NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) — What started out as a dream to create a community for anime fans in New York City has since grown into an annual celebration of all things Japanese pop culture that has drawn more than 170,000 people to the Jacob Javits Center.
Peter Tatara of LeftField Media has been one of the brains behind the epic New York City Comic Con and the budding K-pop convention, K-PEX, but even with all those projects, he calls AnimeNYC the “biggest honor of my life.”
“I’m an anime fan, and I live in NYC, and the event was created for my fellow anime fans here in New York. I knew we were a community that was looking for a home, and my goal was to build that – to create a home,” said Tatara in an email interview with PIX11 News. “This said, I could have never imagined how big this home would become.”
Now, a decade after kicking off AnimeNYC’s inaugural year “in a corner of the Javits Center,” as Tatara describes, he now looks to bring bigger guests and concerts as well as some of the convention’s earliest guests, for the costume-clad fans who’ve been attending the event since the beginning.
“So much of the convention is the stories of the fans who come here, and we’re looking to celebrate them. There are fans who’ve been with us every single year for 10 years, and we want to share these memories,” said Tatara. “I will also say one of our biggest hopes is to invite the mayor. I was amazed this year to see so many fans cosplaying as Mayor Mamdani at the convention, as well as so much fan art … . We would love, love, love to welcome him to kick off the show’s 10th anniversary.”
Along with a welcome from Mayor Mamdani, Tatara says he also hopes to bring a “much bigger concert experience” for 2027. It comes after the sold-out first appearance of the Japanese singer yama on the East Coast at the 2026 convention.
“On the guest side, the really impactful thing is when our guests can meet their fans. … For fans, this is probably the only time they’ll get to meet their favorite actors, singers or creators. But for the actors, singers and creators, the same is also true,” said Tatara of the convention’s international guests. “The size and passion of their audience in New York is a powerful thing, and it’s something a lot of guests don’t realize until they’re here.”
The event founder also hopes to bring an expanded Anime Licensing Summit, a new program that launched as part of AnimeNYC in 2026. The first-of-its-kind executive forum gave attendees access to industry educational content, strategic networking and opportunities to build business connections.
Tatara says more than anything, he hopes to continue to create a place where fans can make their own special moments as some fans of the series Haikyu have over the years.
“The single most memorable thing for me was the first year of the convention where in one section of the event a group of cosplayers were playing a volleyball game. They were all dressed as characters from the volleyball anime Haikyu, and they just started playing a game,” Tatara recalled. “And then this year, looking over the convention center again, in one little section, I saw another group of Haikyu cosplayers playing volleyball. The fun, magic and joy of that just fills me up.”
The 10th year of AnimeNYC is set for Aug. 26 through Aug. 29 in 2027. Those looking to attend can continue to keep an eye on the website and social media pages for news and announcements.
Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be foundhere.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
