NYAF- Day 2-3

Well trying to cram as much text here as possible. I take lots of notes, and as a former reporter from my college paper, I am pretty back log in cleaning up photos from the event, shows how much I am more of a writer, than I am an picture fixer. I will provide links to the AnimeJutsu galleries as soon as I finish and upload those pictures. Warning in advance, that I will be jumping all over the place. This post is a complete recap now that the con is over and done with.

I was too tired yesterday to want to post anything about the second day, which for me was half a con day?That being said, I had a grad class to attend, schedule from 10am to 5pm. I would have been able to attend the class right. Nah.. didn’t happen as planed. I overslept from sleeping too late Friday night/Saturday morning, and woke up 11:15am. Weekend transit once again screwed non-drivers like me. I got to class around 12:30pm. Still that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with NYAF, so I’ll push into that now.

I arrived at NYAF, and just stayed around to wait for panels. I took lots of pictures, and I guess what made it different, was my plans. I decided to go to the Masquerade at the last minute, so that was where I went. It was packed to the fullest. Even to the point where I heard that people were turned away. Seating for press was excellent, much better than how Otakon did it. I sat with Mina and Rai, Aya sat with her friends at another part of the room.

The masquerade was a really nice event, Uncle Yo was very funny as MC. He has a really expressive face, and he definitely got the crowds pumped and excited. He also got unexpectedly involved into some acts, as costumes fell off or what not. What made me changed my mind, was hearing that Rie Tanaka-san  was going to perform. I didn’t expect to see her before Sunday, so I jumped for the chance to see her. She was fabulous!  Seeing Japanese seiyuu’s be able to sing, is such a plus for me.

There was a predominant CLAMP related skits, in many parts… I was definitely psyched a little. However, because I wanted to see other panels for a little bit. I left the masquerade a little bit to attend the last half of the Yuri Panel that was next door over. The noise from the masquerade deafened parts of the panel though, but it was a small gathering of people to listen to. I didn’t appreciate how some people can expect to go to a panel, and expect to watch porn there. That is just rude and immature.

After the Yuri Panel ended, I went back to the Masquerade where I learned that I missed Team Osaka’s performance, but saw a debate occur between the MC, and someone else, while the Judges were making the decision for which skit was the best. So as a stalling mechanics, I was entertained by the debate of which was the Bane of Man kind – Video games or anime? Hmm.. I would say Video games, but then I embraced both aspects, so I guess that was hypocritical to only support one side. The topics brought up by Uncle Yo and his contender was spot on… would you support a hobby that supports promoting the Loser, citing Tenchi and Shinji; or would you support an aspect that would build up a military audience resembling Matrix?

Rai accurately predicted the winners of the skit competition – the new representatives as Team USA, for a cosplay competition at Japan. I didn’t realize that this would occur, but the winners definitely deserved their recognition, they made such accurate looking costumes that it was so good.

Everyone got kicked out of the Jacob Javis, so I made my way back home, where I spent a while trying to clean up photos, however that was unsucessful. By the time I got things settled, it was around 3am. Went to sleep and woke up at 5am. Made  my way once more to Jacob Javis. Reason being, I really really wanted to get Rie Tanaka-san. Don’t ask what compells me to wake up at 5am in the morning and make my way to the city when everything was very dark and all. I was on the line, among the first 20 people who made it. I was so surprised…. and so very sleepy. Made some new acquaintances on the line, and just pressed my way on.

So I got the ticket, and made it to the panel, where once again I was given choice seating because of being press, sweet! I heart NYAF, in spite of them being an industry run, and for their crappy location, for its support for the press who needs to write and/or take pictures to spread the word. I need to write my con report soon.  I did noticed that my editor recently wrote an Express Book Festival report.. neat!

Asked a question, and then after the panel made my way, like a zombie, over to the autograph line, where after cue.. this.. a long wait period.. got the autograph, on a pencil board. Yay!!! I’ll have to show, one of those pictures of the stuff I got from this con, soon.. just need to first go..sleep some more- post con lag, type up that con report… clean up all those pictures.. get through real life (ie: this week) and then I think, I can rationally thing of what to do, such as put a picture of the neat stuff I got.

Another note on NYAF, I decided to forgo going to the after party, choosing to go eat something with my friends.

This con was neat, got to meet several anime bloggers, I’ve encountered and feed to my reader: Gia, Moy, and Omo (again from Otakon). Makes me wish that the anime blogging community was a bit more social, but oh well.. another con, another time.

Still trying to think about Manga Next, don’t think that will be a possibility with NYLA annual popping up soon.