Anime NYC Day 3: Finally Finding Its Footing

With a big guest to interview, the press pool finally filled out with some familiar Sony faces, and everything feels like it’s finally settled in. I should also take a second and admit that I was wrong about the lack of screenings, as they were moved to the third day. Although, I did find it a bit odd that the Crunchyroll screenings were all at the end of the day instead of being more scattered throughout the four days.

Before we look at the three shows they presented, I want to go through the panels of the day. After that, I want to highlight a great artist I found at the show as well.

With that, let’s dive into the first panel: the Kazé Industry Panel, a fan-forward introduction to the relatively new publisher, which is an imprint of HarperCollins.

While Kazé really wants you to feel like they’re a smaller publisher along the lines of something like Omoi, who I featured in my write-up yesterday, it’s pretty clear that they have the old money and resources of HarperCollins backing them up. Unlike Omoi, who have always been really narrowly focused on what you would consider “traditional” manga, Kazé is very much casting a wide net in what they’re looking to license.

I’m not opposed to that kind of approach. Great storytelling is great storytelling, after all, but I do worry that many of these larger publishers are simply looking at manga as a profit center and won’t necessarily commit to releasing full series if they don’t sell well enough within a certain window. It reminds me of the bubble-era Marvel stabs at manga that felt like a “there’s gold in them there hills” scenario, but faded away when the money didn’t materialize.

Next up was the J-Novel Club Anime NYC 2026 Industry Announcements panel. I always find these kinds of panels interesting because you can get a sense of where anime is going from the light novels and manga that are being licensed.

The thing I noticed across both this and the Kazé panel was a heavy embrace of BL and openly queer content. It’s also something that gets a lot of cheers in the room. And while I didn’t stay for the full panel, I can tell you that they’re also casting a wide net in the same way that everyone else seems to be, with a heavier focus on Korean and Chinese content alongside Japanese storytelling.

After that, I had a big, lofty goal: I wanted to go watch the first episode of Kagurabachi, as unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard something about it after it ran at AX. But I, like many others, didn’t get in. I have a long-standing policy of not engaging with the reservation side of these conventions, as it feels exclusionary in a situation where you could have overflow rooms but choose not to in favor of exclusivity.

With that hope dashed, I set my sights on more cultural fare and sat front row at Gyaru Candyland, a panel about the infamous Japanese fashion subculture. While I was already well versed in Gyaru style and philosophy—and yes, there is one—it was really nice to see it all laid out in front of you. There are still a lot of Gyaru characters in anime, but there’s rarely any explanation in those same shows of what that subculture actually is.

Before we move on to the screenings, I want to take a second to shout out a really great artist I met in this year’s Artist Alley, which is probably the biggest it’s ever been in my time attending.

Nishi Lee creates beautiful, female-forward illustrations that manage to avoid so much of the grossness you see in a lot of the character art you’re used to seeing in Artist Alley. You can find her on Instagram at @24242424art. And yes, she knows that’s a crazy handle.

Now, let’s talk about the screenings.

Up first was Vermillion Mask, which was interesting but will need more episodes to catch up with its own ideas.

Next up was, by far, the best of the bunch. Here You Are was easily the most well-received of the three, and for good reason: it’s a beautifully produced BL based on a Chinese property.

Lastly, we were all treated to the first episode of Overgeard, a VR MMO comedy that was fun, but also feels like it might get old quickly.

As a rule, I always say you should spend some time at any convention in the panels and screenings. They’re among the most interesting things you can do with your ticket that don’t involve spending even more money.