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Share Your Anime Convention Stories!
Forum-Index → General Discussion → Share Your Anime Convention Stories!
Posted: Sat, 27/11/2021 20:40 (2 Years ago)
INTRODUCTION:
Anime NYC. One of the largest and most popular annual anime conventions in the world. In 2019, forty-thousand members were present. That was two years ago- so the numbers are still growing. They typically host an AMV contest and pick out the 30 winners beforehand, so I decided to submit one of my recent works: “Forever Free”. I got an email with the results. My video didn’t quote make it into the winning bracket (sentimental: top 5), but I didn’t let that discourage me from going to the 3-day event. My first time at this individual event was no doubt a once in a lifetime moment!
I arrived in New York City after 5 PM, then dropped off my luggage at the hotel. It was so crowded outside that I had to wait over 3 hours (per day) to even get inside. Before the first day of this convention, the event organizers were hosting a bunch of raffles to win free things. For example, concert tickets for a My Hero Academia concert, a reenactment of the concert that made Eri-Chan smile for the first time, and admission to prescreen rising movies like “Pompo-San the Cinephile” and “Belle” (apparently she’s the modern version of the Disney princess) before it comes to theaters in January. I chose to enter the movie ticket giveaways and miraculously won both! Sadly, I missed out on the oases for Eri’s concert- they literally sold out in minutes.
Day One:
When I first arrived into the packed Jatvis Convention Center, hundreds of activities were going on at once. Groups of smiling cosplayers skittered by me, while participating in photo shoots all around. Behind me were super large Attack on Titan (final season) and Sword Art Online (new movie) posters pinned against the glass walls- several feet above where I was standing. And outside the building were rows and rows of all kinds of food stalls. I’d never seen anything like it before.
I checked my watch. It was around the time I usually ate dinner every day (at home, at least). The multiple story building was packed to the brim and I felt my stomach was almost going to eat itself. My family and I decided to order food from a nearby food stall. The cashier told us that they didn’t have any gluten free food whatsoever (yes, I’m a celiac). We tried the food stall next to it. Their answer was the same. Shaking, I temporarily spilt up from my family to cover more ground. The lights suddenly felt 2 times brighter than usual, which gave me a pounding headache. I circled around the echoing merch room several times, but to no avail. My sore feet felt like 70 pound weights.
Feeling helpless and dizzy, my new objective was to try and relocate my family. That took an extra hour. Being very exhausted, I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. Even after asking a total of 12 different food vendors in the convention center, not one of them had anything I could eat. So we had no choice but to wander the streets nearby until we found some decent-looking restaurant. To my relief, they could cook fried rice with gluten-free soy sauce. I ordered a cup of orange juice with it! By the time I finished dinner, it was almost 10 PM. I never got to do anything on the first day. I trudged back to the hotel room with disappointment weighing down on my heart.
DAY 2
The orange bracelet I needed to get admission somehow slipped off my wrist on the way to the convention hall. Therefore, I had to wait in the line of people where only those with Saturday/weekend passes stood. The long line swerved into rows in the distance, and at that point I wasn’t sure when I could get out of the cold. Since I had no other option, I just observed what was happening around me. Half the people I saw in line were wearing cosplay. For example, Tohru from Dragon Maid, the occasional Uraraka from BNHA, and a HECK ton of Nezukos from Kimetsu no Yaiba. I believe I counted 50 Nezuko in total. But considering how popular the series is in Japan and the USA, I’m sure there were even more than that.
I set my feet into Jatvis once again. It even more busy than the day before. I was hoping to get to watch every finalist in the AMV contest (though I didn’t make it), but the contest started when I was in line to get a bracelet for admission into the building. There was only 30 minutes left in that panel, so I believed that there was no point in going. Yesterday, I was so busy trying to find food stalls confusingly hidden in the gigantic merchandise room that I didn’t notice the shops. I went shopping with my family. I introduced my mom to anime back in 2018. She enjoyed looking at the rather scarce Haikyuu products as its her personal favorite franchise. I went and purchased a cute love live Nozomi doll as well as a gray Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid T-shirt for the coming spring time.
Tens of thousands of anime fans occupied the artist alley. I took the time to scope out the place to know where I was going and the location of everything. The chatter of friend groups directed my attention towards a row of tables behind me. Those were no doubt the lines to meet a select few DUB VAs (ie- Max Mittelman as Saitama)! Someone dressed up as Tanjiro ran past me and stopped to wait in the line to see Bryce Papenbrook. I didn’t want to miss out on meeting these talented guests, so I got in line for Emily Neves (Umaru Doma). She was a super kind person. I told her about how much I like the Umaru-Chan anime and how I wish they dubbed season 2. She even said “Potato chips and cola” in her Komaru voice!
The next person I waited to see is David Matranga (Shoto Todoroki). We chatted for a few minutes about how Todoroki is cool, and about BNHA’s new Season 5. Though the conversation didn’t last long because I am shy. “Never forget who you want to become,” said the poster he signed for me. I then went in the line to meet Ricco Fajardo. He was wearing a detailed Lemillion hero tank top- rib lines and all. Despite not ever talking to him before, we were talking like old friends. He asked me about which anime I like, in which I responded “Haikyuu” (I was wearing my one of many shirts just for this 3-day occasion). On the current topic of sports anime, we started conversing about the swimming anime called “Free”, FYI Ricco Fajardo is the voice of the older sibling Natsuya Kirishima; he debuted in the Free Prequel (High Speed ⭐️ Starting Days)
“I love that scene in season three when he and Ikuya made up,” he told me. “It was so emotional to see that.” I completely understood what he was referring to. The race between family in the finale Episode 12 was really epic and heart warming at the end. I felt the need to tell him about the Free AMV I submitted to the AMV contest this year. He recommended that I tag him about the video on Twitter, because there wasn’t enough time. People were still in line behind me. He shook my hand with a smile and finished signing the Natsuya poster. Because of that, I had an idea to share my (relevant) videos with the VAs. It wasn’t to brag, I only wanted to because they enjoy anything that has to do with their jobs!
By noon time, the building was even more crowded… and I was getting hungry. As I knew I couldn’t get food for myself in the convention center, we all had to search outdoors again. The temperate in New York City was 48 Fahrenheit, and the breeze made it feel even chillier. It only took 10 minutes to find a gluten-free restaurant, but the wait was double that. I won’t name the restaurant here for their sake, but the service was bad. However, the food really made up for it. I ordered a (huge) grilled salmon with mashed potatoes on the side. My family and I arrived back into the building, having to go through a second bag check. It was 2:39 PM. I wanted to see more of the convention guests!
The line to meet Max was one of the longest. I got tired from standing up, and my legs were aching. I needed to sit down occasionally. He seemed to take time to interact with everyone, therefore the wait time was more than 1-and-a-half hour. I was very shy when it was my turn to talk, and we talked about OPM for a little while. You see, I introduced the show to my mom, we bought the DVD (but it took a quite some time to get used to it). Max Mittelman thanked us for being such supportive fans. I noticed that he voiced Arima in Your Lie In April. Coincidentally, I made an AMV for it. Time was almost running out, so I asked him if he would be interested in me tweeting him about my AMV; he gave the okay. I was so happy that I was shaking!
The anime NYC app (accessed through a QR) said there was a mini Kinokuniya shop somewhere, the map was sort of vague about the location. I found it on the left of the multiple garage-sized rooms. I passed by a tall mecha character that moves, a DJ table blasting music from its large speakers, and even 2 rad spray painted cars (with Hatsune Miku on one of them)! The Kinokuniya stall was basically rows of tables with select manga they brought over from the main NYC store. I, of course, wanted to check it out! A “Complete Haikyuu Illustration Book” inevitably caught my eye. The pages were filled with concept art and cool drawings like Hinata Shoyo with his own cape and crown (and the everyone after timeskip). My second day in Anime NYC was much better than the day before. As I snuggled up under the covers, one thing remained on my mind as I drifted to sleep. “I can’t believe it’s almost over.”
DAY 3:
On the last day of anime NYC, there were not nearly as many people as in the previous days. I remembered my bracelet so there was no need to wait as long. Still, a lot of panels were going on in so many different places and so many stores were open that I almost couldn’t decide on what to do first! There were a few more guests that I hadn’t met yet, so that’s what I chose to do before anything else. Because I could imagine how tiring it must be for a famous person to talk to thousands of their followers in a single weekend. Unfortunately, I had to wait three days to meet Zeno Robinson (Goh from Pokémon Journeys and Hawks from BNHA) because the volunteers had to cut off the line each time. One of them suggested I should come to the convention earlier in the morning if I don’t want to miss out on an autograph.
I’m usually a sleepyhead, but I managed to get up early enough. My family and I had to wait more an hour for a turn to see Zeno. Quite a few bizarre occasions happened during my wait. Let me tell you about the highlights. A person in front of me happened to turn around, seeing a cosplayer dressed up as Hawks from BNHA. The girl gave him a compliment, and asked for permission to get a photo; he complied. Another Hawks came strolling on by, and the girl asked to get a photo of both of them. Another Hawks came strolling on by, and the girl got a photo of 3 Hawks pointing at each other. Truly and epic anime showdown for the ages.
The three Hawks we’re ready to go their separate ways when another Hawks came strolling on by. That made 4 Hawks pointing at each other. THEN guess what? Another Hawks noticed what was going on, and asked to be in a photo with the other four. They were all laughing really hard. I tried my best not to grin. After all that excitement about Hawks, something sort of unexpected happened. A large group of guys were apparently listening to music on a Bluetooth speaker, and started howling along with a rap song at the top of their lungs… chanting only a small part of the song, many times in the course of 30 minutes. Though nobody called the group out, I could see everyone (within earshot) getting super annoyed. “You already got the right beat. You’ve been doing this like 10 times already.” The girl in front of me muttered, rolling her eyes. Her friend laughed. Once again, I tried not to grin.
Currently, my most popular YouTube video is a Pokémon Journeys AMV to the song “Confident” by Demi Lovato. I wanted to see if Zeno Robinson was interested in seeing that content. He honored me, signing our posters while the video was playing… but without actually watching. Not exactly what I expected would happen, but it didn’t bother me too much. Noon time came quickly. Me and my family headed out to a gluten-free pizza place. It was a bit too crunchy for my liking, but the service was surprisingly great! On the way back, some workers set up 2 tables outside the restaurant they worked in, handing out free waters. I was grateful, people like that are very rare in this world, so it’s wholesome when you come across.
My family was worried that the English Dub guests would go leave the convention early on the last day, so I had to skip out on both Belle and Pompo-San the Cinephile; only 1,000 people were allowed in the pre-screening room. It was very disappointing because I didn’t get to see either movie, but I personally believed that autographs were more valuable. I got in line to see the much talented rising star Zach Aguilar! The line to see him was the longest, possibly because of his role as Tanjirou Kamado. I’ve never seen Kimetsu no Yaiba as of yet, so I didn’t have any video to show him. I got closer to the table, and saw that his (paid) voiced line offer is no longer available to us.
The first thing I talked to him about is his work in OPM, and we all agreed that Genos is awesome. Even though the voiced line offer wasn’t available anymore, he used his Genos voice to say “INCINERATE”. He told me his favorite scene was the 5-minute long discussion about his backstory in Season 1. I laughed. Before we had to go, my mom mentioned that she started to watch Demon Slayer, and really likes the anime. I checked the time. It was getting to be very late at night, and the sun was setting. Me and the rest of my family all agreed to call it a day.
CONCLUSION:
Things may have started off really rough… and I missed all the panels (and the 2 movies) I wanted to see. It was also frustrating not to be able to find gluten-free food more easily. But thanks to the wonderful and kind special guests I met at Jatvis Convention Hall last weekend, all of the negative memories I gained there sort of washed away. This once-in-a-lifetime experience was what I needed to remember that there is still enjoyment in this world (despite the pandemic). I am very glad I went to 2021’s anime NYC, and I know for sure you’ll see me trying for the winning bracket next year.
