What Tops at Anime NYC

By Juan Vasquez

The first annual Anime convention hit New York City last Nov. 17-19. Held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, it featured some eye-opening participants who collectively made for a jubilant overall success. Here is what topped out at Anime NYC.

The Cosplayers

 It is never a convention without cosplayers! Many of them went all out, even when compared to the extravagant works seen at New York Comic Con. Despite Anime NYC being an anime-oriented con, many of the cosplayers came from all four corners of the pop culture world.

Jayne Linn cosplaying as Mercy from Overwatch.

Victoria Gerry and Kimberly Austin as Sailor Moon and Big Sister, from Sailor Moon and Bioshock 2, respectively.

Lauren Robertson as Sailor D.Va from Overwatch and Sailor Moon.

Jacqui Collins as Utena from Utena.

Tiffany Chan as Genderbend Gaara from Naruto.

Ryan Peacock as Ness from Earthbound.

Red and Fat Man of True Epic Cosplay, cosplaying as Star Lord and Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy.

Kat Fornier cosplaying as Sailor Jupiter from Sailor Moon.

The Vendors

Anime NYC had a few dozen vendors, each of them offering unique items of interest to the con-goers.

The Claw Machines from Otaku Oasis were super popular among con-goers. Especially since many of them were hunting for the elusive Rainbow Alpaca (not pictured here).

Sherri Santellano promoting Tangerine Mountain Imports and Designs. They were selling kimonos in all shapes and sizes, even in plushie size.

J-House Rock was one of the few vendors selling actual CDs at Anime NYC. I wanted the Dir En Grey CD, but wasn’t willing to drop $35 for it.

Zoe Belasco and Aimee Davis promoting BlerDCon, a convention dedicated to black nerddom.

The Creators

Conventions like Anime NYC give a voice to up-and-coming content creators. Many of the artists at Anime NYC were largely indie artists and manga (Japanese, or in this case, Japanese-style comic).

Chrissie Zullo from presents her artwork. As you can clearly see, her subjects range all throughout nerddom, from video games to anime.

The work of Jisu is inspired by Japanese video games, anime, and manga. I am a personal fan of hers and seeing her in person for the first time left me starstruck!

Peter Vazquez is unique in that he also does paintings of his work, as well as cheap grab bags filled with art, candy, and other nice trinkets.

Derrick Charles and Sojuan Newton promoting their comic book “Ninja Express.” The main character’s catchphrase is “Nani?” (the Japanese word for “what”), which I found hysterical thanks to the “omae wa mou shinderu” meme.