Last week was Anime NYC once again. Wait, didn't I go back in November? Yes. Yes, I did. For whatever reason, it's moved to August.
While I had a good time, I feel like it would've been better. Maybe I'm old and barely recognize half of what's popular these days. I know nothing of Hololive, or Genshin Impact, or JJK, or Honkai Star Rail.
And because of the date change, there were about a dozen other cons happening that same weekend so a lot of the usual panels or voice actor guests were scattered across the country.
Who DID show up though was the cast of Critical Role. Well, I barely know what THAT is, but it's made up of voice actors that play DnD and I know them from just about anything OTHER than what they were there for.
Take for one, Ashley Johnson.
She was the voice of, among others, Terra from Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go, Teenage Gwen from Ben 10, Tulip from Infinity Train, Ellie from The Last of Us, and how I know her best, Gretchen from Recess.
For some odd reason, it had a crossover with the Lilo & Stitch cartoon five years after it ended. Even she didn't remember it happening, and the episode mostly focused around her.
And then Laura Bailey, the voice of Maka from Soul Eater.
And then for the non-Critical Role people, I managed to catch Abby Trott, the voice of Nezuko from Demon Slayer, among other roles. She was there to promote the Dan Da Dan anime (a VERY strange manga and anime with great art), and I wasn't even expecting her signing to be open to non-lottery people.
And then there was Aleks Le, the voice of Zenitsu in Demon Slayer.
I was warned that he was the friendly and chatty type, and he certainly was. This was why his line took FOUR HOURS to get through. Seriously, I didn't even wait for Stan Lee that long, and that's even with him taking breaks every half hour because he was in his 90s.
I got my money's worth out of it, though, and it now stands as one of my favorite things I ever got signed.
And now a photodump of highlights over the weekend:
And a highlight of stuff I bought:
The artists alley is where it's at here. There were 530 tables this year, and I must have bought something from...thirty of them? It ranged from the gamut to all things anime, but just about everyone had something from Delicious in Dungeon, Frieren, Chainsaw Man, Spy x Family, JJK, and Genshin.
My wallet could only take so much and it hates that this is now BEFORE NY Comic Con instead of after. Walton Goggins ain't cheap, and funds went to this in the meantime.
