Dec 08 2007
New York Anime Fest: Hanbun Desu.
After uploading photos, and my computer freezing/crashing (all that good stuff) and converting videos for your viewing pleasure I’m now ready to write my review. This is a review based on my visit on Saturday only so I can’t speak for the whole con. Also this time around I went as a con goer, rather than sitting in the “artist alley” (or what they actually dedicated to it this year). I also wish I had an actual video camera rather than taking bootleg videos with my normal camera and eating up almost all of my diskspace. (Ah next time I’ll try using the email mode XD.) Anyway in one word all I can say is: For $30 I get THIS? Where’s the rest? The con felt kinda like getting a hot dog with the actual hot dog missing and all you had to eat was some bun and ketchup.
We got there around 10:30AM and it was still filling up. They made us go around in some stupid line through a huge empty hall only to let us go downstairs into basically the DEALER ROOM WOOT! Not. I think I’ll pass on your $5 pocky boxes. (I can’t believe they think they can get away with this when you can get this pocky for $1.25 at Kinokuniya advertised in the program book!) We browsed around and I was tempted to buy a random figure of moetan but then I saw the ones you can get and one of them was her with her pajamas coming off to reveal her panties. Knowing my luck, I’d probably get that one, so I decided to pass. Everything else that I found cute (like the square Boo stuffed things) was as usual ridiculously overpriced and in the end everything that was in my con bag was free crap that was thrown into my hands as I was walking by.
The thing that pleased me were the amount of contests and giveaways you could sign up for. One had this survey that you fill out about your anime tastes and they asked “which of our animes interest you” so I decided to be a smartass and write デジキャラット、ハルヒ on the blank line. (The people doing the survey were Japanese anyway so I didn’t think it would be a problem.) I was given a Haruhi poster for this but when I got home I realized I don’t really want it and so in the trash it went 
We entered a costume contest with our Nice Boat cosplay. I doubt we’ll win since our cosplay isn’t really complex and you’d really need to know about School Days to get wtf is going on.
We met up with DS after the Anime Reviewing panel. Oh yes the anime reviewing panel. If any of you out there are ANN fanboys and you have an anime blog in which you post anime summaries, they basically just slapped you in the face. During the Q&A session I asked “What are your thoughts on anime bloggers who do summary episode by episode posts of stuff currently airing in Japan?” The reponse was something along the lines of “I laugh at them because nobody reads them, and most of the time you’ll see those posts have 0 comments.” O rly? My posts may not get as many but they certainly get more than 0. I went up to the guy, Mr. Zac Bertschy by the way, after the panel to tell him about mine and JP’s blogs but the next panel was starting and we didn’t have time to discuss anything, but I did get a quick “oh I’m sorry didn’t mean to insult your blogging” from him. I dunno though, the fact that he said that in the first place, I think is where we see the line of ignorance drawn between mainstream US anime fans, and those of us who are patiently waiting for the next episode of Clannad or Shugo Chara to come out on torrent or Niconico. I did like that Daryl guy though, he actually liked using memes in his posts and he knew about the Nice Boat joke!
Anyway we walked around to look for cosplayers to take photos of. There were some Haruhi’s and some Lucky Star cosplayers but frankly the amount of cosplay this time around was pathetic. I don’t know if I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I had trouble finding someone who was either non bleach, non kingdom hearts or non Naruto. This is why my photos are so pathetic this time around. You’d think with more people we’d see more rare cosplay…no. There was a lot of what I like to call pussy cosplay where you’ll see some girl walk around wearing Yondaime Hokage’s cape, but not even trying to wear the rest of the costume or even putting on a blonde spikey wig. Why do you half ass cosplay? I mean I can’t sew either, so I cosplay stuff I can “put together” as close to the original as possible. *Gets into Ohno mode* It was really pathetic and I just didn’t wanna photograph every freaking halfassed Narutard or every other Bleachtard (they all look the same to me) walking by. I was pleased to find a Busou Renkin and a Reborn cosplayer.
JP, DS and I had lunch at GoGo Curry. The guy working there told us that in Japan otaku go to the 55Curry in Akihabara and always crowd the place. At the end of our lunch (which was awesome and filling) I told the guy in Japanese “Curry wa saikou desu!” He was as usual surprised that I know Japanese and when I said “jibun de benkyoushimashita” I got a “maji de!” rather than the usual “nihongo ojouzu desu ne” lol. When we were leaving he said “Thank you! Please come again!” That was fun and if you ever come to NYC definitely check them out. You get a really fulfilling mean for $7. A couple next to us got the grand slam (4 toppings) and shared it. Maybe me and JP will try that next time.
When we got back to the con, we went to the Anime Match Game. I thought it was gonna be like an anime version of Love Connection but it turned out to be more like Family Feud. They also picked some random shota from Massachusetts and some random fanboy from New Jersey. Both of them like had to go against dub voice actors, one of which voiced JigglyPuff in Pokemon. Here’s a short video clip I uploaded of it.
Lol she still has it! I don’t watch dubs but Pokemon is one of the few dubs I watched for a while and I’m like OMG! IT’s JIGGLYPUFF! XDDDDDDDDD Anyway it was lots of fun, and the old man who voiced Speed Racer was the best. When they asked “Which anime made you cry” I think someone in the staff told him to say Kanon. I was like WOOT! And of course I was the only one because whoa what’s Kanon? Is that like something from Trigun? 
So I said I was gonna see the xxxHolic movie but I immediately left the room upon discovering it was gonna be a dub. To kill time we walked over to the Geeknights Podcast which I THINK was supposed to be live but then it ended up not being live. Well when the guy said “Why do you guys go to anime cons?” I immediately yelled out “COSPLAY!” 
So then they went into a story about how the guy had no money in college so he duct taped a costume to his front and wore a trenchcoat to cover his back. Lol. The guys graduated 1 year before I did, so they totally knew about Animefactory’s old school digital fansubs of Gatekeepers and Boys Be. (Woot I think I still have those lol!)
Finally we decided to check out the Uncle Yo! Comedian thing which was lots of fun as well.
It was pretty funny, the guy really has his act down well but the problem is he was just like…a comedian. He wasn’t interacting with the audience like the others panels we went to so at the end when he started going on about “making an anime ourselves” and he started babbling about hobos and hobo juice I was like But besides his retarded hobo idea, I laughed a lot and it was really great that he could incorporate stuff like Fist of the North Star along with stuff like Code Geass.
Afterwards we realized there was absolutely nothing to do. What kind of anime con ends all of its events at 7? We went to the fanfiction workshop but the guys didn’t seem like they knew what they were doing, and their way of presenting was putting me to sleep. I wanted it to be like “Who likes fanfics? I DO! Who likes buttsecks? I DO! WOOOOOTTT!!!!” Then I would have stayed but they were like “We’re not here to tell you what’s right or wrong, we’re here to help you bring your ideas to paper or computer screen”. 
Snore. Sorry next.
But there was no next so we just decided to head home. All in all I felt sorta jipped because it’s like wait where’s the rest? The anime cosplay contest, which so far at every con I’ve gone to has been on a Saturday night - for some reason this con decided to have it on Friday night. Wtf? Why? The AMV contest (which I didn’t bother entering) is only being shown once on Sunday morning at 11. Who’s gonna get up early on Sunday to watch AMVs? Even at Otakon the stupid thing is shown like once every day of the con. Also the con runs till 5 tomorrow….who’s gonna be here till 5 if they came from say…Massachusetts? Also I’m SO GLAD I didn’t spend $175 on an artist table. I couldn’t even tell where the artist alley began or ended because it seemed to like “blend into” the actual dealers tables. This one girl who’s art I enjoy, told me she was selling almost nothing which is horrible considering how much she had to spend on that table.
My gut feeling was unfortunately right that the people who attended this con were either complete anime noobs, mainstream lovers (WOO NARUTO AND TRIGUN!) or just people who crawled out of the magic tournament and nobody really checked their badge because it was later in the day. We did stop by the magic room (because JP’s nerd instincts couldn’t contain themselves) and while he was drooling I was just amused to discover that a lot of Magic players (and recent year winners) were actually from Japan! LOL. Also approximately (including DS) 5 people recognized me and JP as Sekai and Makoto. Hey that’s 4 more than I expected so that’s pretty awesome 8D. Most likely I’ll never do this cosplay again though, my plans for next year include a certain pink haired girl and her cat boy friend.
Oh yes, click here for the photos as usual. Click on “New York Anime Festival” on the left so that you don’t see them mixed in with the ones from other cons.
Tags: nice boat
33 Responses to “New York Anime Fest: Hanbun Desu.”
Loading ...
Kage on 
Inuhanyou on 
iynn512 on 
So basically the people who were at that con were the kind of people who wouldn’t get the joke in this post title? ;P
Totali> Nobody but me and you get that joke
Hah, the guy from ANN, Zac or whatever, is the big cheese over there. Pretty much an idiot most of the time, and fairly ignorant of the community that watches shows raw or subbed as they come out.
I almost decided to go, I would have been the 6th person to get the nice boat cosplay, but alas I couldn’t. This tax law final studying is taking longer than I anticipated, and I really didn’t have the 35 bucks or whatever for a day pass plus 20 bucks on transit to spare for a short, one day thing. Doesn’t sound like it was all that worth it regardless, the Naruto and Trigun crown as you describe it doesn’t sound like the type I would have loads of fun interacting with.
Maybe they will learn some lessons from this being the first year and do a better job next year. It would certainly be nice to have a regular con in NYC.
Calawain> Yea I definitely think if it takes you 20 min to get down here and you got a final, then no it really wasn’t worth going. I think they do plan to come back next year and at the end of the program guide they asked us to email feedback. I had JP send them an email on how they’re missing “basic” things that even small conventions have.
Oh my gosh, I sooo agree with you. For $30(well, $27 in my case), it was a complete rip off!! I was only able to get there at 4, because I had a concert at my college that morning..and hell, I love anime, but when you get credits and a grade for chorale, 60% of your grade is attending the concert, and yoou have a solo in said concert… going to the concert and putting off going to the con is a good idea. So, when I got there and realized that hell, it really did end at 7pm, no joke, I wanted to die. We basically walked around the Dealer’s Room, b/c quite frankly, there was nothing else to do.
I’d looked so forward to seeing a Masquerade, since all cons have them on Saturdays…but after buying my ticket way back when, I finally found their damned schedule last week, and saw the dumbshits put it on Friday night. Supposedly yesterday the con was dead. And this was the only time EVER that I was able to get to a con on a Saturday!! -whines-
I also agree with you on the cosplay thing..though I’m guilty of being a Naruto cosplayer. But dammit, I look good as Deidara, and it feels nice looked good, and being recognized at theses things… and I have everything except the eyepiece, right down to the letter, unlike those quasicosplayers who just throw on a cloak or something(the thought of something more than hair obstructing my already terrible vision scares me, lol). I saw so many of those half-assed cosplayers you were talking about!! At AN, yeah, there were some, but not like this…made me wanna cry.
All in all, I felt I wasted time that could have been used studying for my Chem exam. I like anime cons…just..not this one. They need MAJOR improvements, ASAP.
Long time reader, first time comment ^^;; I was the guy who asked for your photo at the panel room after the Disorganization 13 panel.
The Bleach/Naruto/Kingdom Hearts cosplayers, which made me realize two things: I’m getting too old for cons and I’m glad I only went one day. Overall though, I thought it was okay, but they really needed to have more events.
Speaking of which, there were no maids in the maid cafe… did you catch any?
Catboy cosplay could bring out the bat-wielding fangirls, though.
Props to you and JP as the Nice Boaters as well as the BR cosplayer. They were really well done ^^. But geez, I was thinking of cosplaying as a “certain pink-haired girl” too when the anime started.
And aren’t all convention items overpriced? I remember seeing a black Mokona plushie priced for $86 at AX last year O___O. Uh ya, I’ll pass. Well at least you sorta enjoyed NYAF and didn’t have any 2 hour delays in the sun (or cold) :D.
You didn’t last long in that academic panel either *snore*
LOL the boat joke was funny. JP had such a good expression. But of course, nobody reads blogs and everyone is from America!
geez u bitch a lot..
Zac is such a snob toward fansub watchers. Oh yeah nobody reads blogs about current shows in Japan. (/sarcasm)
By the way you need to come out here to California, there are way more Cosplay events here. The Cosplayers are so much more talented, especially during AX.
The mob is going to get you for thrashing that poster! Not that I wouldn’t have done it myself but… I would have set it on fire and youtubed it for fun. >_>
ANN is run by a bunch of pricks. Fullstop. No need to go into any further discussion.
And we now know Hinano likes little girls… which doesn’t terrorize my mind that badly. If I’d got cosplaying, I’d seriously invest money on a someone to make the costume. Sess-sama is good value. A girl doing sess-sama is even better coz it makes sesshoumaru look feminine and s3xy. :3 Fortunately or unfortunately, the convention schedule here sucks and it costs too much to fly to somewhere where there is a decent one.
And no, I wouldn’t go to NYC for a curry. I get better ones here. Ones that will annihilate your tastebuds and make you wonder what the hell you were eating before. Japanese “curry” is a stew. No “oomph”.
Frankly speaking, with the internet these days, you can get most of the stuff online. The rarer stuff you go to Japr0n, which is sorta in the pipeline… maybe… until can save up enough money. A certain Akihabara chain is going to bleed all that money.
BTW, which con burns a Magic card during its opening. AX? Magic is a good. Except it is a damn expensive hobby. I stopped because the cost of spending money 3x a year for the expansions was getting prohibitively expensive. Even more expensive than DVDs, plus it’s mainly for the art value I get them.
Haha, I loved the School Days cosplay, wish I could have seen it in person. xD
And you’re gonna be doing Shugo Chara? Awesome.
My friends and I are planning to do that too. I’ll be going as Amu, then I’ve got a friend who’s going to be Yaya, and another who’s going to be Ikuto. And we also MIGHT have someone to be Nadeshiko.
Aurora> I wish I would have seen your Deidara I bet it woulda been worth photo taking T_T; I only saw the random people who just slapped on an Akatsuki cloak and walked around that way.
farmboy> hey there!
The maid cafe was pretty bootleg. When we got there I just saw a giant foodcourt and some maids sitting around getting their photos taken. I was so confused so I didn’t bother going in XD
Kiseki> Yea it seems dealers room is a ripoff, I guess for con noobs the dealers room is heaven because they really can’t get this stuff anywhere else (or they aren’t allowed to order online and their parents give them cash to spend XD)
Kenshin> I wanted to go to AX last year but from all the moving/lack of job all I could afford was local cons. I think for 2007 thoguh I’ll go to Otakon I hear the artist alley business does much better there
One day I’ll fly out to AX, I just need to have $600 ready to spare for a plane ticket!
Digi>
I never payed attention to ANN aside from looking up seiyuus once in a while and while I heard things, I guess it hit home harder when it was coming directly from them. It felt like a 4th grader trying to tell me that he knows calculus better than I did in high school or something. Also they sold cosplay costumes in the dealers room but I wasn’t about to have JP spend $90 on a stupid Sasuke outfit. I mean come on a shirt and pants and some purple rope for $90? Please. I’m not sure which con burns Magic cards XD I don’t keep up with that stuff, that’s a JPmeyer question.
The entrance cost was of $30?
Wow. And I thought that the Anitour here in Panama was expensive ($5 xD).
Anyway, I loved the photos that you taked so muuuch
Minto: I think at the door registration for 1 day is $35 we had pre-registered so it was $30 for 1 day
“Or they aren’t allowed to order online and their parents give them cash to spend XD”
That’s my situation right there XD. Now I’ve gotta convince my parents to get that Busou Renkin boxset, it’s coming out on my sweet 16 b-day O__O.
you’re damn right! I can get it cheaper at a discountstore for the shirt + hardwarestore for the rope!
awww. you should have went on sunday. they were giving out free dvds, manga, and a load of GOODIES. a lot worth it on sunday.
Haha was it really? Eh most of the time the free stuff they give eventually goes into my garbage. Our apartment is tiny as hell and it’s like “gee do I really need this English manga and these DVDs of anime I saw 5 years ago” ? I’m disappointed in general - currently I have no plans to attend next year
P.S. I formatted my computer today and files are still copying. I have yet to install any programs so I’m probably not gonna be able to blog Monday shows.
NYAF Day 2: Some panels, some cosplay, за варудо, and What, It’s over? Time to go home!…
So I went back to the con Saturday and it was like this: “Wow, I don’t have to leave before 6 like I did yesterday to meet my cousin after his work (’cause I’m staying at his place in Brooklyn). Oh wait, now it’s almost …
omg. looks fun! im dying to go to an anime festival. never been to any before. T_T anyways just linked you at my blog recently. Link me back? =) nice blog
Excellent post as always. And the photos were great as well. You work your costume well as did your “man-friend”. The only thing that really struck me was the Yaoi photo. I can only imagine what the corn cobs are for…
I’m sorry your experience wasn’t that great. Either it was simply a bad showing or maybe you’re growing out of the anime phase. [God forbid].
Choo> Sure no problem
Sabrina> That’s a pun on Boku no Sexual Harrassment, where you guessed it, they used a corncob for the wrong purpose.
The purpose of a corncob is what we choose to make of it…
wow. Only there for a day? Didnt even check out the cafe? You do know that this was a first for NYAF right? U judge it like it was poor. They gave out FREE pocky for one, there were decent things in the dealers room, plus there were some decent cosplays. You’re blind if u think all u saw were the mainstream Naruto and bleach fans. You apparently came to this con with a closed mind.
Nokolo> Your comment truly made me laugh
OOOH MAN FREE POCKY!
Please explain to me what you consider “decent” and then tell me its “decent” price.
Do you have photos of these decent cosplays? Cause besides all the mainstream stuff (which includes Bleach and Naruto) I only saw maybe Haruhi & Lucky Star.
You apparently came to this blog with a similar one.
Addendum: Hahiru and lucky aids are mainstream.
oh you poor things…
A box here costs… a less than US$1 and is so common… I buy something tastier.
Choo> KL had one recently. Sing is another close destination. I used to want to go to one but somehow grew out of it.
And…
I H-A-T-E lucky aids like the virus show it is. :3
Hinano> Maybe we should open his mind a bit more with promises of wild yaoi orgies.
Sabrina TTW> Grow out of the anime phase? I think that happened ages ago for me. Something about disillusionment about how things are going.
I supposed it snapped when people started making shows out of H-games without the needed H in it as they ran out of material. Then I thought they were just digging out the dregs at bottom of the barrel… Now I realise I was dead wrong ‘coz that wasn’t the bottom then. I should have a bloggus to rantus like drmchsr0 but am too lazius to setus one up.
And today’s smirky link is: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/my/subscription/subscribe
Sorry, I cannot help but smirk (okay… I lie, laugh uncontrollably) at the very first sentence.
digi> loool @ the AN thing “worth paying for” hahahaa
[...] the editorial blog. According to Hinano, our beloved Answerman apparently confused them with episode summary blogs because episode summary [...]
hey, screw you guys!
Hirano> aww, you had nice boat cosplay?? i cnat believe i missed it.
Nokolo> Dude, so what if they had free pocky. they were giving out free dvd and manga like on the last day.