This year’s Anime NYC, one of the largest anime conventions in America, comes off of what is so far an insane year for anime. I thought last year was already packed with great works, but this year might actually have already surpassed it, with titles like Jujutsu Kaisen: The Culling Game Part 1, Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War – The Calamity, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 7: Steel Ball Run, Frieren Season 2, Re:Zero Season 4, Witch Hat Atelier, Journal With Witch, Oshi no Ko Season 3, Cosmic Princess Kaguya, Nippon Sengoku, and many, many others too numerous to list here. (Keep in mind that this is just what’s coming out from Japan. This has been a great year for animation overall.) We’re not even done with the year yet, and even still it seems like more great stuff is on the horizon, especially if what was spotlighted at this year’s convention was anything to go by.
Anyway, last weekend over 100,000 anime fans descended on the Javits Center in Manhattan for four days to celebrate anime and manga, meet the people behind their favorite shows, dress up as their favorite characters, shop, and get the latest news on the anime industry. Some of the aforementioned shows were given prominent spotlights, such as for Re:Zero and Bleach, and voice actors and staff from many of the biggest anime and manga right now showed up, including several coming from Japan. In addition to anime, Mackenyu and Taz Skyler from Netflix’s live-action One Piece adaptation also made appearances at the con, meeting fans and getting a dedicated panel of their own. Aside from the panels, there was also the massive exhibition hall and Artist Alley, where congoers could support hundreds of vendors and artists. It was guaranteed that only the talents of human artists would be spotlighted, as AI art was banned from the premises. (However, this seemed to only apply to the artists. A booth for Pocket FM, an audio series platform which incorporates AI technologies, was not only present, but had ads during the pre-show on the Main Stage, which the audience booed at one of the panels I was at and reportedly at others on the stage.) As for panels, you can see my earlier coverage here and here, but here were some other highlights:
The Steel Ball Run Goes Through Anime NYC
One of the most anticipated anime this Fall is the continuation of the anime adaptation of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 7: Steel Ball Run, following the release of the first episode earlier this year. Anime NYC held a screening of the episode, making it the first time it’s been shown on the big screen outside of Japan. This was a great experience, as hundreds of JoJo fans cheered for their favorite characters and engaged with what was happening onscreen. Following the screening, English voice actors Daman Mills (Johnny Joestar) and Damien Haas (Diego Brando) took the stage to an enthusiastic crowd.
The two of the discussed their respective voice acting roles and answered questions from fans. Damien in particular considered the role a dream come true and getting the call nearly made him cry, even as he was cleaning his cat’s litter box at the time. The two of them were tight-lipped on how the anime would adapt the rest of the story in future episodes, they said that manga readers would be pleased, and anime-only viewers discovering the story for the first time would be in for a “big ol’ treat.” At the end, the announcement was made that the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure World pop-up shop tour was coming to America, offering various exclusive merchandise, including some pretty cool-looking T-shirts featuring JoJo-ized versions of famous Japanese paintings.
The Ghost in the Shell
Mokochan, director of the new anime adaptation of The Ghost in the Shell by animation studio Science Saru, along with two of the producers, Shuhei Shindo (the animation producer) and Kengo Abe, did a panel on the series, which aims to be a far more faithful adaptation of the original manga compared to the earlier anime works. The series employs the more cartoony style of the original manga, but retains its heavy existentialist themes. It’s also Mokochan’s first job as an anime director, and it’s an extremely impressive first showing. In particular, when a fan asked about the accuracy to the palette in the color version of the manga, Mokochan said he wanted to make sure that the bright colors didn’t overpower the darker themes of the anime, and tried to find suitable colors that struck a balance. At the end of the panel, the first nine minutes of the show’s eighth episode were shown.
Anime NYC 2026 AMV Contest
One of the things I look forward to the most every year at Anime NYC is their AMV Contest. A lot of anime cons have an AMV Contest, and Anime NYC is no exception. According to the programmers, this was a particularly tough competition, with the winners representing what they considered to be some of the best editors in the fandom. As per usual, the contest spans a number of genres, from anime edits of existing movie and TV trailers, to action, drama, and romance-themed videos, to comedy and parody. The trailer competition had a couple standouts, particularly an edit of the Marty Supreme trailer set to Ping Pong the Animation, which fit the audio to an insane degree. However, my vote, and the audience’s, went to the contender who remixed Kaguya-sama: Love is War to the trailer for Obsession (renamed Confession).
The entrants were extremely varied, ranging from simply clips edited to music, to manga art brought to life, to flashy lyric videos. The most elaborate entrant (and the one who won Best in Show) did an incredibly well put together short in which characters from various Shonen anime unite in a Marvel-style crossover showdown. Another one I particularly enjoyed was a mixed-media AMV based around the 2006 film Paprika. I voted for it not knowing if it would win, but the audience seemed to agree with my tastes. It was also up against a really well-done Angel’s Egg AMV that I would be remiss if I didn’t mention. The hardest vote for me overall was the Comedy category, where pretty much every video was a standout, and picking a definitive winner proved so difficult that I chose at random (the video my vote went to did ultimately win runner-up in the end). I was especially torn between a video based around Danny Gonzales’ song Rollin’, and an uproarious AMV of “How the World Works” from Bo Burnham: Inside, set to Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan and various other anime (my vote ultimately ended up being Rollin’, while the Life Lessons video won). I should also mention the video remixing countless anime to the 2024 Pokémon Sleep Competition video made as an April Fools’ Day joke. Overall, this was a very fun contest as usual, and the full playlist of finalists can be found here.
The Kagurabachi World Tour also made an appearance at Anime NYC, where fans could see 20 minutes of the show eight months before its April 2027 premiere. If there was ever a hot ticket at the con, it was this. Those who were lucky enough to make a reservation crowded in line over an hour before the panel actually started, and the standby line ultimately had to be capped. Overall, this was a very fun con, and being with thousands of eager anime fans was a great experience. I’ll definitely consider going back next year.
