Since the rise of anime during the 1980s and 1990s, we have not only seen the creation of some great series, but also have witness the growth of a very strong and united anime community. While we may not all agree on what is the best series ever created, we do share the love of great anime. The anime community plays a crucial role in success of the anime industries both here in America as well as in Japan.

While the American and Japanese anime industries share a lot of similarities, the advantage that the Japanese anime industry possesses is that they have had longer to mature. Anime has been on American shores long before the 1990s. However, it wasn’t till around that time till we saw the explosive growth that we are still witnessing today. The 1990s brought us many great anime series like Evangelion and the rise of Dragonball Z here in America. Japan on the other hand, had their anime surge almost 20 years earlier in the 1970s and 1980s. What this boils down to is that the Japanese anime community is not only larger, but also older. Fans have more disposable income to keep the anime industry strong, and have been doing so a lot longer. Sadly, America isn’t as lucky.

The 1990s also brought us the Internet. Fledging anime companies in America had a new tool to help advertise their stores and products. They were also presented with a very tough problem that no one could have predicted. While I am sure everyone is aware of the piracy problem that plagues the entire anime industry in the states and abroad, I don’t want to spend time debating that. What’s interesting about the problem is how it affects both America and Japan differently. More »

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In case you haven’t heard, we’re partners with the New York Anime Festival! This is our biggest event partnership so far and so we felt something special was needed to promote it. Well, the 7 Days, 7 New Bloggers special worked out so well for us, we decided to do 8 Days of Anime (the number 8 is lucky in many Asian cultures). For 8 days, starting on Thursday September 18th, we will be posting at least two articles a day about something Anime related. We’re hoping that if we hyped up Anime enough online, you’ll be all hyped up for the real world event in NYC. In addition to articles, we’re also doing a roundtable discussion for the first time on Ningin where bloggers and members get a chance to share their opinions on a particular anime topic. Also joining as part of this 8 Days of Anime special are two very good friends of Ningin, Xorsyst.com & Otakuden.com, because we love working with good people and they have very interesting websites.

So here’s a list of planned articles which is more or less solid: More »

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Here’s a note from one of the NYAF Organizer, Lance Fensterman:

There are only 2 weeks to the New York Anime Festival and you still don’t have a ticket! Buy your ticket today so you can spend the next few weeks deciding who you are going with, what you are wearing and how you are getting there. It’s easy to get tickets online and we highly recommend buying your tickets in advance. Choose from weekend passes, VIP, daily or if you are really popular and have 10 or more friends, you can each save money on your ticket and buy group tickets.

The New York Anime Festival features exclusive and extensive anime screenings, guests from America and Japan, manga, cosplay, video games, live-action Japanese cinema, fashion, food, and the cultural treasures that gave birth to Japanese pop culture. More »

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Mixr Media, LLC, and Reed Exhibitions announce a new promotional partnership for the New York Anime Festival (NYAF) taking place from Friday, September 26th to Sunday, September 28th at the Jacob Javitz Center.

Mixr Media, LLC, will be providing complete coverage before and during the NYAF on its Asian entertainment community site Ningin.com. Leading up to the start of the festival, anime fans can find pre-show interviews with Anime voice actors and New York Anime Festival founder Peter Tatara.

During the festival, the Ningin.com booth will provide live blogging coverage of the event. The Ningin.com booth will also host free cosplay photo sessions constantly throughout the festival. Cosplayers who get their photo taken at the Ningin.com booth will receive collectible Ningin.com-NYAF stickers. The online Cosplayer Photo Gallery will be updated live from the festival. More »

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This is an archived blog post. Jason Linetsky is no longer a Ningin blogger.

I’ve been running a bunch of ideas for blog entries though my work-fried brain and came up with Cosplay Month! Following my first entry of the most popular characters of cosplay I’ve decided to continue with cosplay themed entries up until and including the New York Anime Festival!

Tonight’s entry highlights two really talented cosplayers I’ve found on my daily journies through the world of DeviantArt.com.

More »

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This is an archived blog post. Jason Linetsky is no longer a Ningin blogger.

As the New York Anime Festival is approaching, I feel like it’s time to dust off the old black cloaks, repaint the 6 foot tall broad swords, and once again bribe your brothers or sisters to cosplay the opposite gender so you can go as an Anime couple. With that said, what better way to kick off this blog than to dive into that fun, yet sometimes very disturbing, world of cosplay! More »

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As you know Ningin is always expanding its horizons and this past weekend one of our new, upcoming bloggers was at the Cosplay Day event along side with yours truly.

I wasn’t able make it to the event on time but luckily we had someone else to take more photos for us, Jason Linetsky aka Taraka. He was there way before I got there and was also in the front during the Team US cosplayers interview. He took a lot of great photos of the cosplayers some of which I didn’t as well as Team USA. They’re part of the same album with credit to him of course. Be sure to take a look, they’re awesome!

Him and I will also be at New York Anime Festival in September so be on the look out for us. We’ll possibly be cosplaying. /gasp!

View the photos from Cosplay Day here

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