The New York Anime Festival

This past weekend saw the return of The New York Anime Festival at Jacob Javits Center, New York City. Three days of anime: exclusive screenings, cosplay, manga, video games, toys, food, and fashion.

This was the second year my husband and I went, and neither one of us felt it was as good as last year's festival. We were especially disappointed that the giants TOKYOPOP and Viz Media were missing. However, there was still an impressive list of vendors including Bandai Entertainment and the Anime News Network.

Exclusive to the show, yet offsite and at an additional price, were the chances to have "the ultimate Lolita experience" at the Baby, The Stars Shine Bright Tea Party and to celebrate Vampire Hunter D author Hideyuki Kikuchi's fifty-ninth birthday.

But you didn't have to leave the convention center to see Lolitas and artists. So we didn't. Our favorite part of the festival is watching all the people in costumes (cosplay) walking around. And of course, the row after row of manga, toys, clothes, dvds, swords, and prints.

Then there were the special seminars such as the Adventures in Voice Acting Workshop and the Pirates vs. Ninjas Dance-Off. I'm really sorry we missed the World Cosplay Summit Masquerade and Hall Costume Contest. Maybe next year we'll actually dress up: I have some Lolita pieces in my closet and my husband is a bit of a closet Narutard.

There were also panels such as the FUNimation Entertainment Industry Panel; Japan 3-D: Beyond the Anime Screen; another panel my husband would have loved, Iron Chef Morimoto; the for adults only Kitty Media (Yaoi and Yuri); Independent Film Making; Lolita: Queen Alicia's Court; Masquerade Cosplay: Am I Doing This Right?; and Anime Blogging. There are over seventy listed in the program guide, I just listed the ones that really interested me.

Big lines waited to see screenings of Vampire Hunter D; Death Note; Lucky Star; Bloodhound: Vampire Gigolo; and CATBLUE DYNAMITE. Over forty throughout the weekend.

I've already mentioned some of the guests, but other featured guests included a variety of artists, illustrators, and voice actors. I haven't yet mentioned all the incredible artists in the Artist Alley. If you do happen to make it to an anime or comic convention, be sure to talk a stroll down the alley, the talent there is absolutely amazing and you can buy some really cool stuff.

We didn't get too see too many of the quests. My husband had wanted to see Yoshitaka Amano, but unfortunately, we didn't. However, we did see an artist recreate the image of Vampire Hunter D with chalk, I believe, on a canvas much larger than life.

A bit of a fangirl, myself, I wanted to stop in at the Voltaire booth. We weren't able to see his performance on Saturday, but I did just order his new CD (which had sold out at the festival before I even made it to the booth).

All in all we had a really great day. As the floor layout for the festival was pretty small, only the bottom level of Javits, we were able to walk it and see pretty much everything (most things twice, some three times) in two hours. That's counting the break we took for my husband's $3.75 Sprite and my $3.50 coffee.

We will definitely be there again next year. Whether or not we dress up, well, that's another article...