Relive Anime & Manga Events

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

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Dragonfest Expo 20th Anniversary — Asian Martial Arts & Culture Glendale

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Dragonfest Expo 20th Anniversary — Asian Martial Arts & Culture Glendale

Aug 1, 2026 TBA — check Eventbrite Glendale Civic Auditorium, 1401 N …

If you grew up on kung fu films, on anime with real fight choreography, on any corner of Asian pop culture that taught you a body could move like that, this is the room where all of it lives in one place - and this year it turns twenty. The Martial Arts History Museum's flagship celebration returns August 1, 2026 at the Glendale Civic Auditorium for the 20th Annual Dragonfest Expo, its biggest milestone yet. It calls itself the greatest cultural and martial arts expo in the world, and the twenty-year mark brings the full scale of that claim to Glendale: meet-and-greets, Q&A sessions, and photo opportunities with the martial arts celebrities and icons who defined the art on film and in competition, a six-part Q&A lecture series with guest speakers, Asian cultural performances, and a full cosplay photo experience for the anime and gaming crowd that has always overlapped with martial arts fandom. The Martial Arts History Museum is a nonprofit dedicated to preserving martial arts history and culture, and it runs this as its annual showcase - all proceeds fund the museum directly. All ages welcome. Six hours of programming from 11 AM to 5 PM, with paid parking at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, accessible by Metro and public transit from across LA County. If you have been to Dragonfest before, this is the year you don't skip. If you haven't, this is the year to start. August 1, 2026 - Glendale Civic Auditorium.

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Crunchyroll The Loop — Immersive Anime Pop-Up at Westfield Topanga

Aug 1, 2026 Westfield Topanga, 6600 Topanga Ca…

You've watched the fight scenes on your phone in bed. You've paused on the frame where the animation budget clearly tripled. Now imagine walking into that frame — not a poster of it, not a gift shop version, but the room itself, rebuilt at full scale, waiting for you to stand where the character stood. Crunchyroll's The Loop is a free immersive pop-up experience at Westfield Topanga in Canoga Park, and it's built for the people who don't just watch anime — they live inside it. The current rotation features Solo Leveling, Sentenced to Be a Hero, and Bananya, each with its own themed room complete with photo opportunities, audio and visual installations, and replica props that exist specifically so you can hold them. General admission is free, with a standby line when the space reaches capacity. A fifteen-dollar limited-edition pin pack buys fast-pass access to skip the wait. The space rotates its featured series, so the rooms you visit this month won't be the same ones that open next. Follow @discovertheloop for schedule updates. Open now through late August 2026. Westfield Topanga, first floor near The Village food court, below the AMC. Canoga Park, CA.

Crunchyroll Anime FanFest 2026 — San Diego

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Crunchyroll Anime FanFest 2026 — San Diego

Jul 25 – Jul 27, 2026 222 Marina Park Way, San Diego, CA…

This is what it sounds like when 10,000 anime fans hear the opening notes of something they have been listening to alone for years. The Rady Shell sits on San Diego Bay directly behind the Convention Center, and for two days during Comic-Con it belongs to the music anime made famous. No badge, no wristband, no cost — which means the crowd is half convention-goers and half people who came for this and nothing else. The 2025 edition put SPYAIR, yama, ASH DA HERO and Denzel Curry on the same stage and it did not read as a novelty. It read as a playlist. The 2026 lineup is announced closer to the date. Gates Saturday July 25 at 1 PM. Sunday July 26 continues. 222 Marina Park Way, San Diego. Free. You know which friend has been playing these songs in the car since high school.

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Anime Matsuri 2026

Jul 23 – Jul 26, 2026 Paid - $40-$120 George R. Brown Convention Center,…

Everybody knows the LA and New York conventions. Almost nobody outside the Gulf Coast talks about the one the entire South actually organizes its summer around — and that's exactly why it hits different once you're inside it. For nearly two decades, Houston's anime community has poured itself into these four days, and the room has the specific warmth of a scene that built its own home instead of driving to somebody else's. Thirty thousand people fill the George R. Brown for it — a convention center big enough that the panels don't feel like fire hazards and the exhibit hall has room to actually move. The guest roster runs international, Japanese voice actors and manga artists alongside the English-dub names, and the cosplay competition is one of the most serious in the South: people who spent six months on a build come here to be seen by a crowd that knows exactly what they're looking at. You come for the guests and stay for the feeling that Houston has quietly been doing this at a level the coasts never bothered to notice. George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston — July 23–26, 2026. Badge info and the guest list build as the date nears.

Ryoko Kui Exhibition & Delicious in Dungeon Exhibition — Los Angeles

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Ryoko Kui Exhibition & Delicious in Dungeon Exhibition — Los Angeles

Jul 2 – Jul 26, 2026 20 Art Share LA, 801 E 4th Place, Los…

Ryoko Kui's original artwork travels from Tokyo to Los Angeles for the only confirmed North American stop of the Delicious in Dungeon exhibition, opening at Art Share LA on July 2 — the same week as Anime Expo 2026. Two of the most significant anime events of the summer share a city. The exhibition traces Kui's creative process from rough sketches through finished panels, with sections dedicated to dungeon ecology (food replicas and monster photo spots are the signature draw), plus artwork from The Dragon's School Is Atop the Mountain and Seven Little Sons of the Dragon. An in-depth interview and time-lapse drawing videos fill in the craft story behind one of the most technically obsessive manga series of this decade. The timing matters: Delicious in Dungeon Season 2 returns in July 2026 on Netflix, meaning the community that spent last year eating dungeon creatures alongside Laios and Marcille comes back exactly when the exhibition opens. The room is going to know the material. Anime Expo runs July 2-5 — same opening week. For anyone attending both, this is the natural second stop. Tickets are timed entry during AX week (July 2-5) and open daily-entry slots from July 6-26. Adults 0. Located in the Arts District, a short drive from the convention center.

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Adult Swim on the Green — SDCC 2026

Jul 23 – Jul 26, 2026 Bayfront Park, 200 Marina Park Way…

Something about a pirate ship on the waterfront makes you feel like you already missed the best part — even though it hasn't started yet. Adult Swim on the Green returns to San Diego Comic-Con 2026 with four days of free chaos at Bayfront Park, no badge required. This isn't a booth with a brochure. It's a full-scale fan festival — games, rides, giveaways, dance parties, and evening programming that turns a parking lot into the kind of night you'll describe poorly to coworkers on Monday. Thursday brings an exclusive content screening. Friday: live table reads with the Rick and Morty voice cast. Saturday: Adult Swim Through the Years, a cosplay dance party with a live animation set by Afuchs Twin. The first 700 fans each day get exclusive prizes, which means showing up at noon is either dedication or delusion depending on how badly you want a collectible pin. If you've ever quoted Birdman at a dinner party and watched the table go silent, your people are here. July 23-26, 1pm-10pm daily (Sunday 11am-4pm). Free admission. No badge needed. Just show up and let the pirate ship explain itself.

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San Diego Comic-Con 2026 — Sunday

Jul 26, 2026 From $50 San Diego Convention Center, 111 W…

By the fourth day everyone is running on no sleep and pure generosity, and it makes the crowd better rather than worse — looser, kinder, glad to tell you where they got that. Sunday is when the cosplay hits full intensity, because it is the last chance to wear the thing you spent all year building. The announcements have already happened. What is left is the floor: publishers moving stock they do not want to ship home, creators selling the last of their limited prints, deals that did not exist on Thursday. Late July in that building, harbor visible through the glass, fifty thousand people who flew in from everywhere — nothing else replicates it. San Diego Convention Center, July 26th, badges from $50 for the final day, and they do not linger. If Sunday is your way in, take it, and go find the artist whose work has been your phone background for years.

KAYOU Walls of Fandom — SDCC 2026 at Petco Park

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KAYOU Walls of Fandom — SDCC 2026 at Petco Park

Jul 23 – Jul 26, 2026 Petco Park Interactive Zone, 100 P…

The walls are ten feet tall and covered in trading card art you have been staring at on your phone screen for months — except now the colors are the size of your entire body and you are standing inside the frame. KAYOU makes its San Diego Comic-Con debut in 2026 with the Walls of Fandom, a free immersive walkthrough experience at the Interactive Zone at Petco Park. This is KAYOU's first convention appearance, and they brought everything: larger-than-life installations inspired by their trading card lines spanning Naruto, My Little Pony, Demon Slayer, and K-pop collectibles. The experience is a love letter to the artwork behind the cards — the craftsmanship that usually lives behind a plastic sleeve, blown up to a scale where you can finally see the brushstrokes. Beyond the walls: on-site card purchasing, a fan meetup at Tito Rick's Garage (2918 Imperial Ave) on Friday July 24 from 5-9pm with trading sessions and casual My Little Pony TCG play, and the SDCC-exclusive Superfan Passport — collect stamps across KAYOU's three locations and unlock rewards. July 23-26, 10am-5pm daily (Sunday until 4pm). Free admission, no badge required.

We Touch Grass: Anime Rave Convention After Party — San Diego

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We Touch Grass: Anime Rave Convention After Party — San Diego

Jul 25 – Jul 26, 2026 Spin Night Club, 2028 Hancock St, …

We Touch Grass brings the anime rave to San Diego during Comic-Con weekend. Spin Night Club becomes the room where the convention crowd goes to let the cosplay breathe and the bass hit different. Touch Grass Entertainment has been running anime raves across the country, building a circuit where the soundtrack is J-pop remixes, anime OSTs turned club bangers, and the energy of a crowd that spent all day at panels and needs the night to match. This is the after-party the anime community shares in group chats before the official schedule drops. Saturday night of SDCC week. 9 PM until late. Spin Night Club, 2028 Hancock St, San Diego, CA 92110.

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San Diego Anime Rave (WeTouchGrass)

Jul 25 – Jul 26, 2026 2028 Hancock Street, San Diego, CA…

Somebody decided that the songs you only ever felt alone — the openings, the OSTs, the themes that hit a nerve no one around you understood — deserved a thousand people and a wall of sound. So they built a dance floor for them. This is the night your most private obsession becomes the loudest thing in the room. The DJ drops an opening you'd know in two notes and the whole floor loses it at once, because everyone here loves the same thing you do at the same embarrassing volume. Cosplay or street clothes, it doesn't matter — the only dress code is "you already know why you're here." It lands on the Saturday of the biggest fandom week of the year, when the city is full of people who came a long way to be among their own. For one night the thing you usually keep to yourself is the reason a roomful of strangers feel like home. Saturday, July 25, 2026, doors 9PM at Spin Nightclub, 2028 Hancock Street, San Diego, CA 92110. 21+.

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Comic Tron - Comic Con After Party

Jul 25 – Jul 26, 2026 1337 India Street, San Diego, CA 9…

The convention center goes dark at six, but the people inside it don't power down — they just need somewhere to put the charge. That's the whole reason a tribute act spent years building replica chromed helmets, a full-scale pyramid stage, and electro-luminescent suits that glow like the inside of a game grid. They believe the best hours of Comic-Con week aren't on the floor at all — they're after, when the badge comes off and the costume stays on and a room full of strangers turns out to be exactly your people. Little Italy's Music Box becomes a Tron sequence for one night: futuristic beats, glowing everything, an "Alive 2007"-style spectacle that treats Daft Punk like scripture. Cosplayers, ravers, and the SDCC crowd who refuse to call it a night all end up under the same lights. You do not need a Comic-Con badge to walk in. Doors at 8PM, the night ignites at 9PM, Saturday, July 25, 2026, at Music Box, 1337 India Street, San Diego, CA 92101. Tickets through Belly Up.

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Lumpia Con 5

Jul 23 – Jul 25, 2026 Free 423 F St, San Diego, CA 92101

Somebody decided that the biggest pop-culture week in the country shouldn't make you choose between where you're from and what you love. So for the fifth year running, a Filipino kitchen in the Gaslamp becomes a fandom headquarters — three nights where the artists' tables, the music, and the food all belong to the same people. You walk in and the room already knows you: FilAm illustrators selling original work off the table, fans who grew up on both anime and adobo, a crowd that doesn't need anything explained. Thursday is Sketch & Scratch — live drawing and music, with original pieces you can buy on the spot. Friday is a meet-and-greet with a free signing. Saturday is the mixer, special guests, the night everyone stays late. No badge required. Nothing to buy at the door. Just a place that decided this community deserved a center during the week the whole world is watching San Diego. Lumpia Con 5 runs Thursday July 23 through Saturday July 25, 2026, nightly from 7pm at Gaslamp Lumpia Factory, 423 F St, San Diego, CA 92101. Free to attend all three nights.

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San Diego Comic-Con 2026 — Saturday

Jul 25, 2026 From $65 San Diego Convention Center, 111 W…

Saturday is the day the whole thing stops pretending to be a convention and becomes whatever it actually is. The floor hits full density. The cosplay reaches an intensity that pulls photographers in from other cities. Hall H holds the panels people slept on concrete for, and the exhibit hall is the fullest it will get all week, every booth running, every exclusive either in somebody's hands or already gone, every aisle moving at the speed of a hundred and thirty thousand people who all made plans. The Saturday afternoon cosplay density is its own documented phenomenon, and by evening the Gaslamp reaches a pitch the rest of the year never approaches. Saturday badges are the hardest to get for exactly this reason. If you have one you already know the assignment: reach the halls you care about early, then leave a hole in the day big enough for the thing you could not have planned. That is the part you will still be telling people about. Comic-Con finds you on Saturday. Let it.

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WeTouchGrass San Diego Anime Rave 2026

Jul 25, 2026 San Diego, CA (venue TBA)

No corporate backing, no major label - just fans building the scene they wanted to exist, and it is one of the most organic community formations happening in SoCal nightlife right now. This is not a watch party or a convention panel. It is a club night built entirely around anime culture: DJ sets spanning J-pop, anime OSTs, city pop edits, and hyperpop, a crowd that shows up in cosplay and stays on the dance floor. The anime rave format has been spreading across multiple cities under the Touch Grass Entertainment banner, and the San Diego edition is part of that expanding circuit - consistent shape every time: a 21+ venue, DJ sets from 9 PM to 2 AM, cosplay-friendly, community-forward. Venue and exact address get announced via the Touch Grass Entertainment social channels closer to the date; check touchgrassent.live for updates and advance ticket links, because capacity is limited and these sell out. If the anime rave circuit filling in across SoCal is your kind of scene, WeTouchGrass San Diego is the door in.

2026 Los Angeles Jiu-Jitsu Open — NABJJF at Cerritos College

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2026 Los Angeles Jiu-Jitsu Open — NABJJF at Cerritos College

Jul 25, 2026 11110 Alondra Blvd, Norwalk, CA 90…

Nobody who has crammed into two cars with their whole gym because somebody had a match forgets that feeling — the hard bleacher, the voice going out, the bracket sheet folded into a pocket. That is who this competition is built for, not the solo grinder chasing federation points. The NABJJF format differs from IBJJF in two ways that matter to a hobbyist: smaller entry fees and a regional registration pool, which is why white belts warm up in the same building as brown belts. Cerritos College helps too — real bleachers and gymnasium space, so you can watch several mats at once instead of losing the one match you drove out for. Gi and No-Gi, every belt, every age, every weight class, one day. Competitors sign up through nabjjf.com in Norwalk; spectators just walk in. Go be the loudest person in the building for someone who will never admit they needed it.

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Mosh Eisley: Best Party In The Galaxy

Jul 24 – Jul 25, 2026 $62 1337 India Street, San Diego, CA 9…

Somebody looked at a galaxy far, far away and at a room full of people screaming the bridge of a song they cried to in high school, and decided those were the same people. They were right. This is the night the Star Wars obsessives and the emo kids stop pretending they're different crowds. The band plays the songs you'd never admit you have memorized. Strangers in Jedi robes and band tees scream every word back at each other like a pew of believers. Cosplay isn't a costume contest here — it's just what you wear to church. The floor is standing-room, the lights go galactic, and for one night the most uncool thing about you becomes the reason a roomful of people love you. Come in costume or come in the shirt you've owned for fifteen years. Both belong. Doors open at 8PM (Cantina Hour early access for the bundle crowd); the party runs Friday, July 24, 2026, 9PM–1:30AM at Music Box, 1337 India Street, San Diego, CA 92101. 21+. Tickets $62 advance.

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San Diego Comic-Con 2026 — Friday

Jul 24, 2026 From $65 San Diego Convention Center, 111 W…

By Friday the nerves are gone. Thursday's opening-day disbelief has burned off, everyone knows which escalator is a trap, and the convention finally becomes the thing it actually is. Hall H has fired its first reveals, so the room now has proof it was worth the line. The exhibit hall is running at capacity. Cosplay density peaks — this is the day the costumes that took a year to build come out, because the people who built them also know what Friday is. Studios schedule their biggest panels for it on purpose, which is why single-day Friday badges are the first to disappear every year. If you are chasing one specific Hall H moment, this is the day you commit to the line. If you are here for the floor, the artist alley, and the way the Gaslamp keeps going long after the halls close, all of it runs at once and none of it lets up until the lights go down. Send it to the friend who has been entering the badge lottery since the year you met.

Audible Level Up Lounge — Dungeon Crawler Carl SDCC 2026

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Audible Level Up Lounge — Dungeon Crawler Carl SDCC 2026

Jul 24, 2026 Swing Social, 527 Fifth Ave, San D…

There is a hallway you have only ever walked in your headphones, and now it has a door. Audible is taking over Swing Social at 527 Fifth Avenue in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter on July 24-25 for the Level Up Lounge — a free, no-badge-required offsite during San Diego Comic-Con. The activation is built around Dungeon Crawler Carl, the LitRPG phenomenon that turned a man and his cat into the most-listened audiobook series on the platform. Fans can complete themed activities to earn XP redeemable for exclusive loot and prizes. The experience includes a Bobiverse-inspired BobNet zone, a Dungeon Crawler Carl survival station where you can record your own Crawler Incident Report, cosplay touch-up stations, phone charging lounges, photo ops, and more. On Friday July 24 from noon to 6 PM, a fully wrapped Princess Donut Food Truck parks at 502 7th Avenue serving free donut holes — including the Goddamnit Donut (cinnamon), Samantha's Head (powdered sugar), and The Desperado Glaze (vanilla). Saturday features creator panels with bestselling author Matt Dinniman and narrator Jeff Hays from 1-4 PM. Free entry, first come first served.

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