The Conventions of 2024: Part 5: AnimeNJ++ and Festival of Games

Well, it’s all come to this: the finale. The last conventions of the year. Did this year go out with a bang, or with a whimper? Well, read on to find out.

As you’ve noticed through these blogposts, 2024 ended up being one of the busiest times of my life. I would inject three more big events into my usual schedule to fill gaps caused by two big shakeups from the prior year: the cancelation and likely permanent shafting of AnimeNext resulting in Brooklyn Comic Con joining the schedule, as well as the moving-up of AnimeNYC to August resulting in both DerpyCon and today’s focus, AnimeNJ++, becoming the year’s final events. AnimeNJ++ is a convention that was founded in 2023, aiming to bring a new signature anime convention to New Jersey after AnimeNext crashed and burned during lockdown and then had a poor showing at 2023 filled with many misfires and unfortunate design decision. Since I remember only very little of AnimeNext 2023, I’ll just give you last year’s recap for the sake of trimming down an already lengthy blogpost. But nonetheless, New Jersey was deserving of a new dedicated anime event to its name after AnimeNext went belly-up. And while much of Derpycon was focused around anime, it doesn’t consider itself a full-on anime event on the same caliber as Castle Point or AnimeNYC.

Part of my motivation for attending AnimeNJ++ was from the Youtube channel Bamboo Calculator, who posted a video that reviewed the event’s first ever show in 2023 with glowing praise. Seeing the review lit a fire in my mind and made me add the event to my schedule for 2024, slotting in several weeks after DerpyCon and the week before Thanksgiving weekend. Being in the middle of the route to DerpyCon also helped; literally just take a different route once you stepped into the state and presto, you were at the venue for this event: the Hilton Hasbrouck Heights. It was a wonderful little venue, and I mean that literally: It was probably around the same size as Derpycon’s venue, albeit with even less room in the main lobby and the hallways connecting each section together. Everything at AnimeNJ++ was spread across two floors: the lowest floor was home to the vendors and artists, plus gaming sections for both console gaming and tabletop gaming. Unsurprisingly, the video games at the event were 95% fighting games and they even ran full tournaments for some of the bigger titles like Smash Ultimate and Street Fighter 6. One of the panel rooms was also in the first level; the second floor and beyond would house the remaining panel rooms and a robust dining area. Since this was a hotel, I was able to chow down on a good restaurant-quality cheeseburger just as I did at Derpycon (though this time the burger was not completely charred). 

Further exploring the first floor, you’ll come across the Vendors’ Hall and Artists’ Alley, and boy was it more cramped than I would have expected. Of particular note was the area reserved for artists: While a few artists were allowed to table outside the main Artists’ Alley room, the actual Artists’ Alley itself had perhaps the thinnest isles ever confined to a convention’s artists’ alley. The two isles were only wide enough to have approximately 1.5x people walking through, and since the artists’ alley was designed like an oval, people had to make full counter-clockwise laps through the Artist’s Alley if they decided to venture through, as well as duck into the gaps in-between each booth if need be. When there weren’t many people inside, it was alright, but during peak hours midway through the day, trying to get through was almost impossible—both isles would get bottlenecked by attendees during peak hours in the middle of the day. As for the number of artists total, the number was comparable to Derpycon’s Artist’s Alley at around 25 boots total, most having either one or two people. Surprisingly, I would score a few commissions in this very small but memorable Artist’s Alley, although all but one of them would be forced to wait until after the event.

Outside the Artists’ Alley was a line of booths for cosplay guests and neighboring conventions, some of which I hung around with for a bit in-between my treks through the vendors and artists. Compared to the Artists’ Alley, the Vendors’ Hall was standard fare. Big wide isles with lots of anime-themed swag like books, DVD’s, and figures from Japan, anime-themed TCG’s, and toys from Tokusatsu shows. The one thing that stood out from other anime conventions’ Vendors’ Halls compared to this one was the inclusion of a R-18 section in the back corner. You had to possess a specific wristband to enter (which ran out mid-day) and it was all for a single booth selling DVD’s and two statues. As I’m not one to buy straight-up R-18 content as these shows, I only skimmed through whenever I dropped in… which wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things. 

One thing that was noticeable about the Vendors’ Hall was just how easy it was to meet with the professional voice actors invited to table at the event. There were no long and winding lines for each actor or black tarp separating them, and the lines that were there were very brief and did not last the whole day, compared to many bigger events in the tristate area with lots of celebrity guests. It was a very casual and stress-free experience with the four actors I took time to chat with, and I got some helpful advice and encouragement from them at the end of the day. For a convention only in its second year, there were quite a number of big names, but one particular guest would be the star of the event: Japanese rapper Lotus Juice, famous for his work on the Persona franchise and many of its vocal tracks. He would perform on the higher floors of the hotel on the first and second days and his table drew in the biggest line in the period he appeared in the guests’ corner of the Vendor’s Hall. His presence would also influence one other topic I didn’t bring up until now:

Yup, it’s time for some cosplays. The limited scale of the Hilton Hasbrouck Heights meant there weren’t as many cosplays as other events. Among the cosplays people brought to the show included a lot of the traditional sightings at most anime conventions: Lots of My Hero, some Jojo, a bit of One Piece, and some Final Fantasy here and there. The traditional MiHiYo franchise over-saturation of cosplays and artists didn’t seem to hit this event, and even modern Shonen franchises like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen didn’t have much presence here. Dandadan was making a small splash at AnimeNJ++, but its boom was too new to see a huge wave of cosplays storm the halls of the event. The most impressive and most surprising cosplays of the event were one person coming in as a whole Gundam just big enough to fit in the halls at the event, and another person that dressed up as, of all things, Balan from the Square Enix title Balan Wonderworld that crashed and burned in early 2021. It’s probably the only time I’ll see a Balance cosplay live and in person, but, wow, the cosplayer really committed to the bit (especially since the character design of Balan was one of the stronger aspects of the game in question). With all that said, one franchise would see a very surprising amount of representation all over the event, and you may have, err, seen it coming thanks to the event’s star guest…

Do you like Persona? If you answered yes (as I did), you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see that the Persona cosplays dominated the halls of the Hilton Hasbrouck Heights. While I was snapping cosplays at the event, I could have sworn I was having deja-vu as I ran into five Jokers, two Persona 3 Protagonists, two Goro Akechi, and several other party members across Persona 3 and 5. The deja-vu was so strong that I ended up snapping duplicate pics of at least two of the Jokers that I had to scrap from the final album. Truly, the presence of Lotus Juice did quite a number on the cosplays you could find at the event, and I don’t think we’ll ever see a huge surge of Persona cosplays like this at the bigger events for a long time.

In total, with all the duplicates removed, I snapped 100 cosplays at the event. However, Facebook falsely flagged one of the cosplays as I was uploading the gallery and forced me to delete it, leaving me with 99 total—the same total as DerpyCon last month. As usual, the full gallery can be found here on my Facebook.

With five commissions locked in and almost a hundred cosplay photos under my belt, by the end of the day there wasn’t much left to do. An announcement would be made and passed around towards the end of the day that the vendors and artists would have their closing times pushed from 6:00 PM to 6:30 PM, but right until the final moment I has assumed it was 7:00 PM. Thus, at around 6:20, I was forced to drastically speed up my goodbyes to the artists and ended up leaving the Artist’s Alley right as the clock ticked past 6:30. I attempted to go back in, but a guard blocked the way in and lacked any sympathy to my reasons why I would want to go back into the Vendors past closing time. Not wanting to risk serious drama or worse, I let the guard have his way and prematurely departed from the vendors’ section of the convention, not bothering to tell him things such as “Sir, I only go to these events for one day, do you not see the “Saturday” badge on my neck?”.

Feeling defeated and deflated, I simply left the venue, unable to converse further with the guard as he stood outside the entrance into the vendors area. The entire moment put a damper on what was otherwise a solid, if a bit cramped and overcrowded, event. It didn’t completely ruin AnimeNJ++ for me but I will not hide the fact that it led to the day ending in an anticlimactic twist rather than the satisfying conclusion that every other event would end with. My usual walk through what was left of the venue to reflect on how the day went, what activities I engaged in, and what people I met did not happen, as I was too shrouded in negative emotions to think straight. I didn’t consider unwinding at any of the late-night panels or the game room; I simply left and sat in my car for a few minutes in defeat before driving back home.

Putting the incident aside, AnimeNJ++ was a great event filled with all of the convention features you would expect and, from what I’ve seen online, a big improvement over 2023’s event. That said, there are still some growing pains to shed as the show transitions into future years, especially as it draws in more and more people from around New Jersey and the neighboring tri-state area each year. Not having to compete with AnimeNYC for attendance in the same timeframe is a big plus, as I myself would have not batted an eye at AnimeNJ++ this year if I still had AnimeNYC to focus on in the month of November. A venue change would probably be the only way I’d see the event further expanding out, allowing for even bigger vendor and artist sections, more guests, and a more comprehensive and easy to follow layout. The only thing that may suffer is the food at the venue—getting a good hotel quality burger and fries on-site is just not a thing in your typical convention center which only serve fast food-style grub for the most part.

And with that out of the way, it’s now time to talk about the Festival of Games… Wait, what’s that? It got canceled again?

Yeah, I saw it coming from a mile away and you all probably did too, but I didn’t think this event would be returning in any capacity and those thoughts turned correct once I got a conformation from two people I know that managed the event. It may have been possible in 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic and the small scale of the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo at the time, but after the Expo continued to get bigger, the chances of the Festival returning for another year became slim. I had a small ounce of hope the event would return this year especially with some optimistic words around this time last year. But as the year went on, I saw the writing on the wall that the event would very likely be canceled a second time, possibly for good. Anyone I would speak to about the event, from online to at other conventions, wasn’t very optimistic about the show returning. And indeed, there would be no announcements on any social media in the months leading up to what would likely be the show’s occurrence this year (December 14th).

With the event currently on indefinite hiatus, I decided towards the beginning of October to repurpose what would have been my coverage of the Festival into a hypothetical look on what the event could look like if it was given a facelift to allow it to stand out from its summer cousin. This facelift would serve to make the Festival of Games into an event that still features many, if not all, of the typical convention features for those that want a bit more gaming and shopping before the year ends and holiday fever takes over. Of course, this is all hypothetical, so do take it with a grain of salt, but I tried to present it in as realistic as an event like this would function.

• The event would have a scaled back budget and scope compared to the current state of the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo, close to LIRetro 2018 and 2019 before the event grew to cover the entire Cradle of Aviation. This would include taking place over only two days instead of the main show’s three, so vendors can keep their setups intact for more than a single day and get more value out of the event.
• In addition, It would allow vendors from LIRetro to return to sell more of their leftover wares, and some artists and comic authors from Cradle Con (another event hosted in the Cradle of Aviation, which I discussed in detail earlier this year in Part 2 of the convention coverages) and other local events would be invited to sell at the event and fill out the vendors.
• The event’s main focus would retain the focus on playing and shopping for games around the holidays, complete with holiday decor and festive music in the venue. It would promote a relaxing and fun-for-all atmosphere during what is otherwise a busy and stressful time of the year.
• The roster of staff managing the event and bringing in equipment would shift around from the main event, to allow a different core crew of staff to manage the event while the main crew recovers from the Retro Gaming Expo and plans for next year’s event.
• A variety of consoles and computers are set up on the second floor, each featuring some kind of game, romhack, or homebrew title on original hardware. Each game would be themed around the holiday season, or winter in general. Among the featured games is the 8-Bit Xmas series of NES homebrews, including the Christmas carols of ROB’s dancing to Christmas songs in front of a CRT as was featured at the event in 2022. The Hangar Arcade would also be available.
• Special guests would still attend the event for meet & greets and to sell their merchandise. 
• Panels and tournaments would still be present in some capacity. Each feature would be presented to complement the event’s holiday theming, such as a high score challenge for a Christmas game or a panel discussing holiday gaming memories or the most impactful Christmas gift.
• The event’s Cosplay Contest would be winter and holiday-themed, tying into the event’s overarching holiday theming.
• Food trucks and food stands could still be present in front of the venue’s entrance, preferably those that would serve warmer foods and other treats associated with the holidays (including hot chocolate!).

That surprisingly took a bit more time to think about than I had expected, considering I’ve never organized an event and am only going off of what other events of this scale and budget have featured in their lineup of activities. In the end, what I decided to go with was a scaled-down Retro Gaming Expo with a bit more of a holiday flavor, which is what I assume would be the most realistic direction to take the Festival of Games.

After eight months of touring the tristate area for new experiences, we’ve finally reached the end of our journey through the conventions of 2024. Overall, I quite enjoyed this year and there was quite some variety in the locales we visited. We toured a library, an aviation museum, an athletic arena, NYC’s signature convention center (twice!), and several hotels in New Jersey. I saw many friends and artists I recognized from prior events, met new creators that specialized in creating different types of content, and I was able to commission a wide variety of artists for artwork featuring the vast and diverse cast of Aozora’s Adventure. My love for exploring and going out to these places fueled these blog posts looking into each convention and analyzing them, especially as a way of archiving the good memories of each event and giving insight on how these events could improve. But like all things, everything must come to an end and I go on my four-month hiatus from attending events to celebrate the holidays, catch up with projects, and plan for next year.

But before we get to discussing what next year will be like, let’s take one long look back at this year’s round-up of events I attended, and review my thoughts on each one.

• As small as EMCon is, it’s still a fun and charming event with many people to socialize with and it gets bonus points for being the only event I attend that’s free. It is unfortunately held back by its commitment to a library, which forces its family-friendly atmosphere and limited number of vendors. It still manages to fit a number of features under the hood time and time again, but with this year’s event taking place the same weekend as Castle Point Anime Expo I may or may not attend depending on how sore I am from Castle Point.
• For my seventh year attending the event, Castle Point Anime Convention made a lot of genius updates this year that really fleshed out and improved the experience. Expanding the gaming area, sealing up the live stage to lower the amount of sound that bleeds into the rest of the event, and not being super strict with the amount of people that enter the Vendors/Artists area made everything more enjoyable.
• Cradle Con was great. It didn’t really do anything new and still leaves a good amount of the event space unoccupied, but for a comic event that’s not as big as NYCC, it was still a fun and very social event where I got to hang out with a lot of local convention buddies.
• Brooklyn Comic Con’s vendors and artists were very strong offerings and I got to meet up with some other convention buddies I haven’t seen in a long time and got a lot of variety out of the commissions I ordered. admittedly the venue’s small size was to its detriment: There was very little on offer in terms of on-site food and you were forced to return back on-line if you ever left the venue. A lot of vital space for the event was also taken up by random features I wouldn’t consider essential for a convention (two bouncy houses and a wrestling ring) and the loudspeaker that radioed announcements and played music was overtuned, making chatting with vendors and artists a lot more difficult.
• The Long Island Retro Gaming Expo had experienced its biggest show in years, taking what it featured in 2023 and upping the ante with more games and more convention features. Still 100% recommended if you’re in the area and have any interested in video games from times past.
• AnimeNYC was good, though this year it didn’t really do anything big to improve upon the year prior. The huge number of artists tabling at the show was either a positive or negative point depending on who you ask. For me, the 640 tables made it quite overwhelming if you’re as much of an Artist’s Alley connoisseur as I am. As for the rest of the show, the gaming area was still great for some Japanese retro arcade games and modern-day fighters, and the cosplays were on point.
• I feel as if I was a lot more prepped for New York Comic Con this year compared to AnimeNYC, but I think that was because its Artist’s Alley was easier to navigate and it came with the always-strong Vendors’ area with their giant booths and cool on-site experiences. Plus I left the show with my favorite commission haul of the year.
• The quality of DerpyCon was genuinely surprising, even with its smaller and more compact venue size and having among the smallest Artist’s Alleys I’ve visited this year. Its venue served some great food and its gaming area had some surprising retro-game inclusions to make it stand out from other events. The cosplays were also great, especially for a smaller event.
• As the event is only in its second year, AnimeNJ++ was great and had all the essential bits but showed room for improvement. Time will tell how much it’ll find ways to innovate and expand as all these other, older events have been expanding for years.

Here is my personal ranking on how much enjoyment I got out of each event this year:

1. Long Island Retro Gaming Expo
2. New York Comic Con
3. Castle Point Anime Convention
4. DerpyCon
5. Cradle Con
6. AnimeNYC
7. Brooklyn Comic Con
8. AnimeNJ++

(EMCon not ranked as its size would make it an unfair comparison)

And here’s a ranking on which events I feel could expand out and reach all-new potential the most:

1. EMCon
2. AnimeNJ++
3. CradleCon
4. Derpycon
5. Brooklyn Comic Con
6. Long Island Retro Gaming Expo
7. AnimeNYC
8. Castle Point Anime Convention
9. New York Comic Con

These all were great events and I would absolutely encourage you to attend one if you have the time and budget—these rankings are nothing more than how much total enjoyment I got out of each event, measured on a roughly equal scaling. But now with this year’s events all finished up, what about the events of the far off year of 2025? Well, as I alluded to in my coverage on DerpyCon in Part 4, I was quite enamored by the big variety in conventions going on in the state of New Jersey in 2025. Sure, Castle Point has been a yearly tradition at this point, but after the cancelation of AnimeNext, it marked one less event in the state in the spring/summer. As a compromise I would add in two NJ-based conventions towards the end of 2024, and after attending both, my curiosity for other events outside of New York began to grow. Indeed, aside from Castle Point, DerpyCon, and AnimeNJ++, all of my events this year have been native to my home state of New York City as they have been for quite some time.

In regards to the current lineup of events, pretty much everything I attended this year will be on my agenda for next year. However, I am planning on temporarily shelving Brooklyn Comic Con and AnimeNJ++, not only to give these conventions a year to see if any of my issues regarding them are fixed, but also to free up some valuable time to work on my own projects in what I’m currently foreseeing as a very busy and eventful year. And with all the commissions (roughly 60 in total) and convention merchandise I scored this year, I don’t mind missing out so I can enjoy my birthday month and my time before the holidays as well as focus my funds towards other things. Especially since this year felt like a constant back and forth between conventions, watching FGC events on Twitch, and playing along with events in mobile games.

But what about potential new ventures? While the schedule is not set in stone yet, I’ve had a few ideas in my head for some events in the first half of the year I would be open for attending. For starters, there’s NJIT Minicon, a one-day anime event at the NJIT Campus Center in New Jersey, taking place in early April. Another two potential candidates are Garden State Anime Fest and Kogracon, both in the first weekend in May. And then there’s Thy Geekdom Con, a comic and general pop culture event in late May celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Defend the North, a big and meaty FGC event in early August, takes place later in the year (the weekend before Long Island Retro Game Expo, as a matter of fact!) and has been on my mind after realizing I missed it last year. Although the Retro Gaming Expo and AnimeNYC also being that month would make it difficult to prep for all three, but we’ll see what I decide to do when the full schedule has been decided on.

With that said, it’s time to finally bid farewell to the year of 2024. Wherever next year takes us, I hope you all will join me for another incredible journey as we explore the conventions of the mysterious year of 2025. In the meantime, enjoy your holiday breaks—you all deserved them.