Hi there ladies and gentlemen, in a  better-late-than-never fashion, here’s the Inverseman with his New York Anime Fest/Comic-Con convention debriefing.

Okay, so the first thing you gotta know is that despite its youth, NYAF/CC got really big, really quickly. I mean, that’s what you get when you merge two conventions into one. If you thought last year was big, you’ve got another thing coming. This time the dealers’ room was extended to three whole show floors, with the tail end bleeding into the Comic-Con artists’ alley. There was an entire floor dedicated to panels galore, the NYAF artists’ alley had its own section to itself, and autographs took place in a more recent expansion of the Javits.

You can safely say that the organizers used every bit of convention space in the Javits center, which is a big improvement over last year. Last year, much of the NYAF half of the convention was crammed into one room; the artists alley, the performance stage, and most of the panels. Due to that kind of underestimation, the NYAF portion of the con last year was always far overcrowded. Fortunately, this year, giving the artists alley (NYAF) its own section and putting the NYAF panels alongside the NYCC panels was a vast improvement. However, despite better organization, the NYAF side could use some more panels… Like more than just screenings and a few industry panels. The NYAF side still felt dwarfed and shoved aside, while I can expect this namely due to American comics being the domestic industry here, I could stand for the organizers to throw a bone for anime and manga fans. It would certainly make the con experience more uh… Relevant for lots of attendees. Continue reading »