The Anime NYC convention returned for its fifth show during the weekend of November 18-20, 2022 in New York City. After years of ups and downs in how things are run, ANYC once again made some big changes this year in attempts to address the issues from the previous year. Some worked well, some not so much. Overall the convention this year was run better than last year although there are still some question marks that blur the overall experience.

Forty-six thousand people. That was how many otakus crammed themselves into the Javits Center in New York City last weekend at the Anime NYC 2019 anime convention that ran from November 15-17, 2019. The 46,000 number should move Anime NYC to the #2 spot as the second largest anime convention in North America. That’s quite amazing considering that this convention is only in its third year. ANYC started off with 20,000 people in its first year (hard-capped), grew to 36,000 last year, and now added another ten thousand this year. That is just remarkable and goes to show that if you build a convention and do it right then people will surely come.

Anime NYC held its second ever anime convention in New York City this weekend from November 16-18, 2018. They built on last year’s wild success of 20,000 attendees to reach 30,000+ attendees this year. This increase definitely showed as the convention floor was much more crowded than it was last year. Anime NYC definitely has much more room and potential for growth as they still only inhabit one end of the Javits Convention Center.