Anime NYC 2025 Review

Another year, another Anime NYC at the Javits Center. Every year the convention has only grown bigger and bigger, with an estimated 148,000 attending in 2025. This was my second year attending as press; my main focus was attending panels, doing interviews and catching up with industry friends. Therefore, I didn’t spend much time in some fields integral to other people’s convention-going such as cosplay, arcade games, and concerts. I was plenty busy, though! These conventions are just that packed.

I also attended the American Manga Awards, the yearly celebration of the American manga industry that takes place Thursday evening at the Japan Society before the meat of the convention kicks off on Friday. Although the award ceremony is not technically part of Anime NYC, it is a product of the convention’s founder Left Field Media. It is also followed by an industry party for not just ceremony attendees but also professionals attending the convention.

Where Did I Stay?

While hotel rooms in New York City are expensive, some friends of mine were nice enough to let me crash in their Brooklyn apartment. Other folks I knew found rooms at the Hilton DoubleTree, or took the train in from New Jersey.

Before Anime NYC: American Manga Awards 2025

This was the second year of the American Manga Awards, an event for celebrating the achievements of the manga industry in the United States and to acknowledge standout titles published that year. As Anime NYC founder Peter Tatara said at the start of the ceremony, “This is not a popularity contest voted on by readers.” The awards are instead run solely by professionals, including journalists (Anime News Network executive editor Lynzee Loveridge), librarians (Ashley Hawkins), and letterers (Aditya Bidikar), among others.

The Hall of Fame award this year went to Studio Proteus, a groundbreaking manga localization company that ran from 1986 to 2004. Founded by Toren Smith and run with the help of many others, including artist Tomoko Saito, translators Dana Lewis and Alan Gleason, and letterer Tom Orzechowski, the studio took a chance on licensing and translating many beloved series, such as Oh! My Goddess, Blade of the Immortal, and What’s Michael?. While Smith passed away in 2013, the ceremony featured Orzechowski as a guest, as well as a video message from Lewis and Gleason. Orzechowski accepted the award for Studio Proteus.

New this year was the American Manga Award of Distinction, presented to manga artists Takeru Hokazono (Kagurabachi), Minetaro Mochizuki (Dragon Head), and Kengo Hanazawa (I Am a Hero.) While Hokazono’s presence was a nice surprise given his work’s popularity in the United States, I was surprised to see Mochizuki recognized since the majority of his work is not yet available in English. (From what was later said at Anime NYC, though, this is about to change.) I couldn’t help but wonder if Mochizuki and Hanazawa’s presence had something to do with Young Magazine USA, which was all over the reception desk at the American Manga Awards, as well as Anime NYC itself.

The rest of the awards were split with two each for publishers Kodansha, Square Enix Manga, and Yen Press. Dark Horse Manga won one award for Best Publication Design. The most shocking shut-out of the night was for publishing giant Viz, which was nominated for, but did not receive, a single award.

There’s a lot to love about the American Manga Awards. I appreciate that they recognize letterers, translators, and designers in the industry, positions that are invisible to many manga readers, and even some manga journalists. It’s also great to see the likes of Studio Proteus honored on stage. Particularly notable this year was how award recipient Orzechowski himself was also a prominent letterer on Chris Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men comics, proving that American and Japanese comics publishing in the United States is more connected than you might think.

At the same time, this was a more chaotic production than last year. There were several moments on stage when presenters did not seem to know what to do. The small size of the Japan Society’s theater also limited who could attend, which unfortunately left out many manga freelancers. They consequently had to wait before attending the (similarly cramped) Anime NYC industry party at Japan Society later.

Outside the theater was a small exhibit honoring Studio Proteus. It was fascinating to see examples of the work they put in localizing manga for American readers in the 1980s and 90s. At the same time, I was struck by a blurb accompanying an edition of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind—that while Miyazaki initially chose Smith and his team at Studio Proteus to publish the series in English, Viz snatched up the publication rights even as it kept Smith and Dana Lewis as translators. The manga industry today remains split between corporations and the precarious freelancers they employ. Not to mention small publishers like Glacier Bay Books, which have yet to win an American Manga Award.

Next year, Anime Expo is set to stage the Anime and Manga International Awards in Los Angeles, the “first U.S.-based, fully fan-voted celebration created for the fans and by the fans.” While the American Manga Awards has its problems, I’m not convinced that fan voting is the solution, either. As always, it’s up to hardworking freelancers in the industry, which the American Manga Awards was founded to honor in the first place, to build the world that they want to see.

Anime NYC 2025 Panels I Went To

Studio Proteus: American Manga Awards Hall of Fame Spotlight

Hosted by Deb Aoki, Carl Gustav Horn, Matt Alt, Patrick Crotty, and Tom Orzechowski

When: Friday, August 22 • 12:45 pm –1:45 pm

Panel Description: The 2025 recipients of the Manga Publishing Hall of Fame Award are Studio Proteus, the pioneering manga translation and publishing group that helped introduce legendary manga series like Blade of the Immortal, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Ghost in the Shell, Oh! My Goddess, What’s Michael? and so much more to English language readers in N. America and around the world. Founded in San Francisco, California in 1986 by visionary editor and entrepreneur Toren Smith, Studio Proteus included an all-star cast of manga translators, editors, artists, and lettering professionals who set the standards for manga localization that created the foundation for the English language manga publishing industry as we know it today. American Manga Awards committee chair Deb Aoki, Dark Horse manga editor Carl Horn, and translator Matt Alt will share stories, photos, and memorabilia collected from the founding members of Studio Proteus, including recent interviews with translators Dana Lewis, Alan Gleason, Frederik Schodt, along with lettering and retouch artists Tom Orzechowski and Tomoko Saito, plus comics creator Adam Warren.

Overall Thoughts: Deb Aoki was a reliable presence at many of the best panels I attended at Anime NYC. This one featured her as well as Horn, Alt, and Orzechowski going into more detail about Studio Proteus. For instance, did you know that studio founder Toren Smith and his partner Tomoko Saito lived for a while at Studio Gainax while looking for housing? Or that a character in the OVA classic Gunbuster is named for him? I sure didn’t! It was also fun just listening to Orzechowski dish out funny details, like the time that he was told to draw in a penis for the US release of a manga series originally censored in Japanese (he was told, “You have one for reference.”)

Just like last year, the Hall of Fame Spotlight was also an opportunity for PEOW2’s Patrick Crotty to announce two all-new licenses: SF3D ORIGINAL REPRINT EDITION and SF3D chronicles, featuring the art of mechanical designer Kow Yokoyama. What stood out to me, in particular, is that this release will be a collaboration between PEOW2 and ZIMMERIT, a blog run by Sean from the old anime blog Colony Drop. While Colony Drop rubbed me the wrong way sometimes back in the day, I love that Sean is doing his part to make the old school SF art he loves accessible to a wider audience. The spirit of anime blogging lives on!

More Than One Way to Break Into Manga

Hosted by TJ Ferentini, Lydia Nguyen, Shirley Fang, Mark de Vera, Morgan Perry, and Ricky Uy

When: Friday, August 22 • 4:00 pm – 4:45 pm

Panel Description: Passionate about manga? Does a job in the manga industry sound like your dream-gig? From marketing, publishing, translation, editing and more–there are many ways to have a career in manga, and you don’t even have to be a good artist for most of them! Join our panel of amazing manga professionals as they discuss their passion for the medium, how they got their start, and how you too can get involved in manga publishing.

Overall Thoughts: This panel featured many talented people discussing the work they do in the manga industry and how they ended up there. Despite the expertise on display, I couldn’t help but think that most of them were surprised to end up where they did, and unsure whether the path they walked was replicable for others. One of them, who said they found a job in manga by just spending time at a publisher’s connecting café until they were offered a job, admitted this was now no longer an option since the café was now only open to employees. A more accurate title for this panel might be, “There is only one way to break into manga: connections.”

I was also surprised by the presence of Ricky Uy, the founder of a new manga platform called niuhi that was heavily promoted at the convention. Uy spoke about drawing on the manga fan translator community for his new service, which had me wondering–just how much did he intend to pay those translators? He felt an entire world removed from the other people in that room.

AMV Contest

When: Friday, August 22 • 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Panel Description: The only contest that’s made for fans, by fans, and where you in the audience are the judge! Come to the PG-13 Anime NYC AMV Contest to see a showcase of AMVs in a wide array of genres and animation. Vote for what you think is best and have a hand in choosing which AMV wins overall!

Overall Thoughts: You may not know this about me, but I love AMVs! So I was happy to make it to the AMV Contest this year, after missing out on the opportunity last year. Watching AMVs with a crowded audience brought home just how differently certain videos play in that setting versus when you’re sitting at home in front of your laptop. I also had a friend from another publication sitting nearby, so we had a lot of fun nerding out about what was happening onscreen. If I have a complaint, it’s that I think many of the AMVs on show prioritized effects over storytelling. The video of the night that I thought did the best job of expressing a story (“The Second Rib”) didn’t win. But heck, I’ll admit that I underrated the Editor’s Choice winner “Heretic,” which had a great central motif and the confidence to let it play.

Akanebanashi Sneak Peak: with SHUEISHA JUMP!! Special Guest – Presented by TV Asahi

Hosted by Kazuki Endo and Seisuke Araki

When: Saturday, August 23 • 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Panel Description: Get ready for a special sneak peek on Akane-banashi and don’t miss your chance to get some exclusive giveaways! Seisuke Araki, editor of Akane-banashi, will be joining us to talk all about this brand-new anime. That’s not all–TV Asahi producer Kazuki Endo will also be on stage to cover Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia and The Dangers in My Heart: The Movie. Come join us for insider info, awesome guests, and special prizes! Catch it live–only at Anime NYC. You won’t want to miss it!

Overall Thoughts: I came to this panel with the hope of learning something new about Akane-banashi’s upcoming production, as well as Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia. Unfortunately, I was left disappointed on both counts, as producer Kazuki Endo and Seisuke Araki merely played trailers for the audience and ran through what felt more like a list of talking points than an organic conversation. This is the flipside of Anime NYC becoming bigger; the more money there is, the riskier it becomes to be honest with your audience. The one thing I’ll give these folks is that they wore yukata to honor Akane-banashi’s focus on rakugo.

Behind the Scenes of Weekly Shonen Jump: A Conversation with the Editor-in-Chief

Hosted by Deb Aoki and Yu Saito

When: Saturday, August 23 • 12:00 pm – 12:45 pm

Panel Description: Go behind the scenes of one of Japan’s most famous manga magazines with its Editor-in-Chief, Yu Saito. In this exclusive discussion, he will speak on his experiences editing legendary series, thoughts on the heart of Shonen Jump’s storytelling, what makes a “good” manga, and advice for the next generation of creators–followed by an audience Q&A.

Overall Thoughts: Another strong panel featuring Deb Aoki. This one was an interview with Yu Saito, who (as you can guess from the title) is Editor-in-Chief at the hitmaker magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. My favorite bit was when Saito told a story about when he was working with Hideyuki Sorachi on Gintama, which he joined halfway through. Per Saito, when he came one day to pick up the manuscript for that week, he discovered that one page was still blank. Since it was a 30-minute taxi ride from Sorachi’s apartment to the printer, Sorachi drew that page while sitting in the back of the cab. Saito said, “We just squeaked in!” While manga editors (as he admits) are often portrayed as villains, I had the sense that Saito respects the artists under his care.

SPOTLIGHT: KING’S MAKER CREATORS

Hosted by Katelyn Hemmeke, Haga, and Kang Jiyoung

When: Saturday, August 23 • 3:15 pm – 4:15 pm

Panel Description: Join Haga and Kang Jiyoung, the creators behind the popular BL webtoon KING’S MAKER, as they dive into their gilded, intrigue-driven fantasy drama, filled with rebellion, revenge, and forbidden love that’s garnered millions of fans worldwide, moderated by Katelyn Hemmeke (Editor at Inklore).

Overall Thoughts: While I wasn’t too familiar with KING’S MAKER or Boys’ Love comics before this Anime NYC, I’m always happy to learn more about things I don’t know. I do love many webtoons, as well! So I made sure to attend this panel, which turned out to be a highlight of the convention for me. Both Haga and Kang Jiyoung spoke in great detail about their process and had excellent chemistry with each other. I particularly liked their advice for up-and-coming artists: take any chance you have to make something, and to never forget what made you want to draw in the first place. You got a sense that these were creative collaborators who respected their readers, rather than executives delivering a speech. My theory is that since the Korean comics industry isn’t yet as entrenched at Anime NYC as anime or manga, its representatives had the freedom to speak their minds. I hope that continues to be the case if Korean artists return to the convention.

Panel Session by Minetaro Mochizuki, the author of Dragon Head

Hosted by Deb Aoki and Minetaro Mochizuki

When: Sunday, August 24 • 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Panel Description: Minetaro Mochizuki has been creating manga for Young Magazine since 1985, and to celebrate the magazine’s 45th anniversary, he will talk about the label’s history and future.

Overall Thoughts: Deb Aoki is back once again. I was very curious about this panel going in, because there aren’t very many Mochizuki titles available in English, despite how influential he is in Japan. He’s drawn youth comedies, horror stories, and (more recently) adaptations of novels and films. So what kind of artist is he? The impression I got from the panel is that Mochizuki spent much of his career figuring out exactly what he wanted to draw and how he wanted to draw it. “I want to stay true to myself,” he said, “Not to follow trends.” He also insisted that “manga is not a craft, but a lifestyle”; that art is a series of choices rather than just an object that you create.

This panel also doubled as an introduction to Young Magazine, which published its English language edition Young Magazine USA around the same time. Despite the fact that Mochizuki hasn’t appeared in Young Magazine since Dragon Head starting in 1994, he happily participated in this panel meant to introduce the magazine to a new readership. Young Magazine definitely has a different feel and audience than what you’d find in Shonen Jump, so I’m curious to see whether this experiment works, or even whether its international audience might differ from its audience in Japan.

Read more: Roundtable Interview: Minetaro Mochizuki (Anime NYC 2025)

Manga Under Fire: The State of Censorship on Manga, Both Domestically and Abroad

Hosted by Christiina Corpus, Varun Gupta and Daniel Cruz

When: Sunday, August 24 • 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

Panel Description: When works of art are censored, manga is one of the first mediums to be impacted, and many manga titles are currently banned right now in various states across the US. Speakers from PEN America and Japan Society lead a conversation with publishers and experts to discuss this prescient topic. Why is manga often assumed to be explicit? Do some countries really hate isekai so much that the genre has been banned? What does one country’s choice to censor a title mean for global consumers? Hear experts on censorship talk about current cultural and political currents and what that means for readers and publishers alike.

Overall Thoughts: Comics have been censored or banned in the United States since the days of the Comics Code Authority and beyond, and manga is no exception to this fact. So it made perfect sense for Anime NYC to run a panel about manga and censorship. The panelists discussed not just how and why comics are banned today (and who is doing the banning) but the soft pressure that leads publishers to alter their work and libraries to avoid buying certain titles. This inevitably stifles self-expression and limits dialogue. At the same time, I couldn’t help but find it hypocritical that PEN America, represented in the panel by Daniel Cruz, itself has a history of restricting dialogue around Israel’s war in Gaza. This fact was never once acknowledged by the panelists. If a literary organization can’t be honest about its workings, what hope does it have of defending others?

What Did I Think of Anime NYC 2025?

Anime and manga are big right now, and Anime NYC is no exception. If anything, it could be a little too big, with different companies trying to make money by stepping on each other’s toes. For instance, a bunch of VTubers put on a show (remotely) in the dealer’s room, filling the Yen Press stall with ecstatic fans. The Yen Press folks were not amused! At other times, the convention clearly underestimated demand, with just how long the lines were (for instance) outside Kagurabachi artist Takeru Hokazono’s panel.

Anime and manga are also becoming increasingly corporate. I had a sense at the convention that producers and editors from Japan are now making a greater effort to control messaging, rather than giving artists a chance to speak directly to their readers (or at least with the help of a translator). There were definitely panels that had the expertise and transparency I wanted, but I had to work harder to find them! That said, I didn’t see any panels that were derailed by generative AI use, which was a serious problem at Otakon in 2025.

What I love most of all at these conventions is the chance to speak with other artists, journalists, or just folks who love pop culture. Anime NYC was a great opportunity for that. Whether I was engaging with folks who were just starting out, or people who had been working in or around anime and manga (or webtoons) forever, everyone I spoke to carried a deep love of these mediums with them. It’s also a great reminder that your favorite anime and manga artists love things outside of anime and manga: Imaishi adores Simon Bisley’s run on Lobo, for instance, and Kang Jiyoung is really into Arcane.

Still, with the United States government stepping up immigration enforcement, and the country becoming increasingly unsafe, I don’t know if conventions like Anime NYC will be able to keep inviting folks from outside the country in future years. While they could compensate by pulling from local talent like voice actors and publishers, I know that would diminish my own personal interest. Particularly because part of the joy of these conventions is seeing folks like Hokazono realize just how many people around New York City (and beyond!) adore their work.

Would I Recommend Attending?

Conventions are expensive, and New York City is really expensive. Since many of the announcements at Anime NYC are posted online later and even some of the panels are recorded, you can see at least some of what’s available without actually attending. Anime NYC is also more corporate and less fan-run than the likes of Otakon in Washington DC. Because of this, its emphasis is on new and upcoming hits rather than past anime greats.

On the other hand, new and upcoming hits are precisely what the majority of folks into anime these days enjoy. Anime NYC is also bigger than Otakon, and still growing, while Otakon saw a small reduction in 2025, with about 43,0000 people attending. If you want to see how the modern anime and manga industry in the United States sees itself at this specific moment in time, rather than the fans, Anime NYC is the place to be in August. Who knows how long that will last, though!

Special thank you to Anime NYC for allowing us the opportunity to cover Anime NYC 2025 as press. Looking forward to next year!

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