Relive Anime & Manga Events

181 anime & manga events the community showed up for — relive the night, then catch the next one.

Anime & Manga Events Gaming & Esports Events Concert & Music Events Movie & Film Events Sports Events Comic & Superhero Events Convention & Expo Events Fashion & Streetwear Events Family & Community Events Nation's Best

MTG Final Fantasy Prerelease: Moogle Madness — Bards & Cards

This Happened

47 Gathered

MTG Final Fantasy Prerelease: Moogle Madness — Bards & Cards

Jun 6, 2026 $30 936 5th Ave, San Diego, CA 92101

The evening edition of Bards and Cards Final Fantasy Prerelease runs a different temperature. When the afternoon crowd clears out, Moogle Madness opens — same six-booster sealed format, same pack-per-win prizing, but with Gaslamp Quarter Saturday night energy behind it. Limited to 16 players. Magic: The Gathering's Final Fantasy crossover is the most ambitious IP collaboration the game has ever produced, pulling characters and summons from VII through XVI into a fully playable set. The design team spent years making card mechanics match the source material — this reads as authentic rather than cosmetic. If you missed the afternoon session or prefer playing at night, this is your shot before the set hits stores anywhere else. Cards in hand on Saturday evening before they are available in retail. Gaslamp Quarter, Downtown San Diego. Doors open at 5:30 PM, packs crack at 6. Register ahead — 16 spots total. Sealed format means no existing collection required — all six booster packs are opened at the table on the night.

Dandadan: First Encounter — U.S. Theatrical Screening

This Happened

27 Gathered

Dandadan: First Encounter — U.S. Theatrical Screening

Jun 6, 2026 AMC Theatres and Cinemark location…

Dandadan: First Encounter brings the wildest anime of 2025 to U.S. theaters on June 6, 2026 — a limited theatrical run from GKIDS and Fathom Events that packages the first arc of the beloved series for the big screen experience it deserves. The series follows Momo Ayase, who believes in ghosts but not aliens, and Ken Okarun, who believes in aliens but not ghosts — until the day they both turn out to be right. What follows is a supernatural action comedy that mixes paranormal investigator energy with shounen battle sequences and genuine emotional depth. The theatrical presentation brings the animation's kinetic visual style — OLM's dynamic direction, Eunyoung Choi's fluid action choreography — to a format where the scale actually registers. GKIDS theatrical screenings typically run at AMC, Regal, and Cinemark locations with subtitled and dubbed options. Check your local listings for exact showtimes and theater availability in Los Angeles and San Diego. This is not a watch-at-home event. The theatrical window is limited. If you've already watched the series on Netflix, this is the original Japanese broadcast presentation — the one that made the animation community stop what it was doing when it premiered. Tickets available through Fandango and the AMC app. Limited dates, limited theaters.

This Happened

250 Gathered

250

AniFest 2026

Jun 6, 2026 Torrance Cultural Arts Center, 333…

AniFest is the convention that remembers what conventions were supposed to feel like. One day at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, and the whole floor hums with the particular energy of people who found each other through the same shows, the same characters, the same late-night rabbit holes. Over a hundred vendors line the hall — artist prints, plushies, handmade cosplay accessories, imports you cannot find anywhere near here. Twenty-plus celebrity guests rotate through the signing area, close enough to actually talk to. The V-Stage runs an idol performance set. Cosplay showcases. LAN Hero gaming tournaments if you want to compete. A maid cafe if you want to sit down and feel like you are in an episode. Small enough that you do not lose your friends in a crowd of sixty thousand. Large enough to fill the day twice over if you are the kind of person who stops at every table. Twenty dollars at the door. Children under 12 free with a paid adult. This is the convention where people make their first cosplay because the room is safe enough to try. Where the vendor who sells hand-painted Jujutsu Kaisen prints remembers you from last year. Where the community is not performing fandom — it just is fandom, in the same room, for one afternoon in Torrance.

This Happened

115 Gathered

115

Dungeon Meshi — Special Screening SD

Jun 6, 2026 $12 Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, 5665 Balb…

Alamo Drafthouse, 5665 Balboa Ave, San Diego. June 6th. $12. Dungeon Meshi — Delicious in Dungeon — gets a special screening at Alamo Drafthouse, which is the venue that understands exactly what a themed anime screening should be and builds the entire experience around it. Dungeon Meshi is the anime that took the isekai genre's premise and asked what happens when the adventurers eat the monsters. It's funny and it's genuinely well-crafted and it's the kind of show that makes you want to watch it with people who will react to the food writing the way it deserves. Alamo Drafthouse serves food during screenings, which at a Dungeon Meshi event is not a logistical detail — it's the point. $12. June 6th. Reserve your seat at drafthouse.com/san-diego. The pre-show programming at Drafthouse is curated, not filler — at a themed screening like this, it's part of the event. Come with a sense of humor and an appetite. The show rewards both.

This Happened

52 Gathered

Anime Conji 2026 San Diego

May 30 – Jun 1, 2026 From $40 Town and Country Hotel, 500 Hotel …

San Diego anime and Japanese pop culture convention celebrating its 16th year in 2026. Anime Conji draws the dedicated San Diego anime community for panels, cosplay contests, a dealers room, and industry guests. Unlike Anime Expo, Conji is intimate enough to actually meet the guests. The cosplay contest Saturday evening is competitive. Badges available at the door. May 30 through June 1. All ages welcome. One of the best fan-run conventions in Southern California.

This Happened

96 Gathered

Anime Riverside 2026

May 30 – May 31, 2026 Riverside Convention Center, 3637 …

The Riverside Convention Center hands itself over to anime for the weekend of May 30-31, 2026. Two days, 250-plus vendors and artists, and dozens of guest voice actors including Sean Schemmel, Johnny Yong Bosch, Brianna Knickerbocker, and Kaiji Tang among the confirmed lineup. Professional Anime Wrestling -- which is exactly what it sounds like -- runs alongside a cosplay contest, karaoke lounge, and a free arcade room open all weekend. Now in its fifth year, Anime Riverside has grown from a local idea into one of the most accessible anime conventions in the Inland Empire -- close enough for a day trip from San Diego, Orange County, or Los Angeles without the scale and cost of Anime Expo. The Riverside Convention Center is at 3637 5th Street, Riverside, CA 92501, near downtown Riverside and accessible via the Metrolink 91/Perris Valley Line (Riverside Downtown Station is a short walk away). Parking is available on-site and in surrounding garages. Single-day and weekend badges are available at animeriverside.com. Cosplay is welcome and celebrated throughout both days.

West Coast Card Show — TCG Edition Ontario 2026

This Happened

230 Gathered

230

West Coast Card Show — TCG Edition Ontario 2026

May 28 – May 31, 2026 Ontario Convention Center, 2000 E …

Pokémon, One Piece TCG, Magic: The Gathering, and sports cards all in the same building for four days. The West Coast Card Show TCG Edition at the Ontario Convention Center brings live grading services, influencer appearances, competitive tournaments, and a vendor hall drawing sellers from across the West Coast. The Ontario edition is distinct from the larger Anaheim show — it has a sharper TCG identity and a more competition-focused energy. If you are hunting specific singles, looking to grade a collection, or want to compete in open-bracket formats across multiple card games in a single weekend, this is the show that makes the trip worthwhile. The Ontario Convention Center is easy to reach from across the 909, LA, and the South Bay. Free-to-attend areas are available throughout the show floor. Competitive registration varies by game and bracket. Vendor table applications and spectator information available at westcoastcardshow.com.

This Happened

37 Gathered

San Diego Renaissance Faire 2026

May 2 – May 31, 2026 6003 Pioneer Blvd, Whittier, CA 90…

The Golden West Renaissance Faire brings the pageantry of 16th-century England to Whittier's Pio Pico State Historic Park, within reasonable driving distance from San Diego's North County. Set across a shaded outdoor site, the faire features full jousting tournaments with skilled mounted combat, swordplay demonstrations, period music from roaming troubadours and stage acts, an artisan market with hand-crafted goods, and immersive interactive experiences suitable for all ages. Cosplay and Renaissance costume are warmly welcomed — dress the part or arrive as a civilian and let the ambiance do the work. Food vendors serve classic faire staples: turkey legs, meat pies, soft pretzels, and craft beverages. Weekend afternoons throughout May. Pio Pico State Historic Park is located at 6003 Pioneer Blvd in Whittier — accessible from the 605 Freeway, approximately two hours from San Diego's Mission Valley. General admission tickets available at the gate; check goldenwestshows.com for current schedule, pricing, and any pre-sale discount opportunities before the drive north.

Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire 2026

This Happened

58 Gathered

Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire 2026

Apr 25 – May 31, 2026 Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area, 1550…

The longest-running Renaissance faire in America. Eight weekends of jousting, turkey legs, period costumes, ale, and performances. The crowd is 60% costumed on a regular weekend. Anime fans, LARP players, cosplayers, and history nerds all coexist peacefully because everyone's too happy to argue. Runs every weekend April through May. This is the one.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End — Special Screening

This Happened

35 Gathered

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End — Special Screening

May 30, 2026 $12 Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, 5665 Balb…

Alamo Drafthouse San Diego. May 30th. $12. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End gets a special screening in a room designed to be the right room for it — Drafthouse, full service, the film playing in the dark with the kind of audience that chose to see it in a theater because they understood what that meant. Frieren is the anime that caught people off guard. It looks like a fantasy adventure and operates as a meditation on time and grief and the way memory functions in the people left behind. The pacing is deliberate. The emotional payoff arrives when you're not defending against it. Watching it in a theater, surrounded by people who came for exactly this, in a venue that takes cinema seriously enough to build its entire identity around it — that is the version of this story that lands differently. Alamo Drafthouse got this right. $12. May 30th. Reserve your seat at drafthouse.com/san-diego. Come before the show starts — the pre-show programming at Drafthouse is curated, not filler. If you've been watching Frieren at home and want to see what an episode at full scale in the dark does to it, this is the screening. If you haven't started the series yet, this is the wrong entry point. Watch the show first. Then come back and see it in this room.

This Happened

379 Gathered

379 1 saved

FanimeCon 2026

May 22 – May 25, 2026 Paid - $75-$120 San Jose Convention Center, 150 W …

Unlike larger conventions, FanimeCon is entirely fan-run. No corporate booths dominating the floor. The panels, screenings, and programming are organized by volunteers who have been running this event for decades. That community ownership gives it an atmosphere that is hard to replicate. It feels less like a trade show and more like the largest anime club meetup in California. FanimeCon has run every Memorial Day weekend since 1994 at the San Jose Convention Center, drawing 25,000–30,000 attendees over four days. The West Coast flagship. Programming runs 24 hours across the weekend. The cosplay masquerade on Saturday is a full theatrical production. The gaming hall is one of the best at any convention — tournaments, free-play consoles, and retro arcades running through the night. The dealer room and artist alley are substantial, with indie creators outnumbering corporate licensors. Bay Area, Sacramento, and Central Valley attendees make up the core, but it draws from across the West Coast. Four-day badges sell out. Single-day passes may be available at the door. If you have been to Anime Expo but not FanimeCon, the culture is meaningfully different.

San Diego Padres vs Philadelphia Phillies at Petco Park

This Happened

131 Gathered

131

San Diego Padres vs Philadelphia Phillies at Petco Park

May 25, 2026 100 Park Blvd, San Diego, CA 92101

Memorial Day weekend at Petco Park. The Phillies come to San Diego on May 25th carrying the particular energy of a team that travels well — Philadelphia fans follow their teams, they make noise in the opposing park, and they make the crowd around them feel the game harder. That friction is the best version of a regular season game. The Petco Park experience in late May is what drew people to baseball in the first place: the temperature is right, the sun drops into the outfield seats around the fifth inning, and the park fills with people who decided that today is the kind of day you don't spend indoors. The Phillies are a legitimate postseason contender, which means nothing about May 25th is throwaway. The Padres rotation and the bullpen dynamics that have been building all spring face a real test. Right field bleachers for the atmosphere. Infield seats for the angles. Either way you leave having watched real baseball, in the right park, in the right city, at the right time of year. Check mlb.com/padres for availability. The Tommy John stand behind left field is not optional. Memorial Day weekend at Petco has a specific energy — the holiday, the stakes, the crowd that showed up for both.

34th Annual Canoga Park Memorial Day Parade 2026

This Happened

192 Gathered

192

34th Annual Canoga Park Memorial Day Parade 2026

May 25, 2026 Sherman Way & Owensmouth Ave, Cano…

The only Memorial Day parade in the City and County of Los Angeles. Not marketing -- it is literally true. While the rest of LA heads to the beach, Canoga Park has staged this parade every year since the early 1990s, and the 34th edition is the biggest yet. Theme: Saluting the Price of Freedom. Grand Marshal: Rear Admiral Dave Barnes, USN. The parade steps off at 11 AM on Sherman Way from Owensmouth Avenue east to Cozycroft Avenue, with a pre-ceremony at 10 AM. Mayor Karen Bass is expected to attend. The Condor Squadron flyover happens at approximately 11:15 AM. Expect marching bands from area high schools, vintage military vehicles, community floats, and around 5,000 spectators lining Sherman Way. Bleacher seating is available along the route. Coffee shops and restaurants on the surrounding blocks open early -- arrive by 9:30 AM to secure a clear sightline before the sidewalks fill. Free to attend. No tickets required. A free RSVP on Eventbrite helps the organizers plan crowd logistics. Street parking available throughout Canoga Park. The Metro Orange Line De Soto Station is four blocks away.

This Happened

57 Gathered

Anime Conji 2026 — San Diego

May 22 – May 24, 2026 Handlery Hotel, 950 Hotel Cir N, S…

Anime Conji is San Diego's longest-running fan-organized anime convention, held annually at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley for a three-day weekend of anime, manga, gaming, cosplay, and the specific community that has kept this event running for over a decade as an independent, fan-operated alternative to the larger commercial conventions. The convention's fan-run character gives Anime Conji a distinct personality: the programming decisions are made by people who attend because they genuinely love the material, the guest selection reflects real community enthusiasm rather than marketing considerations, and the convention floor has the energy of a community gathering rather than a marketplace. Anime Conji features programming across multiple rooms covering series-specific panels, AMV (anime music video) competitions, voice actor guest Q&As and signings, a dealers room with merchandise from licensed and independent vendors, an artist alley with original work from regional creators, and a cosplay competition with detailed craftsmanship judging. The Handlery Hotel is at 950 Hotel Cir N in Mission Valley, accessible from the I-8 at Hotel Circle. The Mission Valley Trolley stop connects to downtown San Diego. Convention badge holders receive discounted hotel rates at the Handlery when booking through the Anime Conji room block. Weekend and single-day badges available through the Anime Conji website.

Southern California Renaissance Faire 2026

This Happened

17 Gathered

Southern California Renaissance Faire 2026

Apr 25 – May 24, 2026 15501 E Arrow Hwy, Irwindale, CA 9…

The Southern California Renaissance Faire brings 16th-century England to the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in Irwindale for six weekends each spring, making it one of the largest and longest-running Renaissance Faires in the western United States. Set across a sprawling outdoor site with permanent period-appropriate structures, the faire transports visitors into an immersive world of jousting tournaments, human chess matches, wandering minstrels, bird of prey demonstrations, comedy stages, and artisan village markets selling hand-crafted goods from resident vendors. Cosplay and period costume are enthusiastically encouraged — first-time visitors can rent period attire at the gate if they arrive unprepared. Food vendors serve turkey legs, meat pies, mead, and period-inspired fare. Multiple entertainment stages run simultaneously, so the schedule rewards leisurely exploration. The faire runs weekend afternoons through late May. General admission tickets available at the gate or discounted online in advance. Irwindale is accessible from the 210 Freeway, roughly 30 minutes east of downtown Los Angeles. Check socarenfaire.com for complete schedule, entertainment listings, and discount ticket options.

MOTUNIVERSE 2026 — Masters of the Universe Fan Convention

This Happened

126 Gathered

126

MOTUNIVERSE 2026 — Masters of the Universe Fan Convention

May 23 – May 24, 2026 Torrance Marriott at Del Amo Fashi…

MOTUNIVERSE is the first-ever dedicated Masters of the Universe fan convention in Southern California, celebrating 44 years of He-Man, She-Ra, and the entire MotU universe. Taking place May 23-24, 2026 at the Torrance Marriott at Del Amo Fashion Center, this Kickstarter-funded event brings together collectors, original fans, and the next generation of Castle Grayskull devotees. Guests include original voice actors from the 1980s Filmation cartoon series. The event floor features rare vintage toy displays, original animation cels, custom artwork, and dealer tables stacked with vintage and modern MotU collectibles. Panel discussions cover the history of the franchise, the upcoming live-action adaptation, and the booming vintage toy market. Cosplay is encouraged -- expect everything from classic Skeletor to Netflix She-Ra to Masters of the Universe: Revelation variants. MOTUNIVERSE is a grassroots event funded directly by the fan community through Kickstarter. It is not a corporate production -- it was built because fans demanded a gathering that did not exist. That Kickstarter closed fast, which tells you everything about the pent-up demand in this community. The Torrance Marriott is located at 3635 Fashion Way, Torrance, CA 90503, minutes from the 405 freeway. Parking is available in the adjacent Del Amo Fashion Center lot. Tickets are available through the official event page. Weekend passes include access to both days, all panels, and the main convention floor. Single-day passes also available. By the Power of Grayskull -- this one is for the fans who never stopped believing.

This Happened

20 Gathered

D23 x SFC: Pirates of the Caribbean

May 23, 2026 $15-25 4700 Western Heritage Way, The Aut…

The D23 Fan Club and Street Food Cinema have teamed up for a special outdoor screening of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at The Autry Museum of the American West in Griffith Park on Saturday, May 23, 2026. Doors open at 6:00 PM; film screens at dusk around 8:15 PM. This D23-presented screening carries Disney fan community energy: expect cosplay, themed photo opportunities, and a crowd that treats the film with genuine affection. The Autry Museum grounds provide a picturesque lawn setting in the foothills of Griffith Park, framed by trees and open to the evening sky. Bring low-back chairs or a blanket. Food vendors and DJs are on-site before showtime. The Autry Museum is at 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, CA 90027, with parking available in Griffith Park. This event is open to all guests regardless of D23 membership. Check the Street Food Cinema website for tickets and any member benefits.

Padres Star Wars Weekend — Fireworks Night vs Oakland Athletics

This Happened

243 Gathered

243

Padres Star Wars Weekend — Fireworks Night vs Oakland Athletics

May 23, 2026 100 Park Blvd, San Diego, CA 92101

Come early. The pregame cosplay in the Gaslamp is its own event — lightsabers, full character builds, families where every member is a different character from the same film. By the time first pitch arrives, you've already been somewhere. Petco Park hosts Star Wars Weekend on Saturday night against the Oakland Athletics, with fireworks after the game over Mission Bay. One of the few games that sells out before mid-season. If you're going, the ticket decision is now, not later. The fireworks are better from inside the park. You'll understand why when they start.

There's more here for you.

An account shows you anime & manga events matched to your exact taste — not just what's popular.

Find mine Log In

Relive Anime & Manga Events

Leaving Falkor