NYAF - Blogging Panel and Rie Tanaka
Second day of New York Anime Festival completed! A bit more exciting than my first day, enjoyed just chilling back with the anime blogging crew and their panel along with seeing Rie Tanaka’s performance.
On the anime blogging panel, I thought overall it was good for those who were interested in the how’s and why’s of blogging and what needed to be done to start one. Definitely thought Hinano, JP, and DS all did a great job explaining the basics and fielding the various questions asked by the audience. Also easily better than anything I could probably do considering my general laziness and whatnot. Honestly I think the only thing they really needed to do to make the panel a bit better was to actually show the various sites they were talking about if they had internet (Javits Center internet sucks and is a tad expensive so that was a no go).
Beside talking about the 101s of blogging, it was cool how it sorta turned into a mini-meet with anime bloggers as I had a chance to talk to Ana (very quickly yet again lol), Mike (with cameraman!), and see/meet Scott and NyaChan (in Miku cosplay?). Also randomly met an avid reader of my blog (sorry man, forgot your name!) which was cool yet strange at the same time. Cool to see he has similar tastes as me (go go Nana-chan and Minorin!) but definitely weird how he thinks I’m one of the more famous/known anime bloggers out there. I think if anything, I may be one of the “older” bloggers out there still currently active but definitely not one of the more famous ones; no matter how much my e-penis/ego wants me to be ^^;;
After the blogging panel and “mini-meet”, there was a bit of “follow Hinano to the dealers’ room” as she somehow became the unanimous leader of the group consisting of me, Omo, JP, NyaChan, and DS. You can read more of the dealers’ room journey on their respective blogs (see Omo and Hinano).
By the point where Hinano and JP got stopped a lot for their Maka and Stein cosplay, I think we sorta split up with them, DS, and NyaChan as they were headed to the Spoilers! panel and korean BBQ afterwards while Omo and myself attended Yoshitaka Amano’s panel and the World Cosplay Summit Masquerade in hopes of seeing Rie Tanaka. On Yoshitaka Amano I really don’t remember much since I started to fall asleep, which Omo caught me on several occasions, but was pretty good from the overall vibe I got. Plus his panel room was packed! Heck the line to get in formed a good hour before the panel even started which is crazy considering all Friday’s panels there were no lines. Goes to show how popular the man is huh?
Anyway, after Yoshitaka Amano panel I headed straight to where the World Cosplay Summit Masquerade was going to take place in order to get good seats to see Rie Tanaka. Well let me say if there was any disappointment with NYAF I had, beside the fact there being so little panels, it would be here as the line got reformed twice and at the end, the people who actually waited 2-3 hours got screwed when they let the OTHER side in first (thus we becoming the back of the line). Basically management royally messed up on this one which resulted in Omo and myself only getting so-so seats; still good enough to see Rie Tanaka in all her glory but nowhere near getting any decent photos or videos. At least Rie Tanaka herself was cute as ever in a black getup with neon pink ears & tails and gave a good performance singing Gundam SEED Destiny Meer Campbell’s “EMOTION”, Chobits’ OP or ED (forgot which), and Gundam SEED Destiny Lacus Clyne’s “Shizuka na Yoru ni” (or “FIELDS OF HOPE”, forgot which). Funny how I just heard her less than 3 hours ago and I already forgot which of the last two songs she exactly sang! All I do know is she was insanely cute performing all of them XD
After Rie Tanaka’s mini concert and introduction, given what I’ll have to do tomorrow plus not being too interested in the masquerade, eventually left like 30 minutes later finishing the convention day for me. So in sum, the second day was good but just long since I ended with some mini line-cons here and there, but at least re-affirmed the fact that Rie Tanaka is AWESOME and I’ll need to get up bloody frickin’ bright and early to make sure I get an autograph ticket!
… let’s hope they don’t kick me out of the Javits Center if I get there before the sun rises ^^;;
September 27th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
That’s what you get for not going with us to Korean BBQ! LOL
September 28th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Hey man, I’m the “avid reader” of yours that talked to you at length at the con. XD
My name is Benson. Sorry I kinda left you at a time, there was someone else whom I was a HUGE fan of that I just had to talk to. Like you, she also feels she’s nothing special and is really one of the most awesome people ever XD.
See you tomorrow at the Rie panel. I’ll be bringing my special sign, you should see it
September 28th, 2008 at 12:47 am
seems like fun. wished i was there
September 28th, 2008 at 4:45 am
Haha, you are famous man! I wish I could’ve been there, sounds fun.
September 28th, 2008 at 4:55 am
You know what? I´m going to ask you if you know any youtube/nicovideo that is from that concert with Rie Tanaka. Cause I so want to see it!!
Damn, must find a way to get more money so I can go and visit all these cons when they have such big names visiting.
September 28th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Man, I should of said hi to you. I was sitting behind you during the anime blogging panel, but I couldn’t muster up the courage to say hi. Maybe next con!
September 28th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Hinano, it was worth seeing Rie Tanaka anyways
Benson, ah cool cool.
bj0rn, yea it was pretty good and laid back.
tj han, LOL nah you guys are over at rivua. And yea, would have been great if some of the singaporean bloggers could have come!
manga, youtube and google are your friend?
GARbej, aaahh there’s always next time. Were you the dude watching Macross Frontier with Omo and myself?
September 29th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
The dude standing behind you before the panel watching Macross Frontier was someone else; I was sitting behind you to your right, sitting with my friend. I was wearing a blue shirt and carrying a black messenger bag.
September 29th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
BTW, Rie sang Shizukana Yoru Ni at the masquerade =)
September 29th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Oh, Rie was there too, wow. I thought everyone came to see the famous bloggers!
September 29th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
The guy with the blue shirt is sooo awesome!
September 29th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
for the stuff I do want to see Google isn´t my friend. For finding essay information or just about anything else, google is my friend… quite weird actually but that´s the way it is.
But alright, will lurk more to see what I can find.
September 29th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Chobits OP
or atleast it´s played at the scene.
Otherwise the movies are kinda low on apperances, but my google skills for finding what I want are really low. Finding what I need for school is pretty easy though…