My Thoughts on New York Anime Festival 2009

Article by Chet Royer
Hello there everyone, my name is Chet and I will be writing a few posts every now and then. While I was pondering about up coming conventions this year, I found myself thinking about the last New York Anime Festival in 2009. So while I wait for days to pass by, bringing me closer to the next convention date, I shall give you all some impressions of the New York Anime Festival 2009, NYAF 2009.

I have been conditioned to feel happy and excited just by the sight of Jacob Javits center. So my spirits, as I entered the building, were somewhat very high. Then I walked on over to the area that was assigned to the NYAF. Year after year I am always disappointed with the location of NYAF. The Jacob Javits building is large and absolutely beautiful. They have so much space for many things. I remember the first New York Comic Con had practically taken over the whole convention center. Even Digital Life, the Electronics Expo, had this large area that looked great. So when I see NYAF contained and stuffed into this basement, I feel a little disappointed. Do not get me wrong, the space is indeed large and is closer to all the little rooms that were use for panels but I feel that more can be done there. From my experience at Anime Boston, I have seen how space can be used very well.

But the other thing that I had to take in consideration was that I noticed that NYAF 2009 felt like it had shrunk. So maybe the use of more space was not needed. I became very worried. In the past NYAF's, when you came down that escalator, the stands and dealers were in your face. It was almost stifling, but in 2009, there was a lot more space. There was almost an exponential amount that allowed more walking space. It was not like everything was pushed back either, because there was a large gaming area in the back area. You can tell just by seeing that back area, NYAF 2009 did not have to consider saving space. But more on that when I get to the gaming ^__^.

Now, on to the show room! It has not changed much really, except for the size, but it had many aisles, and the nice part was that this year the artist alley had its own little corner. The time that it would take you to go through the whole show room is probably less than an hour. This of course is only if you are not hunting for that one little key chain and are forced to look at each and every dealer's small glass cabinet. Now about dealers, their prices are not too great now-a-days. I remember many years ago, I purchased forty volumes of manga for $220. But now I have to rely on Midtown Comics to have their glorious 40% off graphic novel sale. I rarely buy manga at NYAF anymore because of that. But you may find other trinkets, toys and clothing that you may not find anywhere else but at the convention or the internet. The show room also had a few people there promoting things, and one thing I was surprised to see that Sega was promoting Bayonetta.

In speaking of video games, NYAF hosted the World Cyber Games. You were able to watch competitive professional gaming or enjoy some other competitive games. The games that were played for the tournaments were Counter-Strike, StarCraft: Brood War, Warcraft III, FIFA Soccer 09, Carom3D, Gears of War 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, Virtua Fighter 5, Asphalt 4: Elite Racing, and Wise Star 2. The games you were able to play were BlazBlue, Soul Calibur 4 and I believe Virtua Fighter 5. The choice of games playable for spectators seemed to change daily. The gaming are was rather large. It was quite spacious as well. The gamers had plenty of personal room to move about.

But gaming is not the only thing you can do at NYAF! There are many panels and showings to attend. But honestly, I did not really feel inclined to attend most of the panels. They seem to be very, for lack of a better word, boring. The only panels or events I attended was the Yoshiyuki Tomino panel ,the two cosplay events and one of the legal panels.

The Yoshiyuiki Tomino event was an utter disaster. First, people were not sure what room he was going to be in. Then when we all finally get to sit and listen to him speak, the translator needed a translator. Tomino would speak, then the translator spent nearly five minutes translating before reading his horrid version to us. Tomino kept smiling but the fans were not smiling as much. I got fed up to the point that I told myself that I was not going to the next Tomino event.

On a lighter note, the two cosplay events were very enjoyable! The first event was a “just for fun” cosplay event. They also premiered an animated short, Cencoroll, before the actual event. The second cosplay event was lots of fun and had a nice host, Uncle Yo. The only complaint I can really think of was the lack of space. If you were unlucky enough to be in a scenario in which you were not able to line up hours before the event, you might not be able to view the event in the same room. Instead, you had to sit in another room that had a live feed of the event.

Variety Show

Mascarade

Well I think that is all I can tell you all about NYAF '09. My steadily decreasing interest in this convention worries me but I do however have high hopes for the NY Comic Con and NYAF collaboration.
© 2010 Linda Thai
Photography by Christian Camu, Petrina Cheng (unwatermarked) and Linda Thai
Artwork by Chet Royer