Waku Waku +NYC Day 2 [Pic Heavy]

Hey y'all, I hope that had a wonderful Christmas or holiday if you don't celebrate it^^ I had a relaxing day with my friend at his apartment in Queens with his two cats Ali and Boom. I'm back to finish my adventures at Waku Waku +NYC.

Day 2
On Sunday, the first thing on our list was to attend a panel called Introduction to Manga and Anime Studies and it was really interesting. We both are writers (Tiff more so than me), so we figured it would be cool to go to a panel for a career or hobby we are interested in doing. Since I'm a big fan of the humanities (particularly literature) I spent a lot of my time reading in school and analyzing texts. I haven't analyzed manga or anime yet, but I think it would be something I could be potentially interested in doing. The panelists talked about looking at anime and manga under the same lens as film and other contemporary media. They discussed why such a field should exist and one of the reasons being that mainstream American pop culture has been influenced by anime and manga. You can see its influences in shows like Steven Universe and Adventure Time to name a few. Putting these texts and films into context is a great way to explore why these influences exist. I wonder if one day the US will be like how it was in Blade Runner.

It's interesting that for manga and anime to be such a huge influence on American pop culture that there is no such thing in schools as an anime/manga studies major or minor. There are a few schools that has Comic studies as a minor. But students that want to examine Anime and Manga are usually studying it under a Japanese literature or film studies major.

The also pondered what is categorized as manga and anime citing for an example that Miyazaki does not like his work to be called anime. I had no idea he felt this way because he is often heralded as a major front runner to the popularity of anime in the West. His work is usually synonymous with the word anime. They also brought up shows like Avatar the Last Airbender and RWBY and how there are debates about whether or not shows like this can be considered anime. It was a really informative panel^^

After the panel we headed back to the Brooklyn Expo center to grab something quick before lining up for the Baby the Stars Shine Bright fashion show. We remembered how long the line was the day before for the PUTUMAYO fashion show and figured it would be even longer for Baby whose show we did not want to miss. What I grabbed to eat was so scrumdiddilyumptious like oh my word! I got a chicken katsu sandwhich from Katsu-Hama and my life was changed.

Waku Waku +NYC Convention: Japanese Pop Culture Festival Day 1 (pic heavy)

Hey everyone! I hope the weather hasn't been too harsh for ya. NYC hasn't been told cold which is a relief and kinda worrisome at the same time. Fingers crossed for a mild winter! I've attended quite a few events and I'm behind on writing about them. Ah the convention season lol

Back in August Tiff and I attended Waku Waku +NYC and it was amazing! It was the first time that this convention had been held, but it didn't feel like it. It was ran very well except for a few minor snags here and there. Waku Waku +NYC is a two day Japanese pop culture festival that launched this past summer in Brooklyn. The festival consisted of many aspects of Japanese pop culture like anime, manga, music, food, film and fashion. There was a dealer's room, exhibits, panels, screenings and fashion shows.

We learned beforehand from the schedule that the event would be spread out over five locations in Greenpoint and Williamsburg (Brooklyn Expo Center, Transmitter Park, Wythe Hotel, Brooklyn Bowl, and the Verboten). They were also kind enough to have shuttles that went between each location and would also pick you up from the Greenpoint subway station. The first day I cosplayed as Kagome and Tiff wore her young Eren cosplay from Attack on Titan. 

The pre reg line was great which was a welcome change from what happened at AnimeNEXT. They were kind enough to direct everyone to stand in the shade. The line was slightly wrapped around the block but it went very fast to our relief.

6% Doki Doki booth

We headed straight to the dealer's room the place where your hard earned coins go to die lol I lied to myself sayin I was only gonna spend $50 haha Yeah right! I went in the first day and spent way more than I originally wanted. I don't feel like anything I bought was a waste :)

Mi spoils lol

AnimeNEXT 2015: My First Anime Convention

Hey everyone! I hope y'all are enjoying the start of Fall. I'm happy things are coolin off a bit, but it's a little too chilly for me in the morning. Anywho, I realized that I still hadn't wrote about my time at AnimeNEXT! The time has really flown by. I can't believe we are almost done with September. Watch winter feel super long lol It was my first time attending an anime convention and it was a good experience. The con consisted of three hotels that were in close proximity to each other. There were a few things that I wished staff had done differently, but I'll get to later in this post.

Friday
Tiff and I made it to pick up our badges at around 10:30. Traveling in wasn't so bad. We took a train from Penn Station and then took a taxi to our hotel. We were excited to find out that our hotel had the gaming room! We weren't pumped to stand in a line in the heat for an hour and a half waiting to get our badges -_- It was hot as a mug!

Don't ask me where I'm looking lol

Pic from when I tried my wig on the night before.  I was feeling myself haha

We headed straight to our hotel across the street from the convention center. As soon as we get in our room we start hearing these porno sounds, and we're like tf?! Is someone just watching porn really loudly, but then it kept going so we decided to be rude and make noises back lol I tried on my maid outfit that I had to fight tooth and nail to get from Bodyline (long story short they're customer service sucks). It was my first time trying it on; it was too big and there were stains on it -_- Tiff helped me salvage what I could of it and headed over to grab food before losing ourselves in the dealer's room. The food at the convention center was okay and nicely priced.

Maid outfit looks

The dealer's room was really nice and there were so many things that I wanted to buy. I decided to fully look around before dropping any cash. The artist alley was pretty sweet and Lolita fashion accessories, art, and other accessories. After exploring artist alley and the dealer's room, we headed back to the game room in our hotel because we wanted to kill a little time before heading to the Flow concert. . They had some consoles, DDR, Taiko Drum Master, and a few other Japanese arcade games. I was so happy that they had the taiko drumming game. I had seen people play it online and thought that it looked like a blast. The line to play a round was super long but worth the wait. And you know I had to hit up DDR!

Uh huh this my sh**

Special Edition NYC

Hey peeps, I hope ya'll been staying cool in this hot as heck weather. NYC is going through a heat wave and the last few days have been tough. Last month, I attended Special Edition with Boba and Rae for the first time. I've been making an effort to get more into the world of comics and graphic novels. I didn't have access to a comic book store until a Barnes and Noble was built when I was in high school and that doesn't even count lol Their selection was whack! So I never really paid comics and graphic novels any mind. The more I've watched movies based off them or heard my friends say how much I would love them, I decided why not. I figured Special Edition would be a great opportunity to learn more!

The comic book festival was held at Pier 94. It was my first time at the venue; I heard that it's usually held at Javits but there was already something that same weekend so they had to use a different place. I thought Pier 94 was okay, it definitely got a little hot and I wasn't a fan of the wonky lighting inside.

Rae and I

Boba headed to the NYCC ticket line to try to get tickets for his sister. Poor thing ended up being in line for almost four hours. He's such an awesome big brother. He was able to get her a 4 Day which I'm sure she'll love. He's the real mvp^^

Sorry for the hazy lighting, the lights they used inside had that effect on my cell phone camera. A few of my favorite vendors were there. Midtown Comics was having an amazing sale. I had to summon the chill within myself and not buy a bunch of stuff since we hadn't seen what was in the artist alley.