The just-concluded 24th Annual Anime Expo (AX), presented by The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA), played host to over 90,500 lovers of Japanese animation and pop culture, July 2-5, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Sneaking up in attendance right behind Comic-Con, this year’s show marked the biggest presentation in its history, taking every inch of the Los Angeles Convention Center for the first time.
This year’s unique attendance to Anime Expo was counted at over 90,500, an increase of 10,500 attendees from last year, marking a 12% growth over 2014. Overall turnstile attendance exceeded 260,700, marking an increase from last year of 40,700, representing 18% growth over 2014.
AX 2015 presented more than 300 exhibitors for attendees, including such entertainment industry companies as HULU, Warner Bros. Japan, Crunchyroll, Sony Music, Sanrio, Aniplex, Sentai Filmworks, FUNimation, Daisuki, and many others.
Exhibiting video game companies included Capcom, SEGA, Namco Bandai, NIS America, Aksys Games, Atlus USA, Voltage, Koei Tecmo and Com2uS.
The show also hosted over 60 entertainment industry guests, including producers, directors, animators and other content creators of feature films, television and videogames, as well as performing music groups, singers and bands, including special guest appearances by Gene Simmons & Paul Stanley of KISS, and Japan’s # 1 pop music singing sensation, Momoiro Clover Z.
Marc Perez, Chief Executive Officer of SPJA, said, “Anime Expo 2015 has been our most successful event yet, and we want to thank everyone who attended. We wish to also thank all of our 1,600 volunteers for their hard work and amazing dedication to the promotion of Japanese culture. From registration improvements to entertainment programming, we produced the best AX yet. And we invite all of our fans to return next year for AX 2016 – our biggest celebration ever, which will mark our 25th event!”
