Night one of Anime Expo 2026 was, as the kids say, a movie. And what better way to capture how wild that night was than documenting Kodansha House‘s swanky The Ghost in the Shell party from behind the lens of my trusty and underutilized (until now!) Fujifilm X-T100? Kodansha threw a party at its Los Angeles Kodansha House location in honor of The Ghost in the Shell‘s imminent premiere on Prime Video on July 7. Naturally, io9 got to swing by to check out the digs and took some photos of the cool things we saw when we crossed the threshold and entered otaku heaven. While the main reason folks attended the party and lined up around the block was to get a chance to get signed posters from director Mokochan and the character design/executive animation director Shuhei Handa, the first thing that caught our eye—or more appropriately, our ears—was the live DJ set playing cyberpunk-themed tunes while trailers for The Ghost in the Shell looped behind him. The vibes were immaculate.
© Isaiah Colbert/io9 But for those of a slower tempo and in dire need of being a wallflower like yours truly, the front of the house also had some good decompressing vibes in its shelved manga on display featuring such choice titles as Princess Jellyfish, Fire Force, and Vinland Saga.
