Anime NYC 2024: Everything I Wanted and More

I've had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Anime NYC for a few years now. While they tend to get amazing guests that often pertain to my interests, I've also been more than vocal about some of their unsavory business practices in the past, and their apparent shift toward becoming the "Anime Expo of the East" (which admittedly can be both good and bad). This year, however, Anime NYC was full of greatness, and I had very little to complain about.

This was Anime NYC's first summer convention (previous iterations took place in November), as well as their first time using the entire convention venue.

Pre-con Craziness

Before I go into the details, here's a few notes about how Anime NYC works, for those who aren't familiar...

First of all - buying a badge is not as easy as you might think it is. For some reason, Anime NYC continues to put a strict limit on the number of 3-day badges they sell each year. So if you want a 3-day badge, you need to be ready and lucky, because they will sell out within less than an hour. If you miss out on a 3-day badge, you need to pay more than 2x as much by getting individual day badges - or sign up on Lyte and hope someone is willing to resell their badge. As for me, a friend was fortunately able to get me a 3-day badge.

Simply buying a badge will get you into the con, as well as non-ticketed, non-reserved events such as most panels, the exhibit hall, artist alley, game room, and cosplay meetups - but if you want to do the exclusive stuff, you need to prepare. Following Anime NYC on Twitter (X) and reading announcements about ticketed events, autograph lotteries, and panel reservations is crucial if you plan to partake in any of those.

This year, Anime NYC hosted three concerts:

• Friday 8/23: hololive STAGE World Tour’24 -Soar!- at Anime NYC 2024!
• Saturday 8/24: Creepy Nuts Live at Anime NYC 2024!
• Sunday 8/25: Phase Connect 1st NYC LIVE!

All of these events required a separate ticket purchase, and were not included with badge admission. Tickets for these events sold out fast. I was lucky enough (with the help of friends) to get tickets for the Friday and Sunday concerts, which were the ones I was most interested in.

One more ticketed event that took place at Anime NYC this year was the “IJIGEN FES THE IDOLM@STER★︎♥LOVELIVE! UTAGASSEN DAY 2” TICKETED SCREENING. As far as I could tell, this did not sell out (it was in a pretty big room with 2 screens), but the room seemed almost full when I was there.

Panel reservations were another necessary preparation for me. The more popular panels required reservations - and this included the Love Live! Superstar!! panel on Friday. After waiting in queue, I was fortunately able to reserve that panel, and a few others.

Finally, there were the autograph lotteries. These are free to enter, and are usually free if you win - so you simply need to apply. There was only one lottery I cared about this year, and it was of course the Love Live! Superstar!! Owatashikai. This lottery was not actually for an autograph, but for a short meet & greet with Sayuri Date, Naomi Payton, and Akane Yabushima from Liella! I was absolutely beside myself and almost fainted when I got the email saying I won the lottery! This was the chance of a lifetime for me to speak to three of my favorite seiyuu. I was so excited to meet them.

The Javits Center & Surroundings

The Javits Center is hands down my favorite venue for a convention because of its layout. The building was designed in a very smart way that makes it easy and quick to get from one place to another, even if your destination is on the other side of the building.

This year, for the first time, Anime NYC took up the entire Javits Center, which gave the con organizers lots of new options for welcome adjustments to the floor plan. What used to be the panel room area was now the Sakura Stage, a new "main panel room" where some of the more popular panels took place.

As for the other, smaller, panel rooms, they were moved toward the north end of the building, into Hall 1A, which was formerly used as a queueing area. The gaming area, which formerly shared space with the exhibition hall, now had its own large dedicated space in Hall 1B. Finally, Hall 1C was now used for queueing, with a convenient connection to the Main Stage where the concerts took place.

The exhibition hall (dealer's room) is always a spectacle to behold at Anime NYC, full of major industry brands looking to sell their products to fans. Big names like Bandai Namco, Aniplex, Bushiroad, Crunchyroll, and hololive are pretty much mainstays at ANYC by now. I spent a good chunk of my time and money at the Bandai Namco booth, which was selling Love Live! merch and custom shirts. Retro Saikou is another frequent tenant of ANYC and they had an amazing Love Live! fan project on display.

My only gripe with the location of Anime NYC is there's not much going on outside the Javits Center. Since most restaurants are at least a 15-minute walk from the con, I subsisted mostly on overpriced food from the stands inside the con. The food was decent, I just wish there were more restaurants in the area for those like me who prefer a sit-down meal.

Panels I Attended

No convention is complete without panels, and there were a lot I wanted to go to this year. As always, I didn't get to go to all of them due to schedule conflicts, but the ones I did go to were fun and exciting.

Friday opened up with "Love Live! Superstar!! Panel - Coming to the Big Apple!" where the seiyuu for Kanon, Sumire, and Mei (Sayuri Date, Naomi Payton, and Akane Yabushima) appeared and spoke about their experiences being part of Love Live! They were all very happy to see the crowd of fans and really sweet. Check out Anime News Network's coverage of the panel. The three seiyuu also later appeared at the Bandai Namco panel and the Ijigen Fes concert screening, which I also attended.

On Friday I also went to "Anime and Antennas: Anime on Television" which was an informative look into the rough history anime has had on television in the US, and the various copyright and rights holders issues that arose throughout.

Saturday morning opened up with "Conversation with Composer Masashi Hamauzu (FINAL FANTASY)" where I learned some interesting facts about Hamauzu's time working for the series - including the how he was hired directly by Nobuo Uematsu to work on Final Fantasy X with him, and also was in the chorus for the original recording of One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII.

Later on came the "hololive English -Justice- Special Mission in New York!" panel where I got to see the newest generation of hololive English. I hadn't gotten to know them prior, so this was a good chance for me to do just that. I'll definitely be checking out more of them during their streams.

I later attended the Ranma 1/2 premiere and watched episode 1 of the upcoming reboot of Rumiko Takahashi's famous series. It was very funny and I plan on watching it when it airs.

Finally, I went to the "Introduction to Wotagei and Cyalume Dance" panel by Aniwaza, where some in the audience came up front and learned some wotagei moves.

Concerts & Ticketed Events

Friday's main event was hololive STAGE World Tour’24 -Soar!- at Anime NYC 2024! with performances from vtubers Kobo Kanaeru, Moona Hoshinova, Ninomae Ina'nis, Hakos Baelz, Kiara Takanashi, AZKi, and Watame Tsunomaki. I didn't know any of the songs (except for Shiny Smily Story) and unfortunately sat in the very back row, but it was still a fun time and I'm glad I went.

Saturday featured the Creepy Nuts concert, which... I did not go to. I had a more important event to be at...

Anime NYC is no stranger to concert screenings, and while these aren't the same as being at a concert in person, they're still tons of fun because of how wild the crowd gets (including myself).

This was a screening of "Ijigen Fes THE iDOLM@STER x Love Live! Uta Gassen" Day 2, a legendary concert that took place in late 2023 that combined the seiyuu and songs of both franchises. For 4 hours, myself and other con attendees went wild, cheering on our favorite seiyuu, waving penlights, and cracking UOs. I brought about 50 UOs with me, spent about 30 of them during the screening, and handed out the rest to people near me during "Snow halation." Everyone knew what to do, and the room lit up in bright orange at that moment. It was truly a sight to behold.

This was definitely one of the highlights of the con for me. The room had incredible energy, and we were all there to support our favorite seiyuu and songs. Before the screening, Sayuri Date, Naomi Payton, and Akane Yabushima appeared once more for a short Q&A.

Finally, Sunday came, and there was one more concert to go to...

The Phase Connect concert featured performances by vtubers Fujikura Uruka, Lia, Tenma Maemi, Pipkin Pippa, and special guest Mint Fantome.

I actually knew a few songs here, especially the cover songs that Mint performed. The crowd was especially happy to see Mint, and if you're familiar with her history (which I won't go into here) you'll know why.

My ticket came with some cool exclusive Tenma merch too!

My only complaint about the concerts is that they were too short. For some reason Anime NYC seems to think 1 hour is long enough for a concert. They did this last year for the i☆Ris concert too, which also felt way too short. So ANYC staff, if you're reading this - make the concerts longer!

An Owatashikai To Remember

Sunday was the big day for me. I was about to meet three Love Live! seiyuu that I respect very much. I got on line at the Bandai Namco booth and waited for 1:00 PM to arrive. I was a little nervous, but I managed to get past it.

I spent my time waiting by rehearing in my head what I wanted to say to each of them. My Japanese is beginner level at best, but what I wanted to say wasn't too advanced. I didn't get too personal, nor did I want to. I just wanted to compliment them and thank them.

At 1:00 PM, Sayuri Date (Sayurin), Naomi Payton (Paychan), and Akane Yabushima (Yabuchan) came out to meet their fans. I was pretty close to the front of the line, so I didn't have to wait long for my turn to come. First I spoke to Paychan. I told her her English is very good (she spoke a lot of English during the panels), and she laughed and thanked me. I then moved on to Sayurin and - this was the big one - I told her her voice is beautiful. It's something I really wanted to say to her because her voice really does resonate with me, especially during her solos. Her voice, along with a lot of early Liella! songs, helped me get through much of the pandemic. Sayurin was very happy with the compliment and thanked me. Finally, I went over to Yabuchan and told her thanks for coming to New York, and to please come back with everyone else. They each handed me a postcard as a thank you gift for coming to see them.

As I walked away from the booth, it took a good 30 seconds for it to set in that that just happened. I know it sounds lame and cringe, but I cried a bit. Especially since Sayurin smiled at me and thanked me. I'll never forget that moment.

Well, I think that about covers everything. This was by far the best Anime NYC I've ever experienced, and possibly the best con overall. This is the second time I've met Love Live! seiyuu (first was meeting Aqours at Anime Expo in 2019), but this was the first time I actually got to speak with them for a bit, and it meant so much to me.

After the con, there was some discourse online about the guest list. Many people who went felt that vtubers and idols dominated the guest list a bit too much this year. Of course, I didn't mind that, but I can see how non-fans may have felt. Critical Role was another major guest they got this year, and while I'm not a fan, many did seem to be excited about that. I also heard the Creepy Nuts concert was really good. That said, a few more Japanese guests would have been nice to see.

It's certainly become apparent that vtubers are cheap guests. No visa fees, no flight, no hotel to pay for (in most cases). And cons know this. I know vtubers aren't for everyone, but this is quickly becoming the new norm. Let's just hope cons don't see vtubers as a replacement for in-person guests.

Anime NYC 2024 had over 100,000 attendees this year - its largest year yet. Anime NYC 2025 will also take place in the Jacob K. Javits Center, from August 22-24, 2025. I'll definitely be there!