It may have been a convention dedicated to anime but for me, it was a Takanori Nishikawa filled weekend. If the amount of Takanori events weren’t enough, I come to the convention to find out that the Ningin booth is conveniently placed next to the T.M.Revolution booth! I think Takanori came to stalk me instead! He’s all the way in Japan and I’m still being followed! Ha ha! I’m joking, of course. But in any case, it was all enjoyable. Everyone at the T.M.Revolution booth was lovely. I also saw some old friends there from New York Comic Con 2008. The merchandise there was also very nostalgic and reminded Jessica and I of our adventures that fateful weekend when we met Takanori Nishikawa in the flesh. But before I start getting all teary eyed, here’s the coverage of everything Takanori Nishikawa related!

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Tags: abingdon boys school, Corazon de Melon, myspace, New York Anime Festival 2008, nyaf, T.M.Revolution, Takanori Nishikawa, TMR

Today was one of those days when I hated my job and thought it was the worst job ever. But some bitch at work sent me this video clip and I decided, immediately after watching it, that my job was not so bad after all.

A train station in India is having a problem with some nasty monkeys bothering the passengers. So some genius who worked there thought of the scarecrow tactic. He hired a man and dressed him up as a monkey (a large one, mind you) to scare off the real monkeys. Couldn’t they have given him a friendlier looking monkey costume, instead of this evil demon looking one?! By the looks of it he’s probably scaring off the passengers, not the monkeys.

If you ask me, I think the monkeys are just sitting there and laughing their asses off at this poor fool who walks like he just threw his back out.  They probably think to themselves, “what a bitch job this is!”, and continue to eat their bananas before they set off to intimidate more passengers.

Tags: human monkey, India train station, job, monkey, train station

Sunday’s weather for the 26th Annual Korean Harvest Fest in Flushing Meadows Park couldn’t have been better. The first day of autumn in New York, presented a true Indian summer of bright sun and warm breezes. The weather must have known to prepare for the attendees that came out in droves. Korean Americans from the tri-state area, and various other ethnicity’s local to New York came out to support local businesses that set up shop along a makeshift market in the middle of the park.
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Tags: chuseok, g-soul, j-lim, jyp, min, wondergirls

For three days of the NYAF our Ningin crew met so many interesting people. It was great to meet you; the creative people that make a weekend like this a great experience. I wish all our Ningin members could have been there with us to see the these Animated characters come to life. It was truly unbelievable! Costume clad Anime fans came from all over the world to converge in New York. Anime has truly been a wonderful influence on us all. It is something that goes beyond languages and borders and brings us all together. Especially when you realize that you may have grown up with an Anime show that also played in Europe or Asia or Africa.
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Tags: anime, convention, cosplay, new york, nyaf

Thank you to those that entered the Ningin-NY Anime Festival Cosplay Photo Contest. We were amazed by your costumes and enthusiasm. Galleries from all three days of New York Anime Festival are online now. We divided the galleries by Day 1 (Friday), Day 2, and Day 3 to make it a bit easier for you to find yourself. Don’t forget to check out other photos from the event.

We’ve gone through over 500 contest entries and chosen 50 finalists. It was quite a debate about who should make the top 50. We gave preference to those that made their own outfits and those that posed well. Well that’s done and now it’s time for you to vote for the winners! Voting will be open until 12pm (EST), Sunday, October 5, 2008 for all registered Ningin users. Each Ningin user can vote for one favorite costume so make sure you check them all out before voting! The winners will be announced 12pm (EST), Monday, October 6, 2008.

The top three cosplayers will be profiled and interviewed by our Ningin bloggers. The overall best cosplayer will also receive two super exclusive tickets to the private premiere of the Megaman Movie and two tickets to Comic Con next February.

Good luck and thank you for stopping by the Ningin.com booth at the New York Anime Festival!
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Tags: comic con, contest, cosplay, gallery, megaman movie, new york anime festival, ningin, nyaf, photoshoot, prizes, winner

Wow. I can’t believe Lan and I took over 500 cosplayer portraits in three crazy days. This was our first anime convention and I don’t think any of us expected such an enthusiastic turnout. In case you didn’t meet our team, we had our bloggers Mia Lerda, Lara Visconti and Jessica Dawson meeting and greeting, Lan Nguyen and myself on photographer duty, and Hoc Poeng as master of ceremonies at the Ningin.com booth. Bloggers Andrew Lim and Stephen Chen were able to make brief appearances on Saturday (btw, that was a day of anime insanity!).

Special thank you’s to our NYAF booth neighbors T.M. Revolution (TMR and Abingdon Boys School management Koichi and Michiyo), Japan Society (who stopped by many times to check out our Cosplay Photo Shoot), Lady Heather’s Fashions (enjoyable harassment by gothic Sujia, and yes, we know it’s not cosplay), New York-Tokyo (film fest planners Taeko and Steve), Pierrot (Keiko from the Naturo producing team), MSS-New York (video producer Takuro), The NEO Show (hosted by Angie), the Yaoi boys (thanks for a paddling), Ichi-P (a special Wonder Girls dance off at the Ningin booth) and NYAF head honcho Peter Tatara who found a moment to stop by and meet us!
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Tags: abingdon boys school, cosplay, ichi-p, Japan Society, Naturo, new york anime festival, nyaf, photography, pierrot, Tatara, TMR, tokyo, yaoi

It makes me so sad to write this as it is the last day of the New York Anime Festival. It was my very first time at an anime convention and it was an overall great experience. I can’t wait to attend another.

Recapping on today, it was easier than the previous 2 days as it was more relaxed (thank God) which left a lot of room to socialize with fellow attendees. I met a lot of new people in addition to running into friends from the anime community. I want to give a shout out to “Saka”, our booth neighbor TM Revolution, John and Jayelle from Otakuden, Zlade from Anime Meetup, Ichi-P and old friends from Cosplay Day at Kinokuniya; it was great meeting you guys.

About the Cosplay Photoshoot Contest, we did take a ton of photos again which are all uploaded to the galleries. I want to thank all the participants; you guys are amazing and I wish you luck! Details of the contest voting and winner will be posted later. Also, I will be posting coverage later on about individual cosplayers.

So, I hope you guys enjoyed yourself as much as I did. Here’s some photos from Day 3:

View Full Galleries: NYAF 2008 - Cosplay Photoshoot Contest Day 1 - Cosplay Photoshoot Contest Day 2 - Cosplay Photoshoot Contest Day 3
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Tags: anime, anime meetup, convention, cosplay, cosplay day, cosplay photoshoot contest, ichi-p, jacob javits, kinokuniya, manga, new york anime festival, ningin, otakuden, saka

TVXQ has officially released their fourth album, Mirotic, only a few days ago but even before then it has hit number 1 on the charts. I’m glad they’re back in Korea again so they can put these fake talentless boy bands to shame.

The new album is title Mirotic which is the combination of a coined Korean word “miro” and the English word “tic”. The word “miro” means “lost or maze” which has lead people to believe the definition is the feeling of being wrapped in love with no way out.

Listening to the entire album, I was more of a fan of the slow songs (especially Jae Joong’s solo) over the upbeat ones although “Wrong Number” and “Crazy Love” were one of my favorites. I really enjoyed the entire album with its techno pop feel; definitely a hit for a comeback album.
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Tags: album, boy band, comeback, dbsk, jae joong, japan, korea, mirotic, new, sexy, single, tvxq

Hello everyone on ningin! I recently talked to a trailblazer by the name of Laurence Louie who is the editor-in-chief of the hot new Asian American newspaper, Native Tongue. I was first introduced to him through another friend of mine. I began viewing his website and his newspaper online. I noticed how he and his staff desperately wanting to make a change in the Asian American community on campus, locally, and nationally. The interview that I have had with this wonderful man Laurence follows.
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Tags: activism, Asian American issues, Asian culture, Asian men, Boston, Chinatown, chinese, discrimination, Massachusetts, media, minorities, Native Tongue, New Jersey, newspaper, Rutgers, Stanford

Ohayo! New York Anime Festival is coming to an end as we start day 3, but let’s recap on day 2. Even before the doors were officially open, the Javits center was packed with cosplayers; it was pretty intense to see so many people there. As such, we were able to take way more photos for our Cosplay Photoshoot Contest. There were a lot of memorable cosplayers as everyone seems to bring their A-game. It’s amazing to think that some of these cosplays are put together by hand! We also met some of the artists and other exhibitionists. They were all really friendly and had some interesting merchandise. The day was a lot of fun but I’m going to let these pictures speak for themselves.

View the entire gallery: NYAF 2008 - Cosplay Photoshoot Contest Day 1 - Cosplay Photoshoot Contest Day 2
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Tags: anime, contest, convention, cosplay, fun, jacob javits center, manga, new york, new york anime festival, ningin, photoshoot