Midtown Manhattan’s Jacob K. Javitz Center – which was designated the United States’ largest vaccination site at its peak 10 months ago – served a new purpose and reminded many of a pre-pandemic past. It hosted the 5th Annual Anime NYC, an immersive and interactive pop culture festival that celebrates Japanese animation and culture, from November 19 to 21.
“While we were able to build a free online version of the event with Japanese guests, exclusives, panels from our partners, and screenings last year, what was really missing was the community,” Anime NYC founder Peter Tatara told the Red Hook Star-Revue ahead of this year’s event. “Yes, you can certainly transition content from a live experience into an online one, but the experience changes. There’s something very different from watching a concert on YouTube, to being in the front row of an auditorium.”
“This year’s show was never promised,” added Tatara, explaining that planning began in the late spring due to the everchanging pandemic situation. “We’re in this amazingly fortunate position to present the first large Japanese pop culture celebration in the United States in 20 months … in part due to the hard work and efforts of those who worked in this very building throughout all of 2020 and 2021 when the Javits became a field hospital and then a mass vaccination site.”
Over the weekend, thousands of vaccinated fans from the Big Apple and beyond attended panel discussions with internationally renowned anime directors, producers, and actors; met their favorite voice actors at meet-and-greet autograph opportunities; watched exclusive film screenings; and dressed to the nines in their cosplay creations and character costumes.
A Real-life Hero
For New Jersey native Maria “Maweezy” Chante – who has earned the reputation of designing unique and original “mash-up” pieces of work through her cosplay costumes and has gone viral with her homemade “Boba” Fett costume (combining Boba Fett from “Stars Wars” with the bubble tea drink) – returning to Anime NYC for the third time, in person, meant everything.
Maweezy worked as a full-time COVID-19 ICU nurse throughout the pandemic and helped fellow healthcare workers go viral in an April 2020 video inspired by the “pass the brush” challenge on social media (wherein creators edit together a compilation of make-up videos that start and end with participants appearing to physically and pass a make-up brush between different scenes seamlessly). “I had to put cosplay and conventions on the back burner to focus on my duty as a registered nurse,” Maweezy said, “but I thought what are some ways that we – other nurses, healthcare workers, and photographers from the cosplay scene – could express our creativity?”
The approximately three-minute-long video (titled “Heroes Behind the PPE”) – which featured the before-and-after looks of 23 healthcare professionals – has garnered over 49,300 views on Instagram as of November 27.
“The biggest misconceptions I’ve heard myself is that people who dedicate a lot of time and effort into cosplay have no life,” Maweezy explained. “I stun people … because I have my career and then I have my hobby, which I’m very passionate about.”
“And the ‘Heroes Behind the PPE’ video shows medical professionals can totally be nerdy and cosplayers, too,” she added.
Chalk Artist Wows Fans
Across the room on November 20, artist Eric Maruscak took a brief 15-minute break from his massive chalk mural to take in the hustle and bustle surrounding him and his stanchions. He was nearing the 18-hour mark of his drawing of “The Faraway Paladins” when he also spoke to the Red Hook Star-Revue. The mural, about 9 feet wide by 13 feet high, ultimately took 25 hours to complete over the course of three days and was finished before Anime NYC closed its doors to fans on November 21.
“This is my first Anime NYC and I’m extremely loving it and having a great time,” said Maruscak, who has created nearly 100 giant chalk murals as live performance art for conventions and festivals since 2006. “I love the interactivity aspect of this – people coming up to me and asking questions.”
Maruscak admitted he felt a little hesitant to be at Anime NYC as an exhibitor, because he last worked at an in-person convention in August 2019. But, he said, his fears quickly subsided after seeing fans walking around in masks. “This feels like an anime convention,” Maruscak said. “This is the most normal I’ve felt in two years back, doing what I love.”
Anime NYC will return to the Javits Center November 18-20, 2022.
