I attended AnimeNYC 2021! Some thoughts:

• Panels weren’t so interesting this year either, except for the Anime News Network one. Most of the rest were still industry advertisements.
• The Saturday daytime films this year were Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish which I’ve already seen and a set of Love Live!! concert films which required a separate ticket, so unlike the previous two conventions, we unfortunately didn’t get a yuri film.
• The convention got more indoor space this year, allowing them to space things out better and provide more space for food vendors.
• As with the last two conventions, they had lots of arcade machines set up; they also had itasha (wrapped cars) with…questionable pictures.
• Unfortunately, they didn’t have any Miku arcade machines. Or much Miku merch in general, sadly.

• By far the winner this year was Genshin Impact, with a large banner, one of the most crowded booths, and fanart all over the place. Their merchandise unfortunately got held up in customs, but that wasn’t enough to stop all the fans lining up to get their hands on whatever they could.

  

  There were life-size stands of the Love Live! Sunshine!! cast—should’ve gotten a photo with them. (Whoops, same problem as last year.)

  

• I got to watch Pompo: The Cinéphile early! I came in with not much in terms of expectations, but the film actually ended up being quite fun. I did not get to catch Belle, but that’s OK as I’ve already seen it at NYFF 2021.
• The lines to get in weren’t managed too well; but given COVID19 and the number of people attending, it didn’t end up too bad—just long waits.

Other reports:

• Okazu