Anime NYC 2024 Gallery & Writeup Part 2

In my first article on Anime NYC 2024, I mentioned that there were some big changes in place for this year’s convention. Now that the convention has passed and the dust has settled, let’s take a closer look at some of these changes, and the reception attendees had to them.

I’ll start off with a change that seemed to go under most people’s radar, as I didn’t see much discussion regarding it. The hours for the main exhibit hall were 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, the first day of the convention. Last year, the hours were 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., so that amounts to an increase of two hours this year. In recent years, I’ve seen a number of conventions begin later and later on Fridays, with 1-2 p.m. becoming the norm. It’s great to see Anime NYC bucking the trend of kicking off a convention with an abbreviated day, and this is one change that I think most if not all attendees would agree is a positive one.

The move to August dates was one of the biggest and most talked about changes to the convention since the dates were announced last year. Moving from the end of fall to the end of summer is a fairly large jump when it comes to the potential weather during the convention, and some people had concerns regarding that when this change was announced. Would the Javits’s air conditioning work adequately on a summer day, with tens of thousands of people in attendance?

The weather in New York City ended up being about average for the time of year, with highs in the low to mid 80s. I took numerous temperature readings inside various areas of the building on Friday afternoon (yes, I did bring a digital thermometer to the convention, because I’m a VERY SERIOUS JOURNALIST) to see how hot (or not) the venue actually got.

The Crystal Palace did get pretty warm, as I measured temperatures around 80 degrees in that area. That was close to the temperature outside the building, which didn’t come as a surprise. With its high ceilings and vast square footage, there’s really no feasible way to control the temperature in the Crystal Palace.

I also logged the temperature in several other areas in the convention center that were actually air-conditioned, including the River Pavilion, the Gaming Hall, and the dealer’s room/artist alley area on the third floor. The temperature was around 70-73 degrees in these areas. Considering those readings, I would say the Javits’s air conditioning was working sufficiently during the convention.

With that said, the reception to the date change was definitely mixed. Some attendees mentioned that the summer is packed with conventions, as there were other smaller conventions happening on the same date, and large ones in the weeks before and after Anime NYC. Others mentioned that they still felt hot in the venue, despite the air conditioning.

Personally, the time of year change gets a big thumbs up from me, but I definitely must acknowledge there is no consensus among other attendees regarding this. I will say that in the event that there is an end of summer heat wave during the convention dates, that could be a concern. I would urge cosplayers to pay close attention to the weather forecast, and in the event that temperatures do get abnormally high, it might be a good idea to reconsider armor or any other sort of generally heavy cosplays.

The expansion of the convention into the full main building of the Javits was perhaps the biggest change this year. While more space can definitely be a very good thing, you know the old adage; it’s not the size, but how you use it. This brings us to what probably is the subject of the most criticism of this year’s event. There were a couple of areas where attendees complained of overcrowding in particular, despite the additional square footage utilized this year.

The main expo halls on the third floor of the Javits were home to both the dealer’s room and artist alley this year. Having both of these in one big area was perhaps the most common complaint I heard after the convention. This area got quite crowded in some places and became difficult to navigate. Many attendees suggested that the artist alley be located in an area by itself, as it had been in years past.

The River Pavilion, home of “Destination Cosplay,” was another area that was bursting at the seams at times. In particular, the cosplay meetups being held in this area is what contributed to the overcrowding. The area is large enough to host a couple of relatively small meetups at the same time, but when a meetup for one of the larger fandoms was held there, the River Pavilion became absolutely jam-packed with cosplayers. I believe there is some space on this level of the venue that is wasted, so it may be able to house two meetups simultaneously if some things are shuffled around. Otherwise, it may be wise to move one or both of the meetup locations to another area of the venue in the future.

With all that said, I give high marks overall to Anime NYC 2024. Both the quantity and quality of cosplay was simply outstanding. When it comes to the time of year that it is held, I don’t believe there can be any consensus on what is ideal. It’s simply a matter of opinion. In regard to the overcrowding in some areas, most attendees found it to still be manageable, so I don’t think it ruined anyone’s experience.

The most important thing for convention management to focus on next year is better utilizing the space available. As the convention will likely continue to grow, there is the potential for overcrowding to grow from manageable to overwhelming. I would assume we’re probably a few years away from Anime NYC using the recent addition made to the Javits Center, and in the meantime, they need to use the current space they have as efficiently as possible.

Anime NYC will return to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center once again next summer on August 22-24, 2025.

Cosplayers in this final Anime NYC 2024 gallery include books.n.bats, milo_cosplay1, cherrrished, aixngel, pixelghosts, divinelykylie, giraffe.xx, sintron84, kiasangriany, angelfoxcos, artsy_olive, rayvenn.the.goddess, earthtotorii, its_achilles__, _nadiangel, _bree.cosplays, rexa_cosplay, lazarov_georgi, and many more.

We now use Smugmug to present cosplay photo galleries and will post all photos there, with a link to each gallery in its own gallery article. This will allow us to give you higher resolution images to download — still for free.

To view the entire gallery, just click on the image below. If you are pictured in any of our galleries, feel free to download the images and use them non-commercially on social media, with appropriate credit.

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