We’re going to spend much of the next four days at the Javits center for the inaugural New York Anime Fest, kicking off today with Milton Griepp’s ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga. This is a major event from Reed Exhibitions, which also puts on NY Comic-Con (and a sister company of PW, which hosts this blog.) Big anime events in New York have had a spotty track record in the last few years, but all of the big publishers and producers are in for this one, there are lots of guests, and a wide array of events, including the American leg of the World Cosplay Summit!

You can see the HUGE lineup of programming here. Guests are here.

To be candid, we’re not too well prepared for this show. All signs point to a big success, but since it’s a new show on the calendar, we didn’t prep for it much. We were all “Oh, it’s baby Max;s first birthday!” and “Oo, Elisa and George are having a holiday party!” and now it’s “Panel panel panel and then drinks with soanso and dinner with soanso!” But that’s okay. We will be bringing you extensive coverage from the floor. ANN, Brigid Alverson, Kai-Ming Cha and the other top manga journos will all be there as well, and we’ll link to their sure-to-be excellent coverage.

In lieu of a big preview, here are two links from Pop Culture Shock: Five things to do at New York Anime Fest and Erin Finnegan’s New Manga Map of NYC

1 COMMENT

  1. I’ve read Battle Angel, seen Dragon Ball, and am up to Vol. 6 of InuYasha, because people tell me that I’m missing the point of manga. I want to like it, but still find myself losing interest. I won’t go into details here, as to why I think that is, but I promise to see InuYasha through until the end. What I want to know is.. What’s the good stuff? What books will help me to “see the light?” Please, don’t launch into me, about how stupid I am for not getting it. I’ve heard it before, and it’s a frail argument that would never hold up on the debate teem. Give me the evidence that will convince me. Help me convince myself, because remember, I want to like it.

  2. I think the thing to keep in mind is that there are lots of genres of Manga.
    So it’s best to seek out the ones that match up to your tastes in books and movies.

    Not all guys are going to like Shojo and not all girls will enjoy shonen.
    And since most of those titles are written for teens many adults will want to seek out stuff intended for adults.

    Unless you are like me and like a little bit of everything. Assuming it’s at least kind of good.

    2 manga titles that most non-manga fans seem to like: Yotsuba and Death Note

  3. Midnight – you might want to take a look at something like Akira, Lone Wolf & Cub (Dark Horse editions of those last two), Golgo 13 or Eagle. All are aimed at a little older audience and have good translations. I used to review a little manga for one of the weeklies when I lived in NYC and there were some really badly translated titles out there. I almost did a review column about re-dialoging a couple pages so they weren’t clunky to read.

  4. I’d recommend Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki. That was the manga that got me started on everything. Don’t watch the movie before reading it though…the manga wasn’t even complete when it was made.

    Other than that, the full metal alchemist series is a good read as well.

  5. It’s Yotsuba&! – must remember the ampersand; it’s pronounced yoh-tsoo-bah-toh and means “Yotsuba and …”

    There truly are manga of almost every genre you can think of. My mother enjoyed Eagle – political drama. My aunt got my older son started on Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. These are two older women (both Japanese, they’re sisters) who generally don’t read manga.

    You might also want to try some of the manga being published by Vertical, Inc – lots of Osamu Tezuka works, or some of the manga being published by Drawn & Quarterly – especially if you prefer more literary works.

    Iron Wok Jan is great silly fun – if you enjoy watching Iron Chef, you’ll enjoy reading Iron Wok Jan.

    And if you like little boys who make Bart Simpson look like a wuss, you’ll enjoy Crayon Shinchan. The manga was originally published by ComicsOne – CMX will be publishing this series again around February 2008.

    Jason Thompson’s Manga: The Complete Guide might be worth some of your time; he reviews more than 900 manga titles.

  6. Appleseed, Naussica, and Ranma 1/2 were titles I enjoyed, back when manga were comics. now I read the nonfiction stuff, like the 7/11 and Helen Keller manga.