The Hind End of Space

Story Time: Meeting Yoshiyuki Tomino at NYAF 2009

New York Anime Festival 2009. It was the con’s last year on its own before officially merging with New York Comic Con. It was also prooobably the only US con to do something special for Gundam’s 30th Anniversary. No, they didn’t get any voice actors or show the original movies. Instead, they got Yoshiyuki Tomino as the guest of honor. Upon learning this, I was hella excited, even if it meant going back to a con where I’d previously had AWFUL times.

My friend Monty (pictured right) and myself had managed to get a Gunpla panel, one that didn’t quite go well but paid off in the long run (but that’s another story). We’d gotten in early that day to make sure we got autograph tickets, and we did (the second day was another story). Because we were panelists, we managed to get badges that allowed us into the exhibition hall early. We mulled around the dealer’s room for awhile and stopped and chatted with friends that were also around.

We finally made it back to Funimation’s booth where several of our friends were going to be doing promotion stuff. My friend JJ says to me;

“He’s over there, you know.”

“Who?”

“Tomino!”

Sure enough, there he was, with his wife and several aids or translators or something. JJ grabs me by my hand and drags me over to him, with Monty following me. She walks up to him and says, in Japanese, something along the lines of, “Excuse me, my friend is a big fan of yours, can she have a picture with you?” He walks up to me smiling and shakes my hand, then JJ took the picture, and as you can see Monty snuck in, too. I then said thank you, and we both walked off with this look of, “holy fuck. did that… just happen?”

Afterwards, I believe Monty summed it up best, “The con hasn’t even started yet and we already achieved our goal.”

It was easily one of my best convention experiences ever, and I am eternally thankful to everyone who made it possible. 

 My only regret? I was cosplaying from Eureka 7 for a group with some friends that day… not anything from Gundam. Oh well…