NYCC and nyaf...

Article by Chet Royer

Hey there everyone, it's me Chet, a.k.a Ninja101. I'm here to tell y'all about the collaboration convention known as New York Comic Con (NYCC) and New York Anime Festival (NYAF). This was supposedly going to merge two fan bases into one giant convention, but what I observed was not what I was expecting.

Upon entering the convention hall, I was over whelmed by signs that lead me to different locations. I'm not saying this was a bad thing, it was rather organized, but it showed you how large the convention was. They had sections: one massive show floor/ dealer's room; a comic con artist alley; an anime festival artist alley; the IGN theater, and separate panel areas for each con. Sounds pretty well distributed doesn't it?

After going through the con thoroughly, one might notice how anime festival's presence was not as powerful as comic con's. One obvious notice was that comic con's artist alley was exponentially larger than anime festival's. There was also the fact that the anime festival panels shared the same area with the artist alley. Anime festival had 2 major premiers that could have easily been shown in the IGN theater, but they stuffed both premiers into one of the panel rooms instead. Heck, even during the cosplay masquerade, they had a giant banner as the back drop for the stage. This banner only said “New York Comic Con” and IGN.

So, in my opinion, this convention wasn't really an equal collaboration. I would call this convention New York Comic Con, featuring New York Anime Festival. However, the funny thing was that I enjoyed this type of convention more than any of the New York conventions that I have been to. I am indeed more of an anime/manga fan than an American comic book fan. For some reason, that large show floor and just the way how everything was sectioned off, made it a more enjoyable experience for me. I must also say that I have never went to so many panels before at any other convention. However, at the same time, I think I spent the least amount of money at this convention.

I found myself saying that the NYAF has died or at least won't be a stand alone convention anymore. I think that this convention was a great success. Just seeing how such a large amount of space was crowded to the point that even a small child could not pass through the crowd, shows that the fans did come out to enjoy their hobby. That was probably my only problem for this convention. It was huge(!), but it was still uncomfortably crowded. I was also aware that Jacob Javits Center itself was having a few renovations and construction done. So maybe, at the next con, they will utilize that space. Making it an even bigger and more awesome convention. I will say here and now, that I fully approve of this collaboration convention. I believe that ReedPOP should keep doing this. It makes it cheaper for the fans, who enjoy both conventions. It shows new things to fans who have never been exposed to the other convention, and it just seems more efficient for ReedPOP to mush them together.

Well that's it for my blabbering, stay tuned for some more in depth thoughts on the convention and the industry itself...oh and...GUNDAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!!
© 2010 Linda Thai