Anime and Japanese pop culture aficionados were blown away by a weekend of cosplay, concerts, and unbridled fandom – with a touch of renegade robot uprisings and alien invasions thrown in for good measure – at Anime NYC 2024. Ever since its inauguration in 2017, LeftField Media’s Anime NYC has been one of the most significant anime and Japanese pop culture events on the East Coast. 2024’s celebration, which was held from August 23-25t at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, was the convention’s biggest year yet with estimated attendance at over 100,000 guests – an Anime NYC record that nearly doubled 2023’s 63,000 attendees.
Anime NYC 2024 was packed with more than 150 hours of panels, screenings, fan meetups, and celebratory events that cater towards the diverse tastes of anime, manga, and video game fans. This year featured an eclectic selection of guests from across America and Japan, including esteemed voice actors like Steve Blum (Cowboy Bebop, The Legend of Korra), Bryce Papenbrook (Attack on Titan, Blue Exorcist), Max Mittelman (The Seven Deadly Sins, One Punch-Man), and Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld (Pokémon, Promare). The entire cast of Critical Role was also in attendance for a Fireside Chat and Q & A where they got candid about their popular improvised role-playing and Dungeons & Dragons series in which they battle monsters and perform magical feats in the fantasy world of Exandria.
This year’s special guests of honor also included Shoji Kawamori, one of the original creators of Macross and a visionary voice in the mecha genre, TOHO Animation’s Shoichiro Taguchi (SSSS.GRIDMAN, HAIKYU!! TO THE TOP, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End), and Natsuki Hanae, the Japanese voice behind some of anime’s most popular heroes, like Demon Slayer’s Tanjiro Kamado and Tokyo Ghoul’s Ken Kaneki. All of these special guests were involved in illuminating panels or screenings that helped celebrate their prolific careers in anime, while looking forward to the industry’s exciting future.
On the topic of the industry’s future, this year’s Anime NYC guests were fortunate enough to experience several exciting premieres for series and movies that are guaranteed to be some of the biggest titles to close out 2024. The Case Closed/Detective Conan series celebrated the North American premiere for The Bride of Halloween, the long-running mystery franchise’s 25th feature film. David Production’s Ranma ½ reboot – a ‘90s shonen classic about a slacker martial artist boy who turns into a girl whenever he’s exposed to cold water – also had its world premiere and reassured fans that this modern update hasn’t lost any of the original’s magic. Its slapstick silliness hits just as hard 35 years later.
Dan Da Dan also delighted fans with a star-studded screening and panel that had the gonzo series’ Japanese voice actors, English cast, and composer in attendance. Dan Da Dan is a cavalcade of supernatural phenomena when ghosts and aliens plague Japan and two friends — one who believes in spirits, but not aliens, and the other, vice versa — get pulled into a catastrophic scenario that turns them both into eternal believers. Dan Da Dan features truly gorgeous animation from the always-reliable Science Saru and it’s already getting buzz as one of Netflix and Crunchyroll’s biggest series of the year. Anime NYC attendees couldn’t believe their eyes and were completely stupefied by the start of this special series, especially with its chaos magnified on the big screen.
Anime NYC kept its big premieres rolling and pivoted from ghosts and aliens to killer androids and a self-aware artificial intelligence apocalypse with the world premiere of Netflix’s highly-anticipated Terminator Zero. This exciting new chapter in the Terminator saga is set in 1990s Japan and follows an intrepid scientist’s mission to create a new artificial intelligence system that could potentially topple Skynet – that is, if a cyborg assassin from the future doesn’t eliminate him and his three children first. Terminator Zero’s intense violence and cyberpunk science fiction storytelling was introduced by the series’ showrunner, head writer, and executive producer, Mattson Tomlin, director Masashi Kudo, and Production I.G’s design production coordinator, Haruka Watanabe. Die-hard Terminator fans and curious newcomers were completely transfixed by this exciting preview of Netflix’s upcoming anime that could very likely rejuvenate the flailing franchise.
Anime NYC also made sure that fans had a thriving nightlife scene to keep them busy after packed days of passion. Creepy Nuts, a Japanese hip hop duo that’s made up of DJ Matsunaga and R-Shitei, performed their first North American concert to a sold-out crowd. Creepy Nuts’ hit single, “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” became the opening theme song for Mashle: Magic and Muscles’ second season. The Creepy Nuts concert helped anime music fans kick back and unwind, but Anime NYC also worked hard to have safe fandom meetups for popular series like Yu Yu Hakusho, Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, and other social events that unite attendees and bring down barriers.
This convention was particularly rich in robust cosplay meetups for fans of Trigun, Demon Slayer, Sailor Moon, Chainsaw Man, Dragon Ball, Delicious In Dungeon, and more, where decked out guests could discuss their favorite moments and trade cosplay tips and tricks. Of course, like every year, there was also the Anime NYC Cosplay Masquerade, which showcased costumes on stage in front of a massive crowd of fans. This year’s Cosplay Masquerade was particularly incredible with music by DJ Taylor Senpai and a lively halftime performance by Yosakoi Dance Project 10tecomai.
Beyond bombastic concerts and cosplay spectacles, 2024’s Anime NYC featured a broad range of panels that focused on diversity and inclusivity, including “Anime, Manga, Mental Health, and Disabilities,” “Diversity in Anime/JRPG Voice Acting,” “Next Gen: Pathways to A Career in Gaming,” “Gender, Genre, and Games in Sports Anime,” and “Love and Friendship Through Sailor Moon.” These are great resources that bring fans together and highlight important corners of fandom that sometimes go overlooked or don’t always get their due. It’s comforting that Anime NYC understands the importance of protecting and spotlighting the fans, just as much as it does their fandom. Guests were also treated to informative industry panels from Aniplex of America, Bandai Namco Filmworks, GKIDS, and NBCUniversal Japan on their upcoming programming slates and how they plan to celebrate anime over the next year.
There was truly something for everyone at this year’s Anime NYC and it’s easy to see why it had its biggest year yet and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. It won’t be easy for 2025’s Anime NYC to top this year’s record-breaking numbers and accomplishments, but anime’s growing mainstream status means that it’s entirely likely. As the industry continues to evolve and grow, it’ll be very exciting to see what Anime NYC’s future has in store. 2025’s Anime NYC will once again occur at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, on August 22-24th, continuing this year’s shift to an August con instead of the event’s previous November tradition.
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