Anime Expo 2026 - Convention Report

After seven years away, I attended Anime Expo this year.

It was kind of a last minute decision. Going to Fanime reminded me of AX and how I used to go each year. Back in 2019, the last time I attended, the crowds were already getting too big and I didn't feel comfortable with how overgrown the con had become.

Then came the pandemic, which killed it for, I think, two years(?).

So it's been back in operation for a few years now. I didn't think of going before now because of the overcrowding, but for whatever reason, I just felt like going again.

I got an Industry badge again this year, like in 2019. This gave me access to the Industry Lounge, a place of at least some respite (lol) from the teeming hordes in the hallways.

Like I said, it's been seven years. I didn't know what it would be like now.

So this was Thursday, Day 1.

For those who don't know, this is how crowded the South Hall lobby used to be on Saturdays, i.e., the big day of the convention. And it was this crowded on Day 1.

The first day was exhausting. On the east side of the L.A. Convention Center they had blocked off Figueroa Street, turning it into an outdoor matsuri with food booths and the like. Between Figueroa and the actual convention center buildings was yet another gathering spot they called AX Crossing. This was an outdoor plaza with live music and places to sit.

On the convention center's north side, known as the West Hall, you had go through a parking garage and walk around the Crypto.com arena to get to the convention center entrance.

What all of this meant was that there was no way to pull up in an Uber, or to have a friend drop you off right at the entrance. Every approach involved a substantial walk of some kind.

I'm older now, so these things matter whether I want them to or not. I did manage to negotiate my way through this landscape in the summer heat, but it wasn't easy.

The Journal of Anime and Manga Studies (JAMS) sponsors AX's academic lectures. I did one long ago, together with another woman, on yaoi. This would’ve been around 2008 or 2009, so yeah... a long time ago.

The lectures are still held in the same auditorium-style room as before. This year, I attended Black Fandom and Anime: How We "Adopt" Our Characters, which was a two-part presentation centered on black anime fans and some of their viewpoints on anime. The first part was on Dragonball’s Piccolo, who has been interpreted as being the “black” character in Dragonball, for reasons. The second part was about how some black anime fans see Naruto’s Akatsuki not as a gang of villains, but an anti-fascist group whose aim of dismantling the ninja world system is actually noble.

Very enjoyable lecture, presented by Javon Goald and and Dexter Thomas. I didn't get Dexter's information but Javon’s website is jstonee.wordpress.com.

I braved the dealer’s hall a few times. In line with AX’s general overgrowth and overcrowding, the dealers have spilled over not only into West Hall but also Kentia Hall, which used to just be the Artist’s Alley. But more on that later.

The main dealer’s hall is still South Hall. It was already packed like sardines in there on Day 1, so I just looked at a few vendors.

MAPPA had a small exhibit of beautiful drawings from Attack on Titan.

AX now has a Quiet Lounge. Again, I haven’t been to AX since 2019 so maybe they’ve had it for a while, I don’t know.

I went in there a couple times and relaxed for a while. The lounge was large and full of sofas and armchairs. By Day 1 already I saw some exhausted folks sitting in chairs with their eyes closed or half-lying on couches.

So it didn’t surprise me to see this sign in there.

How well they know us. ;-D

Speaking of lounges, there’s always been a large triangular-shaped space just upstairs from the West Hall entrance. It was carpeted and people would just camp out there during AX’s open hours to talk, eat, and relax.

They’ve now turned that into “Lounge 21,” a sectioned-off afterhours area for drinks and a nightclub area with live music acts.

I didn’t go, as I left the convention around dinnertime each day. It’s nice that they’re utilizing that space for something different, though the expo being as crowded as it is, I think it still would’ve been good if it served its purpose as a place where people could rest, too.

I attended the Manga Plaza panel. Manga Plaza is a small publisher of BL, GL, and related books. Their books are officially licensed from Japanese publishers. There are more of these small localization publishers now than I remembered from before.

I think it’s a good thing. The field shouldn’t be limited to the big publishers only. There’s loads of content in Japan that would sell well outside of Japan, if it could only be licensed and localized.

After years away from AX, I didn’t do a lot of things this time that I did before. I used to take millions of cosplay photos and I think I’m just done with that (lol). (You can read my Anime Expo 2019 Convention Report if you want to see the more detailed con reports I used to write.) I spent time in the Industry Lounge upstairs either chatting with people or just resting for a bit. I went to both dealer’s halls in the South and West Halls.

I forayed into Kentia Hall, and here I got a surprise. The front half of it was full of dealers, including publishers that I guess didn’t get into either the South or West Hall for whatever reason. The Artists Alley artists were shoved into the back half of the hall. They used to be the only occupants of Kentia Hall.

Again, the traffic in the aisles was almost not negotiable. You were wading through throngs of people in every aisle. After a while, I exited the hall and took a break.

I discovered a little oasis in the madness. Hidden in a back corner beyond the cafeteria-style food place on the West Hall ground floor was a Groundworks Coffee.

I went to Groundworks several times throughout the expo, as it was uncrowded. I don’t think most con-goers knew it was there.

Next to Groundworks was a pop-up food kiosk. I can’t remember what food they sold, but they had this poster in front.

I don’t usually waste my breath criticizing things I don’t care for. I just ignore them. However, I have to say that the above is probably the worst AI image I’ve ever seen a business use, lol. I mean... look at it. What is that concoction, even?

So, after seven years away, what did I think of AX? It was mostly the same as before, in both its good and not-so-good aspects. Some good panels, and the academic lectures are always worthwhile. The Industry Lounge was a welcome place to chat and hang out. The expansion of food booths, and dining options in or near the convention center in general, was a great addition. The space allotted to dealers was insane. The crowds were beyond capacity for the facilities.

I think that's the real issue, and the real drawback to AX at this point. I recall the days when the expo was not so well-organized, but it was smaller back then. Now it's huge, and I would say overall the organization is good considering the sheer size of the event. The problem is that there are too many attendees for safety to be ensured, and it was down to luck each day that nothing went seriously wrong.

For example, I was caught in a crush of people in the West Hall lobby. This entrance features a short escalator up to the main floor. Once on the main floor, there's a second escalator on the left that goes up to the floor where the panels are held. To the right of that escalator is where the main hallway from the South Hall empties out into the West Hall.

I was in a mass of people who were either coming up to the main floor, entering from the hallway, and/or trying to reach the escalators going up to the panels. It was a convergence of at least three different crowds all trying to get to different places. At one point, everyone stopped moving because there were simply too many bodies in the way of where you wanted to go.

It was for less than a minute, but it was scary. Finally the jam got unstuck and people started moving again.

This isn't anything that "better organization" can solve. It's just too many people. Which is why I suspect that AX will move to the San Diego Convention Center once their contract with L.A. Convention Center is up, because that's the only convention facility in California that is larger than LACC.

AX is scheduled to return to the LACC in 2027. After that, let's see if they'll make the move. I think it's needed, really needed, but I don't run the thing so we'll see what happens.

Regardless, I appreciated the opportunity to attend AX once again. It is truly the biggest anime event in the U.S. and everyone who is an anime fan should go at least once. It is an amazing and one-of-a-kind experience.

Fanime 2026 - Convention Report

I attended Fanime again this year. Last year I got food poisoning just before the convention, which limited my activities at the convention. This year I was healthy and made the most of my time there.

I qualified for an industry badge again this year, which was much appreciated. I’m too old at this point to be standing in three-hour badge pickup lines in the hot sun. ;-) I had a quiet Thursday after I got my badge, hanging around the mostly empty convention center until I returned to my hotel.

Friday morning I had some personal business in nearby Santa Clara and also visited the Valley Fair mall, before returning to Fanime.

The artist who did my I Woke Up in Another Life cover, gem2niki, had her art featured in the Fanime program and posters.

I attended a panel on the first day, “Page2Plate’s Anime Food IRL.”

It was about where in the Bay Area and L.A. to get the best dishes you’ve seen in anime. The female presenter on the panel seemed to have eaten at every Asian restaurant in California, lol. A true foodie.

Idris’ Closet was a Fanime charity. A room in the Marriott was turned into a thrift shop and all purchases benefited a local charity. I bought a bracelet.

Near the Signia hotel, there’s a café/bakery I’ve always wanted to try. I finally did this time.

Bijan’s Café is a European-style café with a huge selection of pastries and baked goods. I had a slice of Black Forest cake. I’d intended to do an Instagram-style photo before eating it, but forgot. :-D So here’s a picture of slices of it in the bakery case.

I stopped taking cosplay photos ages ago... don’t have the energy for it, but here’s some photos taken of cosplay shoots, mostly from behind them.

I really like Fanime’s adult programming track. Not all anime is Pokemon and Doraemon, and not all fans want all-ages stuff exclusively. This year, as in previous years, the 18+ track was held at the Doubletree.

I stayed at the Doubletree this year, so it was certainly convenient for me. This has been one of the official Fanime hotels for a long time and shuttle buses run frequently between it and the convention center, about a three-mile drive.

It was my first time staying at the Doubletree. What I didn’t realize is that the lines for the shuttle buses can get pretty long, though they move fairly quickly. I’ve usually stayed within walking distance of the convention center so my shuttle bus trips to the Doubletree and back were limited before this year’s convention.

It was manageable, though. All the adult programming was in the evening hours, so it was convenient for me to be staying at the same hotel.

The adult track consisted of a video room, a “Night Market,” a stand-up comedy and performance stage, an 18+ manga library, and the adult version of Manga Ichiba. Manga Ichiba was new this year. I think the idea was a small Comiket with artists selling their handmade manga and zines. The Manga Ichiba at night was 18+, while the daytime version featured all-ages materials.

I couldn’t really take photos of the Night Market etc., but I took a few photos in and around the hallway.

Back at the convention center, one of my favorite panels was the Real or Fanfiction? panel. The premise is simple. Read a passage from a story and the audience guesses: is it from a published book or fanfiction?

Of course, the chosen passages are usually floridly overwritten, trope-laden, smut-heavy, and frankly mostly unbelievable... which is why the audience usually guesses that it’s fanfiction. However... often it’s from published fiction, believe it or not.

In a time in the publishing world when fanfiction routinely gets “the serial numbers filed off,” i.e., the character names changed and then published as original fiction, this doesn’t surprise me. And too, remember that there is a lot of really excellent fanfiction out there that is professional quality in every respect, except that the author just enjoys writing fanfiction and isn’t seeking to have their stories published. And also... that being published is not an automatic measure of “quality” by any means.

It’s like the blurred line between the Dealer’s Hall and Artist’s Alley. Really, most of the Artist’s Alley artists are professional level and could easily sell in the Dealer’s Hall. There’s almost no distinction anymore that matters.

Speaking of the Artist’s Alley, this year I finally got to meet my cover artist gem2niki in person. Last year, her sister was manning the booth and I left my business card. This year gem2niki was at her booth and we got to meet and chat, which was great. :-)

Fanime is always enjoyable. This year I made up for last year’s limited activities due to food poisoning and did everything I planned to. I’m trying not to commit to things far in advance, so I don’t know if I’ll be back next year or not, but I had a very good time this year. :-)

Fanime 2025 - Still the Kid

I’ve been going to conventions my whole life, first as a science-fiction fan to science-fiction conventions, and then later to anime conventions.

Somehow, in all these years of convention-going, I’ve managed to stay well. But this time, I got hit with food poisoning just before I left home. Meaning, my trip had a slow start, as I was still recovering. But I rallied and managed to have a good convention anyway. On the plus side, I saved a ton of money on my food bill, as I could only eat bananas and soda crackers and drink Gatorade. ;-)

I had Industry Registration this time, as a translation rewriter/editor. As I was still sick when I arrived, it really saved me, as industry registration is a quick process. In my condition I really don’t think I could’ve stood in the hot sun for three hours in the regular registration line, like I remember doing in previous Fanimes.

In any event, I had a slow start. And so did the convention, as far as I could tell. Friday, the first official day of the convention, looked like this:

Of course, it’s a school/work day, and these photos aren’t representative of the entire convention. I could only be on my feet for limited periods of time that day, so I know I missed a lot. Still, I did have the impression that the con’s attendance was lower this year than the last time I went in 2023.

The San Jose Convention Center is near San Jose State. The university purchased part of the Signia Hilton hotel to use as student housing, which I think was a brilliant idea.

Like San Francisco, San Jose’s downtown area suffered in the pandemic. It was truly a ghost town in 2023. It looked a bit livelier to me this year.

I finished off Friday by watching the 2020/2021 AnimeMusicVideo.org winners. One especially stood out to me. It was the comedy winner for its year.

Video: Context Concerto
Creator: KisanziVNS



Saturday was a full day for me. I’d recovered enough that I could go out and do everything I felt like doing.

I came in on the last few minutes of the Modern Hearts: Love in Anime panel.

Again, I think most people had left already as it was the tail end of the panel, so I hope I’m not mischaracterizing the attendance with this photo. Also, they had the unlucky “first panel of the morning” slot, which is usually not super well-attended anyway. From the few minutes I was there, the panel was interesting. The panelists were from the Nakama Podcast.

Then I went into the Artists Alley.

That’s... a heavy schedule, isn’t it? I recall reading something recently about the long hours expected for artists to be present at their booths as being too much at these conventions.

It was packed inside. I actually had a mission - to find an artist to do the cover art for a short series of books I plan to write. When you have a specific idea, a specific look in mind, it makes it easier. You can rule out a lot of wonderful art that just doesn’t fit with your vision.

For example: chibi art, sword and sorcery art with dark foreboding backgrounds, hyperstylized character art… all great in their own way, but not what I was looking for.

I found one artist that looked like she might fit my needs. The artist’s sister was at the booth and she gave me her sister’s contact information. I’ll follow up soon. In general, for my self-published books, I do my own cover art, but this new series will require a more professional look. We’ll see what happens.

Stage Zero in midday:

While taking a break outside the Marriott café/gift shop, I met a woman and we began talking. Like me, she was an older fan at Fanime for herself, as well as bringing her anime fan son with her to the convention. We exchanged contact info and I hope we will stay in touch.

I went into the Dealers Hall.

One thing I like about Fanime’s Dealers Hall is that they have Japanese food booths set up inside, along with numerous tables and chairs. I don’t think I’ve seen that at any other anime convention.

I went back to the hotel to rest for a bit, then came back. On the way, I encountered an exhibit of queer art.

Years ago, during the AIDS crisis, I was a volunteer at a local AIDS hotline. Every Saturday afternoon I answered questions over the phone, alongside other volunteers, mostly gay men. All too often there was a missing person, someone who’d been in the chair last week. The deaths came too quickly and sometimes shockingly out of the blue. Someone would be looking well, and then be dead by the next week.

I went in and spoke with Ken Yeager, the director, and viewed the art. If you get a chance, I recommend visiting this center. They’re located at 240 South Market in San Jose, and their website is: Queer Silicon Valley.

Here’s the obligatory shot of the front of the convention center...

... as well as a big cosplay shoot. If you’re curious what one of these shoots looks like from the cosplayers’ perspective, I also took photos from behind the cosplayers.

The panels are really what make a convention for me. Since it’s fan-run, Fanime has a wide variety of panels. A sample of panel titles: “Your Favorite Anime is Trash,” “Horrifying Childhood Favorites,” and “Extremely Hard Anime Quiz.”

I came in at the tail end of “A Therapist’s Guide to Anime.”

(I cropped out the line of people waiting to ask questions on the left side of the above photo, for privacy reasons.) I had stood in line to get into the panel earlier, but it was full. I went away for a bit and returned towards the end, so I was able to get in then.

I’m glad I made the effort. The therapist, Saige Ferko, did a slideshow of anime characters with analyses of their particular personalities. For example, Death Note’s Light Yagami is clearly a narcissistic personality, while Attack on Titan’s Eren Yeager is a borderline personality. If she ever does this panel again, I’ll definitely make the effort to see the whole thing.

Next, it was Nick Redman’s panel on PBS: The Secret Anime Channel. You might remember that Nick did the fun panel on Cup Noodle back at Fanime 2023. This time, he spoke on KTEH, San Jose’s local PBS station, and its history of airing anime programming back in the early days. It was interesting to hear that anime had an earlier breakthrough in Northern California than in Southern California, though it doesn’t surprise me given the more concentrated Asian influences in the Bay Area. It was a fascinating look at how anime was received early on in the U.S.

Finally, I was feeling energetic enough to stay for one more panel: “Real or (Fan) Fiction?”

This was a panel where they put quotes up on the screen from either published romance books or fan fiction, and you had to guess which it was. I got a lot of them wrong, i.e., what sounded like obvious fan fiction turned out to be from published novels and vice-versa. The audience was really into it and it was a lot of fun.

I left the convention and found a big party in the park. The photos don’t do it justice, as you have to imagine a green space that is about 2-3 blocks long, and filled with people, music playing, food carts, etc. It was a nice way to end the convention for me.

This was the daytime view from my hotel room.

I left on Sunday to avoid the Monday Memorial Day travel rush, so I did miss the last day or so of the convention. Still, I enjoyed myself and am already thinking about next year.

This was my fourth time at Fanime, if I’m recalling correctly. It’s still the anime convention I’m most drawn to and most fond of.

At one of my first Fanimes, I remember meeting a woman while sitting outside in this area of the Convention Center.

We had a brief encounter, one of those odd moments where two strangers meet and one says something the other remembers forever. She was middle-aged, as was I then, and she said something like, “Are you here (at Fanime) for your kid?”

And my response was, “No, I’m the kid.”

I’ve always remembered that. I’ve never needed a reminder that I was already middle-aged when I became an anime fan around 2005 or so. And here I still am, now looking like someone’s Japanese-American grandma who came along to make sure her grandkids are okay at the convention. Only, I’m still the kid. Maybe I shouldn’t be proud of that, exactly, but I’m certainly not ashamed of it. There are no age limits on what you love. So maybe I’ll see you all again at Fanime next year. :-) We’ll see!