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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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.

34th Annual Canoga Park Memorial Day Parade 2026

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34th Annual Canoga Park Memorial Day Parade 2026

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

Most of Los Angeles treats the last Monday in May as the unofficial start of beach season and nothing more. One neighborhood in the west Valley refuses. Sherman Way shuts down, the sidewalks fill three deep, and Canoga Park stages the only Memorial Day parade in the entire City and County of Los Angeles — not a marketing line, literally true. High school marching bands. Vintage military vehicles. Community floats built in somebody's driveway. And then the Condor Squadron comes over the rooftops low enough that conversation stops mid-sentence and every head on the block tilts back at once. That flyover is the part people describe years later. The theme is Saluting the Price of Freedom, with Rear Admiral Dave Barnes as Grand Marshal. Free, no ticket, bleacher seating along the route, and the Metro Orange Line drops you a short walk off. Bring the relative who never talks about their service. They will not say much. They will not need to.

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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.

MOTUNIVERSE 2026 — Masters of the Universe Fan Convention

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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.

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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

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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.

Dragon Ball Sparking Zero Community Night — May

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Dragon Ball Sparking Zero Community Night — May

Every 4th Saturday · Next Oct 24 $10 GameSync San Diego, 2860 Main St, …

Ranked matches cannot give you this: the noise a room makes when someone reads a counter correctly, twenty people behind you with an opinion about every character select, and the very particular humiliation of losing in front of witnesses who saw exactly what you did wrong. GameSync runs it properly — real monitors, proper controllers, a bracket that treats the evening like it matters. The advantage of a monthly is the regulars. These players have history with each other, which produces both a level of play and a level of trash talk you will never find in a random online lobby. A close set in this room has an audience, and the audience is loud. Ten dollars at the door on Main Street. If you have been playing since launch, come find out where your game actually stands. If you are new to it, this is still the right entry — you will lose to people who can explain why. Bring the friend you have been beating online. Watch what happens in person.

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SD Comic Fest 2026

May 15 – May 17, 2026 Town and Country Resort, 500 Hotel…

SD Comic Fest is San Diego's answer to the San Diego Comic-Con overflow — a grassroots fan convention held in the spring that brings together the collector, creator, and fan communities that SDCC serves but in a more intimate, accessible format that specifically celebrates the print comics, vintage collecting, and creator culture that defined pre-corporate convention culture. Comic Fest focuses deliberately on what made comics conventions exciting before they became entertainment industry marketing events: original art dealers, back issue sellers, independent comic book creators at tables selling and signing their work, panel discussions about comics history and craft, and a collecting community that considers itself custodians of an art form. Cosplay is present but not the focal point. The vendor room at Comic Fest is a genuine market for original comic art pages, silver and bronze age books at fair prices, Golden Age finds, and small press publications from independent creators who wouldn't command a presence at SDCC's massive floor. This is where a collector who loves comics as objects — drawn pages, printed paper, the specific history of the medium — finds things they can't find anywhere else. SD Comic Fest typically runs in late April or early May in San Diego at the Town and Country Resort or similar event venue. The convention is all-ages and admission is charged at the door, with weekend passes available. Check the SD Comic Fest website for the confirmed 2026 dates and venue closer to the event.

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Comic Con Revolution Ontario 2026

May 16 – May 17, 2026 $20-35 2000 E Convention Center Way, Onta…

At the big conventions you queue for a photo. At this one you sit down across from the person who drew the thing, and they have time. The floor is built around direct creator access — meet artists and writers face to face, commission original work while you wait, pick up independent titles shelved next to the mainstream publishers, and dig through a dealer room genuinely packed with back issues, figures and collectibles. Cosplay runs the whole weekend without anyone treating it as a competition. Saturday draws the bigger crowd. Sunday moves slower, which is when the browsing gets good and the conversations get longer. Ontario Convention Center, 2000 E Convention Center Way — off the 10 and the 60, parking on-site. Weekend passes are the better value if you are coming both days. Bring cash and a list. You will leave with something signed by a person whose name you now know.

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AniPop 2026

May 16, 2026 $12–$17 California Center for the Arts, Es…

California Center for the Arts, Escondido. May 16th, 2026. $12-$17. AniPop brings the anime pop-culture market to a performing arts venue in North County San Diego — one of the only events in the region specifically designed for the community between Los Angeles and the San Diego convention circuit. The AniPop floor is built around independent artists and anime merchandise — handmade goods, fan art, imported items, limited-edition products that circulate at conventions and don't exist in stores. The artists who table here chose this event specifically, which means the energy of the dealer's room is different from a mall pop-up: these are people who care about the work and came to be in a room with people who care about it the same way. $12-$17 for the day. The California Center for the Arts has the layout to handle this well — the performing arts complex gives the event room to breathe without feeling underpopulated. Escondido is thirty minutes from San Diego and an hour from Los Angeles, which puts it in reach for most of SoCal. anipop.us for tickets and the full vendor list. The artist alley is where the real discovery happens — slow down in that section. The piece you didn't know you were looking for is usually on the table you almost walked past.

Little Tokyo Anime and Culture Night — Los Angeles

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Little Tokyo Anime and Culture Night — Los Angeles

May 9, 2026 327 E 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Los Angeles has a hundred anime communities. Most of them exist online. Little Tokyo is where they come to exist in person. The neighborhood has been the physical home of Japanese American culture since the early 1900s, which means it has something most anime meetup spaces don't: real infrastructure. Kinokuniya's two-story bookstore stocks manga series before they're licensed in English. Anime Jungle carries figurines, doujinshi, and cosplay supplies that you can't find at major retailers. The izakayas on 1st Street stay open late enough that conversations about what you watched can run until midnight. The informal gatherings here — watch parties in restaurant back rooms, group meetups before conventions, cosplay sessions in the Weller Court plaza — aren't always posted publicly. They form around things that matter to the community: new season premieres, convention preview screenings, merchandise drop nights. If you're looking for the LA anime community between conventions, this is where it lives. First and second Saturday evenings are the densest nights. Daikokuya ramen has a line by 8pm — get there before 7 if you want a table. Kinokuniya closes at 8pm, so arrive early if you want to browse the import section. The Weller Court plaza gets lively around 7pm on summer weekends. Metro A Line stops at Little Tokyo/Arts District station — no car needed. Parking in the Weller Court structure if you drive. Free neighborhood. No registration. The culture is here year-round, and it accelerates during AX week.

Dan Da Dan — Season 2 Premiere Watch Party San Diego

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Dan Da Dan — Season 2 Premiere Watch Party San Diego

May 3, 2026 Nerd Bar San Diego, 2847 Universit…

Dandadan Season 2 picks up where one of the most chaotic, tender, genuinely funny anime in recent memory left off — Okarun, Momo, and the supernatural nonsense that keeps pulling them back toward each other. Nerd Bar San Diego is screening the Season 2 premiere with the crowd that was already texting about it before the opening song ends. The show that proved shonen could be weird and still hit you right in the chest.

San Diego Padres vs Chicago Cubs at Petco Park

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San Diego Padres vs Chicago Cubs at Petco Park

Apr 27, 2026 100 Park Blvd, San Diego, CA 92101

The Chicago Cubs come to Petco Park starting April 27 in one of the most historically weighted pairings in the National League. The Cubs travel with one of baseball's largest and most vocal fan bases — there will be Cub blue in the left-field bleachers and along the first-base line before the first pitch is thrown, a reliable feature of any Chicago visit to any National League park. But Petco Park in April is one of the most beautiful baseball environments in the major leagues: the views from the upper deck toward the bay, the Gaslamp Quarter skyline visible over the left-field wall, and the Padres faithful showing a visiting crowd exactly what San Diego baseball looks like when the team is playing with purpose. April against the Cubs at Petco is not a casual visit — it is a reminder that the National League West intends to make its presence felt against a storied franchise.

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