For anime fans in the California Bay Area, Memorial Day weekend means one thing: Fanime. For four days (or five, if you count Day Zero), anime fans gathered to shop, attend panels, cosplay, and celebrate anime and fandom.
So, let’s take a look at Fanime 2025 and explore what the convention had to offer…
Convention Overview
FanimeCon was held from May 23-26, 2025, located in the San Jose Convention Center. This was Fanime’s 31st year, give or take the years it had to skip due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so there were attendees who have been going for literal decades. This year, Fanime had a festival/matsuri theme, with decorations and badges featuring fireworks, yukatas, and festivities.
Badge pickup was at its fastest yet this year, with attendees breezing through the lines to get their badges and go. For a convention that was once regarded as a LineCon where attendees waited for several hours, the speed and efficiency this year were remarkable, so credit must be given there.
As the convention’s motto is “for fans, by fans,” you could ask any of the staff or volunteers and see that they’re fans who love anime, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who wasn’t a Fanime attendee before they joined the staff. This also came through in the schedule, with fan panels taking up a good portion of the programming.
This extended throughout the convention, from fan artists in the artist alley to the J-Fashion show to game shows and music. Even just walking around outside, attendees could see cosplayers posing for photos, musicians performing, and friends reuniting for the first time in a year.
(Notably absent were the “danger dog” vendors, who normally sold bacon-wrapped hotdogs on the sidewalk throughout the weekend, due to multiple factors. Unfortunately still present were religious demonstrators who decided that yelling at anime fans from a megaphone to call them sinners would be a good way to spend the weekend.)
Inside the convention center, attendees could walk around to get photos, go to any of the main halls (Dealers Hall, Artist Alley, and the Game Room), find the karaoke room, stop by the cosplay lounge, or grab some overpriced convention center food to eat. In the middle of it all stood Stage Zero, where attendees could sit to watch performances, see the guests, play games, or enjoy whichever show was on stage.
Guests
Anime cons are known for bringing in guests from across the industry, and Fanime is no exception. This year’s guests included voice actors, musicians, cosplayers, and more.
On the voice actor front, Fanime had Japanese actors Tsubasa Yonaga and Atsushi Abe, along with American voice actors Jessie James Grelle, Dorothy Elias-Fahn, and Tom Fahn. (Daman Mills was set to attend, but had to cancel at the last minute due to personal circumstances.)
Fanime also brought singer-songwriter VK Blanka (known for singing the Black Clover opening “Black Catcher,” among others), J-Fashion Guest of Honor cyber.grl, and cosplay guests Onecuppacoffee and VampyBitMe. Longtime attendees will also recognize returning guest Gilles Poitras, author of The Anime Companion, Tokyo Stroll, and several other books on anime.
VTuber Dokibird made virtual appearances, meeting with fans over video and hosting panels. While VTuber guests have become more common at conventions as of late (due in large part to their massive popularity and the lack of need to provide transportation, room, and food to virtual guests), Dokibird is still a big name in the VTuber space.
Shopping
No matter what brings attendees to a convention, there’s one thing almost all of them do: shop. Fanime had several opportunities for attendees to spend their money on anime goods and merch, as the bustling halls could confirm.
Of course, there was a Dealer’s Hall, packed with booths selling figurines, manga, props, plushies, and all sorts of other merchandise. While it was packed, the back of the Dealer’s Hall also had food booths set up, so attendees could rest their feet and enjoy some taiyaki or drinks before resuming shopping. Attendees interested in fashion could also cross the street to the Signia, where designers were selling J-Fashion-inspired designs and outfits of their creation.
Right across from the Dealer’s Hall stood the Artist Alley, where fan artists sold their works throughout the weekend. This went beyond illustrations and prints (although there were plenty of those) and extended to yarn plushies, acrylic standees, metal keychains, and more, all lovingly crafted by fans. Each year, there are a few series that stand out among the most popular (alongside some always popular ones, of course), and this year there was plenty of art for series and games including Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Marvel Rivals, and Hazbin Hotel, to name a few.
On Thursday and Friday nights, attendees could also sell their wares and collections at the swap meet. This crowded event allowed attendees to either offload the old merch they no longer wanted or find great deals on secondhand goods (or both, in many cases).
Cosplay
If there’s one thing anime congoers are known for, it’s cosplay, and as always, Fanime drew in swathes of excellent cosplayers dressed in their best. Like with the artwork, certain series tend to stand out each year, with shows like Frieren and games like Marvel Rivals well-represented, but that was just the start.
Attendees cosplayed as characters from across anime, gaming, and more from across history (as showcased at the Old School Cosplay Gathering). Cosplayers displayed their love of everything from Spongebob Squarepants to Spirited Away, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, and more.
Naturally, there were gatherings for showcasing these cosplays as well. While the Cosplay Gatherings Department was trying to rebuild, attendees were still eager to host gatherings for their favorite series. This included gatherings for Bleach, Baldur’s Gate 3, tokusatsu series, Marvel and DC comics alike, and more, with fans congregating to take photos and pose for pics.
Of course, the masquerade was also a big draw, as competitors broke out their best cosplays to showcase their work. As always, the masquerade was a combination of excellent crafting and performing, making it one of the biggest events of the con.
Panels
With that said, a few panels could compete with the masquerade for that title. Fanime hosted several panels over the weekend, including guest, industry, and fan-run panels.
Guest panels included Q&A sessions, advice for aspiring voice actors, and cosplay workshops, to name a few. While there were fewer industry panels, they covered topics like publishing manga, developing anime mobile games, and even a retrospective on the old days of conventions and cosplay (hosted by The Fangirl Diaries author Erica Espejo).
But the majority of the panel schedule went to fan panels, which covered the widest range of topics. There were game shows like “Vintage Anime – Name That Year” and “Waifu Wars,” informational panels covering everything from “A Therapist’s Guide to Anime” to “Trans & Posthumanism in Anime,” J-Fashion panels, music panels, and so much more.
At night, the convention hosted 18+ panels, like “Bad Hentai,” “Exploring Eroge,” and “Your Guide to Kinky Video Games.” (See more about the 18+ side of Fanime in Glitch’s convention coverage.)
One of the biggest panels was the Cosplay Wrestling Federation (CWF). This was a two-night event where cosplaying performers cut promos against each other to compete for the audience’s cheers or boos, with intense back-and-forth verbal brawling. Night 1 featured exhibition matches, including a Fatal Four-Way with four Arthurs (three kings and the one from PBS) battling it out to be the “one true Arthur,” the tag team title match, a musical match, and a battle for the BLKOUT Belt. Night 2 was the main Fanimania show, where over a dozen cosplayers competed to win the heavyweight title from reigning champion Shadow the Hedgehog. Neither event was a night to miss, despite the occasional technical hiccup.
(Full disclosure: this writer a member of CWF and participated in both shows.)
Games
One can’t forget the Gaming Hall. This featured multiple gaming areas, including an arcade, tabletop gaming, and consoles. The arcade held several cabinets, including rhythm games, shooting games, and fighting games, which were available for free play throughout the weekend. Players could also borrow tabletop games from the game library, or bring their own games to enjoy.
The Gaming Hall hosted multiple events throughout the weekend, including tabletop and video game tournaments. The gaming stage also showcased the final rounds for the tournaments, along with large interactive games with VTubers or playing Jackbox with the crowd.
RPG players could also enjoy scheduled games, including D&D one-shots inspired by Delicious in Dungeon and One Piece, and even miniature painting on Friday. For card gamers, there were tournaments for Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic: The Gathering, Lorcana, and more, including an “MTG Commander with FaniMaids” event.
Night Life
As night fell, attendees stayed out to make every last hour count. The Fanime nightlife may have changed over the years, but you could still find attendees playing games of “Ninja” in the light of the convention center, getting nighttime photoshoots, or playing games into the late hours.
However, the nights were far from quiet. Across the street, ParkCon raged on, filled with food, performers, and very loud music. Note that ParkCon is not part of Fanime, but was independently organized to provide some late-night activities. Other attendees went a bit further to Miniboss, where they could enjoy drinks and arcade games, or to Guildhall for more gaming and food.
Attendees looking for more adult-oriented entertainment could take a shuttle to the DoubleTree, where the Oasis (formerly known as Silver Island) hosted nighttime programming, including Hentai Nights, adult gaming, and a Night Market. The 18+ rule was heavily enforced, as attendees needed to show a valid ID to enter.
And More
While those were some of the biggest aspects of Fanime, they were far from the only ones. Fanime also hosted:
- The Fanimaid cafe, where attendees could buy snacks and enjoy the company of maids
- A manga library, where attendees could sit and rent some manga to read or donate old pieces of their collections
- A car show, featuring itasha cars decorated with large anime decals
- Karaoke, including contests, singalongs, and the Dumpster Fire Talent Show
- The Black & White Ball, a formal dance where cosplay is acceptable attire
- MusicFest, featuring musical acts and concerts
- Speed Dating, where attendees could try to find romance
- A stamp rally that sent attendees searching for stamp stations across the convention
- J-Fashion shows
In short, there was no shortage of events and activities for fans of every sort. Each Fanime weekend, no matter how long, always feels like it’s over so soon, but as tired attendees returned to their homes, there was no doubt it was time well spent. Fanime continues to be a major player in the NorCal convention scene, and many an attendee left the 2025 event looking forward to 2026.
