Anime Los Angeles 20 (2025) took place on January 8 – 12, 2025 at the Long Beach Convention Center in downtown Long Beach, CA. While the Long Beach Convention Center has had the curse of being the venue where cons meet their end, Anime Los Angeles in their fourth year in the LBC, might be the one to break the curse. ALA is a locals favorite. Pulling 18,000 attendees right after the new year (compared to Anime Expo’s 100k attendees), this event almost feels like an alternate universe if Anime Expo continued in Long Beach, but with a smaller, manageable crowd.
This year brought in voice actor guests (Wendee Lee, Richard Epcar, Paul St. Peter, Cassandra Lee Morris, and more!), especially guests from the Robotech franchise. It appears that Anime Los Angeles was also celebrating Robotech’s 40th anniversary. In addition to American voice actors, we also had Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Macross Plus), Shinji Aramaki (Megazone 23), and Tomonori Kowaga (Ideon, Southern Cross, Dunbine). There were also cosplay guests helping out with masquerade judging including Sarah Spaceman, Aicosu, and Athel Artistry.
This is our fourth year at Anime Los Angeles in Long Beach. Anime Los Angeles is celebrating their 20th anniversary. After the joy I experienced this weekend, this is my favorite California convention.
Disclosure: I was coordinating the masquerade ball’s royal court contest, hosting the “In My Cringe” era panel, and performing two shows for Cosplay Wrestling Federation.
Con Report: Impera
Galleries: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Podcast: Convention Tea