Anime & NYC

I'll be presenting, talking, and book-signing this week in New York City!

No voiceover this time, but I posted some thoughts about the event over on my YouTube channel!

NYC, maybe: from Pokemon: Genesect and the Legend Awakened

Apologies for the silence. It has been a week of international plane flights and long preparations. But I’m finally here in the United States, and I’m excited to expand on the announcement I made earlier this summer: I’m hosting the first-ever American Manga Awards in New York City! The ceremony is limited to manga industry insiders, but I’ll be doing several other events in the city as well.

On Friday, August 23rd, I’ll be joining Hiroko Yoda and the legendary Fred Schodt for a group book-signing at Kinokinuya in midtown Manhattan. The finest of penmanship starts at 6pm, and this is your chance to purchase copies of our books from Kinokuniya, in thanks for hosting this event! (It seems you must buy a copy there for it to be signed.)

Then, on Saturday, August 24th, I’ll be doing two panel discussions for attendees of the AnimeNYC convention, which is being held at the Javits Center.

First, at 1:30pm, in panel room 4, I’ll be doing a one-on-one with Fred Schodt, called “From Manga! Manga! to Pure Invention.” This is something of a dream come true; Fred is a pioneer in the translation and publication of manga in English, and wrote the seminal Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics in 1983. That book, which introduced “manga” into the English lexicon, helped fuel a boom for translated manga in American comics stores that paved the way for the immense popularity of Japanese illustrated entertainment abroad today. It was also a huge influence on me as a writer, and I definitely see Pure Invention as indebted to his work. It’s going to be a lot of fun talking about his experiences in Japan in the Seventies, and the role manga played in reshaping the global entertainment industry.

Then, at 4:30pm in panel room 2, I will be again be joining Hiroko Yoda, together with Zack Davisson, for The Ultimate Yokai Panel. Sponsored by the Japan Foundation, it’s going to be an exciting ride through centuries of Japanese pop-cultural history. We’ve all authored books on the topic of yokai, the word for monsters from Japanese folklore, but this is the first time we’ll be on stage together. Yokai were some of the first fantasy-characters Japanese artists ever mass produced and merchandised way back in the 18th century, making them the direct progenitors of Japan’s modern-day character culture industry.

Lots more to come, but that’s the schedule for the week ahead. If you’re in NYC and/or near Kinokuniya or AnimeNYC, by all means drop by and say hi. I’m looking forward to meeting you!