Media Report: Valentine's Anime and Manga Day 2011

About half an hour before 2pm, this was the first thing I encountered relating to the event: a LONG line of waiting attendees. They seriously wanted their cell phone case.

The Shojo Beat cell phone cases that were given to the first 75 event attendees, who were the people on that long line.

Some of the participants during the Hip Hop Sneaker Art Workshop, which lasted until 4:30pm, working hard on their design.

Anime and Hip Hop panel. Left to right: Tony Yao, Vivian Ho, Megumi Sato (in the back) from Samurai Beat Radio, May Young from Asian Culture Goes Pop, and Naomi Chida, also known as DJ Naomi, who covered hip-hop in Japan. The panel spoke about the connections between anime series and the music of hip hop in the USA, such as Afro Samurai and the lyrical references to Kira from Death Note.

Anime and Hip Hop panel. Left to right: Terry Nelson from Hip Hop USA and Rock Steady Crew. Lucan, who is holding the microphone, is doing a Bruce Lee impression that was reflected on one of the sneakers shown during the panel.

Members from One Piece Podcast spoke about the current status and popularity of the show. A very random unscheduled appearance...

SoHo Host Club panel. Left to right: Salvatore Torres (behind Tony Yao) Andy Seto, Alexandra Honigsberg the founder (behind Alex), Ken Ghani and Alex Tenshi. The group spoke about the ways of being a gentlemen and how to properly treat a lady. Basically, it was about their individual take on relationships and treatment of a love one.

Here comes the maids. All dressed in brown...with white aprons. Yes, the maids were coming down to the center stage for the Maid Cafe Dating Game.

A butler from the Maid Cafe selecting audience members to participate in the Dating Game. In his hand are the prizes to be given to the winners of the game.

The last game of the Maid Cafe became a role reversal. Instead of having a maid ask the unidentified participating audience members the questions, a member of the audience, pictured here, with the help from one of the maids, asked the unidentified maids and butler the questions. The maid or butler with the best answers to his ears, wins!

Participating maids and butler answering questions asked by the audience member. Yes, the answers can be quite humorous.

At the end of the Maid Cafe segment, Peter Tatara, from New York Anime Festival, talks about the cold damp weather and gets the crowd ready for the revealing of the sneaker art winners.

Some of the the participating sneaker designs. Others were on the sneaker design template.

Tony Yao introducing Terry Nelson, who revealed the six winners of the Hip Hop Sneaker Art Workshop. The winning sneakers are on the table.

Prizes to be given out during the NYAF Valentine's Day Raffle.
© 2011 Linda Thai

Photography by Linda Thai

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