Now in its 11th year, AnimeJapan is no longer the new anime convention on the block — It's a staple on the anime calendar and, one could say, the biggest industry event of the year. The convention survived a global pandemic and has grown alongside the explosion of fandom for the medium. It's also not really fandom-oriented. Between the booths with meetings between licensors, you'll see media running around getting images and business deals going down in front of giant JoJo's Bizarre Adventure posters. While the general attendee presence continues to increase year to year, with 152,400 attendees in 2025 from 132,557 in 2024 , it feels like the event has become more industry-oriented with fewer interactive elements. The biggest booths have photo opportunities and maybe a door to open. But the most interesting booths were the ones between that celebrated anime itself. That's not to say the bigger booths aren't interesting! So let's start there and finish with those smaller, more interesting spaces at the end. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Opens the Infinity Castle Years after the debut of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaita , two of the biggest booths at AnimeJapan 2025 finally have their well-earned place. The first of these focuses on the upcoming Infinity Castle film. As I walked past the poster outside the space, the Hashira lining the walls welcomed me into the castle. Following them were the final few scenes of the castle opening up from the latest arc next to posters of the Kimetsu Theater editions of the arcs. Tanjiro guarded the back entrance to the booth, complete with his sword ready for whatever may come. The second Demon Slayer booth was actually for ufotable, just decked out with Demon Slayer fun. More focused on the series as a whole, it was a paid interactive experience where you could go through the Final Selection. Most of these were just photo spots, but it had a ton of space to get the best shot of you passing the exam. One of the best parts about both booths were all the staff dressed as Kakushi. Aniplex Welcomes the Show with Madoka , Solo Leveling , My Dress-Up Darling and More Aniplex, one of the biggest players in the anime space, had a third of a hall just to itself which included the Demon Slayer booth. The Aniplex area was right at the entrance of AnimeJapan, and they didn't waste that opportunity. Madoka and Homura, in their new Walpurgisnacht Rising anime film designs, welcomed attendees in front of a full space for the franchise. The area also juggled Aniplex’s many upcoming and continuing series. At the front were little cutouts for various series, such as Black Butler , Wind Breaker and My Dress-Up Darling , celebrating Gojo's birthday with a Marin shrine. Inside the booth, there were impressive sections for each series. On the top was a key visual, and the eye-height sections had little displays inspired by the series itself. Solo Leveling had visuals of dungeon monsters, The Elusive Samurai had its home video releases on show and Ruri Rocks had a microscope to look at rocks through. However, it was actually a gag and gave those who looked through panda eyes, which would have been nice to know before looking into the holes. Kadokawa Brings the Carnival For the second year in a row, Kadokawa's booth was the most colorful and on-theme in the halls of Tokyo Big Sight. The group’s theme this year was "carnival" and you could hear the songs of B-Komachi from Oshi no Ko ringing throughout the hall before even getting close to the space. As I walked into the entrance, I was welcomed by standees of all the characters from Kadokawa's current and upcoming shows. Across from them was a surprising water feature for Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- , mimicking the fountain in Watergate City. Next to Re:ZERO was the Oshi no Ko section, with life-sized figures of the Hoshinos and costumes on display. Classroom of the Elite got its own section with a bit of a maze and chess boards everywhere, while the TV anime version of The Summer Hikaru Died recreated its rural Japan aesthetic. Flanking both sides of the exit were enormous displays for the New PANTY & STOCKING with GARTERBELT series and The Shiunji Family Children . For Panty and Stocking , the angel’s Jeep was available to take pictures in while the new characters announced at the panel were shown a few hours before, teasing what was to come. The Shiunji Family area had a lovely tea arrangement and a door that could open, revealing a mysterious character. Toho Animation Continues to Bring the Biggest Names in Anime The last of the big three players at the show was Toho Animation, which again brought some of the most well-known anime to the event. Looping videos of My Hero Academia , Chainsaw Man and SPY x FAMILY played on big screens outside the booth, pumping me up as I wandered in. Greeting me were huge displays for Kaiju No. 8 , Dr. STONE , Frieren: Beyond Journey's End and more. The Apothecary Diaries got its own set of doors: the first featuring Maomao, the second with Jinshi and the final showing the background of the fireflies' performance from the second season. The seasonal art followed, giving me a close look at the gorgeous visuals. RELATED: AnimeJapan 2025: All the Big News from the Event! SPY x FAMILY also had the backside of Bond at the Toho booth, alongside all the My Hero Academia characters in their fabulous fantasy outfits and even Chainsaw Man looking very chainsaw-y. Outside the Largest AnimeJapan 2025 Booths While staying larger than most, the Netflix booth always offers an interesting look into what's coming on the platform in the Japanese region. Of course, Sakamoto Days and BEASTARS Final Season had their own spaces, but most of the area was surprisingly taken up by Fire Force 's third season, which featured both inside and outside. Netflix wasn't the only place to feel the heat of Fire Force . The series was also a significant feature at DMM, where you could place a sticker on a particular soul-filled skull mark. Gear 5 Luffy also watched over the Toei Animation booth, where Egghead's return was a major attraction and Vegapunk stood tall-headed in front of a screen that played footage from the first part of the arc. Inside Toei’s area, Dragon Ball DAIMA had life-sized standees of all the child characters, and Digimon celebrated its many series. YTV Animation had a surprisingly full space featuring all its latest series and Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX bowling for some odd reason. Highlights from their booth included both anime adaptations of Gosho Aoyama's manga series Case Closed and the upcoming Yaiba: Samurai Legend , the gun from Tougen Anki , Hunter x Hunter standees and the most dripped-out My Hero Academia designs I've ever seen. Celebrating the Animation at AnimeJapan Gundam bowling is one thing, but golfing in the heart of Tokyo Big Sight was another. Sorairo Utility had a massive display where I was able to swing a club (very lightly) in the hall, which netted me some cute stickers. I was also able to look at original art from the series. Like most years, the Pokémon anime got a surprisingly large display at the ShoPro booth. Production art was displayed in the area next to large Pokémon cutouts, which were the mysterious items found in the newest arc of Pokémon Horizons . These images contain massive spoilers for the latest arc, which just began in Japan. Anime studio Ashi Productions is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and to celebrate, the studio brought key animation to the event. As usual, it's always a treat to see the raw animation on paper with notes and timing, especially from an animation studio this old and able to produce works with such high details. TMS Entertainment also had its own little booth next to its stage. As you can see below, the area had screens on both sides showing a key visual of the anime featured on said touch screens. While I wasn’t allowed to take photos, each held massive amounts of production art from their works. The Dr. STONE screen had character design materials, key animation and sketches of Senku's inventions and research materials. The Interesting and Odd at AnimeJapan 2025 While a lot of AnimeJapan 2025 was just visuals, standees and standardized materials, there are always outliers (and no, Gundam bowling isn't that odd compared to some other displays). Starting with the interesting, what would 2.5 Dimensional Seduction be without a cosplay display? Even next to a Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation cosplay display with a life-sized staff! Yugi and Kaiba took the stage to celebrate the Yu-Gi-Oh anime's 25th anniversary. And finally, there was a tractor for MIRU: Paths To My Future , a short OVA series funded by logistics and industrial goods company Yanmar Holdings. There's a lot I've seen in my time going to anime conventions, but a tractor with anime decals is at the top of the least expected. While I started this piece by discussing how AnimeJapan is focused on industry rather than fandom, it's hard to say that there isn't something here for everyone. While checking out everything was a little tricky, with more people likely to visit next year, there may be less bowling and more art on walls, which would be a shame But whether you like looking at anime art in its most prominent form, wandering through Demon Slayer 's Infinity Castle, or farming, AnimeJapan still has it all.
