NYAF Day 1 - 11~15% Unpredictable
I think for the most part, my earlier whine on NYAF hit the spot.
What didn’t hit the spot was that I’ve started to enjoy that party atmosphere at cons. I had to kill a few hours of time tonight so I sat in the Gundam 00 panel. The panelists were a couple Bandai dudes (that I ought to know the names since I’ve seen them more than a few times) and the dub actor for Setsuna. And the panel was surprisingly amusing, in the usual dub-actor-after-dark kind of way. So despite that there were no interesting programming (in fact, after the dealer room was closed, the con literally lost half of its floor space due to the way it’s set up), things were still kind of interesting. Kind of.
So what was predicted?
Go go curry on 8th and 38th. Somehow it feels kind of odd splitting a meal with Moy? But it was a lot of food relatively.
Yea, we ate into it already because it was already 4pm and I didn’t have anything to eat since 7am.
Not sure about food tomorrow–there’s too much stuff going on including a possible Rie Tanaka thing. UGH. Plus possible family obligations.
No sight of Rierie all day, which was kind of predicted.
Rain was well-predicted. It made some nice landscape shots…as long as you’re not being rained on.
That thing beyond the cloud? It’s not the promised place…just the good o’ Empire State Building. [Speaking of which there was this podcast about 5cm that I ought to plug, with yours truly being a total scattermind over at mistakesofyouth.]
There was also a lot of doujinshi. There were actually two relatively large vendors. At one end you got Hen Da Ne as usual, but the other was this shady Chinese operation that seems kind of, well, shady. Still they had some interesting wares.
The license announcements are also kind of predicted. Sola and True Tears are hot stuff and the iron needs to strike fast.
And I suppose lastly there was this, among the many (like finding Gia sitting at the anime journalism panel with the other press folks; or Moy’s funky Asian mixed drinks.), but not the least, notable and predictable items. Actually it was truer to life than you could imagine. Minus the dango.
What was not predicted:
Long lines. There were basically no long lines. There were only a few lines to start with, and even the longest line that was there wasn’t long at all. Very odd considering how bad NY Comic Con is, as both are organized by the same folks. I guess the anime con side just lacks programming to really attract the crowd.
It was a nice view of the exhibit hall from the second level window, down to the first level. Javits Center is pretty like that.
And what the hell is this?
“Meet Mimi, the official Blue Cosplayer, at the CATBLUE DYNAMITE screening”?
Gee, thanks. I guess my one-track mind would say something along the lines that it really needed that to sell? Catblue Dynamite was free online for viewing for a while last(?) year, and from what I saw it wasn’t that bad…
I guess the other big thing was finding myself in an actual Vampire Hunter D-related program. Yes, I resorted to sitting in Hideyuki Kikuchi’s panel. It wasn’t bad but I was dozing off definitely.
Leahy (on the right) is definitely very pro. I ought to read one of those books. There’s also a special treat–a short story translated and published thanks to one of Kikuchi’s loyal fans that won an exclusive short from Kikuchi’s annual talk show special. You can read about Leahy’s involvement in the whole Vampire Hunter D novelization in English over at NYAF.
Kikuchi kept his head down and went at it very much like a reserved Japanese businessperson, as stereotyped. But he was solid. I didn’t keep notes but the one interesting thing he said that got an reaction was how an audience asked about his opinion of Amano’s work on his characters, to which he gave an honest answer. To his chagrin, Amano and his crew just walked in to the panel right before the question was asked. And since Kikuchi was staring down the whole time, he didn’t even realize the conflict of interest that went on until it hit him like a truck moments later.
Anyways. Brad Swaile, at the Gundam 00 panel as mentioned earlier, said that he’s working on the new Dynasty Warrior: Gundam 2 US port. That was news on 9/2 in terms of the port itself, but it’s always good to get confirmation on Amuro’s English dub?
I guess tomorrow will have at least the massive uncertainty regarding Hinano’s panel. Maybe it’ll be fun! Like suddenly being asked about CLANNAD from Hisui.
LOL I see what you did there with the post title. touche
Yes it’s a little unsettling splitting food with another guy but meh, saves a buck or two so who really cares. And yea, I was falling asleep during Kikuchi’s panel as well.
Man, that curry looks delicious
And you didn’t come up and say hi? Dude!
Like Gia said, you should’ve said hi during the panel! I wanted to meet you ; ;
I was too busy running away to the industry panel, sorry–actually left before the panel ended and I didn’t have time to do anything else.
Maybe tomorrow :3
You guys shared, Hinano and JP shared, and I had a whole meal all to myself, hahaha.