NY Comic-Con: Saturday's Manga & Anime Highlights

Saturday should be one of the busiest days of New York Comic-Con -- and there's almost too much marvelous manga / anime events for any one person to catch in a day, including:

• 11:00 am - 12:00 pm - VIZ Media Panel, Room 1E03. Fresh off their announcement of Ultimo, the Stan Lee / Hiroyuki Takei manga collaboration on Friday, the folks at VIZ will likely have lots to share about their other manga and anime releases they have in store for the rest of 2008.
• 11:00 am - 12:00 pm - Svetlana Chmakova Autograph Session, Yen Press booth 1947. Meet the creator of Dramacon and Night School, and get a special Night School shikishi (autograph board) signed by Svet!
• 11:00 am - 12:00 pm - Full Metal Alchemist "Top 3" Panel, Room 1E04. As chosen by fans, FUNimation will be showing the "top 3" episodes of this popular anime series.
• 12:00 - 1:00 pm - Del Rey Manga Panel, Room 1E03. According to the Del Rey Manga blog, Dallas Middaugh, Trisha Narwani and the rest of the Del Rey crew will be sharing new, never-before seen character sketches from the upcoming X-Men manga series from artist Anzu and writers Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman.
• 12:00 - 1:00 pm - Emma Anime Debut, Room 1E104. At long last, FUNimation will debut the anime version of Kaoru Mori's Victorian romance, Emma.
• 12:00 - 1:00 pm - T.M. Revolution Panel, Room 1E10- 1E11. J-Pop star T.M. Revolution (a.k.a. Takanori Nishikawa) talks about his musical contributions to hit anime series, including Gundam SEED, D.Gray-Man and more.
• 12:30 - 1:30 pm - Drawing Art for Manga Panel, TokyoPop booth 1321. Find out what it takes to create great manga from global manga creators Lincy Chan, Drew Rausch, Jamar Nichols, James Barry, Joanna Estep, and Maximo Lorenzo.
• 1:00 - 2:00 pm - Yen Press Panel, Room 1E03. Just before NY Comic-Con, Yen Press announced that they've snagged one of the hottest manga properties out there, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, as well as the rights to the light novel series. Look for news on this, more announcements of manga that they'll be featuring in Yen Plus magazine this summer and maybe an appearance by Yen Press artists Svetlana Chmakova (Night School) and Judith Park (Y-Square).
• 1:00 - 2:00 pm - Code Geass Anime Debut, Room E104 - And the anime debuts just keep a-comin', as fans get a first look at the U.S. release of this hot series from CLAMP.
• 2:00 - 3:00 pm - One Piece: Behind the Scenes Panel, Room 1E03. The voice cast of FUNimation's version of One Piece will be on hand to share stories about this wild pirate adventure anime series.
• 2:00 - 4:00 pm - Nana Movie, Room 1E04. The live-action version of Ai Yazawa's rock n' roll romance will be seen in its entirety.
• 2:00 - 3:00 pm - Gothic & Lolita Fashion Show, Variant Stage. See some fabulously frilly fashions on the catwalk from top Japanese and American designers.
• 2:00 - 3:00 pm - Warriors Manga Panel, TokyoPop booth 1321. Meet the creators of the bestselling Warriors manga series, Dan Jolley and James Barry.
• 3:00 - 4:00 pm - Speed Racer, Digital Manga and 801 Media, Room 1E102. DMP editors along with Peter Fernandez (the original voice of Speed Racer) will be on hand to show off the luxe DMP Platinum edition of the original Speed Racer Mach Go Go Go! manga, and preview new releases for 2008 and beyond.
• 3:00 - 4:00 pm - Judith Park Autograph Session, Yen Press booth 1947. Meet one of Germany's top global manga artists, Judith Park, and pick up your copy of Y-Square, while you're at it.
• 3:00 - 4:00 pm - Cosclips.com's Cosplay and Costume Contest, Variant Stage. See Batman and Robin rub shoulders with Naruto and Sasuke and many more costumed characters in this fun event.
• 3:00 - 3:30 pm - Hellgate London Autograph Session, TokyoPop booth 1321. Meet the author of the new Hellgate London manga, Arvid Nelson.
• 3:30 - 4:00 pm - Fantasy Worlds and Manga Panel, TokyoPop booth 1321. TokyoPop manga creators Barbara Randall Kesel, Drew Rausch, Jeff Nodelman, M. Alice LeGrow, Melissa DeJesus and Richard Knaak talk about their creative process.
• 4:00 - 5:00 pm - Peter Fernandez / Speed Racer Manga Autograph Session, DMP, Booth 1622. Fernandez, the original voice of "Speed" from the anime series will be on hand to sign copies of the deluxe boxed set of the Speed Racer Mach Go Go Go manga.
• 4:00 - 5:00 pm - xxxHolic Anime, Room 1E04. Check out FUNimation's recent release of the xxxHolic anime series, featuring artwork and stories by CLAMP.
• 4:00 - 5:00 pm - Gothic & Lolita Fashion, Room 1E08. Gothic & Lolita Bible editors Jenna Winterberg and Michelle Nguyen share some of the latest trends straight from the pages of this new style mook.
• 5:00 - 6:00 pm - Shin Chan Behind the Scenes Panel, Room 1E03. See what goes into translating Shin-Chan's bawdy, outrageous humor for American audiences.
• 5:00 - 6:00 pm - Gravitation Anime Showing, Room 1E04. Right Stuf presents the anime version of this hit manga series.
• 5:00 - 7:00 pm - The Girl Who Leapt Though Time Movie, Room 1E10 - 1E11. One of the most anticipated feature-length anime releases this year, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time will be shown in its entirety, thanks to Bandai Entertainment.
• 6:00 - 7:00 pm - Dark Horse Panel, Room 1E15. The folks at Dark Horse will be spotlighting a whole bunch of upcoming graphic novel and manga releases for 2008, including Gantz, Conan and much more.
• 6:00 - 7:00 pm - Lucky Star and Code Geass Behind the Scenes Panel, Room 1E03. Bandai Entertainment shares what goes into bringing these fan-favorite anime series to American audiences.
• 6:00 - 8:30 pm - Funky Forest Movie, Room 1E04. A new Japanese live-action movie release from the folks at VIZ Pictures, described as "a surreal melding together of science fiction, comedy, drama and a lot of nonsense."
• 7:00 - 8:00 pm - CMX Manga Panel, Room 1E03. Look for previews of new and upcoming releases, including Shirley, the kinda sequel to Emma, and more releases from Flex Comics.
• 9:00 - 10:00 pm - T.M. Revolution Concert, IGN Theater. J-Pop sensation T.M. Revolution cranks it up to 11 for his first-ever show in New York City.

Image credit: © Deb Aoki