By Ryan Broderick
New York Comic Con was scheduled on the same day as New York Anime Fest this year. It might seem like a match made in heaven and not like the mingling of two subcultures that don’t always get along.
Fans of anime claim that manga (Japanese comic books) aren’t anything like American comics. Comic fans aren’t on the whole too excited to be sharing the space either. And then there are the video game booths. It’s all become pretty messy, and moreso with every year since it started in 2006.
The big news of the weekend mostly had to do with upcoming comic book releases, Stan Lee’s new bizarre projects and then there was Anthony Bourdain’s upcoming comic about a futuristic sushi chef. It’s not a weekend for fans of the mainstream. But it’s going that way.
Hofstra student Melanie Yates, Junior, thinks the mix of the two has actually made the two better.
“It’s actually my first time going to any sort of convention like this and I think it’s nice to know that they’re bringing one kind of world to the video gamers and the anime fans,” Yates said. “It’s awesome for a first-timer seeing all this.”
It’s not completely clear though what’s causing the mainstream invasion, it could be partly the internet making “nerd culture” more pervasive, it could be Comic Con becoming more accepting of parallel subgenres of entertainment.
Liz Lee, MTV personality and star of reality show “My Life Is Liz,” also enjoyed the mix of anime fans and comic book fans.
“I don’t have anything against comic fans or anime fans, I’m okay with us all coming together,” Lee said. “I think it’s awesome, you know, the more nerds in one place the better. I think we should all come together.”
The mixing of the fans, with anime fans’ penchant for elaborate costumes (cosplay) is also probably the most obvious addition anime fans have added to the mix. Gone are the days of just Captain Americas and Spidermans. Zach Weiner, the cartoonist for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, also enjoys the influx of anime fans at the convention, if not for the most typical reasons.
“I think the quality of the erotica has gone up quite a bit,” Weiner joked, “thanks to the influence of the Japanese.”
Certain fans weren’t as pleased though about housing the two conventions in the same place at the same time.
“I mean, it’s a good idea to have combined the two because they have so much in common, they pull from one another, but there are so many fans and so many people that come to conventions that they can’t house everyone that would normally come,” one very impassioned fan dressed as Wonder Woman told The Chronicle.
“That many people in one place with not enough space, you don’t give all of the fans enough time to see everything,” she said.
Dan Fontaine and Robin Schneider from The Onion booth both didn’t see too much change in the overall event with the two groups mingling.
“Well, I think they’re going to get twice as lucky,” Schneider said of the two subcultures romantic opportunities.
“I think anytime kids come together, usually it’s good. In this sense, in the sense of Comic Con and Anime it’s like hot dogs and peanut butter, it would be disgusting,” Fontaine said disapprovingly, albeit cryptically.
Fontaine went on though to explain that anime fans have changed the overall look of the convention.
“The anime fans tend to be I think a little more… expressive of their fandom. Like they wear it more. There’s more t-shirts, more costumes. Where as the comic fans are a little more cool and…you know, hip,” Fontaine said.
One thing though is clear in talking to the fans, celebrities and people behind the booths at Comic Con, to them it’s personal and important. One comic fan who spoke to The Chronicle about comics versus anime revealed that for his one-year-old son this was a huge milestone.
“It’s pretty cool, I know he’s not going to remember it but I know I am and it’s awesome because I’ve kind of molded him into a little nerd. He loves comic books,” the boy’s father said.
As for the boy’s name, Logan, he was named after Wolverine from the X-Men.
“I knew he was going to be a boy named Logan and named after Wolverine himself,” Logan’s father said.
So while Comic Con has grown from an industry convention for collectors into a genre-spanning weekend dedicated to fans of all walks of life, one thing remains true. The people you meet at Comic Con are there for no other reason than the dedication to what they love.