Good morning my friends, its time to start delivering all of the awesome sights and scenes that I got to see up close and in person at the currently running Anime NYC convention for 2023. As you are reading this, I can tell you that the convention is now on its third day. I can also tell you that right now I am deep down underground on the MTA heading back to the action. I’ve been attending this convention since its debut in 2017 and have always been doing so as a member of the media which makes a lot of the tasks of the adventure a lot easier. These days everyone wants in to such events which means creators like myself have to push the envelope further. Now before I begin with the core of this post, I am going to suggest that you click HERE and maybe even bookmark it on your browser. Doing this will open up a new tab that is dedicated to any of the posts I make that refer to the event. Since I’m only just starting the main coverage there aren’t too many posts to see yet but I do have to start somewhere. Let’s kick this off with a visual of the press badge which looks very cool with the conventions mascot “Alice”.

So one of the things that I’ve been enjoying doing for the last few months are these brief “arrival videos” and they are generally under one minute long. As you might already know, PiercingMetal is using ALL of the social media profiles that it can handle to strengthen the brand but with these convention pieces I share the YouTube Short. We hope that you click through to the Channel with this and lend it some love. My closing notes way down below will list all of the networks that we hope you will come over and participate on.

This cool setup is a great photo op for attendees. You can get inside the frame and be part of the action with Alice.

The crowd is lined up and ready to get in. Fortunately for those in the long queue, it was not as cold as it was last year. That was also a logistical nightmare with attendees being let in far too slowly and finding some heading home even before getting in to enjoy the event they had paid for. A nightmare for sure. This time seemed to be much more organized.

By now, the visitors of the website know full well how I do conventions and a big part of our photographic adventuring is done by celebrating the awesome cosplayers that we meet. So I am still a novice in the Anime/Manga world because I didn’t grow up on it and know more about the kind of characters one sees at the New York Comic Con. Shameless plug, that coverage can be found by clicking HERE.

I do joke with cosplayers like this Harley Quinn and ask if they are lost and attended the wrong convention. It always gets a laugh. Well, usually at least ;p

The show floor wasn’t open yet so I took some look around the space for signage and the like. I was disappointed to learn that for the second year in a row that no opening ceremony would be done. I had been recording that for the YouTube Channel and really miss having this content for those who are too far away to attend but really wish to absorb as much as possible.

Another interesting aspect for this years Anime NYC was the fact that Crunchyroll was not going to be on the main floor as they had done in the past. This year they would take over the entire River Pavilion, which is upstairs. They had a massive stage and activations along with a slew of special happenings and vendors. This is the Crunchyroll mascot brought to statuesque life. She is called Crunchyroll-Hime or just Hime.

It was early enough for me to take a look into the “Jujutsu Kaisen” experience and record a video. That will be on the YouTube and I might even put all the videos I recorded into website posts because that will help both sides of our creative fence.

Directly opposite was a merchandise area and all sorts of exclusives. Let’s take a look.

These are the exclusive Figpin releases. I love Figpin but only have a few of them at the moment. They have so many licenses of superhero stuff and a lot of Anime characters. The ones I have are KISS and the David Bowie. I know my having something related to KISS surprises no one.

These next few photos were installations that let you participate and win some cool prizes. I didn’t try any of them since I would have failed straightaway based on my limited background on this stuff. Cool idea though.

The Crunchyroll Stage was awesome and they had a lot of seats for fans to enjoy the offerings. I don’t generally sit through panels based on my needing to do it all but it was going to get crazy over these three days for sure.

They had a cool Swag station and “swag” means “stuff we all get” apparently. I never knew that by the way. I got a couple of cool bags to give to friends and some pins and stickers. The stickers I give to friends kids but the pins I generally keep.

Back to the cosplayer adventuring.

It’s not an Anime convention without an awesome Pikachu running around.

This looked heavy and I asked the mysterious cosplayer if he was comfortable and actually saw me and he replied “Yes”. At least someone found a use for those old monitors.

The folks at HiDive had a nice pavilion with this photo op as well. The cosplayers were stopping to pose inside but I waited until they were done to get a shot of my own.

So this is Namiji Freesia and she lives in the digital space on that there YouTube. This booth had a number of similar players talking to fans at the show. I scanned Nami’s code to know who she was and it was interesting.

This is artist Acky Bright who is deeply immersed in the work he is doing during the show. I’ll be popping by a few times to see how the art is coming out and likely will include the finalized piece in one of our posts. Not sure I will get to talk to him but I can try.

More awesome cosplayers. Everyone does such a great job at this stuff. I am happy to include them in my posts.

That’s going to bring me to the end of this first installment in a line of many more to come. As a lot of the regulars know, I tend to pause each chapter after the fiftieth image and since we’ve arrived here its time to say see you next time. Tomorrow I will pick up from where I left off and while you wait you can use the time to leave a topical comment down below and also make sure that you are following us on our social media platforms. Today its a numbers game in the media world and I not only have to content with competitors but every kind of influencer as well. Sound the charge on these links below because I want to know your out there. The PiercingMetal site is very active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. By engaging with us on them we know that you are out there and that we should keep on pushing the entertainment in your direction. I hope that you enjoyed our launch of the official Anime NYC coverage. Until tomorrow then? Thanks for reading, see you then.

Official Links:
Anime NYC: http://www.animenyc.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/animenyc
Leftfield Media: http://www.leftfieldmedia.com