Once a year an event takes place in New York that is so bafflingly entertaining you'd have to be crazy not to attend.  No, it's not Jello wrestling or the drunken Santacon (although, that too happened yesterday), it's the New York Anime Festival.

For three days a variety of insane otaku take (average age: 15) take over the Javitts convention center in order to check out the latest anime, stock up on overside swords/costumes for cosplay and meet face-to-face with people whom frankly you would never otherwise meet.

It's fascinating and here are some photos.

Lots of people are there to stock up on the latest and greatest niche gear:

Videos and new games are popular as well:

But the best are the people.  This dude is dancing along perfectly to the video on the screen:

And, in case you ever want to practice your light saber skills, you too can join NYJedi.com ("The light saber enthusiasts collective"):

This journalist from the anime network was covering the event.  I'm sure she is the closest to sex many of the teenage boys there will get for a long time:

Truly, though, the kids there are awesome.  Check out the following:

My, what a big gun you have.  They actually have a "cosplay weapons policy": no functional firearms, projectile weapons, etc.