21st October 2011

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New York Comic-Con 2011 Adventure Log!

On October 13-16, 2011, the East Coast’s biggest pop culture convention landed upon New York City once again with an infusion of comic book artists, celebrities, video game developers, and of course, a LARGE number of cosplayers. New York Comic-Con 2011 managed to draw an attendance of 105,000 over the span of 4 days. A lot of things happened, so get ready for a somewhat extensive recap.

Thursday, October 13

Originally, I wanted to get my press pass and that was about it. However, I saw a huge line of people waiting to get into the show floor around 4pm. I decided that I would check out the booths as well. Good grief, the Capcom booth was PACKED. Though I did manage to get a chance to talk to Capcom Special Advisor Seth Killian a bit about Phoenix Wright in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Whoever decided to have Thursday be the official start day of NYCC knew what he/she was doing. People who bought 4-day passes really enjoyed themselves on Thursday.

Friday, October 14

Unfortunately, I missed the Yen Press panel. I did hear they licensed all 3 volumes of the Puella Magi Madoka Magica manga. It’s basically a direct adaptation of the anime, so if you’ve seen the anime, you might not miss much. Still a good read though. Yen Press also rescued Quin Rose’s Alice in the Country of Hearts from Tokyopop.

I did, however, attended both the Kodansha Comics panel and Vertical, Inc. panel. Fairy Tail mangaka, Hiro Mashima, made his appearance at the Kodansha panel, gave an introduction in English, and graced the audience with live drawings of his art. The funniest part was when asked what his favorite video game was and Mashima said “Gears of War 3”. He even talks about how the Americans are so good at the game. I can’t imagine him playing a game like that, honestly. The part that did worry me was how to address readers who are way ahead in Fairy Tail compared to the American releases. I think Kodansha did a decent job in snuffing out questions regarding spoilers from the Japanese release.

Dallas Middaugh then mentioned the new titles coming out from Kodansha. He promoted Sailor Moon, which got a 2nd printing. Dallas also promoted a Genshiken Omnibus & Kitchen Princess Omnibus. The biggest announcement was the licensing of Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan). I literally squealed like a fanboy over the announcement. Though what got me more excited was how the presentation referenced my blog. Here was the line they took from the entry I wrote about Attack on Titan.

“It is a series that has been critically praised by both fans & critics alike. The manga recently won the 2011 Kodansha Award for Best Shonen Manga. This is one title that should be taken seriously.” - Manga Therapy, July 2011

Thank you, Dallas and Kodansha, for using my blog for your presentation!

The Vertical panel was last on Friday’s agenda and they never cease to amaze me with the quality of titles they have in their library. A friend of mine asked a question about what will happen to Vertical, Inc. once Chi’s Sweet Home ends. Ed Chavez, Marketing Director of Vertical, mentioned that they will promote Great Teacher Onizuka (which they recently got the license for) as much as possible. Along with Sakuran, Flowers of Evil, and Osamu Tezuka’s Message to Adolf, Vertical continues to be a publisher that focuses on great quality and I think manga fans wouldn’t have it any other way.

Saturday, October 15

I officially debuted the Patriot from Gintama while cosplaying Shinsuke Takasugi, 3-Z Ginpachi-Sensei version. The Sunrise panel was first on the agenda. Masayuki Ozaki graced fans with his presence and talked about upcoming projects from the studio, including the new Mobile Suit Gundam AGE.

In afternoon, I attended the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 panel. The lines got EXTREMELY long, but I managed to be in the 2nd line out of probably 7 lines. It was a nice panel and people got hyped when they saw the Phoenix Wright character reveal trailer. Capcom stated it’s because of the fans that he’s in the game. I still can’t stop laughing at his Level 3 hyper. Capcom revealed more information about the game and promoted a Yu-Gi-Oh-styled card game mode within UMvC3 as well called “Heroes & Heralds Mode”. The trailer looked great, ESPECIALLY the end of it.

After that, I browsed the New York Anime Festival portion with friends and met some new friends as well. The Level 4 area was nicer than the basement NYAF was placed in last year. However, I did not like how the Anime Stage was used for anime/manga fan panels and the like. Not everyone is going to pay attention to them. I felt that those NYAF panels should have been done in the lower levels, just like everyone else’s.

The last panel I attended was “CBLDF: Defending Manga”. It was a very well-informed panel that got me thinking about the state of manga and how manga readers need to educate others more about manga. The panel also got out some other thoughts, which I will discuss in a more in-depth entry specifically on the topic of manga censorship & more.

Also, many fans recognized the Patriot, yay. Others thought I was a genius for creating a tissue box/toilet paper hammer.

Sunday, October 16

The only panel I attended was the Tiger & Bunny panel, hosted by Masayuki Ozaki & VIZ Media. Speaking of VIZ, congratulations to them & Shueisha on deciding to launch Shonen Jump Alpha. This could be the start of something big, if the reception turns out well. For more information on this project, read Deb Aoki’s interview with Alvin Lu (of VIZ Media) & Sasaki Hisaki (of Shueisha).

Back to T&B, Ozaki talked about the series and gave a lot of information about the simulcast coordination with VIZ, costume design, the sponsors on the characters’ suits, & teased a “NEXT PROJECT” on November 15. A big announcement from the panel is that there will be an English dub and it’s already in pre-production. I always wondered if there was a chance for T&B to be on Adult Swim.

Afterwards, Ozaki decided to give autographs to fans. Did I get one? Yes, and it was a hell of a good one.

When the panel was over, I pretty much fooled around for the rest of the day.

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Overall, NYCC was a lot of fun. I still think it has a lot of work to do if it wants to be on the level of San Diego Comic-Con. The cosplay presence was HUGE this year. I have never seen that many cosplayers at NYCC as compared to previous years. Also, as much as NYAF didn’t get the “basement” treatment, their panels didn’t deserve to be up there in the open stage where hundreds of people are just going to sit there and possibly ignore them. Finally, the manga presence actually made an impact this year and I was impressed. Shueisha & VIZ have a chance to be a game-changer in the growing world of digital manga.

Whew, that’s about it. Off to play more Batman: Arkham City! Remember: keep the anime/manga spirit alive! (As long as you don’t do it, SNL-style.) :P

Tagged: Kodansha ComicsNYCC 2011New York Anime FestivalNew York Comic-ConShueisha PublishingVIZ MediaYen Pressanimemangapop culture conventionsvideo gamesVertical Publishing