

My interest in anime and manga is largely a solitary pursuit that consists of
me watching copious amounts of animated TV shows and answering questions on
this site -- I don't really collect merchandise much or go to conventions .
However, in the past, I've missed at least one convention that I would have
liked to go to, on account of the fact that someone who had been involved with
a few series I really like spoke there.

**One problem, in addition to my lack of interest in looking through guest
speaker lists early enough, is probably simply that I don't really know where
I can learn about ongoing conventions.** I might know of some small
"convention" run by the anime club of a school I might be affiliated with,
and, along with that, of one much larger convention in the area. However, I
only know of these via word-of-mouth, and I pretty much do not know of the
approximate times of any other conventions near areas I've lived in. Moreover,
if I travel, it'd be nice to be able to have some approximate idea as to
whether there are any conventions in the area, so I can see if I might be
interested in going.

**With this in mind, are there any websites that list major conventions by
location and dates?** (Bonus points: are there any particular websites that do
not just do so for, say, the US?)


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resources conventions
Where can I get listings of convention locations and dates?


Although Jay Fubler Harvey's massive Anime Web Turnpike web directory of over
40,000 links unfortunately went offline in November 2014 [after being acquired
by The Anime Broadcasting Network,
Inc.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime_Web_Turnpike), the classic version
is still visible at archive.org. The **[Anime
Conventions](https://web.archive.org/web/20120301161848/http://classic.anipike.com/cons.html)
page lists all of the main anime and/or manga conventions** that had come into
existence by that point. There is also **Wikipedia's[List of Anime
Conventions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anime_conventions)**.

**The largest anime convention in the world is[AnimeExpo](http://www.anime-
expo.org/)**, which is held in July in either Los Angeles or Long Beach,
California. It features what is arguably the best line-up of Japanese
celebrities: mangaka, anime directors, anime producers, animators, and seiyuu.
It also features a variety of options for spending your time such as anime
screenings, hands-on workshops, academic lectures, competitions (cosplay, AMV,
gaming, karaoke), and performances.

**The largest doujinshi convention in the world is Comic Market, better known
as[Comiket](http://www.comiket.co.jp/index_e.html)**, held twice a year in
summer and winter in Tokyo. Since it is doujinshi-focused, it does not contain
much in the way of anime/manga guests of honor, licensed anime/manga content,
or vendors of anime merchandise, but it does include cosplay and sellers of
handicrafts.

**The main manga conventions in Japan are[Jump
Festa](http://www.jumpfesta.com/) and [Ribon
Festa](http://ribon.shueisha.co.jp/festa2015/index.html)** (this is the link
for the 2015 Ribon Festa, but the URL for the convention changes every year.
You can find the current one linked from the Ribon magazine [official
site](http://ribon.shueisha.co.jp/)). These conventions include exclusive
anime OAV premiers, exclusive collectibles that cannot be bought elsewhere,
mangaka talk shows and autograph sweepstakes, and gallery displays of real
manga pages. Since they are sponsored by the publishing company, they aren't
conventions that feature any titles other than Shuueisha's own series. Jamie
Lynn Lano (who worked as a professional mangaka assistant) attended Ribon
Festa and reported on it [here](http://www.jamieism.com/1527/japan/ribon-
festa-2013), as well as on [Tenipuri
Festa](http://www.jamieism.com/1965/japan/working-assistant-prince-
tennis-p43), which represents smaller-scale Japanese conventions about
specific titles (in this case, _Tennis no Ouji-sama_ ).

If you're going to shell out a lot to travel to a con, AnimeExpo is highly
recommended and you'll want to be there all 4 days (there's quite a lot to
do); Jump Festa and Ribon Festa are a fantastic experience but minimal
Japanese language skills are required (1 day is enough, as the scale is much
smaller than AnimeExpo). Comiket is about 90% explicit hentai doujinshi, so if
that's not your thing, you will likely be disappointed by the experience and I
would recommend against attending.


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You can also find a list of anime and comic conventions on
[UpcomingCons.com](http://upcomingcons.com/). For just anime, click through to
the anime page. I also don't collect merchandise much, and even though vendors
rooms are a big part of the cons, there are also lots of guests to meet, along
with a lot of cool cosplays.


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A good place to find upcoming anime conventions is
[animecons.com](http://animecons.com/events/). You can choose specifically
what year you would like to look at and in which area. They provide
information about anime conventions all around the world, not just America.
They provide the dates, name of the con, and the location. It also gives you
information about the con (e.g. who runs it, how frequently this con is held,
and where to register).


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