NYAF Day 2 - Less Wet, More Walking
At the last moment, most of my worries about today blew over. But it was kind of a mixed feeling when the thing you went to the con for was undermined by crappy line management, yet at the end you don’t feel so bad about spending a day at the con doing the usual stuff.
I love anime events in NYC because it’s where real life and fantasy life collide. Then again, in NYC, people collide on a regular basis just because it’s so densely packed out. The stray cosplayer waiting for a train home highlights something you just don’t see normally even as a con goer–a major transit hub for one of the world’s most city-est city? It means something different for me than what it would for some others, I guess.
For what it is worth, though, you need a full-blown anime con like the NYAF to see this sort of effect. A small event hosted at Kinokuniya or something doesn’t spill over like that.
It’s about the ambiance, I guess.
Speaking of which, the American Diabetes Assocation had their fair today at the Javits Center. The cosplayers do amuse all those doctors at the show. The diabetes show took the other half of the lower level of the exhibition hall that NYAF did not take.
To ration out the morning crowd, the NYAF staff routed the “get into the con” line through the empty upper level. I got to see all the innards of the con center. So that’s how they truck in all the cars every year.
When I first got there I stumbled right on to HAPPYFUNSMILE’s performance at the random stage thing NYAF set up this year. They are as party happy as I remembered them. Too bad their music is too fusion and it’s sticking to what’s musically and culturally true to Japan, rather than the trashy stuff most of us listen to, in order to pander to an anime con audience. But it’s fun.
Soon after that I ended up going to the blogging panel, which you can read over at Hinano’s blog. It’s her panel after all. JP is really good once he turns on his game face, and DS really puts me to shame in terms of putting on the professor-like air. I’ll probably write about it later even if you can see it online over at Anime Diet.
At that time we also met up with Anna and Mike, among others. Too tired and lazy to link to all/most you! Let me know who I missed out. And more of you should’ve come up and said hello…
Saturday was expectedly twice as crowded as Friday, if not more so. Despite this I spent a good bit of time in the most crowded section, the exhibit hall. Hinano complains about BO and at some points it was kind of bad, but when I was following JP, Hinano, DS, Moy and NyaChan we ended up going in there anyways. Thanks to them I bought also the same pizzabutt now you can see on Hinano’s writeup. Not sure it was a wise buy but it was cheap. I also picked up that Izumi Sawatari + machine gun figure, just because it was also not expensive and it ticked me. I also picked up the NYAF 2007 sake set for a present…
Alas, because of all of this I ended up making an ATM run. Not at the con center mind you, even if it means I get to line up behind a pizzabutt cosplayer. Knowing better about ATM surcharges…
At some point I went to the Amano panel and took notes. So there’ll be a post on just that.
Uh, yeah, so I decided to powerwalk down 4 (big) blocks to 8th and hit up my bank branch there, and picked up a snack (also known as my first substantive meal of the day) to munch on while in line. Thanks to that, it made me flake out on the Korean BBQ invite from Hinano et al. and I guess Moy is right that seeing Rie Tanaka is more important. Then again, Mike made it back in time…with his VIP pass.
Well, what can I say, I saw Rie Tanaka. She was a little too far away for me to make out her face very well (let alone photograph well) but the songs she sang are listed over at Moy’s. I’m just impressed how she can give me such a powerful impression about how plain she is. I mean, it’s not a bad thing; her getup on stage was weird but cute, and she did more or less all I can expect out of her. There’s a lot to look forward to tomorrow.
One last thing–I called Moy a kimo-ota for lulz. I think we are kimo-ota. :v It cannot be a good thing to force yourself to wake up mad early on a Sunday just to get a chance for some autographs…
Oh, right, crappy line management. Moy said it, but basically the “start” of the line became “somewhere” in the line. The “end” of the line didn’t change, so it only shortchanged those who lined up and couldn’t get in, and those who were in line first and got worse seats than those who were in line half an hour later. Meh.
And for the second day in a row, I ended the day at Chipotle. Not a bad way to do it!
:O
That’s pretty interesting. My desire to meet him in RL increased. :P
One of the Black Jack cosplayers should have gone down into the ADA con. That would’ve been a sight to see.
Just for the record, I thought up the idea to do a panel in the first place, which Hinano then took over ^^; (she likes to be in charge…)
(she sure does…)
DickMcVengeance: LOL. Another mis-matched medical/anime con you may know of is Acen. They always get this optometry con at the same time. It’s weird taking cosplay pics of Ikkitousen’s Ryomou Shimei next to a line of doctors getting into an eye-care convention.