Anime Expo | The King of Cons Constrained by Construction

Believe it or not, this year marks my 20th anniversary of attending Anime Expo. I’ve ridden the wave through its biggest ups and downs over the last two decades, tracking its evolution from Anaheim to Long Beach, and finally to its massive modern home in Los Angeles. 2025’s edition marked a new high for me, as the many improvements made to the con’s logistics were keenly on display.

Which is why it hurts just a little bit more to watch the con buckle under its own weight this year, plagued by a mix of unavoidable external hurdles and entirely preventable internal choices.

As the LA Convention Center kicks off its grand reconstruction project to become a world-class event space by 2029, any massive gathering held here in the meantime is bound to suffer some brutal growing pains. Anime Expo 2026 was absolutely trapped in that construction crossfire. Yet, despite the bottlenecked pathways, the con valiantly persevered, delivering an unparalleled level of premier programming, stellar panels, and unforgettable musical acts.

As always, the one-of-a-kind industry showcases were the main event for me. This year, AX pulled out all the stops by taking over the Crypto.com Arena, packing in roughly 6,000 hyped fans at a time to celebrate massive corporate titans like Jujutsu Kaisen, Bleach, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. For me, though? Studio Trigger’s “Cyberpunk Edgerunners 2” took the cake. Beyond just a look back at how hugely successful the first season was, the thousands in attendance were treated to the world premiere of the entire first episode of season 2, before it hits Netflix later this year.

Introduced by CD Projekt Red’s Bartosz Sztybor and Saya Elder, we heard about how this next season aims to be “more grounded & more violent”, explicitly likening Edgerunners season 1 to a Michael Bay flick while season 2 channels Martin Scorsese. Rocking a fresh color palette and an intriguing cast of characters, I can’t wait for my next joyride across Night City.

Wanting a break from the hustle and bustle of the con floor? Looking to engage your favorite anime (or learn about new ones) in a more academic sense? Every single year, I make it a priority to sit in on the lectures hosted by the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies, also known as JAMS. Led by their brilliant founder and editor-in-chief, Billy Tringali, JAMS brings together an incredible assembly of graduate students, professors, and researchers to break down the cultural and scientific impact of anime. Sometimes directly targeting the content of a series, like how Serial Experiments Lain from 1998 was terrifyingly prophetic in its depiction of social media ecosystems and internet personality. Other times, taking on a more meta-perspective, analyzing the complex racial coding of Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z, or offering sharp critiques on how real-world traditional museums struggle to display manga as a legitimate art form. This year, I will remark that there were some presenters a bit less polished than others, but overall I enjoyed digging into the themes explored. AMS remains a crown jewel of the con, and I’ll be eagerly tracking their published work all year long.

Of course, it wasn’t just anime that was given attention at the con. Famed video game developer Dan Salvato behind the hit visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club returned to AX to deliver an intimate masterclass discussion on his personal script-writing and character design frameworks. He didn’t just look backward either. His upcoming release, “Magicore Anomala”, has definitely got my attention!

But the absolute, out-of-left-field banger panel of the entire weekend goes to our SoCal neighbors, Rocket Panda Games. Enlisting the aid of charismatic voice acting behemoths, Aleks Le and Ben Starr, they showed off their upcoming title, “Cresata”, in collaboration with Shatter Flask Games.

“I’d say it’s retro-inspired… Think Castlevania, Strider, with 2D sprites, so it has that retro feel. Then the polygons, the 3D backgrounds, evoke a Playstation 1, Playstation 2 era kind of feel. So you’ve got a fairly high difficulty sidescrolling action-platformer, with grappling & dark fantasy.”
– Rocket Panda Games Executive “Panda in Chief”, M-Panda aka Mikey McNamara

For an entire hour, Mr. McNamara and his crew had the completely packed room eating out of their hands, using a devastating combo of live drawing from key artist Masa, elite on-stage chemistry, and unhinged comedic antics.

Then, they pulled off something I have literally never witnessed in my twenty years of attending cons: they recorded the entire audience live to act as sound effects to their official trailer! So, yes, I can now officially confirm that yours truly is featured in a video game trailer alongside Ben Starr and Aleks Le. Is a permanent voice-acting career shift on the horizon for me? Stay tuned. But for now, definitely keep your eyes peeled for the Cresata Kickstarter dropping soon.

On the heavy-hitter industry side, legendary artist Yoshitaka Amano, world-renowned for shaping the ethereal visual identity of the Final Fantasy franchise, was on hand to reveal his gorgeous new anime project, “ZAN.” Touting a “100% hand-drawn by humans” artstyle, he and his production team emphasized “From the origin of human hands, we look to the future”. The world premiere pilot shown off was set to jungle & hip-hop beats, marrying the 90s & 2000s vibe with the return to hand-drawn animation.

As for a video game company sticking to their medium, but also expanding their genre coverage, Arc System Works had a wonderful booth presence, offering AX attendees a chance to sink their teeth into the upcoming “Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls” fighting game. Though I am more of a fighting game enthusiast than a hardcore FGC aficionado, I had to give it a shot. Naturally, when challenged by another human player, I got curb stomped. But I gave it my all, enjoying the glorious anime stylized Marvel characters like Captain America, Black Panther, Peni Parker, and my man, Star-Lord.

To be perfectly honest though, my absolute favorite gaming experience of AX 2026 was spending hands-on time with the recently unveiled “Qliphah in Providence’s Shadow.” This is a genre-bending action RPG with an undeniably slick anime aesthetic. AX is notorious for throwing a million flashing distractions at you to sap your attention, but if you actually sat down, took a breath, and learned the ins and outs of its intricate menu bars, stats, and tactical combat flow, you were rewarded with an incredibly unique music-rhythm-esque combat system unlike anything I’ve experienced. I am notoriously anti-pre-order, but this game might just force me to break my own rule.

Undoubtedly though, the true star of the show across all of AX 2026 was the concerts.

Kicking off the AX Crossing stage at 10:00 AM sharp on Day 1, our favorite fishy VTuber friend Umi Kyoku absolutely belted out show-stopping covers from Ado & One Piece, and even The Apothecary Diaries. Not to mention her original track (*ahem* as featured on LAG Radio), “Tragical Girl”.

LiveLater in the weekend, the powerhouse trio of pinponpanpon took over that very same stage, drawing a massive crowd that grew exponentially by the minute.

There they hyped-charged the stage with tracks weaving J-pop with hip-hop, rap, and elements of EDM, breaking the mold for what you may have expected just by looking at them in their schoolgirl outfits.

music was thriving all across the AX campus. Just taking a casual stroll past the Beer Garden, I stumbled into Mariachi Eclipse performing vibrant mariachi arrangements of classic Kirby themes alongside traditional tracks, which somehow resulted in an entire crowd of anime fans literally line-dancing!

Not to mention Lounge 21 popping off throughout the weekend. I caught Welksie’s set towards the end of Day 3 and was shocked by how smoothly his “live AMV”-style graphics & melodic dubstep music went together. To elevate it even further, he brought out a phenomenal live vocalist cosplaying as Lucy from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Massive shoutout to the both of them for closing out my Saturday night with an outstanding performance.

Before all that though, it was time for my personal main event. My most anticipated AX concert. Bearing witness to Vocaloid producer royalty sharing the stage with outstanding up-and-comers, I got to bounce, groove, vibe, and shout to Japan Music Vocaloid. In a monumental team-up, international media curators Dwango and Nebula17 joined forces to present a staggering lineup: HachiojiP, kz of livetune, SatapanP, Picco, and special guest Teddyloid. This star-studded roster showcased Vocaloid culture in a raw, thumping club atmosphere, delivering three and a half hours of pure, unadulterated, non-stop energy. We got to witness core musical memories being forged in real-time. Like when kz closed his phenomenal set by seamlessly mixing his iconic anthem “Tell Your World” with Porter Robinson’s “Something Comforting.” Or when SatapanP dropped a bomb of an unreleased, exclusive collaboration with GRIMES, before smoothly transitioning Hoshimachi Suisei’s viral hit “Bibidiba” into Bruno Mars! Special shoutout to their team for doing all this under the AX badge credentials too, only requiring a free ticket to attend. And for those who missed out, keep your eyes peeled for more, because this is not the end. Announced that night was Beyond Borders Vol 1: Emerge Mode Miku, massive collaborative EP explicitly designed to launch Vocaloid music into the global mainstream spotlight like never before, featuring cutting-edge artists like slayr, Frost Children, XAMIYA, George Clanton, and jon-yakitory. Plus, Dwango executive/producer Gorokiyotake Orimoto explained to me after the event that their goal is to bring Japan Music Vocaloid on tour across the country.

Next stop? A city near you.

Now, for the vast majority of attendees, the true heart of the convention footprint is the sprawling Exhibit Hall, stretching across South and West Halls, and the iconic Artist Alley down in Kentia Hall. And there were plenty of stellar moments hidden away in the aisles this year. Naturally, you had booths larger than life, repping the major corporate players like Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Toho Animation. But there were also smaller surprise spots, if you knew where to look. Sake Godzilla was giving out free samples, shockingly refreshing in the LA heat. Mosobox brought tons of Vtuber merch and Meet & Greet opportunities as well. Bibisama was showcasing some of the absolute highest-quality streetwear apparel in the entire building (even if the premium price tags matched that elite quality.) And the Code27 3D Companion Hub showed me that the future is finally here: I can have a customizable, animated waifu or husbando to chat with verbally, on my desk, 24/7. Absolutely wild.

However, I would be entirely remiss as a journalist if I didn’t address the elephant in the convention center: the overwhelming, suffocating overabundance of gacha mobile game booths. Walking the aisles, I overheard numerous attendees expressing genuine frustration at the sheer volume of what some in the community are calling “gachaslop.” Gone were the days of countless vendors, unless you journeyed to a small corner of the absolute back of West Hall or down into the depths of Kentia Hall.

And so we have come to the section detailing the con’s cons.

The major issues were two-fold. The first and primary culprit is out of AX’s hands: the Los Angeles Convention Center is currently undergoing a massive, multi-year modernization and construction project that won’t conclude until the Spring of 2029. This layout shift effectively completely neutralized a massive amount of open courtyard and back-lot space that traditionally relieves heavy foot traffic and holds the queuing lines for the popular 400-series panel rooms. Instead, thousands of attendees were forced to line up directly in front of the building, reducing avenues for movement and leading to greater congestion.

Furthermore, the reduced floor space in West Hall forced the event organizers to shift multiple commercial vendors down into Kentia Hall, crowding out the Artist Alley creators and narrowing the walking paths to an absolute crawl. It also meant the beloved interactive Entertainment Area was evicted from the main building entirely, propped up down the street on top of an LA Live parking structure under a massive tent.

That is, if you could even find it. Signage throughout the con seemed incredibly minimal this year. When you combine that lack of directions with a massive, noticeable reduction in veteran AX volunteer groups like Access Control, navigating the layout and getting basic questions answered became an exhausting ordeal. I am honestly completely baffled as to why the organization chose to cut so many dedicated volunteer staff members who hold years of invaluable institutional knowledge. We can only hope that next year brings their triumphant, organized return.

And so, here we are at the finish line.

Like clockwork, Anime Expo consistently delivers an unparalleled, world-class slate of programming, events, and community moments that you simply cannot replicate anywhere else on Earth. But it also arrived alongside some incredibly hefty operational issues that cannot be ignored.

But look. I’ve watched this convention survive a worldwide pandemic, the 2008 global financial crisis, and even the infamous 2007 Long Beach debacle. I have zero doubt it will adapt and survive the structural woes that plagued it this season.

There is absolutely no question in my mind whether I’ll be back for Anime Expo 2027. Twenty years later, and I am still deeply, irrevocably in love with this convention, this community, and the sheer joy it brings to our corner of the world. Just like any long-term relationship, we have our occasional fights, but we always make up in the end.