Anime Expo New York - Andrew\'s Travelogue

By Andrew Tei     August 31, 2002

Thursday



The alarm rings. 5:15 AM. I question my sanity and can’t come up with anything
positive. I have a 6:30 AM flight to get to though, as I head off for the Big
Apple Anime Fest (BAAF) and Anime Expo New York (AXNY)! The dub of the Bebop
Movie Premiere waits with Yoko Kanno, Shinchiro Watanabe, and Toshiro Kawamoto
in attendance. The father of Gundam Yoshihiko Tomino would be there, and
Akitaroh Daichi the director of Now and Then, Here and There.



My first flight went smooth, but thanks to thunderstorms in New York, planes
to New York were all being delayed. Was ADV preventing me from going? I must
prevail! Good thing I brought a few DVDs to watch with me. Finally after two
and a half hours, we took off.



This was going to be my first time in New York City in over 12 years, so I was
really looking forward to it. Taking the shuttle from La Guardia to Grand
Central Station, I met up with my partner in crime, err reporting, Mariela,
the lady who would prevent me from getting utterly lost in this big city,
since we would be commuting to the con everyday. We had Chinese for dinner,
then used to rest of the night to watch the day’s G Gundam episode (and G
Gundam is love!) plus watch anime music videos.



Friday



BAAF is having its only non-film event, the Anime 101 Business Section, of its
festival so we decide to check it out. Normally heading to a 1:00 PM panel
would be fine, but neither of us are very sane and stayed up to an ungodly
hour the night before the con started. We arrived at the press desk for BAAF
in the Virgin Megastore in Times Square and picked up our press badges. Unlike
most of the badges prepared for BAAF, the press list wasn’t ready until 2 days
before the con, so we got industry badges. After making sure we had press
seating for the three big movie events at BAAF, we headed off to the Anime 101
Panel.



We finished with the panel at 3:30 PM, so we had time to kill before the Bebop
Premiere at 7:30 PM. Since I was in New York City, I definitely had to get a
little sight seeing in. Times Square was a light festival, though it would be
much more impressive at night. The National Debt Clock was back on, and we
passed by the New York City Public Library. Mariela also pointed out the
corner where Ben Parker told Peter in Spiderman, “With great power, comes
great responsibility”, which after seeing how New York City drivers are,
should have been a scene with a lot of horn honking. She also took me to
Book-Off, a Japanese used manga/book/cd store. I’ve been to the one in Los
Angeles, but I had to see the manga queen’s main source. I also met pmtd42
from the forums at Book Off.



Somehow it became 6:00 and we headed back to the theater where we met up with
Touga no Miko, who I had a ticket for the Bebop Premiere with for her
birthday. Parakiss scares me. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity,
the premiere began!



Afterwards, the two ladies and I went out to grab dinner. After a lot of
indecision, we ended up at a Chili’s off Times Square near Port Authority. As
we all made our orders, we got a phone call from Patrick, of Adequate Anime
and Anime Boston. He joined us as dinner arrived, though at least he ordered
quesadillas as the rest of us were boring and all got fajitas. As Touga’s
birthday was going to happen at midnight, I of course informed the wait staff
and got them sing for her. The sombrero was also a nice touch.



It was pretty late after dinner, so we all headed back to where we were
staying, with Mariela making sure that Patrick knew how to take the subway
instead of using a cab everyday. And I swore it was practically day time with
how bright it was in Times Square. Mariela and I spent the rest of the night
writing reports until 3:30 AM in the morning, since as I said, we’re insane.



Saturday



This is it! The first day of AXNY! After another late night, we knew there was
no way we were going to hit Opening Ceremonies, so grabbed an extra hour of
sleep. By 11:00 though, we were off to the Mariot Marquis. The con was set up
on floors 4-9 of the hotel. Upon arriving, we met up with Patrick again who
brought a Terriermon from Digimon with him. It was so cute. The press room was
where we needed to be so we headed up to the ninth floor to get our badges.
There, we met up with Kevin Lillard of Fan’s View. To my disappointment, the
press panels for the Guest of Honors had not been set up yet. After getting
the lay of the land slightly, and not much to do until the Bebop Panel began,
we decided to check out the dealer’s room. The line outside the room (or
rather, the mob) was so large that I gave up and headed for the Bebop line
instead.



The Bebop Panel had the largest turn out at a panel for the entire con, with
the line wrapping around at least once in the hotel. During the Bebop Panel,
Cabbit from the forums noticed me. Right after the Bebop Panel, Toshihiro
Kawamoto gave AXNY a sneak preview of the newest project that Bones, the
animation studio behind Bebop, is doing, Wolf’s Rain.



The Wolf’s Rain preview ended early, so I snuck into the dealer’s room for a
bit. I ended up with a Mutsumi Otohime figure from Kaiyodo. Lucky! I spent the
last three cons trying to get this figure. Unfortunately, we spent too much
time in the dealer’s room so that when we got to the Production I.G. Panel for
the Ghost in the Shell TV Preview it was standing room only. Since Mariela and
I hadn’t eaten yet that day, with David Williams of ADV Films, the three of us
headed to Korea Town for dinner. Mariela took us to a fantastic Korean
Restaurant that Cabbit had found.



We rushed back to the Big Apple Anime Fest then, for the Millenium Actress
preview. I knew very little about this movie except for it being about an
actress. The creator of Perfect Blue was the main force behind it, a movie I
didn’t enjoy very much. Taro Maki, the producer for Millenium Actress
introduced the movie for us. Within five minutes, I was completely floored.
This is a beautifully constructed film. The animation, direction, plot….. I am
completely speechless. Simply put, the movie covers a documentary film maker
asking a reclusive actress in her seventies about her life. The director chose
a very different vehicle to tell the story, and I wish I could tell you what
it is, but that would spoil your experience. If you have the chance to see
this film, run, do not walk to your theater and see this.



Later, we took out Touga no Miko for the rest of her birthday, and were joined
by Keys, Carpboy, and Frank Pannone from CPM. It was a great night at two
different bars. At the first bar, the piano player overheard us and sang Happy
Birth for Touga.. At the second bar, I discovered never ever to order West
Coast Oysters in NYC. Always stick with the East Coast oysters. And Buttery
Nipples are very good, especially where you have them in a large group. By the
time the night was over, it was pretty late and I was in no condition to write
reports. Taxi! *crash*



Sunday



Oh gods, is it morning already? And it’s raining, and isn’t this supposed to
be Saturday? Your con schedule gets absolutely screwed up when the first day
of a con is Saturday. CPM was the first panel on our schedule for today,
though we learned later that there might have been some news from the Studio
Pierrot Panel. The CPM panel was the exact presentation I heard at AX, so
nothing new here. ADV followed, with Matt Greenfield and David Williams
presenting. David gave a sneak preview of the Excel Saga Volume 3 menus for
the audience. All I can say is, tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, tinkle….



I headed off with ptmd42 from the forums to the Yoshiyuki Tomino panels.
Tomino definitely knew how to handle an audience and posed for several
pictures before the panel. Right after the Tomino panel there was an auction
for around twenty sign boards from him. This one kid won two thanks to his
ticket, and the one his mom had. Amazingly, I won one also!



Next up was director Akitaroh Daichi’s panel. Sadly, this wasn’t very well
attended. I think there were barely a hundred people there. After the Daichi
panel, I rejoined Mariela in the Industry track for the FUNimation panel.
During their panel, I got the lowdown from the Bandai panel I missed and
posted some at con news. Then we got all the FUNimation announcements, and I
had to put those up. Amazingly for me, all the exciting new anime news I
learned about at AX happened during the FUNimation panel.



Mariela, David, and I rushed off to the Char’s Counterattack showing at the
BAAF. We almost had a set back when I discovered we were left off the press
seating for the event. Hiro Awaohara, the head of BAAF though solved our
problems, so I’d liked to thank him very much. We got seated in the guest
section instead, where I was three seats away from Tomino himself.
Unfortunately, when the film started, the bottom of the film was cropped off,
and there were sound problems. Eventually, they had to rewind the film and
restart it. So instead, we watched the film with a bit of the left part of the
screen cropped and out of focus. I still enjoyed it though..



Monday

Am I waking up at 8? No, Mariela is getting up at 8, I’m just going to sleep
for a while more. I don’t want to wake up! Why did we agree to this? The
AnimeOnDVD/Anime Boston panel was scheduled for 10 am. This would be the first
time I sat on a panel too. We arrived at the con by 9:45 and I quickly rushed
off the Starbucks for much needed caffeine, while Mariela went ahead with our
prize pack (which included a Hellsing box with blood bag). I got to the panel
by 10:00, and sat down wondering where Mariela was since I couldn’t find her.
To my total surprise, she comes walking back in a skirt when I distinctly
remember her wearing jeans earlier. She changed, making me think I had
completely lost my mind, something I didn’t need right before a panel.



The panel went pretty well. Richard, pmtd42, moderated the panel and Patrick
of Anime Boston was also on the panel. We answered some questions, had some
conversation, asked a little bit of trivia, and gave out some prizes. Forums
and chat people present included, TougaNoMiko, AuldDragon, Fireye, Carpboy,
adferro, and dlw. I know there were others, but I’m blanking.



Next we headed to the Shounen Jump panel, which I think I dozed at possibly
since I can’t really recall it. Mariela will have a report on it, eventually J
After the panel, we made one last run to the dealer’s room, where I picked up
a Lafiel figure from Battleflag of the Stars from Hobbylink Japan, who did not
get their shipment out of customs until Sunday. I also picked up the Rurouni
Kenshin OVA OST from the Suncoast booth. CPM decided to do a t-shirt toss near
the end of the day also, bringing back memories of the AX ADV t-shirt toss.



And that pretty much ended the con for me. There was still the art auction and
closing ceremonies, but I decided to pass. Food called again, so Patrick,
Mariela, David, and I found a small Brazilian Grill restaurant.. Patrick had
to leave after lunch to head back to Boston, so we said our goodbyes. I got to
check out the Arjuna Vol 1 DVD that afternoon also. This is one pretty DVD,
with 16:9 menus. Afterwards, the rest of us just hanged together until we were
to meet Shin Kurokawa and his friend Crissy for dinner and drinks. It was
finally getting late, so Mariela and I said our goodbyes to everyone.



My flight the next morning was at 6:00AM, and I didn’t finish packing until
2:00 AM, so did I decide to get some sleep. Hell no! We went to watch the
day’s G Gundam episode and checked out a check disc for volume 1 of Inu Yasha.
Sometimes, I do admit, I’m nuts. The forums had to be checked out, and it was
nice to discover that no one really wanted to believe my Tenchi GXP post.
Talked to a few friends in chat who were at AXNY and already home. Finally it
was 4:45 AM, and I bid Mariela goodbye so that I could head to the airport, my
flight home, and going to work right afterwards.



Closing Thoughts



Wow, this is my fifth con of the year, or sixth if you count BAAF and AXNY
separately. I know I’ve been hearing a lot of negative reports come out from
the weekend’s events, but for the life of me, I really don’t know why. Of
course, things go wrong at a con. I expect it. Lines can be too long, the
dealer’s room is crowded, and events start late, or are cancelled. A lot of
people were disappointed by not being able to attend the Bebop Premiere due to
the tickets going for sale for sale a week earlier on fandango without any
warning at all from the BAAF website. I know AXNY’s attendance was mostly on
Saturday, since a lot of people just commuted to the con for a single day.



What did I think? I loved it a lot. I even enjoyed BAAF. How often do you get
to see anime films in a theater, and be able to go to Q&A sessions with the
creators afterwards? This was a rare opportunity for the anime fan. The video
room room’s schedule looked really good to me, though I know there are some
people who expect to see fansubs being shown and not stuff from US companies.
There was a good deal of stuff shown in the rooms that weren’t available just
yet. AX is a different con, as it is aimed more towards the industry. The
Guest of Honor panels were great, and the industry panels went fine also. My
schedule kept me away from the fan panels though.



To me though, the thing that makes a con isn’t the con itself, or the dealer’s
room, or event the guests when it comes down to it. Yeah, seeing Yoko Kanno
was an awesome event, but it’s the people you’re with at a con that make it
for me. PatrickD, while not in costume, made “Menchtos” for friends.
TougaNoMiko is just full of life and infects everyone around her with it.
AuldDragon, Fireye, and Carpboy brought out the laughs. Keys helped make it
seem I’m not the only one crazy enough to come from the West Coast. Pmtd42,
thanks for organizing the panel and sitting with me at the Guest of Honor
panels. Hawkeye, err, I mean David, thanks again for the gifts, being a great
person to hang out with, and screwing up video events that I go to. Frank
and Shin, thanks for the good times, and the drinks. Finally, I’d like to
thank Mariela, co-reporter, NYC hostess and guide, and most of all, my friend.
Bye-Q!