I’m just going to say this upfront – – if you’re an anime/manga fan, next year skip New York Comic Con and just come to AnimeNYC. Last year it had potential. This year it lived up to that potential and really shone.

My AnimeNYC was nuts. I worked for four different masters during the course of the event. Which was amazing, but also the most exhausting thing I have ever done, short of running an event myself. 

I started the event helping set up the Science Fiction Continuum booth. If you have been to just about any event on the east coast of the United States, you know this booth. They sell “Cheap Manga” and let me tell you, not only is it cheap, working that booth is like a feeding the frenzy in the barracuda tank. ^_^ Many, many thanks to Su, who takes incredibly good care of her employees, including food, drinks and snacks, which are so much needed during a day of lifting and selling! One of my compatriots in servitude was Gabe who works for Yen Press, so a new friend was an added bonus.

But while walking around the DR during setup, I took a moment to appreciate the finer things. 

And, later, I came back to the Pony Canyon booth to talk to them about Kase-san and Morning Glories. They were so very pleasant.

But most of Thursday was filled with grueling effort and snack food. ^_^

You may have heard about the freakish ice-snow storm we had on Thursday night. Traffic was at a standstill in the city. I was supposed to meet Sean Gaffney of A Case Suitable for Treatment, (Sean’s my go-to guy for all manga and light novel things in English. If you want an opinion on just about anything being published in English, read his blog) for dinner, so I dragged Gabe along with me and we all headed out to an industry party. This sounds glamorous, but remember, the city was at a stand-still. Port Authority was literally closed because there were too many people stranded there. We needed to get from 34th to 48th. Seems doable, right? HAH. 40 minutes later we got out of the cab and walked the last 2 blocks over downed tree branches and slush puddles.  The party was lovely. It was a rooftop party, but, um, snow and sleet. So we huddled inside. 

I met the folks from Square Enix and was able to tell them that how much I love MURCIÉLAGO…and why. The look on their faces when I said it was some of the ugliest lesbian sex I had ever read, was pretty priceless. (See, kids, THIS is why we network. So we can say outrageous shit to important people.)

Caught up for a brief moment with translator Mari Morimoto who was there for the Sunrise folks.

And then, Sean and I decided that our legs had had enough and we limped home through the ice and slush. On the last street crossing before I got to where I was staying, I stepped in a slush puddle almost up to my knee. I was so happy, as you could imagine. On the other hand, the icy water had the effect of numbing my feet, so it evened out. ^_^

Friday I worked all day at the Science Fiction Continuum booth selling manga with all my heart, with brief walk around the DR to say hello. The panels were mostly anime-related and not in my wheelhouse. At the end of the day as a reward for my hard work, Sean and I went out to a magnificent meal and lovely cocktails together. As we took our first bites of food, I laughed and said “this is the moment that an anime character starts to cry and says ‘Life is so goooood!'”

Saturday, the snow melted, the sun came out and I switched hats and badges for Press. I attended a number of industry panels. Kodansha Comics announced it’s first forays into BL and Yuri, with Yuri is My Job! coming out in January.

Denpa Books is a new publisher run by Ed Chavez, formerly of Vertical and Jacob Grady of FAKKU!, and while they have no Yuri manga, they have two books from Rakuen le Paradis magazine, the eclectic josei magazine I read. I picked up a copy of their first release, Invitation from a Crab by Panpanya (whose unique style I quite like) and I’m looking forward to Maiden Railways by Asumiko Nakamura which is a series of random tales centering on trains. I asked Ed if we might be seeing more from Rakuen le Paradis and he said he hoped so. I do, too. They have some excellent stuff, not just the Yuri.

The Yen Press panel began and ended with freebies and was filled to the brim with announcements, including a pile of Yuri. They announced Whenever Our Eyes Meet, (link goes to my review of the Japanese volume) an anthology of stories set in adult office life, Killing Me! by Akiyama, a love story between a vampire and vampire hunter. And the slice-of-life Yuri Life (again, the link goes to my review of the original,) by Kurukuruhime.

I spoke briefly with JuYoun Lee, senior editor at Yen, about Yen’s avoidance of the word “Yuri” in anthology titles where the word Yuri is used. She said, quite logically, that they were looking for English terms because the entire book is, after all, a translation. That makes a lot of sense, of course, but I feel pretty strongly that we’ve worked so hard to gain traction for the term “Yuri” that I opined that avoiding it for terms like “Girls Love” was…disempowering. Stripping us of the identity we strove for, in a way. Comparing this with the kind of LGBTQ community representation support we’re seeing at Seven Seas these days, it’s obvious that Yen Press is pro-Yuri, but no one there is repping for LGBTQ representation…and it shows. That said, I’m wholly supportive of their work and think they do a great job.

After this, I went over to the Udon Entertainment and Manga Classics booth, put my exhibitor hat back on and sold stuff again! I’ll be doing reviews of the Manga Classics for Good Comics for Kids on School Library Journal. Check out my review of Romeo and Juliet! I really love the Manga Classics line so far. But what I love best is that the Shakespeare is complete – not a word cut. So instead of reading notes, you can read the whole play with pictures that really help bring out the symbolism. It’s perfect for a comics loving kid who is struggling with a story for school.

I had a blast at the booth. Udon folks are just so very lovely. Thanks once again to Erik, (who fed me! Do you see the pattern? ^_^) and so I sold a bunch of stuff for him in thanks. 

I also walked around the con telling people they looked amazing. Because they did. I saw all the Senshi, except Saturn, but I’m pretty sure I saw a Galaxia. And such gorgeous people. New York, never change. You have the world’s most beautiful people.

Which brings me to my final event of the con. The NYC Premier of the Kase-san and Morning Glories OVA.

I’d been pushing this all day Friday, whenever someone picked up some Yuri manga, and anywhere else I could. On line, I caught up with Abby Murphy, writer, teacher and Yuri fan! She’s an absolute delight and hadn’t yet seen the OVA, so I was very excited to get her impression.

AnimeNYC gave the screening one of the largest panel rooms, and it was about 3/5th full, so let’s say 300 people. And what a perfect crowd it was. A nice mix of folks and so enthusiastic! All the reactions were perfect. The young man in front of me was really feeling it, so that when it got tense, I wanted to reach out and tell him it would be okay. He was so sweet. 

The Q&A afterwards was fantastic. Both Director Sato-san and Producer Terada-san were wonderful. They were adamant that this was always meant to be a story about love between people. When asked why they didn’t include how Yamada and Kase-san got together, Terada-san said he wanted it to be a story not about how people got into a relationship, but how they communicated while in a relationship. 

Sato-san answered a question about whether there was pushback when they went to make a Yuri story. He replied that at the early stages, there’s always difficulties, but this was no more difficult than usual. He thanked all the people on Youtube who liked the video clip and reached out to them with praise, for their assistance. 

One question asked about something that was trimmed out of the OVA, a subplot with Kase-san’s sempai in which Yamada’s low-self-esteem asserts itself one last time and causes her to be jealous. And the sempai, who can see that, flames the fans a bit, because she’s kind of a jerk and protective of Kase-san. To this, Terada-san said that a lot of people ask about that, but that he didn’t want the characters to suffer – he wanted to show people being happy, not to focus on dark secrets or past relationships. Sato-san added that in the end, it turns out that there was no reason to be jealous, so it wouldn’t anything positive to the story and they wanted to to be positive.

The final questioner asked if they intentionally meant to be creating this story as LGBTQ representation. Sato-san said he cannot represent LGBTQ perspective because he is not LGBTQ, but he could present a story that love is not limited to a man and a woman, that it doesn’t matter the gender or sex of the people in love, love is love.

You may not be able to represent, but you can present. That, my friends, is how you ally.

And with that, we all applauded the efforts of the folks at Pony Canyon and creator Takashima Hiromi, who have given us such a beautiful story.

It was an uplifiting note to end my time at AnimeNYC on, as well. I look forward to next year!