Event Report: A Summer with the Fans! Anime Expo, Japan Expo, and Comic Exhibition

In July 2025, Cygames set up booths at three events across the globe: Anime Expo in Los Angeles, Japan Expo in Paris, and Comic Exhibition in Taipei. Join us for a look at all the fun and an interview with the staff involved!

What Is Anime Expo?

Anime Expo is the largest anime convention in North America, drawing around 400,000 visitors from all around the world to Los Angeles annually. This mecca for all things anime and Japanese pop culture was held from July 3–6 this year, and Cygames attended for the seventh time.

What Is Japan Expo?

Japan Expo boasts the title of largest exhibition of Japanese culture in Europe, attracting over 250,000 visitors annually. A showcase of all things Japanese, from anime and video games to food and tradition, it charmed crowds from July 3–6 this year. Cygames made its second appearance, under the initiative of Cygames Europe.

What Is Comic Exhibition?

With over 600,000 visitors, Comic Exhibition is one of the largest manga and anime conventions in Asia. Visitors can get their hands on all sorts of manga, anime, and game-related merch, as well as attend one of the many live events, from autograph signings to concerts. Held over five days from July 24–28 this year, it welcomed Cygames for the very first time.

Life-Size Figures and Packed Movie Screenings
Anime Expo and Japan Expo

This year’s Cygames booths saw even more attention than usual, thanks to the release of Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond and the English version of Umamusume: Pretty Derby shortly before the events.

Making their debut at Anime Expo were life-size figures of Special Week and Tokai Teio from Umamusume. Fans could also demo Worlds Beyond and Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising (GBVSR), snag Cygames merch, try their hand at an Umamusume-themed crane game, or catch the American premiere of Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Beginning of a New Era. If they could find seats, that is. The packed room filled with cheers at the entrance of familiar characters and erupted in song when “Umapyoi Legend” played during the credits.

Life-size figures of Tokai Teio and Special Week.
Fans challenge the crane game for a chance to win Umamusume cushions.
Lots of visitors tried out the game demos.

Over in Paris, the Japan Expo booth offered visitors five whole demos (Umamusume, Worlds Beyond, GBVSR, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, and Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash), along with an impressive Umamusume backdrop to take photos with, a screening of Beginning of a New Era, events featuring influencers in the community, and of course plenty of merch.

Fans pose in front of a three-dimensional Umamusume backdrop.
Another packed house for the Umamusume movie.
Influencers introduce the game to crowds while playing on stage, where tournaments were also held.

Worlds Beyond in the Spotlight
Taiwan’s Comic Exhibition

Meanwhile, the Cygames booth at Comic Exhibition put Worlds Beyond front and center on account of the game’s recent release and the enduring popularity of its predecessor in Taiwan.
Large crowds gathered for the stage events, including Worlds Beyond and GBVSR exhibition matches that had eyes glued to the screen.
The merch corner also saw long lines with its popular mystery bags, a staple of any offline event in Taiwan.

A Worlds Beyond stage event.
The Worlds Beyond demo booth had constant lines.
GBVSR exhibition matches delivered heated action from the stage.
Fans line up for merch from Umamusume, Princess Connect! Re: Dive, and other Cygames works popular in Taiwan.

An Interview with the Event Coordinators

We asked Cygames event coordinators at each event to share their thoughts on how things turned out and prospects going forward.

What goals did you have for your booth? What did you put the most work into?

Anime Expo Event Coordinator: Our aim was to create an experience that everyone could enjoy, even non-gamers. To that end, we set up the two life-size Umamusume figures shown for the first time ever, a crane game where fans could win merch, a jumbo digital display of Worlds Beyond cards, and a duel corner for GBVSR.

Japan Expo Event Coordinator: We wanted to hook people who weren’t familiar with our content yet, so we had lots of demos, the Umamusume photo spot and movie screening, plus a variety of stage events. For GBVSR, which has been chosen as a main title for global fighting game tournaments such as Evo France and Arc World Tour events, we created panels introducing those tournaments and hosted mini tournaments on stage.
We put a lot of work into the Umamusume photo spot. To create a sense of motion and impact, we split the background illustration across four overlapping layers which made it look like the characters were running at you. Judging by all the people who stopped to take pictures with it, I’d say it was a success.

Comic Exhibition Event Coordinator: Given the popularity of card games in Taiwan, we decided to center our booth around the recently released Worlds Beyond. To create an interactive experience, we set up a physical gacha with merchandise, open tournaments, and stage events where guests could face off against community influencers. We also held exhibition matches for GBVSR featuring intense high-level play for the fans.

Did you notice anything different from previous years?

Anime Expo Event Coordinator: I heard the name Cygames and the titles of our works mentioned more than before, which told me that we’re gaining recognition.

Japan Expo Event Coordinator: We saw even more people cosplaying and visiting the official CyStore this year, so I felt that our works are increasing in popularity.

Did you do anything differently from previous events in Taiwan?

Comic Exhibition Event Coordinator: Our merch lineup, which included new products and mystery bags, plus the raffles we ran helped make our booth a great deal more successful than our previous appearances at other events in Taiwan.

How was the reception from visitors?

Anime Expo Event Coordinator: There was overwhelming passion for Umamusume. The movie screening completely filled up, with people cheering at their favorite characters and singing along to “Umapyoi Legend” during the credits. The community-organized cosplay photo shoot also had more than double the participants from last year.

Japan Expo Event Coordinator: The community of Umamusume fans made an impression on me. They hung out at the booth and seemed to enjoy the photo spot. We had fans come not just from across France but Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands too. I could really feel their love for the IP and the characters.
The movie screening nearly filled up as well. I was happy to see more people coming to the event as Cygames fans.

Comic Exhibition Event Coordinator: A lot of people lined up to buy merch right after the doors opened, and I heard from some that they came to the event just for the Cygames booth. Our concert and talk event with Umamusume voice actors on the main stage got a lot of cheers from the crowd, and the Worlds Beyond duel events at our booth got fans pretty excited too. I think we were able to deliver an enjoyable experience for all the Cygames fans.

Tell me about your plans for overseas events going forward.

Anime Expo Event Coordinator: We hope to create an even more enjoyable experience for the community by incorporating local trends and planning events specifically for North America.

Japan Expo Event Coordinator: A lot of people find out about Cygames through events like Japan Expo, so we hope to make our name known to even more people across Europe with more fun events.

Comic Exhibition Event Coordinator: Taiwan has a strong offline event culture, and at Comic Exhibition I realized just how important events like these are, as spaces where fans keep up-to-date on the latest news and interact with each other. To make even more people into Cygames fans, we plan on selling merch and setting up demos outside of large game and anime conventions as well.

That concludes this event report. Thank you to all who stopped by our booths!

Read about how these events went in 2024!