(NYCC / NYAF) Part 2 :::My Turn:::

Hi everyone! As you already know RPGHero and myself (Deretsun) went to the New York Anime Festival in the city. The Comic Con was there as well but didn't interest me as much =P.

So now it's my turn to share my experience of my first big convention! yay! :)

So went on Saturday--the day the main events were supposed to happen. So I left early from a class and tried my best to get there in time for the 11:45 Hatsune Miku Concert. Keep in mind that this was my first BIG convention... the ConnectiCon couldn't compare in size... this is the Jacob Javits we're talking about here. And honestly--I do a LOT of planning--but I didn't see this one coming.... The LINE!

Here I was, thinking that since I had ordered it online I would just be able to walk into the Javits and redeem my ticket... but of course not! There was such a huge line that it's hard to describe. Let me show you:

So it started off around here by the sidewalk (left) and then curved around to the stairs (right).



Then drops back along the wall of the side walk and loops around further next to the building.

Haha--we're not done yet! (This is what happens when you combine two conventions!)

It then goes through that underpass and finally goes inside (left)... NOPE! Still not done! It then proceeds to go up the escalator and into this threatening huge zig-zag line inside! (right).



So I had got there at 11:50--thinking I'd be able to still catch the Miku Concert... yah... that didn't happen. The line moved pretty quickly but it was still huge and I got to the door of the Miku Concert at 12:35... It ended at 12:45 so I thought I'd be able to sneak in and take some videos but they wouldn't let me in since it was so crowded... and this was the main event I wanted to see too! That really annoyed me. （つまんないね。）　There was an encore concert later at 8 pm but I couldn't stay that late.

So remember: if you ever want to catch an early event at a convention--get there EXTRA early! (1-2 hours atleast)

So this picture to the left was the Comic Con floor--it was much larger than the Anime Festival which was in the basement level and kinda pissed me off lol. Normally, (Or so I've been told) they split up the comic con and anime festival, but this time they were joined and made things even more crowded than it should have been.

Look at how closed in the Anime Festival floor was compared to it:

And although it was a pretty decent size it felt as if everyone was crying for more room.

So what exactly was at this convention? Wow, there was alot--from cosplays to crossplays (dressing up as a character from the opposite gender) and from miku concerts to voice actor panels! Up at the Comic Con floor they had a bunch of booths with a mix of games from Wii, Square Enix, etc. etc. + two out of the like 20 isles was related to anime stuff from posters to Miku CDs and from cosplay outfits to plush dolls.

More awesome cosplays:

Vocaloids Hatsune Miku (left) and Gakupo Kamui (right).



Naruto characters: Jiraiya, Shino, and a crossplay of Kiba



I thought that this Miku Cosplay was the best that I saw at the convention--but that's just me =P.

I enjoyed the Voice Actor Panel as well entitled "Voice Actors: East Meets West." There were english voice actors from the east to west cost of America and even further west was the japanese voice actor guest: Minori Chihara! Yay! I'm sure you guys must've heard her voice acting before! It's phenomenal!


My favorite character from her voice acting career history is Chiaki Minami from Minami-Ke! (which was an awesome and refreshing non-plot comedy anime that I recommend for happy comedy lovers =P).

Opening:

Here you go! ^^

There was a whole load of things to do at the con and I'm glad! At ConnectiCon I came pretty late and there was hardly anything to do once I got there--but this Con had events throughout the whole day--because, well... it was HUGE =P.

I went to a Crunchyroll announcement where they had Q & A about various things. It was pretty monotone and boring but once in a while you'd get a funny question like "When are you going to re-model your site? It's looking a little dated." lol... I did manage to extract unreleased crunchyroll news however such as that they will be hosting Tantei Opera Milky Holmes from Fall Season.

They also had a random stage for people to perform but honestly they were terrible lol. People were trying to sing in japanese but their frantic yelling just hurt my ears so I left.

Later, and I thought nothing else could go wrong besides missing the miku concert--I go to the Puffy AmiYumi (yes, they were there!) autograph area expecting a free autograph. But of course... things wouldn't go that smoothly. First I realize there's a line. Then I realized I had to actually buy some of their merchandise to sign (t-shirts, etc.) which were around $16-20 each. You would THINK it'd be free... to show appreciation for the fans.. but no! It just had to cost money and the stand just had to run out of Teen Titans shirts -.-

And that's not all that went wrong! I also had a bad experience on the Comic Con floor:

So I was interested in a game called Guild Wars 2 that's supposed to be coming out within 2 years. So I went to check it out. Little did I know how unorganized it was. They just tossed booths here and there and no one knew where anything was. On their little "guide" it was supposed to be at room 1A21 but then I found out that everything had a different labelling system such as 1811, 3010--there were no letters at all! So I had no clue at all where I was going and ended up not finding it at all which was pretty depressing--but I got over it! At an Aniplex booth they gave out free K-On! posters and later on I found a good Lucky Star poster that I bought. Here are my spoils:


Those posters were enough to make up for the autograph and miku concert and I went home happy :)

So that was the New York Anime Festival! If you are ever in town for a convention don't miss it! It's a great chance to be around your "species" if you're >= (greater than or equal to) an otaku. And if you're able to stay late--you might catch the Maid Cafe that I unfortunately missed :(

So that's all for today!

Hope you enjoyed reading this! ^^
:::Deretsun:::