These Floats from 2024 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Will Grab Every Anime Fan’s Attention
- This year marked the 98th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with iconic characters making an appearance in balloon-form.
- From anime to pop culture, various beloved characters took center stage in the celebration.
- Goku and Luffy represented the anime community and received widespread praise.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade across New York City is one of the most celebrated occasions in the history of the country. As everyone gathers around to enjoy a hearty meal with their loved ones, the parade plays in the background, offering lively entertainment and conversation starters. The tradition of the parade dictates pop culture characters and their floats be seen in the streets of the bustling city, exciting fans all over.
This year’s parade was no different with numerous characters making an appearance along with people who are a part of the project. Here are the anime characters we spotted at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade of 2024.
Goku and Luffy make a Balloon Appearance at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Two anime characters ignited excitement so huge that nobody could stop talking about it. Goku from Dragon Ball and Luffy from One Piece managed to unite all anime lovers in the spirit of Thanksgiving at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The balloons of the two characters received unanimous cheers and hoots from the audience in the streets as people enjoyed having this mix of cultures.
Ever since manga and anime entered the global stage, people have been in a frenzy about the characters and their interesting stories. Their soaring popularity has made fans’ love grow stronger as the shows bring in newer stories.
Goku and Luffy’s giant balloons were life-like, taking the streets of New York City by storm. They were appreciated beyond compare, standing testament to the genre’s increasing fandom in the United States of America. While anime was considered childish at some point in time, people have come to appreciate their nuanced storytelling and complex characters.
Passersby also spotted the floating giant balloons of adorable Pikachu and Eevee. The anime has spawned games and more stories just because of how layered the entire narrative is. Pokémon has been on for 20 long years, proving how much fans love and appreciate it.
The response received by these two floats in the 98th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade makes fans eager to know who will appear in the celebration in the future. Perhaps more manga characters will join the parade from next year onwards since fans go gaga over spotting their favorite character from a movie or show.
Goku was the first anime character in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
After appearing in the 2018 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Goku set the world record for being the first-ever anime character to do so. Dragon Ball was also one of the first anime to burst onto the scene internationally. The show received massive appreciation and went on for the longest time. Goku, being the central force driving the story, inevitably became a fan favorite.
The float of the character back then was 70 feet long and 36 feet wide with 90 people holding the strings to keep it in control. Since then, Goku has remained a mainstay of the parade with eight consecutive appearances. 2024 marked the second time Luffy was seen in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Other Memorable Moments of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
It’s a day of fun and gratitude as the Hollywood and entertainment industry takes over the streets of New York to spread the Thanksgiving cheer. Marking the beginning of the holiday season as well, we see many popular stars make an appearance in the yearly parade. This year, Cynthia Erivo was spotted perhaps to promote Wicked. Liza Colón-Zayas from The Bear kickstarted the parade.
This year’s lineup was impressive, to say the least. Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade of 2024 had 17 featured character balloons, 22 floats, 15 heritage, and novelty balloons, more than 700 clowns, 11 marching bands, 10 performance groups, and live music. More pop culture nods were given to iconic characters such as Wednesday Addams, Minions, Dora, Spongebob, and the memorable Disney medley including Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
