Relive Anime & Manga Events

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

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One Piece Card Game Regional Championship -- Los Angeles 2026

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One Piece Card Game Regional Championship -- Los Angeles 2026

Jun 13 – Jun 14, 2026 1201 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, C…

You've been shuffling the same sixty cards against yourself for three weeks. You know the matchup spread, the mulligan lines, the exact turn the deck either wins or falls apart. What you can't know -- not until you're across the table from someone who did the same thing with a different list -- is whether you were right. That's what a Regional is for. The One Piece Card Game barely landed in North America and the competitive scene already plays like it's been here a decade. On June 13 and 14, CoreTCG runs the Regional Championship at the Los Angeles Convention Center -- the biggest organized-play weekend on the Southern California OPTCG calendar, the one people rearrange their month around. CoreTCG is the organizer the serious players trust to run a clean bracket, which is why the room fills with people who didn't drive in to have fun so much as to find out where they actually stand. Open bracket, two days -- the kind of tournament where the metagame for the next month gets decided in real time, and you get to watch it happen or be the one who decides it. Entry is $37, registration runs through rk9.gg (the platform every OPTCG player already lives on for standings and pairings), and the deadline is June 12 at 7 p.m. -- miss it and you're spectating. Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S Figueroa St, right off the Metro Expo Line.

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Hentai Matsuri 2026 — San Diego

Jun 12 – Jun 14, 2026 Varies — see Eventbrite for badge options 950 Hotel Circle North, Mission Va…

Three days of programming the mainstream anime circuit won't run. Hentai Matsuri returns to the Handlery Hotel in San Diego's Mission Valley for panels, cosplay, a vendor hall, and more — June 12–14, 2026. Hentai Matsuri is a deliberately adult-oriented anime and pop culture convention that leans into the parts of anime fandom that other conventions treat as secondary — mature art, doujinshi culture, cosplay without content restrictions, and creator-forward panel programming. The convention has built a loyal following in the Southern California anime community over multiple editions: repeat attendees recognize the crowd, and the crowd recognizes itself. Date: Friday June 12 – Sunday June 14, 2026 Venue: Handlery Hotel San Diego, 950 Hotel Circle North, Mission Valley, San Diego, CA 92108 Age Restriction: 18+ (valid government ID required for entry) Tickets: Available at eventbrite.com — three-day passes and individual day badges. Panels cover: creator meetups, figure collecting, adult animation industry, fan art culture, and cosplay-adjacent programming. The vendor hall leans toward independent artists, doujinshi creators, and specialty merchandise you won't find at larger general-audience cons. The convention floor operates on a schedule; the hotel lobby runs on a different clock. If you've maxed out Anime Expo and want something smaller, more focused, and unfiltered — Hentai Matsuri is the room. Adults only; expect the crowd to know exactly why they're there.

Little Tokyo Anime and Culture Night -- Los Angeles June 2026

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Little Tokyo Anime and Culture Night -- Los Angeles June 2026

Every 2nd Saturday · Next Sep 12 327 E 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Everyone plans for convention season. Nobody plans for the ordinary Thursday months later, when you still want to be in a room with people who watch what you watch. This is that Thursday. It rotates between Little Tokyo restaurants and lounges that have their own lives outside of event night, run by people who live in the neighborhood rather than activate it. The crowd runs from casual watchers to people who quote chapter numbers, and both are fine. Vendor tables carry fan art, acrylic standees and buttons from local artists. Themed nights track the seasonal lineup. You come for one show and leave with three on your watchlist because a stranger would not stop talking about theirs. 327 E 2nd St, Los Angeles 90012. A Line to Little Tokyo/Arts District. Free street parking in most lots after 8pm. It does not peak. That is the rarer thing.

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The Real Escape Game — Anime Edition SD

Jun 13, 2026 From $38 The Real Escape Game, 550 W B St, …

For once, all those hours count for something. The seasons you burned through, the lore you absorbed without trying, the throwaway reference nobody else in your life gets — in this room that is not a hobby, it is an advantage. The puzzles were built by people who assumed you had been paying attention. This does not slap stickers on a generic puzzle set. The logic itself runs on anime logic. A reference you catch in the first two minutes shaves time off the clock; the one you miss costs you, and you find out fast which kind of fan you brought with you. Your group gets the room to itself — a real venue, no strangers folded in, no pop-up. Two to six people. Birthdays, friend nights, even a first date all work on one condition: somebody has to take anime seriously enough to recognize what the room is asking. 550 W B Street, San Diego. Tickets from $38 at therealescapegame.com. The clock starts, and you either watched enough or you didn't.

DESERT SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL - A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S

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DESERT SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL - A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S

Jun 13, 2026 128 S. Palm Canyon Dr., Plaza Thea…

The Desert Shakespeare Festival brings A Midsummer Night's Dream to Palm Springs in June — and the coincidence of Shakespeare's most enchanted play landing in a desert city at the peak of its warmest season is not lost on anyone in the room. The Plaza Theatre is a 1936 Spanish Colonial Revival venue that handles theatrical productions with the weight of a building built for exactly this. The acoustics work. The sightlines earn the architecture. A Midsummer Night's Dream in this room — the fairies, the lovers, the donkey, the mechanicals and their play within a play — reads as the kind of theatrical experience that reminds you why live performance exists when a screen approximation doesn't. Shakespeare in June in Palm Springs means the Plaza handles the climate so you don't have to think about it. The play is funny, and it is funnier in a room of people laughing together than it is on any page. Tickets at ticketmaster.com — the Festival brings professional production values to one of the most frequently performed plays in the Western canon, which means the baseline is high before the curtain goes up. Lock your seats before the summer dates fill.

Magic: The Gathering — Final Fantasy Prerelease at Game Empire

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Magic: The Gathering — Final Fantasy Prerelease at Game Empire

Jun 6 – Jun 13, 2026 Game Empire, 5037 Shawline St, San…

Game Empire San Diego, 5037 Shawline St. June 6th. The Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy Prerelease at Game Empire — the set that the overlap between Magic players and JRPG fans has been waiting for, on the day it's first legal, with the sealed format that makes every player's experience equally unpredictable. The Final Fantasy set is the kind of Magic release where the IP does extra work. The card names, the mechanics built around specific game moments, the art that references thirty years of the franchise — these land differently for players who grew up with the games. The Prerelease sealed format means you're building your deck from what you open, which means the sorceries and creatures and enchantments you pull aren't guaranteed. You build with what you get and play what you built. magic.wizards.com for the full Final Fantasy set spoiler and mechanic previews. June 6th at Game Empire San Diego. The prerelease pod runs through the day — show up early for your allocation. The Final Fantasy set is one of those release events where the whole store is excited before the first pack opens. Be in the room when the packs do.

Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc — Fan Screening Community Event San Diego

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Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc — Fan Screening Community Event San Diego

Jun 7, 2026 AMC Mission Valley, 1640 Camino de…

Chainsaw Man: The Movie — Reze Arc is in theaters now across San Diego, and the local anime fan community is gathering. The film adapts the Reze Arc from Tatsuki Fujimoto manga — a self-contained story with Reze as one of the most complex characters in the Chainsaw Man universe. Whether you are a manga reader who has waited for this or an anime-only fan, this is the recommended community theater experience. AMC theaters in San Diego are showing the film — check AMC Mission Valley, AMC La Jolla, and AMC Chula Vista for current showtimes. Subbed and dubbed versions available. Crunchyroll Fan subscribers may have early access screening access at participating theaters. Running time approximately 1 hour 45 minutes. Post-credits scene worth staying for. This community event page is for SD-area fans who want to watch together and meet other fans. Check r/ChainsawMan Reddit for local fan coordination. Bring a friend who has not seen the series — the Reze arc works as a standalone entry point.

MTG Final Fantasy Prerelease: Moogle Madness — Bards & Cards

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire 2026

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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

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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.

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FanimeCon 2026

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

No corporate booths dominating the floor. The panels, the screenings, the programming — all of it organized by volunteers who have been running this for decades, which gives it an atmosphere that is genuinely hard to replicate. It feels less like a trade show than the largest anime club meetup in California. It has run every Memorial Day weekend since 1994, drawing 25,000 to 30,000 people across four days. Programming runs 24 hours. The Saturday cosplay masquerade is a full theatrical production. The gaming hall is one of the best at any convention — tournaments, free-play consoles, retro arcades running through the night. In the dealer room and artist alley, indie creators outnumber corporate licensors. San Jose Convention Center, 150 W San Carlos St. Four-day badges sell out; single-day passes are sometimes available at the door. If you have done Anime Expo but never this, the culture is meaningfully different — and the difference is the point.

San Diego Padres vs Philadelphia Phillies at Petco Park

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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.

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