AnimeNYC 2021: Anime Con in a Post-COVID World
Like much of the world, the convention space has drastically changed since the tumultuous year of 2020. Now that vaccines and booster shots are widely available, conventions have started to come back. As some of you may be aware, I first experienced conventions again thanks to October’s New York Comic Con, and was pleasantly surprised with its organization. So I was eager to experience AnimeNYC, a convention more tailored to my interests. This year was different, as I was able to stay in a hotel in the city for all three days, something I’ve never done before. That, combined with the unique circumstances surrounding this year’s convention made for an incredible experience I won’t soon forget.
FRIDAY
AnimeNYC 2021 line From @oaksofgold
The first day of the convention was fantastic. Not only did I get to see friends I haven’t seen in months, but I was able to explore the convention center freely.
However, I would be remiss to not mention the organization present, or rather absent during the first day of the convention. Friends of mine were stuck outside in thirty-degree weather for two hours as they waited to have their vaccination status checked to be allowed into the convention. Thankfully, I and fellow reporter Rich Lanci avoided such a wait due to our press passes, but that doesn’t excuse the time wasted on day one for all those guests. To AnimeNYC’s credit, they amended their screening process for the remainder of the convention and publicly apologized for the long lines on Friday.
Just like previous years, nothing inside AnimeNYC was open until 1 PM, despite the convention center opening at 10 AM, leading to a lot of folks sitting around and twiddling their thumbs for several hours until things opened up. Once 1 PM rolled around, I was able to explore the con floor and grab some amazing new merchandise, like Chainsaw Man Volume 8, which was available a full two weeks before its release date! However, the real highlight of the day for me was meeting Amanda “AmaLee” Lee, a YouTube star, singer and voice actor. I first found her through her anime cover songs on YouTube, and more recently came to enjoy her as Princess in Kemono Friends, as I was going through a rough time in my life. I tried to find a copy of Kemono Friends on Blu-Ray for her to sign, but couldn’t find one. Instead, I grabbed Endro!, and got on line to meet her. After a brief wait, I met AmaLee, and had the chance to speak with her:
AmaLee (AL): Hi there!
Joshua Brafman (JB): Hi! It’s great to meet you!
AL: Aww, thank you!
JB: I actually wanted to meet you so I could thank you.
AL: Really?
JB: Yeah, this time a few years ago, I bought Kemono Friends on DVD. When I got back from AnimeNYC, there was a fire in my house, and I had to evacuate.
AL: Oh my god, that’s terrible!
JB: Yeah, so I was stuck in a hotel for several days while the damage to the house was fixed. During that time, I watched Kemono Friends, and you and all the other dub performances, that made me feel better, made me forget about the bad situation I was in for a while. So, thank you for that.
AL: It means so much to me to hear that it helped you! Did you watch the bloopers? Those are my favorite!
JB: Oh yeah, those are great! So, how did you get into voice acting?
AL: Well, I’d been working on my singing and voice acting for years, and I had friends of mine who got jobs in the anime industry. They saw my stuff on YouTube and that got me in!
JB: Ah, so you put in the work, and that paid off!
AL: Exactly!
League of Legends - "RISE" | AmaLee (feat. Erica Lindbeck)
AmaLee was a real gem, and I’m thrilled to have been able to meet her. The rest of my day went off without a hitch, and it only got better on day two!
SATURDAY
I spent the second day of AnimeNYC largely attending panels, or at least intending to. I arrived early to the Jacob Javits Center to get a spot in the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Special Event, in the hopes of seeing some new content. The Special Event was by and large a Q and A session with Zach Aguilar (voice of Tanjiro), Aleks Le (voice of Zenitsu) and Bryce Papenbrook (voice of Inosuke), which I’ve taken the liberty of transcribing here:
MODERATOR: So, how did you all become voice actors?
ZACH AGUILAR (ZA): Well, I won a voice acting competition being held by Bang Zoom! Entertainment, which got me into the industry. Bang Zoom! was the company that ended up dubbing Demon Slayer, so that’s how I got on the project.
ALEKS LE (AL): Well, I didn’t win any competition. I just fell in love with the craft of voice acting, and moved to LA to get into the business.
BRYCE PAPENBROOK (BP): I’ve been voice acting since I was eight years old. My dad was a voice actor, and I would come with him when he’d be working. One day he was working on Power Rangers, and they needed someone to voice a kid. My dad looked at me and said “He’s a kid! Throw him in the booth!” and that was my first bit of voice acting. I’ve been working ever since.
M: So how did you come to work on Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba?
ZA: Well, outside of being an only child, I instantly connected with Tanjiro. I remember auditioning for both him and Inosuke. When I got the news I’d be playing Tanjiro, I watched the entire series subbed before the first recording session. Natsuki Hanae’s work as Tanjiro was just so moving…
AL: I found out about auditions at the very last minute, and auditioned for just about everyone. When I first saw Zenitsu, I just thought of him as some… weird coward. But I later came to realize that I’m also a weird coward. [laughs] I remember when I read for Zenitsu, I was just screaming and shouting on the floor.
Hashibira Inosuke
BP: I was invited to audition for both Tanjiro and Inosuke. I was very excited at the idea of playing Inosuke, since Matsuoka-san, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, also played Kirito in Sword Art Online, who I also played. It was also exciting since it was a chance to act in a lower register. I was told very early on that I got the part, but then I had to wait several months, since you know, Inosuke doesn’t show up in the series ‘til later.
ZA: Yeah, a lot of the series early on is me monologuing, a lot of thinking, a lot of sniffing. [laughs] Following this, there was a short message from Abby Trott, voice of Nezuko on Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba:
Nezuko Kamado
ABBY TROTT: Hey guys! I hope you’re enjoying AnimeNYC! It’s been a real unique challenge playing Nezuko, expressing a character through growls and muffled mouth noises. [laughs] I just have to say, having watched the dub, I’m blown away by the tenderness of Zach’s acting. Aleks is extremely talented to be screaming all the time. Bryce… Bryce is legendary. His laugh as Inosuke shakes the room.
BP: [laughs as Inosuke]
After that, the cast showed off some memorable scenes they selected for each of the characters, and there was a live reading of the introduction of the Mugen Train.
Then, the Q and A resumed:
M: Were there any challenges that came with recording lines during COVID?
BP: I recorded all of my lines for Mugen Train (the Demon Slayer movie) in my closet. My neighbors loved me for that. [laughs]
ZA: I came up with this really weird setup. I built a shelf to prop up my laptop on the booth’s window, so I could read my lines without the heat of the laptop being picked up by the recording equipment.
Following that, there was a special message from Landon McDonald, voice of Enmu, one of the villains of Demon Slayer, the primary antagonist of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie – Mugen Train.
Enmu
LANDON MCDONALD: Hey everyone! I just want to say that playing Enmu was a dream role for me. I’m a huge fan of the manga. I actually performed as Enmu from right here in my bedroom, appropriately enough (for context, Enmu is a demon that puts people to sleep in order to kill them). I don’t think of Enmu as a villain, more of a misunderstood man who was rudely interrupted by some meddling kids and their Hashira babysitter…
Next was a special message from Mark Whitten, voice of Kyojiro Rengoku in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie – Mugen Train.
MARK WHITTEN: You know, I knew this series was gonna be big, but I don’t think I realized just how big. I loved inhabiting a character with such integrity and purpose, with a code that he lives by. Playing his journey was fantastic, and jumping into the recording session by gorging on bento boxes was amazing. Rengoku and Akaza’s fight gave me goosebumps. I’d have to say my favorite scene with Rengoku is the final one, where he speaks to the kids.
With that, the Special Event shifted gears and discussed the newly released arena fighting game, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles. They discussed how the demons Rui and Akaza were added as playable characters, and that the demons Yahaba and Susumaru would be coming in a free update either later this month or in December. They also teased one more update would be coming with additional playable characters, but offered no information as to who they could be at this time.
The final part of the Demon Slayer Special Event came with the premiere of the English Dub trailer for Season 2 of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, the Entertainment District Arc. The second season has started streaming in Japanese with English subtitles, with a dub coming in the near future.
Overall, the Demon Slayer Special Event offered some unique insight into how the series is made and the people behind the show, but offered little in the way of new content for fans eager to experience more of the series, or those looking forward to seeing updates to the video game.
MADOX-01
The second and final major event I attended on Saturday was the MADOX-01 Screening. MADOX-01, also known as Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 is an anime OVA from Shinji Aramaki, famous for his work on Appleseed (2004), Soul Eater, and most recently Netflix’s adaptation of Ultraman. MADOX-01 was the first project he was involved in, having both written and directed it. I knew next to nothing about the OVA going in, so it was a real treat seeing the newly restored anime up on a big screen.
MADOX-01 follows the story of a young mechanic named Koji Kondo, who comes upon the MADOX suit of battle armor after it falls off of a truck. He gets stuck inside of it, and now has to avoid the government, a bloodthirsty tank driver and the army in order to reach his girlfriend Shiori, and tell her how he really feels before she leaves to study abroad in England. The whole OVA has a very Looney Tunes vibe to it, like a crazy chase scene that just keeps escalating until it goes absolutely out of control. The art style is very appealing, with that classic art style from the 1990s. I highly recommend anyone who is a fan of vintage anime give MADOX-01 a shot, especially when the newly remastered version releases on Blu-Ray in 2022. After the screening, Shinji Aramaki himself appeared and said a few words on MADOX-01, with the help of a translator:
SHINJI ARAMAKI
SHINJI ARAMAKI: Thank you everyone! I’m amazed to see so many people here watching a film I made thirty-three years ago. For me, watching my own film thirty-three years later, I think: “Wow, that was kind of weird, wasn’t it?” [laughs]
After that, I wanted very badly to attend a panel entitled Kaiju and Video Games, but it was unfortunately cancelled. So, I explored the show floor some more before heading back to my hotel.
SUNDAY
The final day of AnimeNYC was one spent experiencing premieres of new and exciting anime films, screened for the very first time anywhere in the USA right here at the convention. Thanks to my Press access, I was able to see two excellent films: Pompo: The Cinephile, and Mamoru Hosoda’s Belle.
Pompo: The Cinephile is another anime film I knew very little about going in, but one that absolutely blew me away. It’s produced by a brand-new anime studio called Clap, and it’s certainly one impressive premiere work.
Pompo: The Cinephile focuses on a young movie studio assistant named Gene Fini, working under a big time, young B-Movie producer named Pompo. One day, Pompo presents Gene with the opportunity of a lifetime – to work in the director’s chair and helm his very own movie, starring legendary actor Martin Braddock. Pompo: The Cinephile is a very unique feeling film, especially for anime. It takes place in an alternate United States, in the fictional city of Nyallywood. I honestly can’t remember the last time an anime took place in the United States, and it’s a refreshing setting to see in anime. Pompo: The Cinephile has this air of genuine heart to it, where you can feel the love that these characters, that the film itself has for the art of filmmaking. There’s no antagonist in this film, only the hurdles that come with seeing a film go from script to screen. The film that Gene makes within the movie is also one that’s extremely compelling, and honestly one that I would watch on its own. Having not one, but two compelling stories within a single, ninety-minute narrative is extremely impressive. I can honestly say I can’t wait to see this film again when GKIDS releases it in theaters sometime in 2022.
Finally, I saw Mamoru Hosoda’s latest film, Belle. I have been a fan of Hosoda’s work ever since Digimon: The Movie, and have seen just about every anime film he’s made, from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time all the way to Summer Wars and Wolf Children. So, I was eagerly awaiting the next work from this masterful artist. At first glance, Belle looked as if it took place in the same universe as Summer Wars, with a virtual world that people use in their day-to-day life. However, Belle takes place in its own separate universe, with the world of U functioning more like a Second Life-esque realm in which to live out your fantasies, rather than the social network that Oz was in Summer Wars.
Belle follows a girl named Suzu Naito, who had a love of singing from a very young age thanks to her mother. However, when her mother tragically dies saving a child, Suzu finds herself unable to sing again. She throws herself into the virtual world of U, creating a beautiful avatar for herself that she names Bell (later renamed Belle by the people of U), and finds that she can sing in this virtual world. While in U, she encounters The Dragon, an enigmatic figure with a dark secret. Belle is a sweeping, grand story about coming to terms with death, grief and the importance of helping those in need. It’s a truly beautiful story that I’m thrilled to have seen for myself.
Suzu Naito
Belle is a true feast for the senses. The world of U is a magnificent visual spectacle, and in my eyes, the crowning example of how to do 3D animation right in anime. Some of the shots in this film were so breathtaking that they literally made my jaw drop. Additionally, the music of Belle is some of the best I’ve heard in anime. This is a song about a girl who wants nothing more than to sing again, and the songs on display here are ones that have stuck with me ever since I left the screening. It’s safe to say that Mamoru Hosoda has another hit on his hands here with Belle, and I can’t wait to see it again when it hits theaters January 14th, 2022.
Overall, the first AnimeNYC after COVID was not without its faults. There were a few hiccups, but this was still a wonderful convention as a whole. There were some truly great surprises, as well as impressive cosplay. AnimeNYC 2021 reminded me of just how diverse a medium anime is, and that’s exactly why I adore it so much. I look forward to attending AnimeNYC in 2022, for an even more excellent experience.
