Welcome back Anime NYC! From November 16th to November 18th, this anime convention returned to the Jacob J. Javits Center in the city for its second year!
It’s been awhile since I’ve been to an anime con in NYC. Historically, NYC hasn’t been able to hold on to a big anime convention.
Big Apple Anime Fest (BAAF) was ended in 2005, Anime Next skipped town from NY to Secaucus NJ, and the big problems with Anime Fest at NYCC this year.
But Anime NYC is promising!
With 36,000 attendees (compared to last year’s 20,000) from all 50 states and over 15 countries this con could be on track to outdo Otakon.
Otakon has had a series of issues including overcrowding, 3 hour lines and other issues involving the neighborhood (it used to be in Baltimore’s inner harbor but has since moved to DC)!
I was amazingly surprised that even at 2 years old, anime NYC seemed to know how to do it right!
Sponsored by Crunchyroll and several other staple companies in the anime Fandom world including AniPlex, VIZMedia, Funimation, and many, many more, this convention brought everything we love about anime into the show.
There were amazing panels, fun dancing and music, great cosplay, video games and more!
Utilizing a much smaller space than New York Comic Con even though they are held in the same convention center, Anime NYC had a much more comfortable feel to it.
NYCC, which uses the entirety of the Javits Center, felt like moving through a crowded subway car due to its large attendance, and made it difficult to really enjoy all it had to offer.
Anime NYC, on the other hand, has plenty of room to grow and places weren’t packed to uncomfortably full. Lines for merchandise, video games and food (and Starbucks coffee) were all reasonable, and I waited less than 5 minutes.
The show room floor and artist ally had a feeling of newness and excitement.
I could stroll down each aisle and idly look at all the items without being pushed along or shoved by a massive crowd. There were fun stages set up, a section for arcade video games including Dance Dance Revolution and Soul Caliber, which kept the whole experience interactive.
There was also a Sailor Scout Scavenger Hunt, to match their Sailor Moon Crystal voice actor guests; it brought the whole theme together!
One of the booths, selling a glowing workout stick, had a DJ and impromptu dance party in the center of the show room floor, pulling participants from the crowd and onto the stage to teach them some moves.
There were even fun photo ops’s everywhere! Like this set up, from “That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime.”
There was a clear feeling of enthusiasm despite the cold weather from con-goers, although that could have been the amazing idea of having a special changing room for cosplayers! No longer will you have to trek through the cold in that thin Sailor Scout fabric!
Artist alley was tucked away in a scenic room on the top floor, and offered great displays of art and crafts (I bought an angry cat shirt!)
My pockets feel much lighter, but so does my heart.
It’s been a long time since I attended a con that had such a great feeling of the anime culture.
I will definitely be attending next year’s convention as well, and marking Anime NYC as the new up and coming anime con that cannot be missed.
For information on the con, check out their website: http://animenyc.com/
Check out all the amazing AnimeNYC and AnimeNYC cosplay photos below!
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