AnimeNEXT 2009: Day 1 Recap and Photos (A Con n00b arrives)

We sent our New York City photographer Tina Chou into the New Jersey suburbs for her first anime convention — the mighty AnimeNEXT! She’s doing double duty blogging and shooting this weekend. This is the 8th AnimeNEXT for the NY-NJ-CT tri-state area. Every year it gets bigger and better, and it seems Tina was a little overwhelmed her first day out there…

From Tina Chou:
Hi everyone! I’m currently blogging from a hotel room in Somerset, NJ where Day 1 of AnimeNEXT has just drawn to a close. I’ve almost regained my hearing from the FAKE? concert that finished up at around 10:30PM and it was amazing! Some events are still going on right now like “Are You a Werewolf?” (kind of like Mafia) which runs until 7AM, an outdoor dance party, a cosplay burlesque show, and hentai screenings with some other 18+ events. But let me start from the beginning.

I’ve never been to an anime convention before but being from New Jersey and having friends at Ningin, I couldn’t pass up the chance this year. (Just so you know, if you’re a veteran convention-goer or you’re at AnimeNEXT right now, this blog post might be kind of really boring.) I had some difficulty getting a press pass –okay, a lot– but what matters is that I got one when I walked in this morning.

The Double Tree Hotel where the convention is being held (or as I have learned, the “con”) has several ponds, fountains, trees, and beautiful nature. The hotel and some buildings around it are scattered so we drove around looking for the main building. After seeing a man in a cape and more schoolgirl uniforms than I ever saw in school, we knew we were in the right place.

Some of the more interesting Rules of Conduct:
–no live steel will be allowed at the convention
–if a gun reproduction has a firing capacity it must be empty of all ammunition and magazines
–no prop over 6 feet tall will be allowed in the convention center

The convention is being held in 3 separate buildings. The hotel has the Art Gallery, videogames, the manga library, and other cool stuff. An outdoor walkway attaches the hotel to the Expo Center which houses the Arena, more panels, the Dealer Room, the Main Events place, and some other things I probably forgot. Then the “training center” has table top gaming and screening rooms.

Since a majority of the events did not start until noon, I wandered around the Art Show first. There were more excellent drawings of anime than I have ever seen in the same place and other custom merchandise I did not even know existed. I saw really cute stuffed sushi at one of the booths.

Photography isn’t permitted in the artists’ gallery for obvious reasons but I saw lots of new things. Then I headed over to the Expo Center to check out the Arena. It was an “open cosplay photoshoot” and I was quite surprised with all the different outfits I saw. I was expecting a lot of cosplaying but actually seeing it took awhile to get used to. However, I think by the end of today I’ve been desensitized. (Just to let you know, I don’t really cosplay and I’m an alright fan of anime, but I haven’t watched much lately so I can only identify a few characters.)

In a corner of the Arena were bleachers and the “Sleeping Samurai Foam Weapon Tournament.” People basically used foam sticks like samurai swords and a person serving as ref made them bow to each other before and after as well as awarded points. It was pretty entertaining to watch and a lot of people got really into it. The Arena kind of had a warehouse feel to it and the ambient light was not very good at all (for those photographers that know about white balance) but a lot of people were taking pictures and having lots of fun.

Next to the Arena was the Dealer’s Room and it was an eye-opener for me. If you’ve never been to a convention before, there was so much merchandise being sold (and all different kinds too!) that it was like a slice of Japan’s stores just up and landed in this hotel. My friends, who are not convention n00bs, were unfazed but I spent some time just gawking at all of the stuff. Clothes, stuffed animals, Pocky, leashes, cat ears, DVDs, action figures, you name it and it was probably there. I believe about 46 companies were represented in the Dealer’s Room.

I probably missed some important events but this is my first convention so please cut me some slack. The first panel was “Modeling & Networking with Cosplay” which I cannot find a further description of in my booklet. It was hosted by 3 maybe professional cosplayers in costume. I actually did not know that cosplaying could be a profession but a lot of the panel centered around advice for becoming a “professional” at it, I think. About halfway through, I realized it was more for cosplayers than photographers but it was a very interesting perspective to see what “models” say to each other as advice about photographers. Until recently I did not know cosplay photography was its own niche but you learn something new everyday.

I felt like I already knew most of what the panelists were saying (be early, don’t wait until the last minute, word-of-mouth is important, lighting is important, business cards are important, practicing poses is important, location is important, etc.) and they were also able to finish each others’ sentences quite well (2 of them were twins) but it wasn’t boring in the least. One thing to note, they pointed out one of their photographer friends in the audience who had a nickname of some sort which may or may not have sounded like DEFCON. I’m used to photographers using their real names but since a lot of cosplayers don’t, it makes sense that cosplay photographers might not either? But hey, to each his own. Or her. But now is not the time to talk about photography as a male-dominated profession. (David: “HEY!”)

The last panel I went to was “Voice Acting in America” which featured various guests. I got there late so I missed the introductions. It was an entertaining panel with good questions from the audience as well as some voice performance requests. With 5 minutes left in the panel, 2 more voice actors showed up. They were Kyle Herbert and maybe Toshifuma Yoshida. The panelists I can identify were Michele Knotz, Bill Rogers, Tom Wayland, Mike Pollock, Michael Perreca and I’m missing 2 more. After the panel, a few of them stuck around for “The Big Bald Broadcast” which involved… broadcasting or something. Some of them will be back tomorrow for the panel “Breaking into Voice Acting.”

With that all over by about 7PM, I had time before the 9PM concert with FAKE?. When I had first checked in, I was informed that having a press pass does not give you access to photograph the concert. You must be cleared with the band first. With some of David’s help via text message, I located the J-House Rock Entertainment table where a very helpful person set everything up for me and got me all cleared.

I don’t like walking up to people asking if I can take their picture and don’t usually initiate conversation with strangers. But by about 7PM for the love of Ningin, I stepped out of my comfort zone. See resulting pictures.

Okay, last segment, I promise. I only saw a few other photographers around during the day but by about 7PM, it seems like a whole bunch emerged out of the shadows and had private shoots scheduled. I only own 1 flash but by dusk, the natural lighting outside was perfect so I was more motivated to take pictures. I attempted a conversation with one of the CosPrints photographers, since I think photographers should be friends even if they are also competitors. Maybe my 18-55mm peashooter Nikon kit lens was not enough to hold her attention as she started talking to someone else. Anyways, most of these cosplay shots are from just above the ground at 18mm which hopefully make the picture look more interesting.

I didn’t think I would write this much but if you’ve read this far, I think we can be friends. I’m gonna put the FAKE? concert in another post with more nerdy photographer information. Word on the street is that tomorrow is when all the hardcore cosplaying takes place… Comments greatly appreciated! –Tina.

PS: This little Mokona vibrates. Isn’t it so cute?