Anime NYC has been filling a gap in New York’s need for an Anime Centered Convention ever since the axing (read: ”merging”) of New York Anime Festival in 2012, and its temporary resurgence in 2018 as a crossover with Anime Expo. There have been growing pains over the years as its popularity with the Fanbase seems to outpace its ability to expand throughout the Javits Center. Considering we haven’t attended Anime NYC since 2021 due to the above and other reasons, a lot has changed for us. No more covid and vaccination checks. Masks are voluntary. The line isn’t an hours long disaster. Anime NYC doesn’t take up as much physical space as NYCC, and in the past, seeing the Exhibition hall not filled out completely sorta leaves a lot to be desired and made it feel empty. Having Artist’s Alley in the Downstairs Parking Lot Cattle Ring Area, and less than half filled perpetuated that desire for more. Fast Forward to 2025. Much better utilization of space. Exhibition Hall houses Industry/Exhibitors, Vendors, Artist’s Alley, and a Food Court. Seeing the entire floor utilized and filled out feels way more cohesive and less like they couldn’t book enough tables.

[icon:💃🏽] Lets get started! 🕺🏽

We did not wake up early to participate in Line Con the moment the doors opened. Those days are LONG over. Day 1 we showed up at 5 PM. Doors opened at 4 PM. Day 2 we showed up at 3 PM. Doors opened at 10 AM. Day 3 we showed up at 2:30 PM. Doors opened at 10 AM. Day 4. We chilling at home. Our Legs hurt 😔. Doors opened at 10 AM though.

Main Exhibition Hall!

Aside from Artist Alley being a clear chunk of floor space, the rest of the space is co-mingled with Exhibitors and Vendors. The usual suspect are here but smaller. Crunchyroll had a smaller footprint but still pulled fans with experiences and free merch.

V-Sho…..er…, Hololive had some talent live streaming at their booth, but Con Wifi was terrible .

Brown Dust 2 probably had the biggest line at certain times. Though I never heard of the franchise, the booth was very popular. Wonder what was going on there.

From there we turn our attention to -

AA feels like the place where we’re getting increasingly excited about after walking the show floor. It being adjacent to Exhibitors and Vendors felt….good. It was accessible. It was close…to the food court and most of the corner and back aisle food booths. It was a bit more crowded due to Artists only having single tables, tons of great merch and lots of sales. But navigable if you're patient. A stand out booth that we visited at Anime Expo AND Anime NYC was @PRAWNM33, serving Love and Deep Space original photo cards, stickers, posters and Bags. And the Taro Card Booth with Hoyoverse Posters (that had no Keqing Merch sigh) that were premium quality.

Yes. Yes. Yes! The Indie Game Development Community! I haven’t seen this since going to Play NYC in 2019. Quick Google Search Wait it IS PLAY NYC! An Anime Convention is the PERFECT place for Indie and up and coming Game Developers to show off and get some amazing feedback. This. Is. Amazing. Blue Protocol: Star Resonance had the largest showing in this space. I’m sure they don’t count as Indie as its developed by Bandai Namco, but I wasn’t aware of the title until this experience. I’d love to interview some of the truly smaller Dev companies or solo devs in the future.

The back half of this area has tons of table top game spaces, arcade straight from Japan, a separate food center, and I can hear music from the back of the space. Creepy Nuts - Bling-Bang-Bang-Born is playing and people are cheering. Theres a mini gathering and fans are performing their favorite songs. Anime NYC Stop It. You’ve given the fans what they want (Well me anyway). Seeing this space makes me excited for future plans of a space like this of my own. I cry.

I am currently writing this portion at the end of our Con Experience. Today was so much fun. We accomplished everything we wanted to on the 1st 2 days and decided to shop for gifts and souvenirs, enjoy a Tequila Sunrise or two (per day 👀), take in some Cosplayers, and meet up with friends. Took a quiet break. Decompressed. Today was fun. Anime NYC was Fun. Approaching this as if I’m documenting and reporting was the right shift I needed. Less of an emphasis on I need to accomplish x, y, and z, and more of “These are some great Cosplays”, “These are some good original merch”. Now I need to try my hand at interviewing people. I have the equipment. I have really good prompts and questions. Lets hope my social battery doesn’t burn out. This year Anime NYC proved to me that you don’t have to be NYCC or Anime Expo to deliver. Sometimes filling the space and the soul is enough. Game On! I'll leave some favorite shots from con below.