AnimeNEXT 2018 Cosplay Gallery, Friday Part 1

AnimeNEXT returned to the Atlantic City Convention Center on the second weekend of June this year, for its 17th edition of the convention, and 3rd year in Atlantic City, NJ. The long-running convention, which was previously held at the Meadowlands Exposition Center and the Garden State Exhibit Center (which is no longer in operation), has drawn thousands of fans of anime, manga, cosplay, and other Japanese and pop culture over the years.

The convention has found a great home in the Atlantic City Convention Center. The venue, which is among the largest of its kind in the Mid-Atlantic, has more than sufficient space to house everyone attending, and has plenty of room to accommodate many more people, should the convention continue to grow in size.

Fans traveling to the convention have a number of options on how to get there. The Atlantic City Convention Center is located within a few hours’ drive of nearly one third of the nation’s population, and has a large parking lot at the venue, so attendees will not have to worry about a long walk from an off-site parking garage. The NJ Transit Rail Terminal, which connects Atlantic City to Philadelphia, is conveniently located within the convention center. AnimeNEXT also provides a Jitney service which runs between the convention center and a number of hotels in the city.

AnimeNEXT featured a huge number of panels with a wide variety of topics over the course of its three-day convention. Panels that covered interests including anime, manga, movies, fashion, cosplay, and much more ran all the way up until around 2 a.m. on the first two days of the convention, and about 5 p.m. on the final day. The convention center has dozens of rooms across its four floors, which makes it possible for numerous panels to be held at the same time.

One of the main events at AnimeNEXT was a concert on Saturday night held by Japanese rock band ALL OFF. The band, formed in Tokyo in 2004 by singer so-hey and guitarist Yukio, is perhaps best known by fans in the United States for playing the opening and ending themes for Japanese anime such as Heavy Object and Mob Psycho 100. The band thrilled the large crowd in attendance with their songs including In Shadows, One More Chance!!, Young Hearts, and Refrain Boy.

The convention also featured rooms dedicated to both tabletop and video gaming. Fans of tabletop gaming enjoyed such games as Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Final Fantasy TCG. United Gaming League hosted video game tournaments in a number of popular titles including Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Tekken 7.

AnimeNEXT also hosted a number of voice actors for fans to meet and greet during the convention. Just a few of those in attendance included Katelyn Barr, Johnny Yong Bosch, Caitlynn French, and Kyle McCarley.

The lineup of entertainment offered by AnimeNEXT was so vast that I could not possibly go into any depth about everything there. A costume formal, masquerade, fashion show, LARP, karaoke, and a hall costume contest were just a few of the other things available to attendees to enjoy and participate in this year.

AnimeNEXT was the first anime convention I ever covered for Nerd Caliber, and is one that will always have a special place in my heart. It is one of my favorite conventions, and one I look forward to covering for many years to come. The event organizers have extended their contract with the convention center all the way up until 2022, so it will remain in Atlantic City for at least the next four years. AnimeNEXT will return to the Atlantic City Convention Center June 7-9, 2019.

Cosplayers in this gallery include Miss Hyde Cosplay, HanniBanani Cosplay, Grainne Sea Cosplay, AlliZ Cosplay, Mai Tan Cosplay, Mandycake Cosplay, Closet Chloe, Cat Cassidy Cosplay, ManaKnight Cosplay, marykate_lively, asc_jkenn, and many more.

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