My first time at a huge convention like Anime NYC, I can say with certainty that it is and was an experience I will never forget. I am not one for taking pictures, but I am confident that my words can briefly explain my excitements and concerns for any of my future con endeavors.

Starting off with the good things, though I have never been to Javits, the center was beautifully draped (yes draped) in Fate/ Stay specials. So much so I wanted to watch and play at the same time. The Artist and Dealer Galleries were right next to each other so everything was easily accessed and a safe enough distance to the panel rooms.

Even though I had a schedule set, it did not matter as the amount of events that happened were so overwhelmingly close. Seeing Inagaki and Boichi sensei was both inspirational and entertaining. Meeting the crew behind Get In The Robot, Tim Lyu, Yung-I of Y. Chang, Sloan the Female Otaku, and that entire crowd was the most I’d laughed in months.

Given my run with anxiety, I am genuinely surprised I did not have to take any medication with the amount of people that were there. It warmed my heart and filled me with terror all at the same time. Even in brief passing, you wouldn’t know this was the third anniversary with it’s huge turn out. In the future, I hope they will have even a little gap between panels. Even if I stayed for three days, jumping from panel, meet and greets, and trying to buy merch all at once was quite tedious; but this was a learning experience!

With that being said, the amount of people was so much that you had to squeeze to get through anything – especially when the Fate and Naruto panels started forming (I WISH I had a photo of that. It was AMAZINGLY ridiculous).

At the end of it all, I was inspired and I learned a lot more than I would about myself and about anime conventions. For one, I need to bring at least two grand to SPEND. There was so much I left behind that I wish I would have bought!