In an event not on my anime bingo card, I actually got to meet Vinland Saga manga creator Makoto Yukimura at a fan event sponsored by the Kodansha publishing company! Here’s how my day went…
Inside Kodansha House 2024: Galleries and Photo Opportunities
Maybe about a month or so ago, I received an interesting email from Kodansha. I am signed up for their newsletter, and got an email explaining an upcoming pop-up event in NYC related to the anime and manga they publish. What excited me the most were the rare U.S. appearances from mangaka – all of whom I knew of, with the exception of one artist.
There was a raffle to meet the creators, on Fridays there would be a late-night Q&A session followed by a signing, and on Saturday afternoons, there would be signing sessions along with presumed meet and greets with the creator.
Oshimi Shuzo (The Flowers of Evil), Yamaguchi Tsubasa (Blue Period), Yukimura Makoto (Vinland Saga), and Shirahama Kamome (Witch Hat Atelier) were the manga creators who were being flown in from Japan.
Alongside the meet and greets, Kodansha House is offering fan events such as movie nights, a speed “friend” meeting (could have sworn it said “speed dating” before a site update), trivia nights, and manga library events and general hangouts for anime and manga fans.
Oshimi’s The Flowers of Evil was one of the first manga I read that really resonated with me, so that was actually my top event that I entered the autograph/meeting raffles for primarily. A few weeks passed, and I got a reminder email about the autograph raffles soon closing.
For whatever reason, I didn’t realize that you could enter more than one – so literally the day before they closed, I entered the other raffles to throw my hat in the ring for a chance to meet somebody from a series I loved.
As some of you may know, I reviewed Blue Period when it came out, doing weekly season one episode reviews of the anime adaptation for that manga series. Blue Period resonated with me because I went to an art school for college, and could (vaguely) relate to most of the situations Yatora found himself in with regards to self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and navigating the art industry as a whole.
Obviously, I was not chosen for this autograph raffle.
I had vaguely heard about the manga Witch Hat Atelier and knew it existed, but aside from that – that was pretty much it. I did not get chosen for that autograph raffle.
Vinland Saga was a series I was familiar with, and generally really liked.
I enjoy watching historical dramas, period dramas, and TV shows of the like in general, and I happened to know a lot about the Viking Era before the Norman Conquest due to video games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and TV shows like The Last Kingdom. I enjoy reading about Anglo-Saxon history (the Angles and the Saxons, respectively), along with the Britons and ancient Celts of Gaul.
Studying history and antiquarian books is a hobby of mine (along with studying the King Arthur lore), so I was really surprised when I landed the tickets for the meet and greet with Vinland Saga’s creator, Makoto Yukimura.
I’ve even reviewed Vinland Saga Season 1 and partially completed Vinland Saga Season 2 – I need to go back and finish the series – it was amazing from what I remember.
Pre-Event Excitement: Kinokuniya NYC and the Blue Lock Pop-Up
In the winner confirmation email, it stated that we would receive a signed shikishi along with up to (1) Kodansha item that could be signed as well, although it would not be personalized like the shikishi board.
This was not my first rodeo with meeting a mangaka (I met Kishimoto when he came to New York Comic Con in 2015), and I definitely wanted to purchase the manga so that I had something to remember the experience by each time I looked at it, let alone read it in my library at home.
I hadn’t been back to Kinokuniya Bookstore since before the pandemic, as I ran out of time last time I went into the city for Anime NYC in August. Aside from it being absolutely packed due to NYCC being this weekend and having fans from all over the country converging on the city, it was a little different than I remembered.
There was a Blue Lock pop-up event, and I remembered receiving an email from the Kinokuniya newsletter stating that a promotion was underway for the manga. You could purchase the Blue Lock Episode Nagi manga book, or something from the general series, and receive a specific pre-signed shikishi for each order pending availability.
I’m not going to lie – there were approximately three books left on the shelf for Nagi’s manga, and I was tempted to buy one simply because I wanted the signed shikishi. I resisted the urge – because the books are…quite more expensive than I remember.
They also had stickers, plushies, and other little knick-knacks and merch available for fans who wanted to splurge. I personally would have brought a Nagi chibi plushie if I had the extra income to spend, and would have gotten a Bachira one if they hadn’t made him look so wonky.
(Like an awkward wonky too, and not in like a cute-ugly (kawaii-butsu) type of way.)
The Japanese language manga section had also shrunken, I noticed.
Before, it used to be at least half Japanese language manga last time I was in the store, now it was at best 4 – 5 rows. I was able to find Vinland Saga easily enough (after looking for Vagabond to find the “V” section, haha) and luckily found the single volumes of the manga.
For reference, the English section only had omnibus’ available, so three chapters combined (or more) for triple the price of what I paid for the Japanese volume one.
A Legend Arrives: Meeting Vinland Saga Creator Makoto Yukimura
I checked my clock after leaving Kinokuniya and realized that it was already past 1 pm. I had ideally wanted to arrive half an hour earlier than the 2 pm event, because I wanted to explore the manga art galleries and see what was going on in the space.
In typical fashion, I ended up rushing and not being able to take anything in before I got to the space, haha.
It took me maybe 15 minutes to get back to the subway due to the weekend crowds (again – it was Comic Con, so everything was more crowded around the “weeb” part of town) and the subway was local – so I ended up getting to Canal Street literally at 1:55 pm.
I rushed into Kodansha House, navigating through the crowds and asking a bar/drink attendant where the event signing was, and I was led to the landing of a set of stairs to an upstairs location that was currently blocked off.
I showed my ticket to the friendly staff, received a red wristband, and was ushered upstairs and into a row of red seats as Makoto Yukimura sat at the room’s head, signing autographs and gleefully speaking to fans.
There were free refreshments of sparkling water and mineral water at a bar to my right, and what I really enjoyed about this meet and greet was that Yukimura was not camera-shy.
Usually with these sorts of events, the Japanese mangaka never want you to take photos, and you would be kicked out of the event for doing so. Here, there were literally multiple cameras and even a dedicated cameraman filming each interaction Yukimura had with fans, and each row of fans that got up to have their respective shikishi and manga signed.
I noticed that many people had the red omnibus book that was at Kinokuniya, which made sense because Kinokuniya had a pop-up location downstairs at Kodansha House selling the mangaka’s books, as well as other popular manga series.
There were also a few people who had come down from NYCC, still wearing their lanyards and on the phone with friends who had apparently had also won the raffle (or were their +1) but were having a hard time getting through the crowds and navigating themselves downtown to make it to the event.
I really appreciated how chill and kind everybody was at the event (except the dude who sat next to me, who kept invading my personal space and hitting me each time he moved in his chair – he can go to hell). Kodansha staff were very kind and respectful to all the fans, and Yukimura and his team were nothing but genuinely nice and humble to each person who was in line.
That man literally made an effort to speak to each person in English and through a translator, giving each person time to meet him and have a meaningful conversation that they would remember. What’s even cooler – one of Yukimura’s staff literally would take your photo with your own phone of Yukimura holding up what he signed for you, which is very rare for a mangaka.
I had been feeling under the weather this past week, with a leg cramp that came on suddenly during the night and made it difficult for me to walk up until that day. Literally, each day I almost fought tears trying to stretch and work my leg muscle to get it in decent enough shape to make the trip out to the city for this event.
I was pretty good the day of, but due to sitting for almost two hours waiting for my turn, my leg stiffened back up and I’m pretty sure I looked unhappy meeting Yukimura despite being sincerely excited by the experience.
I had requested “you have no enemies” on my shikishi because my life this entire year, for the most part, hasn’t really been great. I haven’t had wifi anymore, I’ve lost almost all of my possessions and stored food I had through the pandemic, the power in my home is barely non-existent and due to the solar flares and my crappy cell phone provider, I have literally had no working power in my room and limited internet service to work, or pretty much do anything.
So, this may sound really corny, but the desire to have the mangaka who created a character like Thorfinn in Season 2, Askeladd in Season 1, and Einar in Season 2 write and remind me that “I have no enemies” was extremely important to me, for some odd reason.
Yukimura chuckled, and said the quote aloud as he wrote it on my shikishi, and asked what the significance of the quote was to me in Japanese before the translator translated the sentence into English.
I just smiled and said that I felt like the quote applied to my life heavily right now, and explained the current ongoing situation with my sprained leg in an effort to clarify why I probably looked so unenthusiastic and quiet despite meeting the mangaka. They were very kind and concerned about my leg, and I got my picture and received more kind words before thanking them and leaving Kodansha House.
I will probably use the picture as my cover photo for this article and cover my face with a smiley despite it most likely already being possibly used in promotional material. My identity, despite trying my best to be anonymous online has already been burnt in real life and I have a lot of other crazy things going on concerning that – which I can’t really talk about in a situation that has been dragging on for years and is completely out of my control.
I still will probably put a smiley face over my own face because 1. My hair was super frizzy despite trying my best to tame it that morning and 2. I actually just hate the way my face and body look right now.
I haven’t really looked at myself in the mirror much this past year, and when I do look at myself, I just hate looking at my face. I hate the way my eyes look, and it depresses me, so that’s why I covered it, haha.
Titan Scale and Cyberpunk Style: The Attack on Titan and Akira Displays
Anyway, not to get too personal, Kodansha House is a really cool event for anyone in New York City during the month of October.
They had an Akira bike photo op, and a Colossal Titan photo op as well over the wall in Shiganshina. If I had time and didn’t have to rush to the subway to make the train home instead of waiting around for two hours for the next one because of my bum leg, I would have stayed and hung out – and attended the event of that night…which I believe was the “speed friending”.
Either way, this was a cool fall event entry into the calendar of my currently very dull and uneventful life, and I’m glad that despite everything going on, I pushed myself to go.
But, tell me your thoughts: Have you ever met a mangaka before? Do you plan on going to the Kodansha Pop-Up Event in NYC?
Read our experience attending the Fire Force Creator Atsushi Ohkubo’s Meet the Mangaka Q&A at Kodansha House 2025!
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☆ In Asian Spaces ☆ Ephesians 6:12 ☆
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