NY Anime Festival '08: Quick First Impressions of Day 1 & 2

Working on my reports from Day 1 and 2 of New York Anime Festival, but I tend to be on the slower side to post stuff. In the meantime, here's some quick first impressions:

More Fans, Fewer Vendors and Many M.I.A. Manga Publishers
TokyoPop and their monster booth was missing from the convention floor. VIZ Media, CMX Manga, Seven Seas Manga, Udon Entertainment and NetComics opted to skip this stop on the East Coast con circuit. Houston-based ADV had other things to take care of in the wake of Hurricane Ike (among other things). Meanwhile, Go! Comi, Aurora / Deux Press and Digital Manga Publishing preferred to focus on Yaoi-Con back on the West Coast. It was pretty much left to Del Rey Manga, Yen Press, Vertical and to a lesser degree, Dark Horse to try to try to keep the exhibition hall from being dominated by anime, toy and costume vendors and artist alley tables.

Too bad, because while Friday was on the slow side, Saturday found the hall teeming with fans. Okay, so it usually only took about an hour to cruise the small-ish exhibit hall, but still, there was a good-sized crowd eager to see what's new. I'll nose around and see what folks in the booths have to say about their NYAF experiences tomorrow, but from where I stood, things looked pretty lively, traffic-wise.

Few New Manga Licenses Announced, But As Long As I Got Moyashimon, I'm Happy
While it was cool to finally get my hands on the swanky hardcover edition of Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack, it was a little disappointing that Vertical didn't announce any new manga licenses for 2009. Ryoko Ikeda's Rose of Versailles remains an elusive license to secure, and slower than they'd like sales for Keiko Takemiya's To Terra has made it harder for Vertical to dig deep into their pockets to bring in more classic shojo anytime in the near future. My wish list for more classic manga that I'd like to read in English is long -- but classic manga (created prior to 1980) remains a tough sell to readers who weren't even born in 1980.

On the other hand, Del Rey Manga gave fans a rare reason to cheer with the announcement of Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture by Masayuki Ishikawa as their latest addition to their 2009 publishing schedule. This award-winning series about an agriculture college student who can see and talk to bacteria and micro-organisms has long been on many fans' wish lists, so it was somewhat reassuring to see that Japanese publisher Kodansha is continuing to give Del Rey some choice licenses, even with all the recent buzz about Kodansha opening their own U.S. publishing division sometime in the near future.

The other Del Rey licenses that got people chattering was their new partnership with Cartoon Network to produce full-color ani-manga and original black and white manga based on two Cartoon Network shows, Bakugan Battle Brawlers and Ben 10 Alien Force. What got the chatter going was speculation on why Cartoon Network, a Time-Warner company, would team up with Del Rey / Random House, a Bertelsmann company, when Time-Warner has its own manga publishing division with DC Comics / CMX Manga. I'm not exactly fluent in corporate family trees, so if I'm missing something obvious here, please fill me in.

Saturday's Top Secret Panel Remains a Secret
After speculating that Saturday's "Top Secret" panel would be a preview of the Dragon Ball live action movie, I dutifully dashed out of Del Rey Manga's panel to try to check it out. When I got there, the volunteers were shooing people away. "It got canceled." I'll have to find out more about this tomorrow, because there's sure to be a story behind this last minute change of plans.

UPDATE: According to the official NYAF staff blog, the "top secret event" was supposed to be an early rehearsal concert by anime voice actress and special guest Rie Tanaka -- but that still doesn't explain the Dragon Ball movie photo in the NYAF program book nor the "Dragon Ball" autograph session that was scheduled for Saturday afternoon in the program's schedule either. But if that's their official story, I may just have to take it at face value. Darn.

Yoshitaka Amano Loves New York City
And NYC loves Amano-sensei too, as a capacity crowd came to check out Amano-sensei's solo panel appearance (which made it a little puzzling that his earlier Vampire Hunter D panel appearance with author Hideyuki Kikuchi was in a much larger hall that was half full). There were quite a few Final Fantasy cosplayers in the hall, and a few that I talked to said they came specifically in FF costumes to pay tribute to Amano-sensei. So with so many video game crazy fans at the show, why so few video game companies in the exhibit hall? Beats me, other than that thing called the current U.S. economy, maybe.

Gothic and Lolita Fashion Finds Its Way Into More Closets
Thanks to a special appearance by the designers of Baby the Stars Shine Bright, many Sweet Lolita, Casual Lolita and Gothic Lolita fashionistas came to NYAF decked out in head-to-toe designer fashions from Baby, and other Asian couture labels to lust for, including Angelic Pretty, Metamorphose and Anna House. Several I spoke to mentioned TokyoPop's English edition of Gothic and Lolita Bible as being a factor in the growing awareness and adoption of this frilly fashion aesthetic.

What Does an Iron Chef Have to Do With Anime and Manga?
Almost nothing! But Masaharu Morimoto of Iron Chef, Iron Chef America and Morimoto restaurants fame still packed the house with fans who just love his show and were eager to ask him questions and get his autograph. Wearing his trademark kimono and hakama, Morimoto joked that he too was wearing his own style of cosplay and duly impressed the fans with his good humor and honest, down-to-earth answers. While he plugged the upcoming Iron Chef America game for Nintendo Wii (and his restaurants, cookbook and private label sake), Morimoto proved that you don't have to rely on C-List voice actors as a sole source for your anime con guest list, when you can get an A-List pop culture phenomenon instead.

More to come as I take in Day 3 of the New York Anime Festival on Sunday. For more as it happens / or as I feel like it updates, check out my Twitter feed.