NYAF/NYCC ’10 Recap: The Hybrid Behemoth Strikes! Can it be Tamed?
It would’ve been hard to’ve topped my peak experience of my first NYAF (The New York Anime Festival), last year. And much has changed in the past year, since I’ve become co-chair of Animinicon SoHo and president of the SoHo Host Club and am working with various colleagues on playing and promoting Japanese music here in the States (from rock to jazz and latin) and collaborating with other Japanese musicians. So my perspective is…different. But I’m still a Philosopher.
Recalling the crammed chaos that’d been Saturday of the con last year, I anticipated with terror what a combined NYAF/NYCC would be like for someone with mild claustrophobia like me. With nearly 100K in attendance at peak, covering the full convention center, it was daunting. My single corner booth with the Host Club on the dealer’s floor 3100 aisle with Mar Creation was on the far Uptown end of Javits and the Anime/Manga ghetto was on the farthest Downtown end. It took you about 30 minutes to walk anywhere and finding your way amidst the crowds and roped-off habitrails of certain areas was a feat, in itself. The staff worked very hard under combat conditions and, with few exceptions, were competent and cheerful, including both the NYAF/NYCC/Reed Expo people and the Javits people. The fans, too, took things in stride and with good nature. But with such crowds and every room and event filled, lines were long, tech glitches were numerous, especially for credit card machines and cell phones, and few extra courtesies were given to press—rarely any reserved seating or moving to the front of the line. That meant getting to anything you wanted to see about an hour early…which meant you got to see/cover much less but there was more than twice as much to cover! Impossible task. More triage. I never got to Artists’ Alley. Blew by the Cosplay Café. Didn’t cover one whole dealer’s room and only selectively covered the one I was ensconced in. Didn’t make any screenings. Kept missing people I was trying to meet up with. It was frustrating. It did feel as though NYCC got the lion’s share of space and attention and that NYAF was encapsulated, though Lance Fensterman and Peter Tatara gave stats that support that NYAF had the same coverage and space it had last year and I believe them. But it didn’t FEEL that way.
There were hints of the happy community I’d experienced last year, but they were harder to discern amidst the crush of Stuff and Humanity. Some of the cosplay was, indeed, awesome and some, as usual, was…unfortunate. There was less room for dancing and singing and spontaneity, but it did, indeed, happen.
Japan’s nicest bad boys are, as one of their new album cuts says, causing “Trouble,” out on their first world tour, appearing to frenzied fans. And they’re stopping at NYC’s Roseland Ballroom for only the second time in their 6-year history of music-making together on Saturday, October 9th to rock our world.
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For part 1 of this article, click 
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