Review New York Anime Fest 2008

[Michaelangelo]

Hey everyone, this con starts tomorrow and knowing me I'll be kicking back some reviews.  So getting the topic started, right now I'm in Gettysburg staying at our favorite hotel out here.  I'm tired so will be heading to bed soon.  *yawn*

[Amicitia]

Back already - we didn't stay long today. We achieved our mission of delivering a giant costume head to some guy, and then we pretty much just puttered around. Tomorrow we'll be doing panels and things.

Oh, and I got interviewed by a journalism student from Columbia (the university, not the country). So her professor is going to have to read about me and my ridiculous costume.

[Shredder]

Anyone attend the Funimation panel?  Curious if anything interesting happened.

I'm still leaning toward going tomorrow just to get out of the house..

[Brinatello]

Oh, the NYAF is this weekend?  I thought it was next weekend!     Hope you guys have a good time there.  Ivey, if you could get those pictures at the World of Disney for me, I would really appreciate it.  Thanks in advance. 

[Shredder]

aww man, if I had known about this, I would have gone today.  Did anyone go to, or hear about the Dragonball MOVIE panel that was supposedly top secret today?

[Amicitia]

Is that what the Top Secret panel was about? Sorry, no news...

I have no idea what order things happened in today, and I'm entirely too lazy to dig out the schedule, so this is going to be by theme.

Screenings: Went to see the new Ouran dub, having never seen the show before. Missed the first few minutes (in which everything is explained), but it kinda grew on me. Could get to like those characters. Also saw Gurenn Lagann. Want that hour of my life back. Even more, want those images purged from my brain. Don't see it unless you really like gratuitous adult themes.

Panels: We assumed the Amano panel would be full, so we showed up an hour early. No one was waiting, so instead of lurking in the hall, we decided to sit in on the panel before, which was about Del Rey manga. It was actually quite interesting. There was a guy in a bow tie who threw squishy Phoenix Wright gavels at the audience and we got one. We do not object!

Unfortunately con staff threw everyone out of the room after the panel, so we had to go to the back of the Amano line, which was uncool, but then we wound up getting really good seats anyway. (Thanks Henry, whoever you are!) Amano is more or less awesome, and apparently he draws the Sandman novels, so now I definitely have to read those.

Pictures and autographs were a no-go, so I went off to the Panel of Random Voice Actors. And it was... pretty random. Found out that Veronica T. did Shadow Hearts, so now I have to go listen to the parts of Alice's dialogue that were actually, y'know, translated. Afterwards loitered shamelessly.

Then apparently it was time to stand on line for the masquerade. Forever. And ever. But at least I got to see some of the "Shogun Macbeth" that was going on. (Bonus trivia: "Something Wicked" is from Macbeth Act IV.) We were maybe possibly supposed to get special seating, because we were the audience-participation part of a skit (which subsequently won Best in Show) but instead we wound up sitting behind a giant concrete pillar. So I could only see the edges of the stage, and the screen. But what turned out to be most annoying was the audience. I'm absolutely appalled at how many people were watching a live performance through the screens of their camera-phones, or walking around during the skits. The MC was pretty awesome, at least.

Then the con closed and the cosplayers dispersed and vanished very efficiently. (Except for those creepy people following me around the bus station.  )

That's all for tonight!

[Michaelangelo]

Top Secret panel was canceled.  I know I was in the room waiting for it to be started and we were all kicked out. 

The Vampire Hunter D panel was fun, they had a crew of NYC VAs come in and do a Vampire Hunter D reading after the Q&A.  I'll post a review and pictures later.

[Kazari]

YAY can't wait!!! I miss going to cons Next year needs to hurry up and get here so I can at least go to one! 

[Shredder]

Who Wants to be a Voice Actor, Part 2...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8hjFwmcl6s

Easiest one to get up there with the least amount of swearing.  Can anyone send this link to Mike S and Tom W, assuming they have websites with emails?

[Michaelangelo]

Friday Review

Friday we got to the city later than I was hoping, as we got there I wanted to get to the convention center as soon as we could.  We decided to walk and catch a cab if one drove by, though it was raining and everyone in NYC decided to ride Taxi's that day.  So all but one cab that went pass us had someone else in the passenger seat.  The one cab that didn't, heard how close we were going and pulled away from us.  We were not happy, and this was not a good first thing to happen to my dad for his first visit into NYC.

Once at the convention center we sat in the lobby and dried off as I looked over the program seeing we missed Opening panel and went down to find all the rooms for the panels I was interested in.  After learning the panel rooms, I went to a panel I wanted to go too, "Adventures in Voice Acting", though the room was full so I could not go in.  I to my second choice panel for that time slot, which was the Fundimation Panel, I got there late so I missed their slides of what's new coming out, and was there for the Q&A.  AFter that was the Fundimation Channel panel, where they talked about all the shows they got and which shows are still to come... and showing where all has this channel.  Sadly Michigan has not got it yet.  After that the panel was emptied out.     

Directly after that was the Claymore panel where I met two more Voice Actors I never met before, I watched the first episode and have to say that this is an anime that I'll watch.  Looks very interesting, can't wait to see more of it! 

After that panel we had some down time before the Gundam 00 panel started up, so Miki, Dad and Crittle wandered off to do convention stuff.  I was way too sore to wander around myself, from the walk there, the cold rain, and being bumped into there was nothing more I wanted than to be able to relax and eat a sandwich I made before coming to the con.  I called Fae a little bit during this time, till my dad came back and sat down with me letting me know the dealer room was closed.  Miki and Crittle showed up not to long after him.

After sitting around for a bit others started to show up for the Gundam panel, when Brad Swail came in I talked to him a little bit and got him to sign my "Death Note" Wall Scroll. He just got to see the first Death Note Movie in theaters with others who worked on it not long ago, it is released in Canada a bit longer after it was released here.  He talked to me a little about Death Note before the panel started, than I got lost since I'm not too huge of a Gundam fan, though they still had us laughing through the panel.  One of the funniest things that happened during this panel was that they were trying to show a trailer for the show but the sound wasn't working, so Brad got up there and started making up lines and voices for all the male characters.  that was FUNNY I wish I video taped it.

After that panel was the Animation Collective panel, these are the people who bring us shows like Kappa Mikey.  Now since I started going to these panels the first year they held it over at New York City Comic Con, there are a few faces who I know for being there.  Larry (Creator of Kappa Mikey), Sean and Michael S.  So I was shocked when none of these faces showed up.  Though it seemed Larry was off on business stuff, Sean wasn't even listed as a guest so not sure if he was even invited for the panel or what was up there, and Michael S. had work to do that night so couldn't make it.  Though the panel was still a lot of fun, they showed us Dancing Sushi episodes and answered questions.  Dark Angel was at this panel as well with some friends, she sat in the front roll not far from Crittle.

That was our last panel for the night, so we started walking towards McDonalds for the night.  Though we did find something odd on our walk, as we were going there we learned some WONDERFUL NEWS for everyone who goes to the NYC CONS!  That's right WONDERFUL!   It started by seeing way more police than one street of New York should have, all parking oddly around the street.   Than came the loud steam whistle which we had no clue what that meant... wait to late for a lunch break and a lot louder than you'd think they'd have at 9pm at night.  Than BOOM!  A loud bang happened... we were shocked by this noise but the police did not seem worried, than two loud blows came from the Steam Whistle and than came BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!  The ground began to shake under our feet as the blasts happened, we were confused... it was like an Earth shake!!!!    Than came Three loud Whistles.. and all was quiet.  So we walked across the street and asked someone in a orange vest what was going on.  They're building in a SUBWAY!   That's right a new Subway line that'll lead you right to the front across the street from the Javis center!  What do I have to say about this?  TOOK LONG ENOUGH!  Hehehe no really, I'm excited it'll help save us money and time going back and forth to the convention... save a lot of people from over walking!   Yay for upgrades to NYC!!!!  Hope it's up in running as soon as they get it... I don't know how fast or slow they work, but I'm thinking if they're anything like Detroit we won't see it done for 2 to 3 years.  Hope they prove me wrong

We went to McDonalds than back to our hotel.  More to come later.

[Nightwatchersonlygirl]

I'm going next year too

[Amicitia]

They're building in a SUBWAY!   That's right a new Subway line that'll lead you right to the front across the street from the Javis center!

Sweet! I didn't see that, but I did see some people with a boom mike... I wonder what they were filming?

[Kazari]

WOW! That's great news!!!

[Michaelangelo]

When we got to the convention on Saturday we went to the Gurren panel that had guests Tony Oliver, Kyle Hebert, and Steve Blum.  I was there to meet Steve and Kyle.  Though I didn't know of any autograph sessions for them, they're both voice actors that I like and never got to meet before.  So I watched the panel, not really sure about this anime since I never saw it before.  After the panel was great though, they stayed around and signed Autographs.  I got both Steve and Kyle to sign some stuff.  It was nice getting to talk to Kyle, he didn't have a crowd around him, so we talked a little as he signed my wall scrolls.  It's cool he's in so many shows I like, Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

After that panel I stayed around for the Vampire Hunter D panel.  Though waiting for this panel is when things started to get a little odd.  I know that none of the 4Kid voices that I know, have anything to do with Vampire Hunter D... but than I saw Tom Wayland walk into the room, followed by Veronica Taylor and Rachael Lillis... this was a total shock to me... what in the world are they doing here?  Unless they're here for the panel after this.  Michael Sinterniklaas was next to come into the room.  My mind mind start going crazy to figure this out, than in the program I saw the next panel was the Top Secret one... so that just had to be it.  They were here for that panel, which meant I was going to stay for the next panel.  I was just amazed at the luck of them all walking into the same panel room that we were in.

Once the Vampire Hunter D panel started they introduced their three guest - Hideyuki Kikuchi, Yoshitaka Amano and Kevin Leachy.  Kevin is the translator and this panel went through him for every question.  This is one of the VERY few Japanese panels I've gone through.  I'm not a huge fan of the wait between translations, so I would amuse myself with looking towards where the VAs went wondering what they were up to.  They were being a curtain and reading what looked to be a script.  Than we got told what was going on, the NYC VAs were there to do a Vampire Hunter D script reading after the Q&A was done.  So they went up and did their script reading.  It was very enjoyable.   Just like with the other panel, at the end of the panel we went up and got our autographs.  It was great, they signed things and was very friendly about it.  Once I got the Vampire Hunter autographs the only VA left in the room was Veronica so I went up and said hi to her. 

We ended up being kicked out of this panel room as they told us that the "Top Secret Panel was canceled"

My next move was going after a DVD that was for sale in the dealer room.  Crittle and I split up here, the DVD was "Adventures in Voice Acting"  I picked it up than went to the next panel room.  The panel I was going to was "Voice Actors in the City" Though I got there an hour early and found myself in "Anime in China" panel.  It was a slide show of a guy's trip to an anime convention in China... a very IMPRESSIVE anime con in China.  8 Days long, 400 thousand attendees, building larger than San D Convention Center, along with tons of promos from Bill Boards, parade down main street (huge with floats and all like the Thanksgivings parades!) and 100+ 15 feet tall statues through out the city!  Very impressive!!!  I can't go into everything I saw in this panel, wish I thought to video tape it, but I didn't reallize just how cool it was going to be. 

The Voice Actors in the City panels started next.  We had a lot of VAs in here, Michael, Tom, Veronica, Rachael, Lisa, and Jamie were to name a few, there was one girl in there that looked a lot like Lisa but I can't seem to recall her name off the top of my head, I'm going to have to watch the panel again.

After this panel came the charity Auction... I knew I didn't have the money for this auction but it was ran by voice actors so it was fun to sit through.   As Jamie, Veronica, Brad and Brina ran the panel.  I only tried to bid on one thing, but I didn't have much money on this trip so I didn't keep going with the bidding.  Jamie picked on me a little for that.  Heh, sorry money isn't my strong point on most trips.

I thought I was done with the con for the day after this panel, but Michael and Tom both told Crittle and I they're doing their Hentie Dubbing panel... which I remember was a lot of fun at Anime Next so I couldn't miss it.  The funny thing with this time was I pulled my dad along for the panel.  hehehe   After that we were done with the con for the day.

My dad and Miki both brought costumes that day so they were running around in costumes.  Miki was "No Face" from Spirited Away and my dad was the Scientist from "Robot Chicken".

[Amicitia]

We had a lot of VAs in here, Michael, Tom, Veronica, Rachael, Lisa, and Jamie were to name a few, there was one girl in there that looked a lot like Lisa but I can't seem to recall her name off the top of my head

Was it Corinne?