Lara and I ventured into New York City for this year’s NY Comic Con at the Jacob Javits Center to see what was poppin’. We met up with some Ningin staff, caught a Yatterman screening and fangirled till our voices gave out.

When we arrived in the city, our fangirl instincts lead us straight to the Directors Guild to see the world premiere of Takashi Miike’s Yatterman, starring Sho Sakurai from Arashi. Tons of dedicated fans waited in line in hopes of seeing the movie or even just to catch a glimpse of Sho as he entered; however, a lot of them couldn’t make it into the theater because it was packed! So, FAM, and Ningin blogger Mia Lerda — with a little help from David Hou — had to keep the communal fangirl spirits high.

Saturday was when our real NY Comic Con experience got crankin’, and our first stop was at the Smith Micro Software booth where we were introduced to cool software, such as Manga Studio and ArtRage. After that, we did what everyone should do at cons: start at the corner of the floor room and zigzag throughout the booths in a freebie collecting frenzy! Everyone loves free stuff, and boy did we get a lot of it.

A few ugly dolls and action figures later, I entered a Super Smash Bros. Brawl contest at the Play N Trade video game booth. I’m not very good at the game, but I almost won, and they still gave me a sticker and a poster for participating! Lara and I also got to play some demos of Sonic and the Black Knight for the Wii, as well as Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the DS. Both games looked promising, and I can’t wait for their releases.

What better way to end our NY Comic Con experience than with a dance contest? FAM got to strut some dance moves for the Microsexuals dance contest and actually won a special edition Microsexuals Mimobot flash drive loaded with some of the group’s episodes. Mimobot has some cute designer USB flash drives, and I’m glad we got a limited edition.

All in all, NY Comic Con has its pros and its cons. It could have been a little better; some musical guest would have been nice. A one-day thing with this particular con is where it’s at. Though, there were plenty of booths to check out and lots of games to play, which made it worthwhile. Let’s just hope next year blows us away!