 AsiaFinest
Anime Expo New York 2002 Coverage
Labor Day Weekend Saturday, August 31 - Monday, September 02, 2002
 Anime
Expo NY was a three-day event held in New York City's Time
Square. AXNY featured a host of guests from Japan and the United States
as well as a range of activities including an exhibit hall, panel discussions,
video programming, art exhibitions, industry awards, karaoke, meet the
guests reception, a charity auction benefiting victims of the 9/11 tragedy
and more.
Daily Review by Ben and Jimmy
Saturday August 31: Day 1
 Day
1 was definitely hectic. We didn't know what to expect when arriving
at the Marriot Marquis. We picked up our press badges and headed
for the first event which was the opening ceremonies. That lasted
for 30 mins and then everyone broke out for all the scheduled events.
The exhibit hall was were most people went to first and boy was
it crowded. You can barely stop to admire the merchandise without
people bumping into you left and right. It was long before they
started limiting the amount of people allow in the exhibit hall.
The lines grew to be a 30 minutes and up wait. A lot of attendees
became frustrated with the wait. |
 Next
up was the Cowboy Bebop panel. Shinichiro Watanabe, Toshihiro Kawamoto
& Yoko Kanno was there to answer any question that fans might
have. There was a huge turnout for this guest panel. People was
still hyped up from the premier of the Cowboy Bepop Movie the night
before. When asked what US shows were their favorite, Yako Kanno
(second from left) answered "Sesame Street!". |
 The
next event that we went to was the Karaoke Contest. There was a
30 mins delay, which a lot of people did not like. It was pretty
wild. People sang their favorite anime song, not to mention "Amazing
Kiss" by BoA.
I was surprise to see how many people that wasn't Asian singing
their favorite Japanese anime song! There was around 20 contestant.
Out of those contestant 6 was picked as finalist. Right after the
Karaoke contest, we went to the Anime Music Video Contest. Again
there was a delay of over a hour. We sat through 32 music videos
and picked a video for each category(Drama/Romance, Action/Adventure,
and Comedy). The drama category was first, and boy was the tempo
for some of the music video slow. Some seemed like it took an eternity
to end! A fellow press member who was sitting beside us left after
a few videos. The action category was shown next, and boy did were
we glad. The high tempo songs filled people back with energy after
being drain by the Drama videos. Last but not least came the Comedy
category which made us all laugh, except for one which I think was
called Yoda. That video had someone who can't sing for life trying
to sing a parody over the anime video. The music selection for some
of those videos are great! It ranged from Enigma's Gravity of Love
to Mortal Kombat to Bonnie Tyler's I need a Hero. It was around
midnight when it ended and boy were we tired. -Ben |
 Round
1: First day was definitely exciting with all the anime fans showing
up. Fans dressed in costumes and accessories representing their
favorite characters. The day started with the opening ceremonies,
which kicked off with speeches from the organizers and other guests.
On our first day, we were bum rushed by fans for the opening of
every event in the hotel. The exhibit hall was packed with so many
die-hard fans, I couldn't even move a step and the lines were twisting
back and forth for a couple rows. I have to say there was a lot
of interesting anime to be seen in the exhibit/dealers rooms. After
we got out of the chaos in the exhibit hall, we was off to hear
the guest of honors (Ms. Yoko Kanno, Mr. Toshihiro Kawamoto, and
Mr. Shinichiro Watanabe) from the anime Cowboy Bebop answer questions
about the movie's designs, pictures, character backgrounds, and
songs/lyrics. Next we was off to the Karaoke Room for a view of
the contestants. It was very interesting and weird hearing fans
sing the opening songs from their favorite anime show's.The ending
for Round 1, ended with the Anime Music Videos submitted by Anime
Fans, we were there till midnight watching all the interesting and
boring music video's while trying to vote for which one was the
best. More to come - Jimmy |
Sunday September 1: Day 2
 The
day started off being dark and gloomy from the rain. We were surprised
to see how little people there was today as oppose to yesterday.
We checked out the exhibit hall again and went to different industrial
panel such as Bandai, FUNimation, Viz, etc. We also checked out
some of the video rooms to rest ourselves. We saw anime classics
such as the original DragonBall series. The main event for day 2
is of course the Masquerade Contest. I was starving while waiting
outside for Masquerade to start, but was saved by a girl who was
willing to share her fried rice with me. There was over 50 cosplayers
with hopes of winning the top prizes. The top winner(s) of the best
of show is pictured below. My personal favorite was the skit where
the Final Fantasy 7 girls had a cat fight/dance over the Brandy
and Monica'a song "The Boy is Mine". Be sure to check
out the AVI in our picture gallery which shows their skit and the
surprising and hilarious cameo of another FF7 character! - Ben |
 Day
2 a.k.a. Round 2 Sunday morning; beginning of a new day of more
anime to come. The day of the Masquerade Contest, anime fans all
over the place with their costumes on hand and ready to show off
they're skills making the costumes and showing off for all of us
to look at. This day was kinda slow waiting for the main event,
so let me add something that I missed for yesterday's review. There
was a fan art/charity room, which displayed artwork and original
pieces that was gonna be auctioned off to help with the 9/11 charities.
As the day drags on, we went around to the anime rooms to watch
some classic shows like Dragonball. Once done, we went to the sponsors'
rooms to hear about future releases from ADV, Funimation, Central
Park Media, Bandai, etc. It's time for the last event for the day,
the widely awaited Masquerade. I was definitely excited and impressed
with how well all the costumes look and how well the anime fans
cosplayed their characters to entertain everyone in the audience.
There were costumes from a few Final Fantasy series, Cowboy Bebop,
Trigun, Card Captor Sakura and other interesting anime's show I
can't remember from. Midnight is about to strike and the winner
for my very first masquerade contests are the characters from Card
Captor Sakura for Best of Show and Act. The End of the 2nd Day…
- Jimmy |
Monday September 2: Day 3
 The
final day of the expo was here. We attended a few last panels and
went to the Charity Auction. We attempted to win a few of the auctions,
but was out bided each time. The auction generated over $17,000,
which a check was promptly written out to the 9/11 charity (pictured
right). The closing ceremonies was right after the auction. We got
to see the main guest of honors again and their final words. Some
of their final words were touching while other was hilarious which
included a birthday song being sang to a translator. After their
final words, they continue with their tradition with closing a sucessful
expo out by filling in the other eye(as shown below). - Ben |
 Day
3: Final Day. Geez it's Monday already? Time flies when we are having
so much fun. Nothing much to say about today, except that it was
the closing of a fabulous weekend of anime, anime and more anime.
It marks the closing of a successful expo with the charity auction,
which featured a lot of works by artists of many anime series (Gundam's,
Orange Road, and other works). The biggest auctioned piece for the
charity for 9/11 was from the series Orange Road, which sold for
$5000.00. Next up, the closing ceremonies for this years Anime Expo.
Organizers and guests of honor show up for some words with everyone
that attended and how much they appreciated all the fans that came
out to make this expo a success. Well this concludes my daily review.
- Jimmy |
Conclusion:
We interviewed a few people while at the expo and after the expo and got
some of their thoughts on this anime expo. We received mixed reviews.
A lot of people on Saturday said it was really disorganized. "A riot
is better organized than this" said one attendee. When asked If they
plan to come back next year, some reply with "no!". We interviewed
a few of the exhibitor there and most said business was good. Jeff Petersen
from Super Techno Arts said " Business was good overall. This anime
expo is better than the one in Long Island."
"It was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life.. I met
so many friendly, wonderful, & creative people there, who shared my
interests in anime & video games.. I had never been to an anime convention
before, this was my first one. I didn't know that there were conventions
for anime until my friend told me about it after I finished working on
my Lulu dress. Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend much time in the convention
rooms as I couldn't maneuver my dress through the crowds of people, but
I spent a lot of time in the halls admiring other costumes, making new
friends and taking pictures with other cosplayers. I have always admired
Japanese animation, artwork, and culture, as opposed to other cultures,
because there is so much more depth, creativity, and artistic expression
in it. I do plan on attending more conventions in the future, one being
the upcoming AnimeNEXT in NJ... and cosplaying was so much fun that I
am already gathering ideas for my next costume!" - Danielle from
East Rutherford, NJ
"This was my first time at a con. I wanted to cosplay as someone
that no one else would be doing, but it kinda backfired when no one recognized
me! But I still did get people to take my picture. I thought that the
dealer's room was *way* too crowded, you couldn't barely stop to buy something
(if you could afford to) without being stepped on or pushed. I also thought
that the events could have been more punctual (most were at least 30 minutes
late). They also apparently had a problem with so many people headed for
6th floor that I had to wait on the 5th floor with at least 100 other
people for almost an hour before we were allowed to use the escalator
to go up. But on the flip side, I thought that the guests they had were
great, and the hotel was beautiful. The karaoke contest was lots of fun,
but they should get a real stage next time. Some other people in cosplay
did a great job on their costume. My only regret was that I could only
stay for one day but overall, it was still lots of fun." - Jing
from Cherry Hill, NJ
Overall, other than the raining weekend, delays and overcrowding on Day
1, We had a great time covering the Anime Expo NY. The exhibit halls were
filled with merchants who had rare and unique items. We even brought a
few things ourselves. We met a lot of cool people and enjoyed all the
guest panels and events that took place. It's a great experience for people
who are new to Anime as well as Anime veterns.
Be sure to check out the AXNY
pictures and videos!
If you have any pictures from this event, please send
it to us and we'll credit you for it. Talk about this event in our
friendly discussion forum!
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