The scene was set. People from all over the globe had bought their tickets. They dressed up as their favorite characters, made their way to downtown Los Angeles, and waited under the sweltering California sun for what would be the largest Anime Expo in the convention’s thirty-three years of operation.
Expectations were sky-high, and speakers at this year’s panels – composed of some of Japanese animation’s highest-profile franchises, corporations and industry executives – tried their best not to disappoint. For those who were unable to attend this past weekend’s festivities, here is a recap of some of the largest events and announcements that took place at Anime Expo 2025.
The announcements began on day one with GeeXPlus, a Tokyo-based talent management company for content creators, which shared many upcoming announcements. The panel started with Garnt Maneetaph of the podcast Trash Taste, known online as Gigguk, revealing his upcoming anime movie titled “Bâan - The Boundaries of Adulthood.” This movie will be created by Studio Daisy and directed by Yoshimitsu Ohashi, who has worked on notable titles such as “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood,” “Haikyuu!!,” and “Code Geass.” The movie will be part of the Isekai genre, a genre that involves transporting or reincarnating the protagonist in a new world, and centered around two characters with a setting based on Thai and Southeast Asian mythology.
The panel continued with animator and content creator Dillon Gu, known online as dillongoo, presenting his upcoming series, “Soul Mart.” This series centers around graffiti artist Kieru Kamiya, who becomes addicted to a mysterious energy drink that will kill him if he falls asleep. The series will be produced as a 3D Blender animation and manga series.
At the end of day one, Yusef Iqbal, the creator behind the indie anime studio Otaku-Vs, revealed the latest installment in his “Otachan!” series, “Otachan! Rabbit Season.” The series follows the main character, Otachan, and her friends getting wrapped up with the Yakuza, resulting in the two parties being thrown into an underworld full of mad scientists, fight clubs, and murderers.
In addition to being presented with three upcoming releases, these titles were announced to all be released completely free on YouTube. This unconventional approach represents the rising popularity of independently created works being published to YouTube for free.
The second day of the convention began with The “Demon Slayer” presentation, featuring a screening of several key moments throughout the series accompanied by a live orchestra and voice acting. While the event featured no interviews, Japanese voice actor Natsuki Hanae and English voice actor Aleks Le live-acted several scenes of their respective characters, protagonists Tanjiro and Zenitsu, alongside the musical performance.
The celebration of the anime’s sixth anniversary ended with a sneak peek of what is to come for the franchise, displaying a brief trailer of the first of three movies that will conclude “Demon Slayer’s” animated adaptation.
Immediately following the “Demon Slayer” event was the “Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End” panel, which also saw a fully packed venue. Every seat in the Peacock Theatre was filled, a fitting reception for what has quickly become one of the most viewed anime series in recent years. As of 2025, the show is the highest rated anime of all time on popular review website, MyAnimeList, evidence of its widespread appeal amongst Gen-Z viewers.
Like the series itself, the panel was well-curated and thoughtful: it began with a Q&A featuring panelists Chiaki Kobayashi, voice actor of Stark, producer Yuichiro Fukushi and composer Evan Call. The discussion was followed by a live-reading of a scene from the show, a detailed look into the creation of the series’ original soundtrack and finally, the world premiere of the trailer for Frieren’s second season. The event was well-received by the audience, leaving the crowd with a positive impression of the series’ future direction.
Wrapping up day two, fans lined up at the JW Marriott to attend the highly anticipated “Apothecary Diaries” panel. The series has gone on to attract a large fanbase, with the series’ second season ending on the day of the panel. With the hall filled to maximum capacity, excitement was high.
Appearing at the panel were Aoi Yuuki, the voice actor of Maomao, and Asami Seto, the voice actor of Shisui. The actors participated in a Q&A session where they discussed their experience working on the show and performed live dubbing of iconic scenes from the series. The panel ended with multiple giveaway items, including art signed by the two voice actors. With the announcement of a third season being confirmed prior to the panel, fans excitedly await what the future holds for the series.
On day three of Anime Expo, fans lined up early for another of the weekend’s highlights, the Persona/ATLUS panel. At the panel were producers Jun Matsunaga, Yohsuke Uda and longtime character artist Shigenori Soejima, who spoke in detail about the design process behind recent series spinoff “Persona 5: The Phantom X,” as well as their goals and aspirations for the project.
The game, conceived as a free-to-play, mobile-friendly spinoff of the mainline series, seeks to provide an alternate Persona experience with continuing online support. The producers discussed their desire to supplement fans of the series with a more fleshed-out world and realistic characters. Following the Q&A and live drawing session, Lyn Inaizumi, featured vocalist on Persona 5’s soundtrack, gave a brief performance that was her first in the United States.
In the evening, fans filled up the Peacock Theater for the highly anticipated “Dandadan” panel. At the start of the panel, Fugu Yamashiro, the director of Dandadan, and the main cast for the English dub of the show, including A.J. Beckles as Okarun, Abby Trott as Momo and Aleks Le, as Jiji, were welcomed to the stage.
Yamashiro gave a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of “Dandadan” season 2, showcasing storyboards and early production of the series. Most notably, he went into depth dissecting the creative choices behind season 2. He explained that the new opening for season 2 tells the story of Okarun before and after meeting Mono and how it brought him into a new light on his life. Furthermore, Yamashiro wanted to use colors to distinguish who’s winning in a scene, with the Evil Eye being represented with a menacing purple and Okuran with red.
For those who haven’t already seen the first three episodes of “Dandadan” season 2 during the “Dandadan: Evil Eye” movie, season two has started airing with new episodes coming out each Thursday.
Starting with day four, lines wrapped around the Peacock Theater hours before the highly awaited “Jujutsu Kaisen” panel began. This panel featured special guests Junya Enoki, the voice of Yuji, and Megumi Ogata, the voice of Yuta. Despite the high expectations, many fans were disappointed with this year’s panel.
This panel consisted mostly of both voice actors talking about their experience working on the “Jujutsu Kaisen” and the upcoming movie, “JUJUTSU KAISEN: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death - The Movie.” This movie will be a compilation film of the “Hidden Inventory / Premature Death” arc first seen in season 2 of the series.
With a lack of new updates regarding the future of the series and season 3, this took many fans to the internet to vent their disappointment. Content creators such as pinoypins, an anime content creator on TikTok, posted online reviews regarding the panel and expressed their frustration towards the panel. Unlike other panels previously mentioned, this panel featured no live dubbing and primarily discussed an upcoming movie that retells stories previously seen. With a lack of new information, fans continue to wait for any information on the upcoming “Culling Game” arc to be announced.
Following the “Jujutsu Kaisen” panel was one of the most energetic and exciting panels of the entire weekend, the “Kaiju No. 8” panel. To the audience’s surprise and previously unannounced, both the Japanese and English voices of Kafka, Masaya Fukunishi and Nazeeh Tarsha and ADR director, Shawn Gann, were welcomed to the stage.
Similar to other panels, the voice actors and directors participated in a Q&A, recounting the process and their experience working on “Kaiju No. 8.” However, unlike other panels, Fukunishi made the panel his own by going off script on multiple occasions. This included walking on the stage and shouting at the audience, making his own comments, and even kissing Tarsha on the cheek.
Following a panel full of laughter, tears and emotional moments, the panel ended with a special look at season 2 of the show. This preview gave fans a brief look at the first episode of the upcoming season.
In 2025, anime has shifted online, and while this has broken down barriers to access for fans worldwide, this shift has also resulted in a landscape in which leaks and insider information are not only common but expected. Despite this, the panels at Anime Expo 2025 showed that companies are still capable of surprising audiences.