AnimeNYC Recap Post!

One Great Panel, Yuji Kaku, and... well, that's all you need.

Friends, I have to make this post good, because I gained a bunch of new followers after my panel at AnimeNYC. Hello new friends! Thank you again for coming to the panel and supporting MangaCraft the only way it can be supported—subscribing and reading. We are and always will be a free publication.

Just like after San Diego Comic-Con, I find it quite important to recap another weekend full of manga, anime and comics and share observations, thoughts and the like.

There’s really just two things I want to fixate on for this post—the One Great Panel Panel (sounds weird, I know) and the Yuji Kaku interview. Yes, that Yuji Kaku, the one I’m low-key-but-also-fully obsessed with. Sadly, I did not interview him (though I will one day), but the takeaways were still there to be had.

So let’s start with that, because I’m writing this after having just left the interview. First of all, let me just say that he was a cool customer, and his insights gave my brain the jog it needed. Not just because I’ve obsessed over the storytelling beats of Hell’s Paradise, but because it’s clear he loves this story so much.

One thing he said that really resonated with one of my favorite MangaCraft posts (link below) was that, in crafting each character’s story arc, he didn’t know who would live or die. Each character had the potential to do either, and he let their natural decision making and emotions drive their part of the story, so even he was surprised by the outcome.

Which felt so vindicating given this post…

…in which I spent a good long while obsessing over how so many moments within Hell’s Paradise are impossible to predict, including moments of life and death and whatever the flower-state in between counts as. That’s because Yuji Kaku didn’t know what was going to happen either and that, my friends, is superior storytelling. To be able to trust your characters to make their own decisions and not over-orchestrate their fates.

Mad respect. For real. That’s a skill that you don’t just have because you’re telling a story. That’s a skill you develop over years of telling stories. To not need to know where a character is going, but rather to trust them to be true to themselves, comes from knowing and trusting in yourself as a creator. And that trust, in turn, reflects onto your characters. Unless you are a planner, in which case, good for you. We all have our methods.

In all seriousness, I’m so glad I attended this interview for that singular insight alone. There’s something vindicating in hearing a successful creative with a similar method as you.

Thanks for the photo, Hanson!

Now then… about my panel, One Great Panel: Celebrating Manga Moments That Do More. Folks, I literally told my wife before heading to the panel that I was expecting three, maybe five people, because 7:00 PM on a Friday? In the corner of the basement? With just me talking? Not exactly a strong hook, but then again, I’m rather self deprecating. Still, I figured the room to be pretty empty.

I thought wrong.

There were over a hundred people there (-ish, I didn’t count), and not just people, but engaged people. I cannot express how much joy it gave me to have an active discussion with a room full of people about manga panels. It was literally a dream come true. I learned so much myself, hearing what people took away from various panels.

I want to revisit a couple such panels, starting with perhaps my favorite One Great Panel:

I realized, in delivering these panels, that I had picked a lot of “downer” panels up top. For this panel, a woman in the audience made an observation that offered a new perspective. Here I believed that the point of the light from the door was to show that Rudo didn’t even have the light, but this woman believed the opposite, that he would have the light soon. And I find that such a better interpretation than what I had offered. Glass half full kinda thing.

And if you look at the scope of where Gachiakuta goes from here, she’s not wrong. Rudo goes from nothing—not even the light—to a community of friends and allies who support him. It’s not ideal, but I would argue it’s a lot better than if he had remained where he was. Almost like the light that was waiting for him was among the Cleaners.

Another example. This panel, another favorite:

I had been so fixated on the texture of the brother (the tall one) that I didn’t realize what a gentleman in the audience pointed out—that Keli (the short one) sees his brother as so insurmountable, that he’s even bigger than the mountains around him. Folks, like scales from my eyes, I realized there were mountains that I had previously assumed were mere undulations on the horizon, but nope, those are actual mountains.

And yet, while the discussion was rich and fruitful, perhaps my favorite part of all was after the panel, when a handful of people came to show me their favorite panels from series they’ve enjoyed, and I was able to spend time, listening to what they found so striking about it.

It was such a rewarding experience and if you were one of those people that came up to me after my panel, just know that you made my weekend. Seriously. And also know that I’m checking out those series, particularly Mother Parasite and The Climber.

And yes, I’ll be doing this again at next year’s AnimeNYC… perhaps sooner!