Travel day going back home but today was not without some minor incidents that annoy me but whatever. I mean, what could go wrong today? I mean, it’s just a short plane ride back home right? Well let’s see how today went and we can review some of the merch and things that I brought during AnimeNYC and New York in general ending with some final thoughts on this trip.

After waking up quite early, I was at the Laguardia airport pretty early like 9:30pm, I think like 4 hours before my flight. According to my Air Canada guidelines, that’s the recommended time you should arrive or rather, that’s when they should start accepting checked luggage onto your flight. Problem was: it was not, bitchess. It was so early that there was actually another Air Canada flight set to go to Toronto before my 2:10pm flight and they said that I can’t check in my luggage now because it’s too early, it would result in my luggage being put on the wrong plane and get fuck up the system. Mannn, they said that if I wanted I could board the earlier flight instead of just waiting but I like the system and rules so I said no thank you. So for the next 2 hours or so I largely just sat there before the luggage bag check was ready for my flight.

The taxi cab ride was much better than arriving here, probably because this taxi was associated with my hotel and it’s considered ‘private’ so I guess like a uber but not really, it took only like 40 minutes to get to the airport but it costed roughly the same as arrival, which is quite expensive still. If I end up coming to New York on a more frequent basis, like yearly for AnimeNYC, i really should look up a cheaper option for travel into Manhattan, because I know there are like trains and other such options that are more cost efficient other than taxi/uber. Find what you love, NYC.

With lots of time to kill I went to the only food place that was available in the airport terminal pre-check in security check, this fucking Dunkin’ lol

Ordering a coffee and a dounut at this particular Dunkin sure did kill alot for time, I think almost 10-15 minutes mostly because of these two black girls when they stepped up to order they still didn’t figure out yet what to order and were arging with each other about what to buy and if one thing is better than the other; they then proceed to argue about who to pay for each of their respective orders, they eventually came to the conclusion to pay separately; when I thought the ordeal was over, the one on the left pulled out her phone and called someone else, saying we at the the airport now, do you want something from Dunkin? BITCH WHY Y DO THIS. They then spent another 5 or so minutes doing the entire routine again with back and forth with the person on the call asking if this Dunkin has X dounut or sandwich/drink then again argue between the two who is gonna pay for the person on the call’s food, the right one paid for it. The white women in front of me was looking back at me and rolling her eyes overtime some shit came up lol and I did the same to a degree. The brown women cashier totally didn’t give a shit and just stood there waiting for them to be done and answer any questions, stuff like ‘are the eggs scrambled’ or some shit.

When the black girls were finally done, the white women ordered her shit, which was just a coffee and paid, and was done in like 2 minutes. When I ordered it was the same but just picking up this donut, which they don’t call a honey cruller but some other shit but it’s the same shit. Overall the donut is shit and just sugar, Tim Horton ones is better; the coffee is alright, small is pretty big. Well at least, I killed more time with this little excursion.

After waiting and mobiling for another hour or so I was finally able to check-in my luggage and they printed me a new shiny cardstock boarding pass, yay I can finally go through security now and browse some shit.

As per last time, after you go through security is a hall of bait goods you can buy before other food and stores are around.

By the time I got cleared into the main terminal shops it was like almost 12:00pm so it was already then time to look for some food. Tacos and pizza not bad.

This BBQ place looks not bad too, maybe I’ll try it.

But in the end I had to go Shake Shack again, just to confirm to myself if Hamburger America onion burger was better than their Smash burger.

Their selection of menu items has increased over the years I think but they are still good. A women who got her order was back at the counter complaining that she got her order wrong. She asked for her burger to have gluten free bun and no sauce but they messed it up, it was just their normal shack burger, since her son is allergic to eggs/mayo; damn; poor guy.

After a short wait I get my burger, a Shack Burger double that has tomatoes, cheese, lettuce and shack sauce, noice.

After eating this burger right now, I wasn’t so sure if the onion burger was really better than this classic smash burger. I mean, I like the purity of the onion burger but this was just so well rounded and all, I can’t say one is really better than the other. So in conclusion, both are good, but onion burger is more rare and takes more time to prepare but the overall payoff in terms of waiting longer for your burger to be done is a tradeoff that is worth considering as well as the lack of toppings on the onion burger, for better or worse. Since Shake Shack is a chain and have been able to maintain this level of quality, I guess Shake Shack wins since Hamburger America is just one location pet project by a burger enthusiast. Either way, you can’t really go wrong with a smash burger, good shit.

Proof of burger approval.

There is lots of bait shops in the terminal for any last minute gifts or snacks. Even self check out huh, noice.

I brought something and only now I realized that NY has the most Chinese/Asian approved tax rate ever imaginable. 888 oh shit.

While I was sitting for my flight this black dude and his son? his child? nephew? were doing some joke shit, the little boy was just crawling and toddling around and the dad? boyfriend? not-boyfriend? uncle? was all like, yo James, stop that, as if his little baby would understand that lol. He had to be constantly carried back to this spot since he was crawling up to other people and their luggage’s. The man also started looking into their bags and began ranting to the kid about your mama didn’t pack shit, she did this to me; there’s nothing here, no diapers or pacifer or snacks. He lifted him up and smelled him and was like, damn, you stank James lol. The mother of this baby was not ever seen, I don’t even think she was at the airport. Whyy??

After boarding the plane I noticed that the screens in front of me were also broken this time. Gonna be another sleep travel home, as per usual I guess.

These pretzels they gave out really are quite flavorful a little too much in fact. What happens if you don’t like herb and garlic? Your out of luck I guess and have to take a cookie. It’s a really short plane ride so before I knew it we already had landed.

Normally it’s smooth sailing from here on out but as my luck would have it, their customs and declaration system was offline/broken. Causing a huge backlog of new arrivals, shiet.

In the absence of these touch screen terminals, the staff were handing out paper forms to fill, like old school ways back in the day, which sadly at least for us, not that long ago I think. Kind of crazy how such a system like this would break or go offline like this, pretty bad.

They were doing line management in real time, extending the pathways as the crowds entered and it getting worse and worse.

Before long it looked like this, packed to the brim of fools just wanting to get out and claim their luggage and carry on with whatever.

Proof of annoyance and displeasure.

I haven’t filled out a form like this in probably years; as one with naturally horrible handwriting, I think this is good enough for someone who hardly touches a paper form or pen anymore.

I think the system failure at customs everyone was there for at least another half an hour. So long in fact that the luggage in the carousel had to be manually taken off by staff because it would be overcrowded with other flights luggage. After a least than stellar travel back home, I called my Dad for a lift home and I was on my way back. Yay, I made it back alive with only minor mental injury and brain cells lost.

With that said, let’s take a look at some of the notable merch hauls that I got from AnimeNYC:

These are all the keychains/charms that I got. The hololive ones on the bottom right are official omocat hololive concert keychains. So are the Irys keychain from omonah for breaking dimensions concert. To the right of that I got an offical phase connect keychain of Shiina, one of the talents that I recently subbed to, I had hoped that they give me a giant bag but they didn’t, too bad. The rest are from artists of Bijou and Dokibird and freien/fern. The Ina mini boob mousepad keychain is jokes.

The next set of items are pins, some are from vendors like the gundam ones a shop that all they do is official pins, it’s kind of a thing I guess being pin are the new in thing. The Irys pin is by Kaminaki, the main artist that does the Noms food shirts. Mint and fuwomoco pins. The top row stuff is all items I got for free or from visiting a booth/doing something at the booth.

Above is the various acrylic stands that I got, mainly from artists alley and some official hololive ones which is kind of evident. The scantily clad ones of Mint, Fuwamoco and Fauna are from that artist that had a long line up for and was yelled at. She knows what she’s doing and what people want lol.

The picture above is actually stuff i brought pre-con at Kinokuniya while picking up my badges. Oshi no Ko art book/material and a collection of Freiren blind box shit and a Hololive blind box ball thing. They were running a promotion that if you buy more than $20 worth of Freiren merch that would randomly give you 1 of 4 collectable cards. Looks like I got the dudes lol, ahwell.

A bunch of freebie stuff from the Azurlane booth, I think if you buy something you are supposed to get the postcards and stickers but I don’t give a shit and just took them, they were just sitting out on the table anyways and no one stopped me lol. The two omocat cards is a similar thing, buy x amount of stuff and get 1 of 7 talent cards, guess I got some good ones. The initial D mini postcard shikishi is a promotional gift item from Kinokuniya booth at AnimeNYC as well if you buy their Initial D omibus manga.

Said Initial D omibus 1 with the gift shikishi. I think they also have several designs you can collect but sure, Sil-Eighty is nice. For some reason they are really pushing Initial D manga from Kinokuniya, maybe because it’s got a new english publisher and new translation that is not butchered by Tokoypop like 20 years ago. Yea, that’s probably it, plus MF Ghost is around too. Classic.

Collection of various hololive shirts that I got from either Omocat or the official AnimeNYC merch booth. Plus a hololive event concert towel because ya. Noice.

Hamburger America had a merch section so I brought a hat, cause yea boi burgers are the bomb. The white shirt I actually got for free. Remember that mobile game that I failed to play properly and they didn’t give me a shirt? Well I visited them again at the end of the day Sunday to try again and they didn’t give a shit anymore if I got 30 points, as long as I tried it they gave me a shirt, it’s XXL and ugly so I guess this will probably be for my mom since it has a cat on it. At times square there is alot of new merch in their bait giftshops, one being NYC subway stations fridge magnets and routes/connecting lines. As someone who used the subway this trip, I know how OP Penn station is, I travailed the ACE collection of lines, it’s good.

So in the end I got a Dokibird cushion from the same artist that i brought from last year of Suisei, they look nice together on my couch. Also official hololive world tour pen light, it’s a different kind that I am used too but it works just as good. I used it for my concert on Friday then put it back in it’s package because yea, why not. I already had 2 pen lights with me that I brought with me to NYC just in case.

The biggest surprise purchase for me this trip is this figure of Grim Aloe from Bombergirl  one of the villains/characters of the moe girl bombergirl arcade games in cheerleader clothes. I don’t even play this game but I like the design and succubus cheer look. This figure is kind of hard to find available these days even pre-owned as it was released in late 2022 but I found it being sold at Ichiban Kuji of all places which to me is really weird, as this is a scale figure, not a prize and quite pricey. The aftermarket price of this figure has only icreased over the years so I am also surprised that companies always hold back stock and drop it later for availability in odd times like conventions. Hmmm, either way, I am happy I got this figure. I haven’t brought an expensive scale figure like this in person in years, all my stuff is online so it feels weird paying out like $230 USD for this on the spot.

A collection of gacha capsules I got, because I am lazy, I just kept the full balls. I didn’t even open them yet to check. Depending on what I get, some of these will be given to my sister. I kinda forgot what I pulled for, so double gacha in a way.

I never worked so hard just to get some of these bags and vessels, especially the FGO one. They also gave you a clear file of Nami’s art by finishing the archer gill experience.

A few prints from an artist I haven’t seen before, very nice and blue. In fact this artist really likes suisei, she/he had like 4-6 prints of suisei in various clothes and poses for sale jokes. The middle one is a Genshin girl I think who is also popular, I believe called Furina? The right girl who is almost exposed is also from either Genshin or Honkai Starrail, she looks like Taihou from Azurlane to yea, close enough lol. Going rate once again is buy 2 get 1 free, so $50 for 3 prints.

I brought these prints of the main girls from Homeless Reincarnation because yea, it’s not everyday someone commits to drawing all three of them, it’s usually just Roxy or Eris, but Sylphy? Wow, that’s rare, and cat ear themed too. This artist was also the one who was a big Nerissa fan, she gives everyone of her sales those little ribbon things that look like super chats as her jokes business card along with a more traditional card, which also has Nerissa on it as the front art figures.

All of the foreigners designed by Kuroboshi Kouhaku in FGO with a very nice style. Really good shit. I don’t really have much to say here, but love the style and detail, so much effort into these works you can tell. Haven’t seen this artist before so gotta buy these ya.

Some random one of prints that I thought were good/notable.Cool illustration of bocchi the rock. Center image of Neressa and Shiori from that Fauna artist with a big line and lastly lewd Fern and Frerein in nun clothes. I actually wanted to buy the print of just Frerein nun since i’ve seen it around online but the artist said it was sold out, too bad, he had this lewder one with both still in stock so sure, why not. lol.

Free poster for new transformers animation I think. They had two posters, the one like this and the other that looked like a classic Hollywood action movie transformers poster. I don’t even know to tell you that this one looks way better since it is styled.

And here is Gura finishing her stream of some pizza game with robots after having not streamed in like over 2 months yea. After the concert I guess now might be a good time to get it started again.

So yea, that’s the end of the merch haul this time for AnimeNYC and New York. Gud shit and I am pretty happy about everything that I got, no regrets.

As for the event of AnimeNYC this year, I have some mixed thoughts. Overall it was good but they really need to have more voice actors next year and even more industry presence of top anime/shows. It was quite lacking even with Kana Ueda and Minami-san, especially so since none of them did autographs. Tanjiro voice actor was also here but also didn’t do autographs. From what I hear guests are based on the company that brings them, and in both cases it was Aniplex, and generally don’t like having the guests they bring do autographs which is a shame. I had no autographs, lottery won or otherwise this year which is sad, where last year I had like 4-5 autographs of good talent industry folks. They need to work to make this experience better with more autographs and guest panels.

In terms of crowd, it’s much more busy than last year, the move to the event to summer from Fall is a huge increase of traffic. The total amount of visitors last year was 60k, this year it’s over 100k. Wow. With those numbers they are basically rivaling Anime Expo in LA, oh shit, looks like we might have a East West coast summer battle for anime convention dominance. They already announced next year will be summer again so let’s see how that turns out. The main hall is too crowded however, they made the decision to have artists alley and vendors in the same space, which the result is overcrowding and too much shit to see, not spaced around enough. They should give artists it’s own hall, just like AX. In my opinion, they completely wasted the hall they put the gaming stuff in which is new to AnimeNYC. In my opinion, they shouldn’t even have that here, it’s just taking up space. Some may disagree but the only reason this con is successful is because of vtubers and specifically Hololive have a significant presence on the floor and panels. Just like last year, I would say at least 1/5 of the con attendees are here for hololive, which is quite an amount, including myself and I base this on the fact that the world tour concert queue had over 30k people waiting online. I wish for them to continue increasing the hololive and vtuber presence with more concerts, panels and events; I had a great time doing all of the hololive panels and watching the main floor events at their booth.  If they don’t have hololive as a big guest with talents/or concert, then there is no reason for me to come to NY and AnimeNYC.

Despite being a much shorter trip in NYC, being mainly con focused, I truly maximized my travel day here seeing Dumbo and doing other bait shit like walking the Brooklyn bridge and eating fruit, good shit. I ate lots of pizza, bagels and burgers, so that’s all good with me and explore Korean town having ramen. The weather was a little hot but no where near as bad as let’s say Vegas, good shit. Overall this was a great trip with very little downsides in general, and just like before, I would definitely come to NYC again and AnimeNYC again, granted there is hololive or other notable guests/events. Gud shit.