The second annual New York Anime Festival, held September 26-28 at the Javits Convention Center in New York, started with a small trickle of fans on Friday afternoon, but their numbers had swelled considerably by evening. By Saturday, the exhibition floor was packed. NYAF show manager Lance Fensterman said that unofficial attendance at this year’s show was 18,399, up about 24% from the 14,000 fans that attended last year.

Reed Exhibitions (PW's sister company) will hold next year’s NYAF once again during the last week of September, despite scheduling conflicts with other conventions held around the same time. This year, Anime Weekend Atlanta took place the weekend before NYAF while San Francisco’s Yaoi-con was held the same weekend.

“I don't want to compete with any show, but getting dates at the Javits Center is harder than finding a non-costumed fan at NYAF,” Fensterman told PWCW. “I felt that consistency on the calendar (and frankly any space at all) needed to take precedent over working around the con schedule.”

'Baby' founders Akinor and Fumiya Isobe

Out on the exhibition floor, cosplayers danced while girly Lolitas, done up in their signature frilly and lacey costumes, waited in line graciously for a fashion show by the Japanese fashion boutique, Baby the Stars Shine Bright. Special Guests this year also included celebrity chef Masaharu Morimoto, star of the Iron Chef TV show; as well as novelist Hideyuki Kikuchi and artist Yoshitaka Amano who teamed up create the Vampire Hunter D novel series.

While fan enthusiasm was high, industry programming was light. Anime companies present were Bandai, Funimation and Media Blasters. Manga publishers included Media Blasters, Del Rey Manga, Dark Horse, Yen Press, and Vertical Inc.

Del Rey announced a deal with the Cartoon Network to publish both American comics and original manga based on two American television cartoons, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, and Ben 10 Alien Force. The first volume of Bakugan Battle Brawlers: The Battle Begins will be a full-color comic made up of screen-shots of the animated series and will be published this December. Volume 2 is forecast for March of 2009. The Ben 10 American comic will feature the same format in April of 2009. Black and white manga adaptations with original story lines for both animated series are forthcoming in the summer and fall of 2009. Artists and writers have not yet been announced for these projects. Del Rey also announced new manga license for, Moyashimon, an unusual agriculture-focused manga that won this year’s Kodansha Award. Moyashimon is an ongoing series about a student who can see bacteria, and the adventures they have together at an agricultural college. The anime is currently screening on the American anime website, Crunchyroll.

M edia Blasters promoted yaoi titles Fujoshi Rumi, and Incubus, as well as their first yuri “mook” (magazine/book), Maka Maka.Maka Maka is about a romance between two girls in love despite having boyfriends. Volume one will be released later this year. Yen Press had the fans squealing during its panel, offering them a chance at advance copies of the much-anticipated new series, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by Gaku Tsugano and Nararu Tanigawa. The press is also publishing prose novels based on Haruhi Suzumiya beginning in April 2009. In addition Yen Press copublishing director Rich Johnson announced the October publication of Hero Tales, a new series by Hiromu Arakawa, creator of the bestselling Fullmetal Alchemist series as well as Isuna Hasekura’s series of light novels Spice & Wolf.

While Vertical Inc. had no new manga announcements, the house pushed their new hardcover edition of Black Jack, a new edition of the classic medical manga series by the late manga master Osamu Tezuka. The new edition of this series feature a bonus story not included in the paperback editions. Vertical editorial director Ioannis Mentzas also said the house was unlikely to continue publishing classic shojo manga by Keiko Takemiya (To Terra) and blamed poor sales. He also said that despite his original plans, the house was unlikely to jump into the contemporary shojo manga market, noting that the acquisition of Japanese licenses has become very competitive, i.e. expensive, at the moment. However, the publisher intends to keep trying new things and next spring, Vertical will publish its first line of Japanese cookbooks, including one by Iron Chef Chen Kenichi titled Iron Chef Chen’s Knockout Chinese.

At a panel on the state of the manga industry, Yen Press co-publishing director Kurt Hassler said that the manga market continues its growth, albeit at a measured pace. “What you can see is a mature market with stable growth in the future.” The panel also included Dark Horse’s director of Asian licensing Michael Gombos, Del Rey Manga marketing manager Ali Kokmen and was moderated by Anime News Network editor-in-chief Christopher Mcdonald. Gombos said that, “last year was a boom year for us. We’ve done better with manga in the past year than we ever have.” The group also touched on the issues surrounding digital distribution and digital piracy as well as the utility of manga anthologies. “Until there’s some kind of watershed digital device,” said Hassler, “reading manga on devices will remain secondary.”

Hassler was also candid about anthologies in manga publishing, citing the role Yen Press’s anthology magazine, Yen Plus, plays in promoting and building consumer awareness for a property. “Anthologies are marketing vehicles,” he aid. “and Yen Plus was part of our business plan from day one. We don’t have a better marketing vehicle and we’re thrilled with how it’s performing.”

'Alice" designer Masumi Kanoh (l) and 'Baby' designer Miho Sato.

Sunday was a big day for lace and frills as a mob of Lolitas—dressed to the nines in elegant super frilly dresses—gathered for a panel featuring designers Masumi Kano from Lolita boutique and brand, Baby the Stars Shine Bright founder and boutique owner, Akinori and Fumiya Isobe and Miho Sato, the main designer behind its sister clothing line, Alice and the Pirates. There was also a fashion show that featured the ultra-girlish dresses of Baby, and the more unisex Alice and the Pirates.

Roland Kelts, author of Japamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded America, was also on hand to discuss that topic at one of the final panels of the show. He was joined by the American screenwriter Anthony Weintraub, who worked on the critically acclaimed anime adaptation of mangaka Taiyo Matsumoto’s Tekkonkinkreet, which won an Eisner Award this year. Kelts used the success of Pokemon, to highlight a tipping point for Japanese pop culture in America.

“Pokemon brought together important aspects of Japanese visual style—flat outlined characters—and storytelling style—open-ended episodic narratives in multiple volumes,” said Kelts. “Despite its modernity, Japanese culture retains a lot of its traditions, like eating rice balls or taking off your shoes before entering a house. These traits are communicated in manga and anime and they look cool to an American audience.”