manga fans will take over mid-town Manhattan for the 2nd annual New York Anime Festival. I’ve never been to one of these before, so I don’t know what’s in store for me. Thanks to a twist of fate on a late Monday night, I scored VIP passes which will allow me to skip EVERY line for EVERY panel except for all but one autograph session (Rie Tanaka). Considering this is NYC and a LOT of people potentially are within a stone’s throw by mass transit (LIRR, Metro North, Path, Amtrak, Grayhound, etc), I expect a lot of people to show up. Certainly not in the numbers as Otakon, but maybe AnimeNEXT numbers.
As I did with the Otakon schedule, I went over the NYAF schedule of events and picked out some panels that I might be attending. Today I’m going over Friday’s slate of events. I’ll tell you one thing, I’m really getting sick of going to industry panels. For the most part, they don’t reveal much actual news lately and most of the people who ask questions there are so uniformed about what is being released. Still, that won’t stop me from attending them since I got a lot of swag from them. The NYAF schedule is available in grid form for each day. You can also look at the panels, screenings, autographing, concerts and other special events going on throughout the city over the weekend.
Friday September 26
Bandai 1:30-2:30p (Anime Panel Room) They say that new stuff for ‘09 will be announced. If I can to this on time after me and my friend take a diversion to Image Anime, I’ll be here.
Anime Journalism 1:45-2:45p (Manga Panel Room) Anime News Network is hosting this. While I’m not fond of the much of the viewpoints of the editorial staff, you have to say that no one does it like ANN when they cover news pertaining to Anime and Manga.
Funimation 2:45-3:45p (Anime Panel Room) After getting all that was left of Geneon’s corpse and sucking the life out of ADV like a Vampire, what is next for the house that DragonBall Z built? (Hopefully, NO MORE DBZ Blu-Ray!).
Saber Academy 7-8p (Akihabara Stage) NY Jedi will perform on the stage. There was an episode of Rocketboom a year or two back that showcased these guys. Think of people fighting with those fiberglass lightsabers. Yeah, kind of neat and nerdy at the same time.
mc chris 8:30-10p (Anime News Network Theatre) The only reason why I’m showing up to this event is because it’s included in my VIP package. For those not in the know, this is a “nerdcore” rapper. You might have noticed him while watching “Aqua Teen Hunger Force”.
With Jedi, nerdcore rappers and Morimoto from Iron Chef coming down to this event, is this really related at all to anime and manga? I shouldn’t be too noisy about it since many other Anime cons invite folks who have little or any connections to the world of Anime or Manga.
