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New Brunswick, New Jersey
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1994 to 1995
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was the second
Anime Convention to be held on the east coast of the
United States . The event took place in
New Jersey , three months after the debut of
Otakon in
Pennsylvania , and three months before
Katsucon in
Virginia . The three events had similar roots, with the organizers of each event attending a Science Fiction convention in
Long Island ,
I-CON , which hosted a track of programming dedicated to
Anime which was executed as a dry-run by the people responsible for Anime East. The programming at this event in part spurred the creation of Otakon and Katsucon. Prior to this, anime conventions had some success on the west coast, with
A-kon and
Anime Expo , but none on the east coast until 1994.
Radium Dynamix was the name of the company responsible for the first Anime East held in
New Brunswick , NJ at the Brunswick Hilton & Towers. The event was the first on the east coast to feature guests of honor from Japan. In attendance were
MIQ ,
Koichi Ohata , and
Monkey Punch .
MIQ returned to perform in 1995, and was joined by Character Designer
Hiroyuki Kitazume , and
Gainax founder
Toshio Okada . The event had the largest attendance out of all anime conventions at the time, and the future looked bright.
Despite encouraging successes in 1994 and 1995, Anime East ran into financial difficulties and did not continue past 1995. Otakon and Katsucon, the other two events that began in the same time frame, are still active today and among the largest events in the US.
Shoujocon , an anime convention dedicated to
Shōjo anime and manga, was formed several years later and took place for a few years at the same venue as Anime East. It was the closest anime convention to
New York City until
Big Apple Anime Fest occurred in 2000, followed by
AnimeNEXT in 2001.
Anime Expo New York was a one-shot event in 2002. AnimeNEXT is currently the only active anime convention in the New York City area.
