By Dave Paone
Campus News
For three days in November, New York City’s West Side was overrun by sword-wielding ninjas, creatures with four-foot tentacles, schoolgirls in sailor uniforms and trench coat-wearing detectives.
While it sounds more like a burrito-induced nightmare, it was actually the Anime NYC convention at the Jacob K. Javits Center.
Sora Wong, an animal-science, pre-medicine-track major at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, took a five-hour bus ride to attend. And not just to attend, but to come dressed as Mashu Kyrielight of “Fate/Grand Order.” (To dress as an anime or comic book character on any day other than Halloween is to “cosplay,” short for “costume play.”)
Sora picked this character because of her personality. “She’s very kind, very soft, very patient and very mature,” she said.
Speaking of mature, it’s no secret Sora’s college has a reputation for being a party school. She recalled the night of celebration after the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl win last February, which continued until sunrise the next morning.
Sora doesn’t participate in such shenanigans. “I’m an introvert,” she said.
This from someone dressed in a pink wig, a black crop top and a frilly miniskirt.
“Except for this,” she added.
Sarah Michelle Labrador came dressed as Aina Ardebit from the 2019 anime feature, “Promare.”
Sarah received her first associate’s degree in biomedical engineering from Essex Community College in New Jersey in 2014. She received her second associate’s degree from Hudson Community College (also in New Jersey) in nursing. Currently she’s pursuing a master’s in nursing at New Jersey City University.
All of this science and medicine is a completely different world from cosplaying at anime conventions. Yet for Sarah, there’s a connection.
She says her interest in biomedical engineering was actually inspired by the anime TV series, “Fullmetal Alchemist,” specifically the character, Winry Rockbell.
Sarah and her younger sister, Nicole, got into anime and gaming when Sarah was in fourth grade. 
Nicole also graduated from Essex Community College and is currently attending Rutgers University, majoring in bio pre-med. So it’s no surprise she came dressed as Heris Ardebit, the chief scientist in “Promare.”
It just so happens these two characters are sisters as well. “We’ve never actually cosplayed as sisters even though we’re so very close,” said Sarah. “So this is the first time we’re cosplaying as sisters from the movie.”
Gal pals Samantha LoManaco and Rheanna Maryasz both commuted from New Jersey for all three days, dressed as characters from “Bungo Stray Dogs” — Samantha as Osamu Dazai and Rheanna as Chūya Nakahara.
Rheanna is a graduate of Burlington County Community College in South Jersey and is currently a marketing major at Wilmington University in Delaware.
The convention’s organizers, LeftField Media, designated a space specifically for cosplay meetups. At designated times, participants dressed as characters from specific shows were encouraged to gather in this spot and share their love for these characters.
At the “Bungo Stray Dogs” meetup, Rheanna and Samantha rendezvoused with an additional six or seven cosplayers dressed as Chūya Nakahara and another bunch dressed as Atsushi Nakajima. There were also a half dozen Atsushi Nakajimas and a few Ryunosuke Akutagawas in the mix.
All four of these characters are male, yet every one of the cosplayers was female.
The group spent well over an hour posing for pictures for one another. Other than the occasional pair of friends, no one in the group knew each other yet they hugged, picked each other up and even rolled around on the floor together as if they were friends since kindergarten. Cell phones were handed off to complete strangers, yet everyone trusted everyone else.
The social media platform of choice for sharing these photos is Instagram. Samantha had already swapped Instagram handles with 10 others by the halfway point of day one.
Samantha is 28 years old and has been in the working world for the past four years as a certified medical assistant, yet she doesn’t feel she’s too old to dress up like anime characters.
She pretty much spoke for every attendee when she said, “It’s a really great community for people to connect with each other.”
And connect they did.
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