NYC is like a famous wild west gunslinger when it comes to anime conventions. Everyone knows if they can beat the top dog they are guaranteed to be famous. So many organizations have challenged the Jesse James of cities and just as many have been defeated. Big Apple Anime Fest, New York Anime Festival, and Waku Waku NYC all sleep in anime convention Boot Hill but the dream still lives on for others. Many fans continue to hope that New York City could have regularly occurring anime centered convention. While New York Comic Con often has an anime and manga guest or two alongside some anime panels it is merely a bit of spice in a much larger hodgepodge. Despite some unique difficulties, NYC would make the perfect location for an anime convention. The trick is figuring out how to make it work.

Anime NYC is the latest event to try to make its claim in the Big Apple. It has a decent pedigree which makes it a strong contender. Much of the staff that worked on the convention were former staff from New York Comic Con so they have a good idea of how to run a nerdy event in the city. I mentioned they have a good bunch of postmortems to see what has and has not worked before now. Plus the area around the Jacob Javits is slowly getting more accessible.

It was high noon at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Was Anime NYC quick enough on the draw to defeat Gotham or will it die with its boots on like so many other conventions before it?

 In its first year, AnimeNYC welcomed over 20,000 fans. That was an incredible feat for a first-year con. The experienced showrunners correctly predicted that an anime-focused con was still wanted here in the New York City. And plans are already underway for 2018. Continue reading →

AnimeNYC hosted more than 200 artists in the alley for its first year. Instead of a dark underground hall or the windowless exhibitors section, artist alley was in the prime spot of the convention center. The upper floor of the Javits Center is by far the nicest with carpet and surrounded by windows letting in plenty of light. It’s an area that makes you want to linger which is great for artists and attendees alike.

I’ve noticed a growing number of artists selling their original drawings, not just a print of them. And this was beyond doing commissions, and I saw this with fan art as well as original works. Seeing the real lines on paper was very exciting. I even picked up a tiny Lucina from Fire Emblem sketch from one such artist @nightynightowl.

As I noted at Otakon this year, the amount of enamel pins has exploded. This seemed to be even more pronounced at AnimeNYC. What I found really interesting was the majority of enamel pins are not fanart.

Luckily at AnimeNYC, the number of booths selling buttons was high as well. I saw regular ole buttons as well as more expensive, shaped ones, giant-sized ones, and even shiny and glittery ones! I picked up a basic, but very well-designed, Sailor Senshi button from Sticks and Spells.

Printed t- and sweatshirts are growing in popularity. There were some great designs displayed. Some artist that stood out to me were Jisu Art and Auto Loot. This was in addition to the now staple printed items like lanyards and pencil and coin bags. I also saw a couple of people selling silkscreened prints and totes. I hope this becomes a trend!

I saw some serious nostalgia works all over the alley this year. I’d seen The Last Unicorn in past alleys, but things like The Secret of NIHM, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and The Road to El Dorado were very unusual finds. I also saw a couple of people with Moomin works which I think was a first, despite its popularity the world over.

Anime nostalgia was there too with Sailor Moon and plenty of Yu-Gi-Oh! around, perhaps thanks to the Twitch marathon. But I saw other seasons of Yu-Gi-Oh!, too.

Popular titles like My Hero Academia, Pokemon, Overwatch, and Final Fantasy were in abundance. The caliber of Pokemon has increased to the point at which I’m seriously considering playing a game just so I can buy some of these amazing pieces.

I saw a lot of people selling their own comics, fan comics, and sketchbooks alongside the prints that are always for sale. Some of these were extremely well-crafted.

Overall, the caliber of artists and the quality of design has been steadily growing in alleys all over. It was especially nice to see how so many artists have really found their style and voice in original and fanart alike. I felt that acutely at AnimeNYC, and it made the artist alley the highlight of the convention.

~kate