SJ Alpha takes over Kino’s Store Front!
It has been a while I’ve been to a Kinokuniya anime/manga themed event, but last weekend in conjunction with New York Comic Con. Shonen Jump Alpha held a New York City Fan Meetup on Friday from 5-8 pm at the Midtown Japanese bookstore. Participants were able to receive pins, a Shonen Jump Alpha 2013 Yearbook, and a Shonen Jump bag filled with swag.
Swag Bag and Yearbook
The SJ year book includes pictures, centerfold posters, creator spotlights, and two manga shorts. The manga includes a preview of Sachie-chan Good, a collaborative work between Akira Toriyama and Mazakazu Katsura. To read the entire story, subscribers and readers are advised to wait until December 2012 issue of SJ Alpha. The other manga is Otter Man No 11, which is a spin off from Bakuman. This yearbook is a limited printed NYCC special issue, that convention goers who visited Viz Booth over the weekend were able to obtain.
Fans at the event was able to mingle and talk among themselves, along with SJ Alpha staff.
Afterwards at around 7-8 pm, there was a special autograph session with Masakazu Katsura, creator and character designer for titles like Video Girl Ai, DNA2, Shadow Lady, I’s, Zetman, and Tiger & Bunny.
桂先生 (Katsura Sensei)
About 120 tickets were given out for Katsura-sensei to sign. There was a line that formed from the front of the store, leading to outside and around the corner on 41st and 6th Avenue.
It was a pretty amazing opportunity to meet a mangaka that I grew up with during my high school years. Here’s a page in I’s that I got for signed.
Many fans were real happy. I heard that it also got pretty emotional for some fans as well.
Beaming fans holding up their signatures!
This turned into such a positive Friday evening, amidst all that was already happening over at Jacob Javits. More photos I took of this event I placed over at Anime Diet’s Flickr, so be sure to check over there.
Comments and Trackbacks
Katsura Masakazu was there? That’s awesome. Yes, I like I’s too. Wow, you got the autograph!
Yes he was there! I have actually never read I’s, but I did grow up on Video Girl Ai, DNA2, and Shadow Lady. I grabbed the first book that a friend recommended, and it turned out to be a pretty racy book. It was an amazing experience meeting any published writer/mangaka.
Very nice, that was like the #1 autograph I wanted out of NYCC… and instead I couldn’t make it due to various things orz
I realized that you were pretty busy, since I wasn’t even able to run into you over the weekend. ^_^ Thanks for the comment, and looking forward to any coverage you are going to be doing.
^_^
That’s such a winsome pic of Katsura. Great job!
@Paper and @Mike
Sure, thanks for the comments. I was real happy by this event at one of my favorite bookstores. Of course if you ask people who saw me there, I was pretty drained.
I got an autograph from him at NYCC. He signed my ZETMAN clear file. XD
Oh neat!!! Still waiting to read about your coverage of NYCC this year. ^_^