The last day of NYCC is usually the quietest, and it proved to be the same with Anime NYC, as I only had one panel to go to. As a result I took the time to go through Artist’s Alley up at the top of the Javits, which was filled with talented art from talented artists and also more My Hero Academia stuff than you can shake a stick at. Anyone who doubts it’s not the biggest Jump title out there needs to look again. After that I took one last pass through the dealer’s room, and then went to room camp before the Vertical panel.
Unfortunately Windows 10 caused my computer to dump what I had been typing, so I can’t tell you who was running the panel before Vertical. It was on cosplay basics and advice, and it seemed like good advice – I liked the discussion about how you shouldn’t put your hair in a bun when wearing a wig, as it will always show. After this we got Vertical’s panel, which had a long AV setup, and also reminded me that it just feels weird to have a panel without Ed.
Vertical only had one new announcement, and it’s for Tsutomu Nihei’s latest manga, APOSIMZ, aka Ningyou no Kuni. It runs in Shonen Sirius, and features many of the themes Nihei is known for – if you’ve read BLAME! and Knights of Sidonia, you know what you’re getting here. Also like Knights of Sidonia, there is apparently the occasional delve into lowbrow humor – I remarked several times that Sidonia sometimes felt like a harem comedy.
The Nekomonogatari (Black) novel was for sale at the con ahead of street (in fact, a lot longer ahead of street than I expected, as the release date got pushed back to December 19th yesterday), and so a lot of the people in the audience were there for Monogatari. Vertical did have a treat for them – the rough draft and final version of VOFAN’s North American cover art for Nekomonogatari (White), which should be out at the end of January unless that gets delayed a bit as well. It features Black Hanekawa and the Tiger monster who is the book’s main antagonist, and looks fabulous – VOFAN called it his best work.
The rest of the panel consisted of raffles and giveaways – there was a lot of nice stuff raffled off, though I didn’t win anything. After that it was time to bid the con farewell and head home. For a first-year con it was excellent, and you could tell that the showrunners were seasoned pros. I hope we get to see it again next year, as I’ll definitely make plans!
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