The final day of NYCC/AF was much milder and relaxed, and while there was still a crush of people, especially on the anime end of the building, it wasn’t the nightmare it was sometimes on Saturday.

After buzzing around the DR (I’ll append my swag list at the end of this post), and dropping by Kodansha USA’s room to reassure myself that yes indeed, they aren’t there, I ducked into the Miyazaki panel. It was well-done, with slides and everything, even if a bit rushed. I think all the panels I saw with cards and slide presentations (as opposed to just sitting and jabbering) felt as if they were pressed for time the entire panel, though their preparation also insured the panels were excellent.

Ducked out early as I had to walk clear over to the other side of the Javits to go to the Archie creators panel. Who decided to make the convention center 6-7 blocks long? In any case, this panel was a lot more informal than the corporate one on Friday, but was just as fun, with lots of discussions of what’s coming up next, followed by Q&A.; Alex Simmons, one of the Archie writers, hosted both panels and was probably the best moderator I saw all con, keeping things moving despite his notes being rather messy, and with a healthy dose of humor.

I commented on enjoying Archie characters when they show their flaws, and talked about my love of “insane Betty” stories. They all agree that playing up the flaws is what makes them want to write Archie, as otherwise it’s just a bunch of nice kids. Dan Parent, who was also on the panel, talked about how much he liked to play up flaws when writing Jughead fighting Veronica. The inevitable ‘what’s the S on Jughead’s shirt stand for’ question came up, and it was noted they played with this in several Archie Comics over the years, but only Bob Montana likely knows the answer. Best moments of the panel were the mild-mannered, deadpan replies from Victor Gorelick in the audience, who got more awesome the more I saw of him. Someone asked when we’d see Betty’s sister, which flummoxed the writers on the panel. “Betty has a sister?” the asked. “Betty does have a sister,” Victor answered. Long pause. “Betty also has a brother.” I laughed.

After this, I debated lunch but instead went over to Artist’s Alley, where I got a doujinshi that a friend had asked me to look for. Then off to Culinary Manga, Erin’s spinoff panel from her unusual manga genres. It was fantastic, not only talking about all the many, MANY cooking manga out now, both licensed and non, but also showing examples of attempting the recipes they have in the back of many volumes, and how hard they are to actually manage. I definitely hope to see more of these at future cons.

That was it for me, even though the con kept going till 5. Back to the New Yorker to get my bags (the room was tiny but otherwise it was quite a decent hotel), then off to an Irish pub for dinner and football watching (eating beer-battered fish and chips while watching the Cowboys self-destruct is something I recommend to anyone), and thence home.

There was not as much news as I had hoped this con, I will admit. What, still no Sailor Moon reprint? Stop teasing! And where was my Durarara!! manga and A Certain Magical Index manga announcements that I was sure in my head Yen would make? (Many things happen in my head that bear no resemblance to reality.) But I hung out with many old friends, met many new ones (introducing yourself by your name and Twitter handle was the hot new thing), and generally had a blast. Can’t wait for next year.

Swag list:
November’s Betsuhana
A back issue of Evening
Berry Berry 2 & 3 (Banri Hidaka, Hana to Yume)
Moteki 4.5 (from Kodansha’s Evening)
Ecce S 3 (aka Kono S wo Miyo!, aka that hypnobutt manga, from Shogakukan’s Big Comic Spirits)
Holy Brownie 2 & 3 (from the creator of Excel Saga, Shonen Gahosha’s Young King Ours Plus)
Haruka 17 Volume 1 (from Kodansha’s Morning)
Hetalia Axis Powers DVD 1
Buddha Volume 1 (Tezuka, ran in Ushio Shuppansha’s Comic Tom)

and stuff I got for free:

Black Butler Vol. 3 (Square Enix, GFantasy)
Daniel X (Yen original)
Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch (Del Rey proof edition)
Bloodshot by Cherie Priest (Del Rey proof edition)
The Bobo, starring Peter Sellers (1967) (Warner Archive DVD)
The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980) (Warner Archive DVD)

A big, long day at NYCC, where food and relaxation took a backseat to lots and lots of panels.

Started off with Bandai, where I ended up behind one of those fanboys you hear about but it’s always surprising to see. “K-on,” he muttered to himself. “Come on, K-on. Give us our moe blobs.” I swear that’s an exact quote. Now I like K-On as well – I was wearing a K-On shirt yesterday, in fact – but come on, Bandai’s license of it was a foregone conclusion. What did surprise me was that, after years and years of frustration, Bandai is finally releasing the first Gundam TV series with a Japanese audio track and subtitles. The Suzumiya movie should also be out this spring. Sadly, the rest of the panel fell prey to fanboy mindset for the Q&A;, with the crowd asking about other titles they wanted. Guys, if they didn’t announce it? They don’t have anything to say. These guys don’t forget to announce things.

Funimation had the right idea, as they had a slide noting that they will not accept questions like that. Bravo! I don’t think they had anything new to announce, but nice trailers for Kaleido Star, Summer Wars, and Eden of the East.

After this was lunch! Yay for food!

Then time for Yen Press. Not a lot of new stuff here, though I was pleased to see that they are going to work with Japan to get the last With the Light stuff the author did before she died and wrap it up with a Volume 8. It’s very important to them as it was their first series. They’re also doing a new James Patterson adaptation, with art by Svetlana Chmakova, whose Nightschool just finished up. As with Dark Horse, they’d hoped to have more to say, but they’re still working on contracts. They did also note that for the digital market, they have the rights to chapters online but not necessarily volumes online. Digital marketing has made the whole licensing process more complicated.

I stayed for Del Rey’s SF panel, and was glad I did, as they were giving out advance proofs of Ben Aaronovitch’s new urban fantasy novel, Midnight Riot. As a big fan of Ben’s work on Doctor Who (he wrote Remembrance of the Daleks in 1988, still possibly the best 7th Doctor story), I was very happy. The panel started with a few manga questions, as the panelists seemed to be unsure if the Kodansha move had been announced. Once that was out of the way, they gave a nice long slideshow showing Del Rey and Spectra’s releases for the fall and winter, including new doorstoppers from Connie Willis and Kim Stanley Robinson. They also mocked George RR Martin, which is always fun.

Time for Vertical, who I knew would have two actual manga announcements. Saved for the end, of course. Ed and Yani were in rare form, with Yani in particular noting certain manga grotesqueries he was sure that fans would love. The news here was the announcement of Ningen Konchuuki, which they are releasing as The Book of Human Insects. It ran in Akita Shoten’s Play Comic (home of Metro Survive and Ogenki Clinic) in 1970, and is apparently quite striking, in the best Tezuka at Vertical tradition. It will combine the 2 Japanese volumes into 1 hardcover. The other announcement was another Usamaru Furuya title, his newest. It’s an adaptation of the novel Ningen Shikkaku, aka No Longer Human, by the legendary Osamu Dazai, and was running in Shinchosha’s Comic Bunch. That magazine just folded, but they’re apparently starting a new one, and it will finish up in there. It should be 3 volumes long. I’ve been a Furuya fan since Short Cuts, and know how twisted he can get, so definitely look forward to this.

Got popcorn and a coke to hold the body together, then went to the yaoi and yuri panel, which was excellent, and discussed what gays and lesbians can get out of series that are (in the case of yaoi especially) written by straight women for straight women. Yuri has a broader spectrum than yaoi, mostly as it’s not nearly as popular, but still features next to no ‘lesbians’ in it. Some wonderful discussion all round.

The day ended with another great panel run by Erin Finnegan, and covering unusual manga genres. Lots of weird sports stuff, weird yakuza stuff, weird doctoral stuff, and just plain bizarre. It could easily have gone on for another hour and no one would have complained.

By then I was exhausted and starved, so I grabbed some fast food and went back to the hotel room to watch the Yankees make the Twins their bitch. Again. It gave me a wonderful happy feeling as I went to bed. :) Today there’s no Kodansha USA panel, so I think I will browse the show floor, perhaps buy a Hetalia DVD, go to the culinary manga panel at 1-ish, and then the con will end and I can wend my merry way home. Look forward to seeing everyone there one more time!