Hardcoreness Level: Anime Fan / VOCALOID Fan / Doujin lover / Cosplayer and Gamer
Writer: Shinaka
As an anime fan, a VOCALOID fan, and as a gamer, NYCC mostly garnered an "okay" response from me in general. With the exception of specific booths, such as the Cartoon Network lounge, the WeLoveFine.com booth, and the doujin booths, the Show Floor didn't exactly wow me with its offerings, especially since it is largely catered to the comic book fan set. In addition, it was really depressing to see NYAF get further pushed back and made smaller, with this year's NYAF being pushed all to the way to the fourth floor - especially in an overly crowded convention center where getting from one end of the Show Floor to another can take nearly an hour. However, this year's NYCC had amazing panels and events, from the "Beyond Hatsune Miku" panel to Masquerade, which - despite the long wait and the opening event's rather choppily-paced short film, "The Boy Who Can Fight Aliens" - featured mostly snappy, hilarious, and awesome skits by the likes of Link, Bumblebee, and the FF7 and FFX cast. For NYCC to wow me next year though, it will have to bring back the bigger NYAF of previous years.
Overall Score: Leet–
Comment: It was a + compared to last year's overall, but there's a lot of minuses to be given to certain areas.
Hardcoreness Level: Life-long gamer / low-level anime fan
Writer: Bulbasuar
This year's Comic Con was definitely my favorite one out of the 4-5 years I've been attending. I think the convention was set up quite nicely, and it was very well organized based on interests. Also, it was pretty easy to find out when stuff was happening, and everyone seemed to be relatively well prepared. I was satisfied to see that gaming got the same treatment as it did in San Diego Comic Con, unlike the previous years. There were tons of playable game demos and a few great press-only events. That's where I got most of my fun. I feel like anime was underrepresented, though. I had trouble finding places that were selling boxed figures, and the ones I did found were hidden away in unseen parts of the con. If they're going to combine NYAF with NYCC, they should work to make both parts bigger.
However, I have two major complaints. Many people probably share my first complaint. Simply, there were too many people on Saturday, and not enough control. If it wasn't for Thursday's press and VIP only status, I wouldn't have gotten much done. This leads to my second complaint. The staff needs to allow press top priority access to panels. They were doing this for VIPs, but I think that's silly since most VIPs were just people who paid extra. We had to wait on the same lines as normal pass holders, and often this kept us locked out of the panels due limits on capacity. This is simply unacceptable, since press doesn't have enough time to wait on lines an hour before the panels start.
Overall Score: Leet
Comment: I liked this year a lot but it was way too crowded.
Hardcoreness Level: Gamer
Writer: Squarephoniex
This was my first ever comic convention and I must say it didn't fail to disappoint. Horrible smells and people who've never heard the term personal space aside, Comic Con definitely delivered on the games. Many gaming booths had demo's for eager fans to try out as well as impressive extra content. In my eyes, Capcom stole the cake with their booth. The greatest aspect of it was the sound proof room they constructed to promote Asura's Wrath. Any con goer looking to blow of some steam could enter the booth and scream to their hearts content. Their scream was then measured by a sound system installed in the booth and if it reached a certain point on the rage meter a prize was awarded. Most gaming companies just offer demos at their booths but something about that extra level of interaction set Capcom on a pedestal high above the rest
Overall Score: Leet–
Comment: Just because they had no space for press.
Hardcoreness Level: Closet Otaku / Mid-Level Anime Fan / Trigger Happy Photographer
Writer: SolidX
Being editor-in-chief is hard. Very hard sometimes. You're always the first one in the office and the last one to leave. The same applies for conventions (although that's definitely a choice on my part). It's probably the one event I look forward to the most and dread the most out of the entire year. Unfortunately since I've still got my editorial duties to perform I never really get to experience as much as everyone else does. But that doesn't mean I don't get to have fun.
First off, as most people who know me know, I love to take photos. (Possibly a little too much if any one recalls last year's 10 meter dash and slide to get photos of a Ritsu cosplayer.) But this year with the combined convention in it's 2nd year the photo ops were phenomenal. I must say I was a bit disappointed in the lack of variety coming out of the anime cosplayers this year though. As for the comic book cosplayers, I think I may just have to get in to comic books to be able to identify them all.
Of course the most critical part of any convention are the people who are attending. This year's atmosphere was quite welcoming even for those of us who are used to avoiding eye contact in the subway while ignoring strangers who talk to you. On the first day I already had met a pretty cool volunteer / fellow press member within 10 minutes of arriving. Not only that but I met a lot of awesome attendees, exhibitors and other people.
While I may be painting a utopian picture of this con, it had it's problems too. The lines were ridiculous for some panels, with people waiting in line to get in line. As well as panels being full to capacity over an hour before they even began. There was also the fact that the Anime Festival part of the convention was isolated so far from everything else. Personally I'd have liked to see it in the new wing of the Javits Center, and then the autographing lines could be up in the middle of nowhere. Another thing that was a bit disappointing was that there wasn't an anime-related musical guest this year. It will definitely be hard to top Minori Chihara, but this year's musical guest was more geared toward the comic book crowd it seems.
So all in all, if you're in to anime this year's convention may have been a bit disappointing, but if you noticed that the convention was practically marketed in it's entirety as a Comic Con then it shouldn't be surprising. I'd consider it enjoyable if you keep that in mind as you approach it.
Overall Score: Leet–
Comment: I have to agree with the rest of the staff. I missed out on several industry panels due to those lines that formed over an hour before some panels started. As an aside, I'd give up a kidney if they had Kalafina as next year's musical guest.
