and so it begins

I woke at 9am and folded the bed in so that we could have a living room/kitchen area again. Breakfast was leftover dinner which I happily heated up as GL got ready and left for work. I got dressed in my Ritsuka outfit and rested while waiting for the car service.

The car service came promptly at 11am and drove me to the Javits Center. Soubi (same one from AnimeNEXT '08) called and I found her at the line waiting to get into the Dealer's Room. I lent her my copy of Loveless vol. 8 which she began to read as we waited. When the line began to move, I headed downstairs...bypassing the line altogether thx to my VIP pass. ^^V

My first stop was the Bandai booth which was at the entrance of the Dealer's Room. They were giving out tickets for the Brad Swaile signing. O.O I grabbed one and did a quick run of the Dealer's room before Soubi caught up with me. Diana-chan also appeared soon after and she headed to the bathroom to change into Doraemon. Kawaii! *glomps*

I took a short stop at the Bandai panel, but didn't stay. We also caught the end of the Ichigo Pantsu para para dancing. 'Night of Fire' and other dances from Hinoi Team. Yay! ^.^ After looking around, we headed back to the Dealer's Room.

it's all about the nekos

Our tour of the Dealer's room proved fruitless (in terms of getting any good swag) though it was interesting since it set the pace of the amount of photos we were asked that weekend...once every 2-3 minutes. Doremon...you're popular! Of course, Soubi and I got a fair amount of photo requests as well. ^.^ We also stopped by the photobooth to take some pics. Doraemon bought one up a cute shot but I wasn't satisfied with mine so I forgo getting anything. Since Doraemon didn't have good peripheral vision, we developed a method of walking: she grabbed my tail while I walked hand in hand with Soubi. We made for an interesting group. ^-^ We stopped by the maid cafe...which was just as sad as last year. A bunch of maids, some games, some lollipops...but no actual serving.

mini-rant: my thoughts on the maid cafe

A maid cafe is a wonderful idea and it works well in a convention setting...when done correctly. I thought they'll learn from last year's complaints and actually improve this year...but I was wrong. They were just a bunch of girls in maid outfits standing around, occasionally greeting people, playing games on the side and handing out candy/stickers to 'customers'. Some conversing, which was more then last year so +1. However, that was it. I was discussing this with Doraemon and I thought that the idea of maids actually handling money might not be a good idea. They can take orders and bring us food, but that would require them to also handle money which is a messy situation. There are other ways to get around that: we can order the food and pay in the front, get a number and sit down. The maids bring the food to the customers via the numbers. No tips are given (since money can't be 'earned' in this fashion) and we get the true sense of a maid cafe. If there were ALOT of people ordering, I'll understand why they wouldn't want that. But we had ALOT of maids...and one or two to a table is not a big problem.

So NYAF maid cafe...practical fail. I don't blame the maids since they were doing what they were told: play games and converse only. Being the few cons to have a maid cafe, I hope they would change the organization of it.

Team Osaka! *faints*

On my way through the Dealer's Room, I heard someone say 'Ritsuka!' and 'Loveless!' so of course I turned towards the voices. O.O It was Team Osaka! Japan hosts the World Cosplay Summit and they're allowed two teams to represent them...one of which is Team Osaka who won third place this year. I heard that Team Osaka will be visiting New York (since Team USA is from NY) but I didn't realize that they were at the con! I was totally fangirling over them, exclaiming that I loved their performance at the WCS (although I don't think they understood much of what I said. I took their picture and they took mine with Soubi. I'm honored that they like my Ritsuka cosplay and it was an awesome moment.

panelthon and signage

After getting over my fangirling, I went to the Bandai booth where there was already ppl lining up for the Brad Swaile (Setsuna, Gundam 00) signing. Doraemon and Soubi each got a ticket (since there were extras) and we each got a Gundam 00 poster signed by Brad. He even drew a pic of Setsuna with the long scarf. Awww.... ^.^ In the background, the Gundam 00 trailer was looping and we joked with Brad that he will be saying the lines in his sleep. lol I explained to Soubi and Doraemon that the character design for the anime was Kouga Yun-sensei which was why the manga was delayed for a few months last year (since she was working on the the Gundam 00 designs.) And also that was the reason why Setsuna looks so much like Ritsuka. ^.^ Setsuna kawaii! I finally located my press guy (for the site I was taking pics for) and picked up my press badge.

We headed for the end of the Funimation panel where I found animemiz, 801megane and iceblueaya. Animemiz asked about the licensing of Dr. Slump...which came to a big unlikely. *pats Animemiz's head* After making sure no one asked the question, I asked about the licensing for Kyou Kara Maoh season 3...which was that they hope to get the series. Yay! 801megane gave me vol. 1 of the Vampire Hunter D novel for the autographs later and I gave my regards to major anime news blogger, Gia before heading to the Iron Chef panel.

Morimoto Masaharu entered the room decked in hakama and kimono. He opens the panel with the ceremonial 'tying sleeves up with one rope' thing that I've never been able to do. (It's what Chihiro did in Sprited Away before she walked across the pipe.) Sugoi! The tying ended with a Japanese phrase (I have no idea what it was) and much applause from the audience. The Q&A brought up some interesting responses and although I had some difficultly understanding Morimoto-san (since his accent is pretty thick, his light hearted and funny comments still got through to everyone. He mentioned that he used to read sports manga, including a boxing one. Morimoto-san also confirmed that there will be an Iron Chef game coming out for the Wii. Now anyone can challenge an Iron Chef! Morimoto: 'Let me know if you beat me!' The very first question started with 'First off, you're amazing...' Morimoto: 'I know, I know.' *crowd laughs* Turns out, that guy's brother was one of Morimoto's challengers on Iron Chef. o.O I didn't catch the name...but that's amazing! A WTH question was 'How to make sushi?' with the response 'I have a cookbook, you better buy it now.' lol He was inspired to become a chef because his mother wasn't the best cook. Though that answer made his mother sad at another interview. Awwww.... Of course there were lots of hardcore 'Iron Chef' questions. Someone had to ask about his current relationship with Bobby Flay (after the cutting board debacle so many years ago) which he responded that everything is fine between them and they were still friends. 'I get asked that alot.' I asked about the hints about the secret ingredient that Iron Chefs were given prior to the matches. There were 5 hints in Japan and 3 hints in the US. Besides the hints, Morimoto mentioned that he keeps an eye out for what Fuji TV buys from the market. 'Ah, they bought 50 kilos of snappers, it'll be snappers.' He spoke about the stress of being an Iron Chef as well as the honor of being part of the show.

His favorite cooking is his wife's cooking. The best restaurant in all of Tokyo is 'Morimoto in Roppongi!' The best sake? 'Morimoto sake!' He has many restaurants all over the world. He feels that the decor of the restaurant and style/taste of the food brings in a taste of the location. When he was picking a name for his restaurant in NY, he found out that there is already a restaurant named 'Mori', 'Moto', 'Masa' and 'Haru'. When asking if 'Morimoto' is too long of a name, people confirm that it's not which is why that is the name of his current restaurant. When not cooking he loves to sleep. Morimoto also quipped that he is actually on a diet, mostly eating vegetables and occasionally chicken, but he can't lose too much weight since being a super skinny chef doesn't really give off a good impression to customers. *audience laughs*

After the panel, Soubi went off to the Loveless anime showing as Doraemon and I headed to the signing. There wasn't much of a line and I went in with my Iron Chef book (from Alby-kun.) I flipped to his section in the book and on the other side of his picture, he wrote his autograph in big looping script. I was also able to take a pic with him! I showed the book to Doraemon outside and we joked that one of our old church friends will be soooo jealous.... ^.^

Next was the Kikuchi Hideyuki panel. The interpreter for the event was Kevin Leahy who was also the translator for the Vampire Hunter D novels. During the intro questions, we find out that Kikuchi-sensei is a hikkimori (someone who likes to stay at home,) and he started by writing short stories in magazines before being asked to write novels. His first novel was Demon City Shinjuku which was inspired by the movie 'Escape from New York', directed by John Carpenter. When thinking of what he wants to write, he thinks about the location and hero and after that decision, he fleshes out the characters. But he never reallys knows the entirety of the story when he starts writing. Series like Vampire Hunter D does not have a prospective end...since the publisher doesn't want him to end it. (We don't mind. ^.^) His inspiration for the Vampire Hunter D series is from the old western movie, 'Shane' and references from various movies appear in the series as well...which he is embarassed about when people catch the reference. *laughter ensues* He has written over 300 stories/novels and when asked how he works, Kikuchi-sensei responds that he doesn't sleep at night. o.o He still does all his writing by hand and Leahy noted that throughout the airplane ride, Kikuchi-sensei wrote practically non-stop. O.O His personal best was 94 pages in one day. *bows to his awesomeness* As for the manga, Kikuchi-sensei feels that the manga is sticking very close to the source material. His favorite Vampire novels are the first vol, the third one, Demon Deathchase and the two parter, Mysterious Journey to the North Sea. What surprised Kikuchi-sensei was that the anime, Bloodlust was based off of Demon Deathchase and they gave the girl a name.

His Alien series was initially the most popular series in Japan until the Vampire Hunter D anime came out and then his Vampire series was number 1. Kikuchi-sensei's first meeting with Leahy was an interesting one: Leahy appeared in the audience of one of his talkshows in Japan. Kikuchi-sensei thought that Leahy was wandered in drunk and lost, but he kept on showing up. By that time Leahy had already translated the first vol. of the Vampire series. And of course, Leahy was asked to continue the translations. ^.^ Yay for us! Leahy mentioned that he doesn't have that much time to read since he has more books to read since he is translating all the time. Kikuchi-sensei mentioned that there is no other D except Amano-sensei's D...though he wishes that he would draw in a bit nicer. *audience laughs* Then Kikuchi-sensei realized that Amano-sensei was sitting in the audience. ^^; Kikuchi-sensei states that next time to warn him and he asks us not to ask anymore questions about Amano-sensei. lol Last thing Kikuchi-sensei mentioned that he'll be writing something specifically for the western audience. Yay! Can't wait to read it!

After the panel, I headed to the signing while Doraemon went for cosplay judging. Ganbarre, Doraemon! Leahy and Kikuchi-sensei signed my Vampire Hunter D vol. 1 novel. Amano-sensei did drew on all the books he was given...including mine. Sugoi! Soubi and Doraemon caught up with me afterwards. We headed over to the Kitty Media: Yaoi and Yuri panel.

*Warning* Don't continue reading if you're not interested in yaoi or you don't know what it is. Nothing is mentioned graphically, but if you rather not know, please scroll ahead until you hit the next subject.

love for corn

The panel was for yaoi and yuri...but everyone wants to talk about yaoi first. BUT, lemmee mention this: first yuri title by Kitty Media, Maka Maka is awesome! It's a larger then tankoban size manga and the English version will be EXACTLY the same as the Japanese version, complete with the obi covers and triple the yuri value. I can't explain the H factor on this manga, but it is O.O. With the obi on, you see 2 girls. Take off the obi cover...you see two naked girls. Take off the dust jacket (yes, this will have a dj) you have two girls making out. O.O And it's a beautiful story by Kishi Torajirou-sensei. For $20 which is a comparable price to the Japanese version, it's a must-have for yuri fans. Now back to the yaoi!

Everyone loves Yamane Ayano-sensei so Kitty Media will try to get more from her. (Though I truly doubt the Finder series will be one of them...but I can still hope. ^^;) Fujoshi Rumi (series about a yaoi-loving girl...like me!) vol. 3 will be out early next year. Kitty Media will have something released once a month next year so that is total yay. No Winter Cicada anime yet...and no light novels since it's pretty intensive work. The panelist is the usual Frank Pannone (managing editor and one man head of the H department) so we got to cut him a break on that. ^^; He can't talk about Antique Bakery the anime...so Kitty might be getting it, might be in the process of getting it...or not getting it at all. ^^; We dunno...but it's okay! They're thinking about doing BL games! Yay! Funny fact: Pannone wanted to have a kitty boy for the yaoi stuff since there is always the kitty girl logo...but the decision was shot down. ^^; Earliest yaoi/BL title was Fake and best selling is Skyscrapers of Oz by Somei Yoshino-sensei and Takakura Row-sensei. There was some giveaways with promise of more at the Yaoi Roundtable which was coming up next. Animemiz won Because I'm Boy for answering the question of the first yuri title, which was of course Maka Maka. ^-^

I sat in the front row with animemiz and crew with Doraemon in back of me and Soubi beside me. On Soubi's other side was Gia. I noticed her Gurren Lagann jacket around her waist and asked if that was the famed one signed/drawn by major contributors of the series (Takami Akai, Masahiko Ohtsuka, Hiroyuki Yamaga, Fumio Iida, Chikashi Kubota, and Sushio.) It was! O.O

Yaoi Roundtable is basically an open discussion of various anime. Slides of various pics were shown, the first being from Kaze to Ki no Uta manga which is classic yaoi...the first of it's kind. We also had some pics of Crimson Spell which was unbelievably smexy (no surprise.) I sat with animemiz, iceblueaya and 801megane and 801megane shared her BL cookies that she ordered from Japan. Mine had YonekunixShiro on it...from Sex Pistols. Kawaii!

One of the topics that was brought up to be discussed was whether or not gay guys in Japan read BL. The case should be not so much since there is manga and series that is geared towards gay guys. However, we do have some that read BL in Japan...here as well. Pannone got his Japanese yaoi expert on the speakerphone (who was at Yaoi-con as they spoke) to comment on it. I couldn't understand most of it, but it was funny since I don't think she heard Pannone really clearly as well. ^^; There were tons of awesome giveaways at the end...including autographed manga by Tsuda Mikiyo-sensei and Eiki Eiki-sensei. O.O I want! Unfortunately, I didn't win. Winners were pulled from names written on paper and most of the winners that were called turned out to be male. lol

ending of day one

After the panel, I bid Soubi and Diana-chan good night and headed out to my car service (who was waiting for me patiently. ^.^) I got home, took a shower and ate GL's leftover caribbian food while we watched 'Sex and the City extras. I set out what was needed for the next day and went to bed.