As L.A. Comic Con unfolds this weekend, there’s a new and powerful energy pulsing through the halls of Los Angeles Convention Center in Downtown L.A.
This year marks a significant shift for the long-running convention, which has historically focused on Western comics and media. For the first time, it’s rolling out the red carpet for legendary Japanese voice actors, signaling a major investment in anime.
As the genre’s cultural footprint continues to expand across North America, reshaping pop culture events, Animehunch had the opportunity to talk with L.A. Comic Con’s CEO, Chris DeMoulin.
We discussed the catalyst behind this milestone decision, how the convention plans to carve its own niche alongside giants like Anime Expo, and what this new chapter means for the future of the event and its fans.
Animehunch Team: While anime has become a major force at pop culture events across the West, L.A. Comic Con has historically kept its primary focus on Western comics and media. This year, that changes significantly. What was the specific catalyst or tipping point that made you decide that now was the right time to make this milestone investment in anime?
Chris DeMoulin: We’ve always been a show that’s tried to have representation across all the pop culture and entertainment genres. I think particularly in the southern California market, as we’ve seen anime grow in popularity. We’ve had fans come to our show respond positively to what anime offerings we had in the past and then ask for more. That’s where the idea of doing our little small version of Akihabara, creating Akiba Station with the Otaku Collectives team, bringing in more authentic Japanese creators, actors, brands, experiences. We thought this was a fresh and fun way to do that and certainly all the feedback we got, input we got from fans before, and feedback we’re getting from fans now seems to indicate that it should be pretty popular. I think this is an extension of us trying to be in touch with what the fans in LA are interested in and then finding a way to create the activations for them that’s maybe a little more surprising and delightful than they thought it was going to be.
Animehunch Team: Los Angeles is already the home to Anime Expo, North America’s largest anime convention. How do you see L.A. Comic Con’s expanded anime programming carving out its own unique space in light of this competition? Are you aiming to serve a different need for the anime fan, or to become another major anchor event for them in the calendar year?
Chris DeMoulin: We’ve always been big fans of Anime Expo and as any event grows to the size that they are, I think intimacy of experience becomes daunting and I think what we try to do at L.A. Comic Con is create a series of opportunities for the fans to have experiences that are a little more intimate and really lean into the genres. We see what we’re doing at our show as definitely a complimentary experience. We’ve never believed fan conventions really compete with each other. The passion of fans is boundless, and therefore the amount of opportunities for giving them meaningful activations is boundless, and so if we do a good job of creating something that’s unique and feels special and intimate, then it will be a complimentary experience to anything they will have at Anime Expo. Our research also suggests that there’s only about 30% overlap between the kind of folks that come to L.A. Comic Con and the folks that go to Anime Expo. So for the majority of our L.A. Comic Con fans, they’re going to be experiencing anime in a fresh new way, and they’ve never been to an Anime Expo and then we hope for the folks that do go to Anime Expo, it’s an opportunity for them to slow down and have an experience that maybe would be harder to have at a big show like Anime Expo.
Animehunch Team: For this milestone event, you went straight to the top by choosing industry legends Yuriko Yamaguchi and Takeshi Kusao. What made you zero in on them to be the stalwarts to launch this new chapter of L.A Comic Con? Was there maybe a personal preference at play here too?
Chris DeMoulin: I think the first good decision we made was bringing in Otaku Collectives to be the partner, because they’re very knowledgeable and very connected in the field and then, when it comes to anime, a lot of the people that are on our team are themselves, huge anime fans and have nothing but mad respect for the original talent casts from Japan, in addition to the American voiceover actors. So it was that opportunity to connect with the authenticity of the original creators of the role that just seemed like a wonderful opportunity and to the extent that we can build on that, we talked to some talent who’ve never been in the United States before. We thought, what a great opportunity for them to come and be in such a showcase that’s a little more intimate and special for them and the fans. So it isn’t that we chose them so much as we chose a good partner and the partner recommended them, and then we all said, “Wow, what a great idea. Let’s do that.”
Animehunch Team: Alongside anime royalty, you’re bringing in the main cast of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. Was this a deliberate choice made to speak to the Tokusatsu community and does it signal L.A. Comic Con’s commitment to Japanese pop culture beyond just anime?
Chris DeMoulin: Absolutely. Bringing in the main cast of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger was a deliberate choice to celebrate the Tokusatsu community, which has an incredibly passionate and loyal fan base. While anime is a core part of L.A. Comic Con’s pop culture offerings, we also want to showcase the full spectrum of Japanese entertainment, from anime and manga to gaming and live-action series like Tokusatsu. Expanding into this space helps us connect with fans on a deeper level, introduce new audiences to these genres, and reinforce L.A. Comic Con as a destination for all aspects of Japanese pop culture.
Animehunch Team: From a business point of view, how do you see this new focus on anime reshaping the future of L.A. Comic Con? Are you, for instance, anticipating changes in programming structure, new sponsorship opportunities, and a more robust strategy for international partnerships?
Chris DeMoulin: Yes, yes, and yes. I think a great benefit of having a partner like the LA Convention Center is that there’s two entirely separate halls. So, for years, we were only in the South Hall. By adding the West Hall, it’s allowed us to reach out to adjacent fan groups in the gaming space, in the anime space and for folks who’ve been to the show, the main stage in the West Hall is, in some ways, bigger and has more bells and whistles than the one in the South Hall. So, from the beginning, we’ve always wanted there to be, both literally and metaphorically, a great stage for talent to come and be on and the hope was that that would bring in fresh attendees. It would be a great experience for our existing attendees, but it would also give new people the opportunity to come and experience the show. It would speak to different corporate sponsors. It would speak to different brand sponsors as well, because those are the folks who round out the experience and bring in the activations that really make an event like this super fun. So, yes, absolutely. The idea was always to do it in a way that they have their own stage, their own place, their own spotlight and they can make it as big and fun as they want to make it.
Animehunch Team: Do you expect this significant anime presence to bring in a larger crowd this weekend compared to last year? And looking forward, what’s the long-term vision for that audience? Is the goal to cultivate a new, dedicated anime fanbase, or to enrich the experience for your current attendees?
Chris DeMoulin: It’s honestly a little bit of both. We take up well over a million square feet of space. There’s room for more fans to be there without it feeling uncomfortably crowded. So we certainly hope that anime fans who haven’t necessarily come to our event before will discover it as a result of this, and not only come and enjoy the anime experience, but also see what’s going on the other side of the fence, on the traditional pop culture side. Similarly, we hope that our pop culture fans are going to cross over and enjoy and maybe be introduced to anime in a way they haven’t before. Honestly it’s kind of like what Netflix did with anime, right? They acquired all this great content, they put it right on their homepage next to the traditional entertainment stuff and what that did is it introduced anime to a bunch of fans who’d never seen it before, who are now fans of anime. So I think we’ve always believed that LA is a uniquely eclectic market in terms of creators and fan taste, and it’s always been sort of a mash-up market, so this gives us the opportunity to bring in better, higher-level anime content next to the pop culture content, and then we’ll mash up the fans and the content and let them make of it what they will.
Animehunch Team: This year’s lineup is a statement. But we’d like you to humor us. If you could bring any creator or voice actors from Japan to L.A. Comic Con next year to top this, who would it be?
Chris DeMoulin: We definitely have a list of people we’re interested in but, more importantly, we’re going to do in the anime community, what we do in the pop culture communities. We’re going to ask the fans; did you like who we brought? Who are you missing? Who would you like to see? And we’re always going to have the fan desire be at the center of the talent acquisition strategy, because we want to bring in what the fans want to see.
Animehunch Team: Do you have any message to the fans who have been waiting for L.A. Comic Con to embrace anime on this level and what they can expect going ahead?
Chris DeMoulin: First of all, if you haven’t been before and you’ve been waiting, I would say, welcome. We really feel like the quality and the variety of experiences that you’ll be able to have at Akiba Station and at the show in general, you’ll be very happy. You’ll be very satisfied with what it is. So if this was the thing that got you over the top to come, we can’t wait to see you.
