By Bren Belmonte, January 20, 2026
Celebration of anime, “nerd” culture and love for fandoms swirled Animé Los Angeles, including Cal Poly Pomona students immersing themselves in the four-day offerings at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, Jan. 8-11.
The event spanned from an artist alley, dealer’s hall, various industry panels, gaming, cosplay meetups and more.
“[Animé Los Angeles] is a melting pot of all sorts of communities and cultures, all coming under the banner of anime,” said Justice Lee, an electrical engineering student. “It’s a safe space and it’s really nice to meet and speak to the people who like the same things as I do.”
Beyond anime, other featured media included virtual youtubers, K-pop, video games and movies. This is reflected through merchandise sold at the dealers hall and artist alley, consisting of endless rows of vendors. K-pop music pounded through a booth’s speaker as the foot traffic increased each day inside the vast hall.
Dealers hall vendors sell official items, variety of cosplays, figurines, DVDs, collector items, cosplay wigs, and other desirable items. Artist alley sells fan-made merchandise such as buttons, bags, prints, artwork, keychains and more; purchased from eager buyers appreciating the representation of their fandom.
“As soon as I had the money, I was like ‘Okay, might as well try making some merch,’” stated Angelica Andrade, an Apparel Management and Marketing student. “I followed my dreams from middle school and now here we are.”
Andrade’s artist alley booth, JellisStuff features hand-drawn characters as stickers, charms and pillows based on franchises she enjoys. Some of her favorite medias reflected on her booth were from the games “Project Moon,” “Umamusume: Pretty Derby,” and virtual youtubers.
A visible fandom this year was “Umamusume: Pretty Derby,” a video game involving personified racehorses. The player trains and prepares the horse girls to be top racers and singers. Joshua Bonode, a civil engineering student, was no exception, excited to perform in the clarinet section with the Los Angeles-based Tonario Orchestra, covering songs from the popular game.
“[Tonario] is how I get connected to the community here,” Bonode stated. The orchestra performed in the Saturday concert series, “It’s a bigger crowd than last time because this event got advertised a lot more…all of the musicians put in the time and effort outside of us practicing together, countless and thousands of hours.”
Tonario’s set featured soundtracks from anime, video games and anime movies. Consisting from vivid instrumental sounds from “A Town with an Ocean View” from the Studio Ghibli movie “Kiki’s Delivery Service” to the peppy “Droopy-Eyed Umamusume” from the video game “Umamusume: Pretty Derby.”
Outside the stage, cosplayers pose and strut the convention as photographers ask for pictures, capturing the essence of the character. The social-oriented event consisted of smiles, passionate conversation, exchanges of social media and foot traffic.
“I really like this convention because even if you don’t have a badge, there’s a lot of stuff you can get involved with,” said Julia Anoche, a biology student, dressed as Naib Subedar from the horror video game “Identity V”.
Cosplayers were on full public display as official gathering locations were outside of the convention center. In the peak sun, “Identity V” cosplayers complement each other’s costumes, props and exchange in-game usernames to make connections. Meanwhile, the host declares the next group to come center stage to display their costumes as photographers and nearby attendee’s gawk.
Outside of the convention, groups lingered and enjoyed each other’s company inside the nearby hotel, Hyatt Regency Long Beach. The extensive hotel lobby acted as an additional area for photo opportunities with many plush couches, chairs and sitting areas. A Kasumi Yoshizawa cosplayer from the video game “Persona 5” flutters their sky-blue ribbon prop as a photographer took continuous shots.
