Anime Los Angeles 21 (2026) took place on January 8 – 11, 2026 in downtown Long Beach at the Long Beach Convention Center. This Southern California based convention is regarded as THE California anime weekender for cosplay and vibes under the warm winter sun. The four-day-all-day-programming model of by fans for fans breed of conventions is slowly phasing out in the state replaced by autograph zoo’s, this convention in it’s 21st inaugural year is still going strong. Just ask the 21,000 attendees.
I applaud Anime Los Angeles’ glow up in its Long Beach era. Hiroshi Nagahama, Mamoru Yokota, and Tsukasa Kotobuki made up the list of Japanese guests. We also had a variety of cosplay guests judging the prestigious cosplay contest: Yaya Han, Kirilee Cosplay, to name a few. We also had fandom scholars such as Zack Davisson and community leaders like Carl Horn to make up the guest cornucopia. Let’s see how Anime Los Angeles lives up in its LBC era…
Disclosure: I was a panelist for 1990s Magical Girls and Angel Hearts’ Para Para workshop. I also performed in Cosplay Wrestling Federation.
Report: The Life of a Showgirl
Convention Tea: Anime Los Angeles 21 (2026)
Anime Los Angeles 21 Galleries: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday