BY CHARLI BATTERSBY | In years past, New York’s anime conventions had to tiptoe around the behemoth of New York Comic Con (NYCC). Anime NYC usually arrived in November, scavenging the nerd carcasses after NYCC had eaten the lion’s share of geeky wallets. But this year, Anime NYC dared to take the first bite from the otaku’s bento box, by staking its claim on the Javits Center from August 23 to 25.

While anime can be found on any streaming platform, Sony now owns Funimation, Crunchyroll, and Aniplex. In a sense, that turns much of the programming at any anime con into a promo for Sony. But Hulu (a subsidiary of Disney) is trying to grab a slice of this sushi with the “Animayhem” line of programming (Which is mostly Fox primetime animated shows). They were giving away glasses of bubble tea to fans who gathered around a monolithic Animayhem booth in the main lobby of Anime NYC.

But there were some notable scoops by Netflix. Of particular importance is the long-overdue reboot of the Ranma 1/2 series. This venerable anime series combined martial arts with romantic comedy, and also told a whole generation of transgender anime fans that they weren’t alone. The original series ended in the early ‘90s, and the trailer for the new series begins with Ranma saying, “Sorry for the wait.”

There weren’t many Ranma cosplayers at Anime NYC this year (just you wait until next year after the new episodes are out), but cosplay is still a major activity for attendees. The fourth floor of the convention center was dedicated to cosplay, with photogenic backdrops for pics, a changing area, and a large lounge just for cosplayers. There was also a cosplay repair station, which seems to get more elaborate each year.

The show floor was full of vendors selling toys and apparel, rather than the noisy promotional booths for movies and streaming shows that are usually seen at Comic Con. This makes Anime NYC a comparatively serene experience. Ample floor space was given to the Japanese food court this year as well, and there were plenty of tables for enjoying Japanese comfort food—although it was hard to distinguish between cosplayers dressed as maids, and actual waitresses (our reporter is inclined to believe they were all cosplayers).

This year’s Anime NYC combined its efforts with several small video game conventions, as well as expanding the tabletop gaming and Role Playing Game programming. Part of the new gaming area was taken up by Defend The North, a game con which is dedicated to head-to-head fighting games like Street Fighter. They call themselves “NYC’s premier #1 fighting game tournament.” The 10th anniversary of this event was held in early August, but a mini-tournament was done at Anime NYC. It’s not hard to see the crossover with anime fans: There have been endless manga and anime adaptations of Street Fighter over the franchise’s three decades, and the same is true of many other fighting games.

As with previous years, fans could play, free of charge, on Japanese arcade cabinets via Psychic Drive Arcade. As always, players were clustered around these rare arcade-only machines for a unique experience that can’t be found on home consoles.

The Misty Mountain Gaming company makes accessories for tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons, and they had three separate booths this year. Tabletop gaming has a very strong crossover with anime, thanks to the Critical Roll webseries. In Critical Roll, famous voice actors play D&D. Being voice actors, they use their specialized talents to bring the game to life in a silly, flamboyant style. Misty Mountain Gaming sponsored the adorable “Puppy Roll” episode of Critical Roll, in which the actors have a dog-themed adventure through the “Magical land of Doggo.” Misty Mountain even makes dice with little paw prints on them.

The local “Board Game Cafe” Hex&Co. took up much of the gaming area as well. They have several brick & mortar locations in New York, including a Union Square shop. We spoke with the general manager for Hex&Co. about their tabletop gaming events during the weekend. He told us that Anime NYC “specifically wanted games representation.” Hex&Co. was running Anime NYC’s first official Trading Card Game tournaments, and anime fans were drawn in by card game adaptation of their favorite shows. These anime-themed games overshadowed the bigger fantasy franchises at the con. According to Hex&CO., “One Piece has been a little more popular than Magic the Gathering here. No one is surprised, One Piece is one of the biggest franchises in the world.”

People who missed the con can have a look in person at some of the anime tabletop gaming events at the Hex&Co. shop at Union Square, or their other cafes around the city.

Although Japanese comic books have been outselling American superhero comics for years, anime cons have still struggled to fill up the Jacob Javits Center the way that New York Comic Con does. Anime NYC’s attendance was up to 100,000 attendees this year (compared to last year’s 65,000). It seems clear that the emphasis on gaming helped draw in crowds. New York’s major gaming convention, Games for Change, focuses on games with social and artistic merit rather than crowd-pleasers, so this blend of anime and games is hitting a sweet spot with fans. The change in timing from November to the end of summer also seems to have been a good choice. Anime NYC is already scheduled to return next August.

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