My thoughts on NYAF 2010, or the lack thereof

I hate feeling like this, I really do. New York Anime Festival used to be my favourite convention. I loved 2007, 2008, and 2009, with all my heart. Events happened during the various NYAFs that had a hand in changing and shaping my life (though I won’t go into specifics here). I was a big proponent of the con, as I thought it had all of the social aspects that cons like AnimeNEXT have, and all of the industry craziness Anime Expo has. For me, this con was perfect, and was always a big highlight of my year. I really cared, and still care for it. I started helping out NYAF at other events, like the Kinokuniya events and Sakura Matsuri, not to because it was “cool”, but because I genuinely cared for and wanted to be a part of this entity that I loved so much. So, like everyone, when it was announced that NYAF would be ran during NYCC, i was worried.

However, it was stated multiple times that these two cons would run together, 50/50. That NYAF itself would actually be bigger than it was before. I stuck with that, and I even assured people of it over the past year when they spoke out against the merger. Now, I’m a reasonable person. I understand the anime industry doesn’t make much money, that renting the javits center is expensive, and that there are more comics fans to begin with. I could understand if things weren’t exactly half and half, as it makes more sense for NYCC to be the more promoted item. Unfortuntaely, NYAF wasn’t given even a third of the showroom, nor even a fourth. What was originally stated to be two seperate cons running on the same time turned out to be a giant Comic Convention with an Anime Area pushed into a single corner, with only the Masquerade being held in a bigger area. While there were some anime related booths at the con’s dealer room, there weren’t nearly as many as their used to be at the previous NYAFs, though that’s not necessarily the convention’s fault itself. Still, as a whole, NYAF became an after-thought to NYCC. There wasn’t a single sign saying NYAF at the convention center aside from the one on the info booth at the NYAF section of things. Not even at the *entrance* of the NYAF area. I found this specifically to be incredibly disappointing.

Sure, the majority of the cosplayers at the con were still from the anime side of things, and I don’t blame the comic fans for this or anything (as i’m a huge fan of comics, though i’m not invested in comic culture) of that sort, but that’s no consolation. Several Anime and Manga companies that had scheduled panels flat out did not show up, and the way some of the staff handled panel attendance was not fair. I knew several people that were not allowed into the Gundam 00 Movie Premier even though there clearly were still seats in the room. The NYAF space was crowded as all hell at all times, though it was nice to see that some of that crowd was attributed to the Maid Stage, which was, thankfully, as popular as ever. As an anime fan, and one that loved the con, I was not satisfied by this year’s NYAF. I am not sure if there is anyone to blame, as I understand why what happened happened, but that doesn’t make it fun, nor right. The person who runs NYAF / NYCC, Peter  is a good friend of mine, and some who I highly admire and still respect. It’s not right to blame him for this, as I doubt he wanted things this way either.

NYAF and NYCC are running together again next year, and probably permanently. Will I go again? Yes, of course, I couldn’t miss it for the world. It was still fun, and they are my local cons I suppose, but it’s not the same, and It won’t be the same… I mean shit, I had absolutely no crazy con drama this year… *me*…  Agh, This all really bugs me.

~ by Cimi on October 12, 2010.