Manga fans are no doubt like us dying for the first episode of Chainsaw Man’s anime adaptation to finally air—which has aired since the writing of this article—so many were going to cosplay as the main man himself, Denji. While looking for a new wall scroll to line our office walls, we did run into Denji himself in his Chainsaw Man mode! We snapped some pictures but we knew he wasn’t going to stand around forever as he had villains to defeat and lives to save. Honestly, we saw several Denji clones running around NYCC 2022 but this particular one felt like the real deal and now we know he loves NYCC as much as we do! Maybe we shall meet him again next year and he can teach us here at Honey’s Anime how to be heroes ourselves!

With the new Super Mario movie releasing in 2023—The Super Mario Bro. Movie—we knew some of the NYCC 2022 cosplayers would be dressed as the characters from the beloved franchise. We ran into some tough guy Mario—too tough for us to take photos of—but we did find Princess Peach talking to the crowd outside and just being lovely. We did want to ask her where the real Mario was but we were too star-struck to ask! We didn’t spot Princess Daisy during our walk-in at NYCC 2022 but we have no doubt she was somewhere around trying to find her Luigi.

NYCC 2022 might be the main place for those who love comics but it doesn’t mean only comic book fans walk the halls! While looking for a panel to watch—all of which were extremely busy—we saw Joker from Persona 5 chilling with her friends. Okay, so obviously this isn’t the “canon” Joker but that is the beauty of cosplay, you can make your favorite characters any gender you want! Joker and her friends were extremely polite and despite us interrupting their relaxing time—probably tired from stealing hearts and grabbing merch—they were more than willing to let us take a picture for our article!

As we wandered around NYCC 2022 we snapped a lot of random photos and honestly were laughing when we realized some of the images we caught contained some cosplay we just didn’t expect in the shot. One of the first images is seeing the popular childhood character Waldo who typically is pretty tough to find! We do wonder if you can spot him…it isn’t particularly hard but we won’t deny we only noticed his presence after scrolling through various pictures. We wish we would have gotten to talk to him just to see where he’s been recently and just why he loves hiding in giant crowds!

Another surprising image is capturing one of the most iconic heroes, The Dark Knight himself, Batman. Actually…not just one Dark Knight but several together! We were heading up the press room for a much-needed snack break—and to rest our very tired feet—and as we snapped some pictures we discovered Batman(s) talking with some convention goers! Were they secretly on a mission to save Gotham and/or were they just curious about where to find the best bat meal? Needless to say, we were smiling that we caught the Caped Crusader and his possible clones in a shot at all when they are always known for some great disappearing acts. Good job team!

You can’t have an NYCC without spotting the X-Men, one of the most iconic mutant superheroes in the comic world. A part of us was thinking they were on a mission as we couldn’t find any of the X-Men anywhere at first, but then we ran into these two and they don’t need introductions! Cyclops and Jean Grey are two of the more famous X-Men heroes and we quickly introduced ourselves and snapped a picture! We got scared thinking Cyclops might hit us with an optic beam but he was just posing and we sighed in relief! These two were super friendly and we hope they continue being amazing representations of our two favorite X-Men characters!

Shonen Jump’s more popular series—Bleach and One Piece—have never had a real crossover but at NYCC 2022 a mind-melting union occurred. On the show floor, we saw a Zoro cosplayer and an Ichigo one too! On top of that, both of them were talking to each other before we took their photo! What were they discussing we had to wonder. Did they know of a future crossover we didn’t hear about or are the One Piece and Bleach worlds set in the same universe!? Obviously, this is a joke but we love seeing Shonen Jump fans cosplaying as two famous warriors!

Zoro wasn’t the only One Piece character we met. As we were leaving for the day we ran into. Boa Hancock was also enjoying NYCC 2022 and graced us with her presence. We applaud this cosplayer for doing a fantastic job representing one of the best girls of One Piece and we bow our straw hats.

Ghost Rider, the Spirit of Vengeance, and one of the less utilized heroes of the Marvel world. NYCC cosplayers don’t shy away from showing their love for their favorite heroes and villains alike regardless of how popular or infamous they are. That’s why we jumped for literal joy when we ran headlong into a Ghost Rider cosplayer. We gave this dude some props. As you can see from the eyes, his eyes glowed red and we had to wonder if this was his cosplay or if he too had the Penance Stare! We took a photo and then said our goodbyes hoping to leave the hero in a good mood!