The 2010 New York Comic Con / New York Anime Festival experience

Jinra Ilustrisimo on Monday, October 11, 2010 9:21PM

Thanks to the 2010 New York Comic Con (NYCC) and New York Anime Festival (NYAF) taking place this past weekend, I’ve never had a weekend more packed with anime, manga/comics, cosplayers and video games. To put things more into perspective, at least 77,000 fans were in attendance — this event is easily the East Coast’s largest for anime, manga/comics and video games! Right in the middle of it all was me, a comic con attendee of only moderate passion for anime, manga/comics, cosplay and video games. And no, I did not dress up. Despite this, the comic con sensory overload and the exhaustion from walking what seemed to be miles of comic con space packed with everyone and their cosplaying hamsters, I managed to have myself a great time.

Over the span of two days attending the con, the most memorable moments had to be our opportunity to interview the Final Fantasy 14 producers, previewing a handful of upcoming game titles, movies and cosplayer watching. I’d say I spent a little over half of my time feeling inspired by the many cosplayers, and then gently coercing them into taking photos with me. This is pretty much obvious in the gallery. My most proud moment of this is spotting a Halo soldier cosplayer — the most accurate looking cosplayer I’d laid my eyes on. By the way, that’s not Beyonce I’m referencing. Other honorable mentions include Princess Leia, Optimus Prime and Chewbacca.

The con provided an excellent opportunity to take a glimpse into some of the upcoming season’s hottest game titles. Due to all the people traffic, playing exclusive game demos only happened if you 1) Fought someone for it. 2) Waited really patiently for a long time. 3) Jumped on an exhibitor to allow you to play a demo while everyone else watches. From observing the many gaming booths, I can tell you that the hottest upcoming game titles are Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Red Dead Redemption 3: Undead Nightmare, The Michael Jackson Experience. Sadly, no Nintendo 3DS in sight but plenty of opportunities to play Playstation Move.

As much as both the cons are making out to sound like one big man-fest, it was equally filled with a decent amount of girly, cutesy, Kawaii goods. Kind of like if GirlyBubble went to the con and vomitted on one side of the convention center. One side of the convention was literally rows upon rows of exhibitors showing off the best in plush toys, cute tees and of course, shoujo manga. True story: I was reminiscing my shoujo manga reading days to Hoc when I realized I was accidentally pointing at the yaoi section of a manga vendor. Hey — I can’t help it if manga dudes look like girls! And that I tend to gravitate towards anime girl body pillows because they remind me of James Franco in that one episode of 30 Rock:

Overall, fun was had. I’d definitely recommend going if you’re in the area next year and you enjoy being around a lot of people passionate in the same interests.

Enough of my yapping, check out the gallery of photos!

Anyone attend the con?

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