ANIMENYC. That’s it. That’s the title.
Anime. A Japanese animated film or tv show. Not something you would expect to be discussed on a site dedicated to Korea and everything Korean. We hear you.
So then why did we go to AnimeNYC powered by Crunchyroll?
Solid question.
We’ve discussed many times, mostly via our Instagram, our love of otome games. These visual, choose your path, romance novels make our hearts go pitter patter on the daily. We aren’t exaggerating. We read them daily. Between the romantic prose and the pretty, sexy, dreamy art we are constantly inspired for our own stories for this site.
They’re predominantly made in Japan.
Are you starting to put together how we ended up at AnimeNYC?
Lindsay, who helps us out with the site, is the biggest Anime fan we know. When we received information that the Javits Center was hosting this year’s AnimeNYC we applied for the press simply to have an awesome birthday gift for our girl. (Which everyone go follow @fashioningcosplay on insta to show her some happy birthday love!)
But, when we got the extremely long list of exhibitioners, we noticed two names that had us squealing like the crazy fangirls we are. Voltage Inc. and Cheritz had their licensed sellers with booths at the exhibition area.
D-E-A-D. DEAD.
Cheritz is actually the one Korean otome game we know of and have played. Jumin being our major bias and Seven as the bias wrecker. We played and have spent a pretty penny on the game. And hearing the sultry voices when our ‘phone’ rang in the game? OOF! (If there are more Korean otome games, PLEASE send them our way! We love spending money on hot 2D boys)
Now to get back on track. We packed our bags, saved our paychecks and headed to the Big Apple for a convention that we had no clue what we were getting ourselves into.
K-Con NY, take notes.
AnimeNYC is, by far, the best convention/expo we have ever been to. Besides having the large anime, game, and toy company booths, including the ones dedicated to our favorite otome games, they had hundreds of stand alone artists who took the characters we know and love and turned them into whatever they wanted. Whether it was simply drawing them in more modern clothing, or giving them cute little cat ears, or going the extreme route and making art for the 18 and older crowd, they created posters, keychains, postcards, and so much more. What impressed us the most was the artists that created anime characters out of K-pop groups we all admire. BTS, MonstaX, EXO, you name it.
All the Multi love at this booth 
Mystic Messenger 
BTS art 
BTS inspired Jewelry 
More BTS fan art 
A massive booth of kpop albums and posters 
Sammie’s glass case of joy. 
Go Go Curry with Jumin Bae 
There is apparently a Idol anime…Lindsay and I plan on enjoying fully.
These artists were, at least to us, the highlight of the event, because they were just like us. Fans showing their love and appreciation through their creative outlet.
Our second favorite aspect was the street clothes. Next to Sammie blowing her money on her otome game merch, she blew the other half of her paycheck on the clothing. Brands we had never heard of, but are glad we do now, came with clothes that we could see anyone rocking. But most importantly we could see K-pop idols performing in, showing up to the airport in, and even just wearing in their day to day lives filming a live insta or Vlive video. Or K-drama actors wearing them to press events, or in the dramas, or similarly at the airport or on a live insta video.
Crazy thing was, several of the brands had Korean influence. 소주 bottles on shorts and t-shirts, 메론바 (maelonba – melon bar) on hats, even a fashion line with a bag quoting BTS’s famous “Mic Drop” line, “Did you see my bag?” These brands mixed the many amazing Asian street clothes cultures and we were, and still are, here for it.
Wooji used this soju bottle print as both this shirt and shorts 
Is this not a bag you would see an idol wearing to hold their passport at the airport? Four Eyes clothing came to kill! 
Not only was Moonstruck’s owner sweet, peep that bag at the bottom left of the photo 
Bought the jacket and hoodie got the bag and beanie free from Valeza 
Bibi Sama astro boy bomber jacket. 
Saju threw an alcohol party on a shirt and soju was invited 
Kinfold had hats with korean food and frink
There is so much to talk about and not enough reader attention span to fit it all in. To sum up the rest of the three day, yes THREE DAY, event, there was a lot of yaoi to keep our BL hearts thoroughly satisfied, new anime releases we are set to actually watch and learn more about, new games being released, and amazing cosplay everywhere we turned that blew our minds with how much work these people put into the outfits. We were so happy to be a part of this amazing event and it opened our eyes to what conventions should be. Now all we have to do is wait until AnimeNYC 2020!
