The 2025 Anime Expo Los Angeles is attracting thousands to downtown L.A. to celebrate all things Japanese pop culture.
The festivities started Thursday and continue through Sunday at the L.A. Convention Center, which this weekend plays host to the coming together of anime lovers and industry icons alike.
KTLA 5’s Jasmine Simpkins was outside the convention center at 6:45 a.m. Saturday talking to fans who were out bright and early waiting in line to get in, including two young men from Texas named TMS Beyblade and Oversight, both of whom were in line at 1 a.m. so they could compete in the show’s Beyblade tournament.
They even gave KTLA a preview of the Beyblade action by squaring off against each other in the Beyblade arena set up on a chair; TMS Beyblade was victorious.
Behind those two in line were a man from the Walnut Creek area (in Contra Costa County) and another from Washington state; the former gave more insight into the high stakes Beyblade competition going down in Los Angeles.
“This is the official U.S. qualifier for the World Beyblade Championships,” the Walnut Creek-area native explained. “It’s the only one for people above the age of 13, so a lot of people are coming from all over the country for this.”
“As soon as I heard about it, I booked plane tickets, a hotel and came right down,” he continued. “I’m mainly here for this.”
By 7:30 a.m., the line wrapped around the convention center; a man named Nick who traveled (not as far, relatively speaking) to DTLA from Corona said that, by that point, he had been in line for over six hours. He quickly shut down the idea of partying on the 4th of July, opining that he and his friends were going to do all of their celebrating on Saturday during and after the convention.
A friend of Nick’s from Redlands, Elijah Latham, cheated the system a little bit by showing up late at 5:30 a.m. because he knew that his friends would already be there. They too were there for the Beyblade tournament but also had other sights on their list.
“I’m most excited to see the Beyblade tournament…I’m hoping to get in and win the world championship title, you know?” Latham said. “I would also like to see the ‘Final Fantasy’ booth in the exhibit hall.”
An hour after that, Jasmine was able to make it inside the convention center to see for herself the thousands of anime fans gathering in the entryway. A Watts man who purchased a four-day pass for the event said he had been in DTLA at 5:30 a.m. each of the last three mornings and would be on Sunday morning too.
“The A Line drops me off right here — I love public transportation,” the man, Jose, said, while making a heart with his hands. “Right now, I’m going to go get a figure that they are shadow dropping, so I was like ‘Whoa, very fancy,’ and then later today, there’s a studio panel where they are going to draw live, and I’m super excited for that.”
Another person who originally declined to speak because it was “too early” ended up divulging his plans for Saturday included visiting the “One Piece” exhibit to get a card for his friend.
The 9 o’clock hour rolled around and Jasmine found herself inside the “Squid Games” obstacle course speaking to Vivian — who is the cousin of a KTLA producer and is now at her fourth Anime Expo in a row.
“I’ve been coming here since 2022,” Vivian, who was dressed as a character from the video game “Persona 5,” said, adding that she made everything for her outfit herself.
By 10:30 a.m., Jasmine had acquired a fan-favorite “Demon Slayer 2: Kimetsu no Yaiba” backpack given out to attendees to collect free items and merchandise.
“That’s what we’re doing here,” Jasmine said. “Going from booth to booth and seeing what kind of free swag they have.”
Vivian, serving as a sort-of tour guide for Jasmine, had taken her to the SEGA booth where she said simply: “I want everything in this booth right now.”
A total of 400,000 people are expected to attend the expo across all four days. While there are festivities planned for Sunday, single-day passes are sold out; however, four-day passes are still available.
Complete information on the 2025 Anime Expo Los Angeles can be found at this link.
Anime Expo is put together by the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation, a non-profit organization.
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