But with all that free time came a chance to delve into things that I would not normally check out. On Friday I watched Cencoroll, the new anime short created almost entirely by one man (Atsuya Uki), and later that night I stopped by the Cosplay Variety show, thinking I would find nothing more than silly fanboy/fangirl antics as usual. Much to my surprise, however, I was rewarded for staying through some of the more inconsequential presentations with an operatic performance by Mario Bueno and a whole troupe of cosplayers, who acted out the final scenes of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion to the tune of Coldplay's hit single "Viva La Vida." Not being a huge fan of cosplaying myself, I didn't think that anything at the Variety Show could impress me, but Bueno's breathtaking performance completely blew me away.

Saturday night was my personal highlight of the con, despite the fact that most of the fun wasn't even directly related to the con. (Not a ringing endorsement of the NYAF schedule, unfortunately.) We started off with a massive "Bloggers Roundtable" panel, featuring ten different outlets (Anime Almanac, Anime Vice, Anime wa Bakuhatsu da, Manga Worth Reading, The Gaming Dungeon, Manga.About.com, Ogiue Maniax, Reverse Thieves, Subatomic Brainfreeze, and, of course, Ani-Gamers) representing our varied views on the anime blogging scene. The panel – on video thanks to Anime Diet – went pretty well despite our being scheduled opposite the cosplay masquerade and the resulting lack of attendees, but the best part of our whole blogging reunion was the karaoke right after the panel. There are few things more fun than hanging out with a bunch of insane anime bloggers, singing "Take On Me" and "God Knows" late into the night.

Overall, I think the New York Anime Festival was really starting to come into its own this year, despite the crowded Javits Center with its expensive food and out-of-the-way location. With a truly big-name Guest of Honor (Tomino) and an open floor plan that allowed for more free navigation, it seemed like the folks at Reed Exhibitions were beginning to balance the needs of a professional convention with the desires of fans. It's a shame that the con will be folded into Comic Con next year, but my hope is that the lessons learned in organizing the past three years of NYAF will carry over to next fall's gigantic event. If it's anything like 2009's New York Anime Festival, it's sure to be a blast!

Click for our New York Anime Festival 2009 coverage

SigIkki.com, Viz's new website featuring Viz Signature titles from underground seinen magazine IKKI, also received some time at the panel, alongside news that the service will be getting two new titles: Bob and His Funky Crew (Bob to Yukaina Nakamatachi) by Puncho Kondoh and What's the Answer? (Kotae Wa Mittsu) by Tondabayashi.

Last but not least is Viz's relatively young Haikasoru line of translated Japanese novels, to which they added four new titles:

• The Book of Heroes (Eiyū no Sho) by Miyuki Miyabe: January 2010
• Loups-Garous by Natsuhiko Kyogoku: January 2010)
• Slum Online by Hiroshi Sakurazaka: March 2010
• The Next Continent by Issui Ogawa: May 2010

[Thanks to the Anime News Network for clarification on some of the news that I missed.]

And it's not a Del Rey panel without tons of fashion conversations and non-sequitur industry remarks, so Ali managed to slip in his reason for wearing a necktie instead of a bowtie (you've gotta stay unpredictable!), as well as his insinuation that a manga publisher that doesn't give you a free Moyashimon face mask (i.e. everybody but Del Rey) actually might WANT you to get swine flu. Oh yeah, and Dallas Middaugh of Del Rey would totally beat Kurt Hassler of Yen Press in an arm wrestling match.

Do I smell a challenge, good sirs?

FRIDAY
5:00pm-6:00pm Arrive in NYC
9:00pm-9:30pm Cencoroll (I heard that this was a pretty cool movie, and it's short to boot!)

SATURDAY
11:00am-12:00pm Del Rey (Industry news, bowties to the max)
12:15pm-1:15pm Bandai Entertainment (Sorry, I've got no snarky comments for you Bandai)
1:45pm-2:45pm Yoshiyuki Tomino Q&A (or, alternatively, Manga Entertainment industry panel)
8:00pm-9:00pm Blogger Roundtable (I'm on this panel. BE THERE.)

SUNDAY
11:15am-12:15pm Gurren Lagann: The Movie (More burning spirit > less burning spirit)
12:15pm-1:15pm Viz Media (A new volume of Naruto will come out EVERY HOUR!)
1:30pm-2:30pm State of the Anime and Manga Industries (Big trouble. The end.)
3:00pm-4:00pm CPM Retrospective (Baww, we'll miss you Central Park Media)
4:00pm-5:00pm Anime Recruitment (run by your friends and mine, the Reverse Thieves)
6:20pm Depart NYC

This year's festival featured an encouraging amount of pop culture. Granted, there were definitely many very interesting demonstrations of traditional Japanese art, theatre, and more, but there was also an entire field in the park dedicated to anime and manga. Uncle Yo performed on the Osborne Garden, the New York Anime Festival maintained a booth (helmed, of course, by Peter Tatara), and there were even some booths for Del Rey Manga, Abby Denson, and Misako Rocks. Later in the evening, the festival even featured performances from J-pop artists.

The Gardens were filled with all types, from old Japanese couples to local Brooklynites to teenage otaku. One group of the latter seemed to be really reaping the benefits of the Japanese "high culture" at the event, as the girls had attended Origami, and "Gypsy Rock" demonstrations in addition to the anime events, of which one girl thought there were far too few.

As that attendee pointed out, the Festival is nothing like going to a real anime con, where there are dealers everywhere and panels going on all day, but the Sakura Matsuri is a great time for anybody in the area who enjoys small conventions. Not only does the festival have some fun (if limited) pop culture activities, but it also has a plethora of other Japanese culture activities and a beautiful, beautiful venue.

I absolutely cannot stress that enough – the blooming flowers, lush, green trees (of many, many different varieties), and of course, incredible lines of cherry blossom trees are a feast to the senses that easily beat out the dank concrete and glass halls of a convention center. As long as you're not a stereotypical otaku who will burn in sunlight (I know there are some of you...), the beauty of the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens merged with the pop culture fun of what amounts to a very small NYAF should be an absolute blast.

And for only $12 a day – half that for students – who could possibly pass up such a wonderful opportunity to witness nature and culture in perfect harmony?

Unfortunately, I wasn't as free to attend panels as I was last year. With press badge in hand, I was forced (by my own boundless ambition?!) to run from industry panel to industry panel, only shirking my duties once so I could visit Otaku USA Magazine - a panel run by Erin Finnegan and Jeff Kight that ended up being very informative, regardless of the lack of Patrick Macias. The industry panels often held little of interest, but there were a couple gems hidden among the reiterations of existing licenses. As always, the rest of the "press gang" helped spice up some otherwise boring panels, so of course I'd like to give some shoutouts to Deb Aoki, Erin Finnegan, Gia Manry, Brad "Dick McVengeance" Rice, and of course "Kurono K," who's not really press but we'll let him off the hook this once.

As is to be expected from the wonderful people running the convention, everything went perfectly smoothly in terms of my being press. My badge was quickly approved, as was my interview request, and a press-only computer was provided for on-site blogging without the $70 Wi-Fi fee. I did have a problem with some faulty power outlets during my interview, but it all worked out in the end. Special thanks to Peter Tatara and Kim Mueller for all of their helpful work in setting up my press access and interview (and of course for being really friendly people).

Still, the actual way that the convention hall was set up was noticeably less intuitive than last year. Whereas last year the Festival used the back of the Dealer's Room for a huge stage, this year that back area was unused, and instead there were two different stages for different activities. Closed into what were essentially two panel rooms was the "Anime News Network Theater" (yes, they sponsored NYAF), hidden behind walls where few were likely to find it by accident. Outside of those doors was the hallway that lead between all of the panel rooms, and dead center in this hall NYAF had placed a large stage where musical performances and other events would be held. Believe me, when our very own Uncle Yo was performing, it was frustratingly difficult to move past the stage and get to a panel room.

The two stages represent two very different - and very wrong - ways to make your stage/theater: one is too central, and one is too hidden. Exacerbating the above problems, the Festival also closed one of the Dealer's Room entrances, meaning that there was only one way in and one way out. Luckily, everything was nicely compartmentalized so that events were in one hall, the Dealer's Room was in another, and con-staff rooms were on the outer periphery, making finding my way around the huge area a little bit easier.

I hung out with the usual folks (as well as some new ones) over the course of the weekend, including Brad, Gia, Scott, Kurono K, Stephen Walker, Deb Aoki, DJ Ranma and Kuro Usagi, Erin and Noah, and of course our very own Karl Custer, who kindly allowed me to use his Artist's Alley booth as my base of operations.

Even with some of its navigational problems, the New York Anime Festival is a downright great convention. Peter Tatara and his crew of awesome convention organizers constructed a show that not only featured amazing guests (Yoshitaka Amano, Hideyuki Kikuchi, and Rie Tanaka) and a great location (NYC baby!), but also attracted pretty much everybody who's anybody in anime journalism in the New York-New Jersey area. If you are an anime fan living reasonably close to New York City, you have absolutely no reason to pass up New York Anime Festival 2009.

Read more about New York Anime Festival 2008

• Ani-Gamers Podcast #006 - Tony Oliver, Kyle Hebert, Steve Blum Interview
• Big Apple Anime Explosion: Anime Comes Back to NYC
• NYAF08 Coverage

When asked about a Blu-ray release for MB's remaster of Berserk, Merideth reminded us that regardless of high-def quality, "16mm is 16mm." She also clarified that the main reason for Seirei no Moribito's DVD release delay is that she still doesn't have all of the original artwork for the show after six months of waiting. Finally, the reps also plugged MB's new online card game Alteil (preview coming soon), and let us know that the company is/was interested in picking up Cream Lemon, Turn A Gundam, and Black Lagoon.

Media Blasters denies any plans for a unified anime channel with other companies due to the immense costs of running a television channel. They also say that a burn-on-demand plan will not work for a small company like Media Blasters until someone else makes a system that they can adapt for their own needs.

Del Rey

Unlike AnimeNEXT, at this Del Rey panel the company was up a proverbial creek without a not-so-proverbial Dallas Middaugh. Del Rey's charismatic Associate Publisher was unable to come to the convention due to previous engagements (i.e. his honeymoon), so standing in for him was the equally (if not more) charismatic Ali T. Kokmen. Del Rey, friend of the press, gave us the new announcements rapid-fire at the beginning of the panel, without all of that annoying suspense of other industry panels.

• Del Rey is teaming up with Cartoon Network, bringing Ben10 and Bakugan film comics and light novels to stores. Cue Bakugan trailer with terrrrrible theme music. "Fight for what's right before it's gone! This is Bakugan!"
• The first Bakugan film comic is in December 2008, and the second is in March 2009. An original manga is coming in Summer 2009.
• Ben10 is getting the first film comic release in April 2009, with the original manga in November of 2009.
• Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture in Fall 2009 - It's about cute bacteria. And it's apparently educational. AWO complained that it wasn't licensed. TAKE THAT!
• Tsubasa Character Guide 2 in Summer 2009 - Yeah, it's another one. It covers volumes 8-14.
• Amefurashi in July 2009 - From the creator of Haridama: Magic Cram School and Venus vs. Virus, it looks alright.
• Maid War Chronicles in May 2009 - The illustrator is from Mao-chan. It's about fighting maids. You know you want it.

Most of the rest of the panel was spent answering questions and throwing squishy gavels at the audience to promote Del Rey's new Phoenix Wright manga license. Trust me, you had to be there for some of Ali's lines. Why is Del Rey so gosh darn awesome asks Japanator reader KuronoK? "Diet and exercise." We love you Del Rey.

Anime News Network

[EDIT: Gia let me know during Podtoid-san today that this was previously announced. Oops!] Quite ironically, there was also some news out of the center of anime news themselves, Anime News Network, during their (self-)celebratory 10th Anniversary panel. Namely, the web site, which has already pursued some mode of video presence on the web, will now be working to license new series from Japan and provide them online. There will be free, low-quality videos streaming on the web site, and $3 high-quality (presumably DRM-free) episodes, in a pricing scheme suspiciously similar to that of asian media site CrunchyRoll.

The only shows that will be on the service as of right now are three Media Blasters titles: Girls High, Kite Liberator, and Ramen Fighter Miki. While I'll admit my personal skepticism on their ability to pull this off, New Media Director and Founder Justin Sevakis says, regarding release dates, "simultaneous is our goal." Subbing before the show comes out? I think that requires a bit more leverage than ANN has over Japanese companies. Maybe I'm wrong.

Bandai manga will be releasing the Gurren Lagann manga series as a companion to the very popular anime title. Honneamise also announced (arguably) their biggest license yet: Akira. It will be rereleased under the Honneamise line for 49.98 on Blu-ray with 24bit Japanese audio and the English dub included in the Geneon release.

The final announcement came from Bandai Entertainment, who let us know that THEY would be releasing Sola and True Tears under their Anime Legends label. No price or release date was given.

Honneamise plans to release anime simultaneously in the US and Japan with lower US prices. When I asked Honneamise’s rep, Loy Fruel about the possibility this creates for "reverse importation" of American DVDs to Japan, he seemed unconcerned. "If it happens, it happens. We just want Americans not to import from Japan."

FUNimation

(Karl "Uncle Yo" Custer compiled the information for this panel)

While FUNimation has a lot to discuss thanks to their sweeping acquisition of former ADV and Geneon titles, there was very little new information to be had. The representative Adam Sheehan obviously talked about Hellsing Ultimate, Negima, Claymore, Ouran High School Host Club, and even some Dragonball Z (I know, right?). Darker than Black opened up the panel, with an energetic trailer featuring Yoko Kanno's prominent musical talents in center stage.

The biggest announcement of the panel was FUNimation's license of the Japanese Mushi-shi live action movie. On another note, Adam also hinted that Ouran might be available at AnimeUSA before it’s street date. After opening up the floor to questions, Sheehan finally moved on to a whole separate panel regarding the FUNimation Channel.

FUNimation Channel

Continuing with his very candid style, Sheehan went into details of the channel's growing penetration into American television. His main point was that anime fans should be bothering their local cable companies to add the FUNimation Channel, even going to such lengths as requesting that people make threats like, "If you don't add the FUNimation Channel, I'll drown your dog." He also briefly discussed that Video-On-Demand services, currently only on Verizon FiOs, will soon be coming to other providers, like Comcast.

Sheehan also announced some brand new titles to the channel, including Burst Angel, Jyu-oh-sei, Black Blood Brothers, Solty Rei, and Negima!? (season 2). Of course, an entire series of Powerpoint slides was dedicated to the announcement of Ouran High School Host Club on the FUNimation Channel. There is "no date yet" for the show's premiere, but Sheehan estimates it to be sometime this fall.

Filling the hallways of this rather spacious store were what must have been at least 200 teenage and adult Death Note fans, decked out in cosplay and anime paraphernalia. Standing in that sea of people, it was hard not to notice that the landscape of anime in New York City was beginning to change. The "greatest city in the world" just might be coming into its own within this Japanese world of ours.

To get a better idea of how this Big Apple Anime Explosion is panning out, I spoke with John Fuller, Store Manager at Kinokuniya, and Peter Tatara, Conference Manager for the New York Anime Festival and organizer of the Death Note event.

Kinokuniya has been around since the 1970's, and yet Mr. Fuller feels that they have not exactly been driving the explosion. Instead they were "dragged into it kicking and screaming" by overwhelming consumer demand. The store also seemed to pick just the right spot in New York City's little anime world, not altogether intentionally. "This is where a lot of things were already beginning to happen," explains Fuller, regarding nearby comicbook stores and Asian cafes. Not only that, but Kinokuniya is "on 6th Avenue...across from Bryant Park...right here in the middle of everything!" That's a helpful thing for a store leading the revolution of a medium.

Even more pivotal to the Big Apple Anime Explosion is New York Anime Festival's Conference Manager, Peter Tatara (pictured at right). This longtime anime fan cut his otaku teeth on Vampire Hunter D, and since has dedicated himself to bringing anime to as many fans as possible. When the Big Apple Anime Fest sputtered out three years ago and New York Comic Con started up two years later, Peter and his associates knew they had to bring a new convention to anime fans in the area - the New York Anime Festival (NYAF).

"All of these events at Kinokuniya are part of [NYAF]," explains Peter. "The Anime Festival is three days a year, but I don't want to say 'see you next year.' I want to make an event every month or two months for fans to get together." While the New York Anime Festival has been the most prominent leader in the Anime Explosion, Peter says that this newfound interest "just sort of happened because of groups like New York Anime Festival, ImaginAsian, and Kinokuniya having anime on our minds and feeding off of each other."

Mr. Tatara has never heard of any other conventions trying a revolutionary system like this, but he feels that "now is a time when everyone is realizing that anime is a gateway to Japanese culture. I'd love to see other cons do this." When asked about anime's growing mainstream penetration, Mr. Tatara noted "stuff like Death Note, Bleach, Naruto, and Pokemon that have entered the mainstream mind. It's great to see 200 people showing up for a Death Note day!"

The New York Anime Festival isn't the only convention working to expand anime's popularity in the New York City area. AnimeNEXT recently spun off MangaNEXT, so that now the New Jersey convention maintains a year-round presence. Coupled with NYAF's plans, Kinokuniya's courting of American otaku, and anime/manga expansion at theaters and comicbook shops like IFC and Midtown Comics, New York anime fans have a lot of activities open to them on any given weekend.

To help speed along the growing explosion, Tatara and Reed Exhibitions are in the process of launching NewYorkAnimeFans.com, a comprehensive year-round calendar documenting all of those anime events in New York City. Nevertheless, according to Peter this explosion isn't just about large groups bringing anime into the limelight. "What's most important for anime right now is having a passion. That's what links Kinokuniya to the New York Anime Festival to the fans. It's something we're all passionate about."

First things first, the New York Anime Festival is a breeze when it comes to transportation, but a horror when it comes to lodging. Once you're in the New York City area, all you need is a quick train into New York Penn Station and a quick walk down a few blocks to the Jacob Javits Center. I came from New Jersey, and had no problems with public transportation. (My friend took the bus, and also did not run into trouble) However, finding a cheap New York hotel is not easy. Luckily, I only went for one day and live in NJ, or I would have faced major problems.

As soon as you catch sight of the Javits Center, you'll get a sense of the scale of this convention. While NYAF did not rent out the entire center (only a small part of it as a matter of fact), the building's all-glass architecture is stunning. Registration was easy, and started nice and early for people like me who wanted to get to the front of the line. Everything in registration ran extremely smoothly, to the convention's credit. Once I got on the entrance line and waited a while, it became clear that getting there early had been a good idea. The line stretched completely around the perimeter of a massive, warehouse-sized dealer's room not being used by the convention.

Having only been to two different conventions before (Anime Boston and AnimeNEXT), the show floor at NYAF blew me away. The dealer's room not only had an enormous number of tables, but also happened to be nicely carpeted. While I very rarely buy from the limited and predictable dealers at AnimeNEXT, I ended up purchasing a lot from the NYAF dealer's room. Before departing for my first panel, I had already bought the classic 80's anime film Golgo 13 and three awesome posters (from Death Note, One Piece, and Serial Experiments Lain).

The first panel of the day was conveniently my personal highlight of the convention as well. In "The Art of Reviewing Anime," Anime News Network's Zac Bertschy (Hey, Answerman!) and Bamboo Dong (Shelf Life), and Otaku USA/Anime World Order's Daryl Surat quite simply gave tips on reviewing anime and manga. The panel--which I obviously attended so I could improve my review-writing skills for Ani-Gamers--was really pretty informative, and it was made even more exciting because Zac, Bamboo, and Daryl are three of my favorite figures in the anime press scene. (If you're reading this, guys: "hi!") For those interested, here is a summary of the tips given by the trio:

• Saying something is cliched is, in itself, a cliche.
• Write with your own voice, but don't make the review about you.
• Don't get bothered by people who say you're biased.
• Always write subjectively.
• Make your review timeless, and very importantly don't use internet memes. (Daryl refuted this claim later in the day during Dave and Joel's NYAF podcast)
• Daryl prefers to review whole series, but Zac and Bamboo go the ANN way with separate DVDs. They almost got in a real argument about this topic.
• They did agree that single volume reviews are the current trend, but whole series reviews are the future of the reviewing scene. (That's what we do, so yay!)
• Get a feeling for the Japanese voice acting, but as an English speaker, you shouldn't review the Japanese audio track.

Next up was Anime Outtakes, a panel held by Tom Wayland and Mike Sinterniklaas, two respected voice actors and ADR directors. The way "Anime Outtakes" work is that often, when actors are recording in the studio, they will either mess up their lines, crack a joke, or even engineer a parodical sequence. Tom and Mike spent the entire panel (after running off to buy some technical supplies from a nearby store) showing us clips from various anime and Turkish soap operas (Tom's company did some voicing for it).

The outtakes included such voice talent as Sean Schemmel (Goku, DBZ) and Dan Green (Yami Yugi, Yu-Gi-Oh), and the anime used included Twin Signal, Magic User's Club, and the Cutey Honey live action film. The clips were pretty funny, but Wayland and Sinterklaas had a little trouble stretching what was often the same joke ("blah blah blah I forgot my lines") across an entire hour of panel time. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the panel, and the hosts were very entertaining.

The Guest of Honor at the convention, one Kobun Shizuno, was not the most high-profile guest, but he was definitely interesting, and there sure were a lot of people excited to meet him. My camera decided to run out of batteries right before the event, so I ended up borrowing my friend Jon's for the rest of the day. Kobun Shizuno was a small part in lots of big things. For example, he worked as a storyboarder on Giant Robo, co-directed Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0: You Are [Not] Alone, and is directing the new live-action Fist of the North Star movie. Interviewed by Patrick Macias of Otaku USA Magazine, Shizuno divulged his deepest, darkest secrets. (namely just how he got into anime, how he sees himself as a director, etc.)

Shizuno-san went through a few stages in his anime career. Originally he liked anime, but soon lost interest. Then one day, when he was in his 20's or so, Shizuno saw some old show (he doesn't remember the title) on TV, and it clicked--he wanted to make animation. He started off doing production work, and soon realized that he would not be able to become a director easily. When the topic of questions moved to G.I. Joe Sigma 6 (directed by Shizuno), Shizuno let us all know the answer to the age-old question: his favorite G.I. Joe character is Tunnel Rat. Kobun seemed very optimistic about his career and the anime industry in general, saying that he faced no major difficulties in getting where he is today, and that he focuses on fullfilling his visions, never on the problems he might face. Additionally, he was very thrilled about the possibilities that digital animation is opening up to animators.

Then...the conversation turned to Evangelion. You knew it had to happen. As co-director, Shizuno helped with additional filming and editing, so his position is not as crucial as the title makes it sound. According to Shizuno, the staff of Rebuild was unbelievably excited to be participating in such an influential project, and they all put in an incredible effort. When asked about his feelings on meeting legendary Gainax director Hideaki Anno, Kobun simply stated that he was a "brilliant...hard-to-forget person" and an "exceptional individual."

Finally, the lucky audience was shown a world-premiere of the trailer for Shizuno's first original work: a new anime series called Cross Climb. The somewhat cheesily narrated trailer showed the story of an English woman who enters an MMORPG-like program called Cross Climb. It is a world of dreams where she can "find a new her," but there is, as always, something sinister beneath the surface. While I will commend the series for it's high production values and noble attempts at 3-D animation, the trailer left me with nothing but disappointment. With all of it's flashiness, Cross Climb looks like just another overhyped, unoriginal action show. We'll have to wait and see if Shizuno's largely successful career will continue into Cross Climb.

The Anime News Network panel was interesting, if a little uneventful. Nothing particularly interesting was announced, and it was really just some Q&A with some of the minds behind the website. These included founder Justin Sevakis, editor-in-chief Chris MacDonald, executive editor Zac Bertschy, and managing editor Bamboo Dong. And making the panel completely awesome, they also gave out free anime to anyone who asked a good question. (After asking what anime got each of them truly interested in the genre, I got my hands on a Spiral boxset, which so far looks like it's worth how much I payed for it)

The next hour I split between the Geek Nights live podcast, some random anime screenings, and the Protoculture Addicts panel. At the beginning of Geek Nights (the only part I saw), they talked about their first time at a convention, which was OhioCon. During a bout of drunkenness at the convention, the two ended up playing some Settlers of Catan in the lobby of the hotel. Suddenly, some people came up and started playing with them. As Rym and Scott said, "We were 90% sure they were hookers, but we were 100% sure they were midgets."

Just like the Anime News Network panel, this one was not particularly thrilling, but was still fairly informative. Chris, Zac, Bamboo, and another guy I don't know from Protoculture Addicts were running the panel, in which they mainly just answered questions about the direction the magazine was going. As was to be expected, there was much mention of Protoculture Addicts being the longest running anime and manga magazine.

Next up was yet another magazine panel. This time it was the brand-new magazine Otaku USA, and a panel of 4 writers for the magazine, as well as editor-in-chief Patrick Macias. First they introduced themselves: Daryl Surat from Anime World Order, Dave Riley from Dave and Joel's Fast Karate for the Gentleman, Ed Chavez from MangaCast, and Erin F. from the Ninja Consultants. (Yes, they all have podcasts) Soon, Patrick was reminding us to buy the newest issue, which has Naruto on the cover! "Maybe a few of you have heard of it," remarked Patrick.

Then we were introduced to how their magazine runs. As Mr. Macias reminded us, "It's not that we're better. We're just different." Of course, Dave chimed in with the makeshift Otaku USA catchphrase of the day: "Differently better. Or, perhaps, betterly different?" In no time, though, the audience was able to eat up half of the panel's time with what could have been an interesting topic: the use of the word "otaku." Regarded in Japan as a derogatory term, people wondered about the implications of using the word otaku on a magazine cover. Soon, Patrick had satisfactorily answered the question, but that wasn't enough for the masses. The questions kept coming, each a slightly changed version of the last, like some sort of carousel of pain.

Eventually, we trudged through the crap to the good part, where the writers discussed what it's like working for Otaku USA, and their attitudes towards their work. According to Patrick, "[Our writers] write about what they want, not what they have to." For example, they had a large segment on the classic anime Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato), which is clearly not the kind of mainstream stuff Newtype talks about. (Daryl tells me that he's writing a Golgo 13 article for next issue, too!) Overall, the panel was pretty fun. The atmosphere was much more laid back than the more professional (not always a good thing) mood of the Protoculture Addicts panel. And at the end I stepped up and had a brief chat with Ed Chavez and Patrick Macias, congratulating Patrick on a job well done at all of his events, and receiving a pin and poster from him.

The train ride back on Saturday night was relatively quick and painless, up until I missed my stop by about 2 seconds, and had to walk twice the distance to get home. The New York Anime Festival was a great experience, especially for someone who has not really attended a bigger, more corporate convention before. The guests of honor were not as famous as the ones that usually appear at places like Otakon, but the minor guests, like Patrick Macias, Daryl Surat, Rym and Scott, and Justin Sevakis, are rare treats for those who keep up with the anime internet scene. There were a whole lot of people in attendance, so I hope to see an even bigger and better installment of NYAF in 2008, when I will surely attend again.