The New York Anime festival was held in the Jacob Javitts Center in New York City, from December 7th to the 9th. It was a rather small convention, and did not fill even half of the center, but what it did have was impressive.Walking in, the first thing that would catch your eye was the statue of the Serras Angel, which probably stood at about 13 feet tall. It was placed outside the Magic TCG tournament, and served as a fantastic place to meet up with your friends or otherwise impress the attendees. (I did not actually attend the Magic Tournament, but congrats to whoever won.)

Once you go down the stairs, you’re immediately in the dealer’s room. This is a fantastic and evil system-there is no way to avoid the constant temptation when the first thing you see when you enter are tables upon tables of anime merchandise. The dealer’s room was large and well organized as well, and had everything you could have wanted had you taken the time to look.

Walking around the main hallway of the convention, you could observe several things. There was a “maid café” at one location, but it seemed to be nothing more than a roped off area with tables to eat at. I did not see any maids actually serving customers. Directly across from that, there was a large paining of Voltron on the ground, presumably to be sold. And when I say large, I mean about 10 by 6 feet.

The meat of any convention, of course, is the panels, screenings and events. All of the anime screenings were dubbed. This could potentially be a problem for some, but most of the con-goers didn’t seem to mind, and the more popular screenings practically filled their rooms. The panels were, in my mind, the best part of the convention, and featured such things as “Anime Outtakes,” a panel showing outtakes from various anime dubs as well as showing mistakes from other work the dubbers do. The anime match game was another popular one, in which two contestants selected from the audience tried to match the answers of such famous voice actors as Peter Fernandez, who voiced Speed Racer, and other actors within the anime industry. The most popular panel I attended was “Uncle Yo, the Otaku Comedian,” who made jokes and references to almost every anime I could think of. If you ever have the chance to see him at a convention, I would suggest you take every opportunity to do so.

The last thing I saw before the long drive back was the Unicorn Table concert. This band performed the opening theme for Jinki:Extend (Fly Away) as well as promotional songs for School Rumble. The line for the concert stretched almost outside the con, and it filled the entire Tokyopop stage auditorium. It was not a true auditorium, simply a mass of chairs placed in a large room with a stage, but it served its purpose. The concert started a bit late, but we were all treated to a group of cosplayers running up and down the aisles and jumping up and down while we waited. Kudos to the robot dancing Gundam.

The concert itself suffered a bit from the plague of anime convention concerts-bad acoustics. Something tells me that large square rooms are not the best places to hold these things. However, it was still quite enjoyable, and I found myself wishing I had bought their CD as they played through their first three songs. The singer, Salia, spoke in Japanese, but I caught one of the titles as “Sweet Dream.” Most of their music was typical Jpop, full of upbeat melodies with a hint of techno to it.

Halfway through, Salia dismissed her band and began a few songs with only a DJ. These songs were a bit less invigorating, but nonetheless fun. There were a few problems with the mic as she began a song by herself, but were fixed quickly.

Near the end, a raffle was held, auctioning off a band T-shirt, a video of the band, and a small bag that Salia had apparently made herself. Once the winners had taken their prizes, we were treated to one last song before the night was over.

I hope the New York Anime Festival returns next year, as the location was good, and it was the first con I’ve attended that actually had an acceptable food court within the convention center. (Chicken parmesan for lunch, at an anime convention? Unbelievable.) If any of you have a chance to go in the future, I would definitely recommend it.

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