Manga Barcelona, a Comprehensive Event for Manga, Anime, and Japanese Culture, Returns to Spain This Year

Manga Barcelona, a massive event that has been held in Spain for more than 30 years and received the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Award in 2010 and the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts from Spain in 2024, will return this year from December 5 to 8, 2026.

Since moving to Fira Barcelona Gran Via, Barcelona's international exhibition center, in 2022, the event has drawn more than 160,000 visitors and around 300 exhibitors every year. It is known as one of Europe's largest comprehensive events for manga, anime, and Japanese culture.

For this 32nd edition, horror manga master Junji Ito, who is also a guest, has drawn the official poster. Other creators attending as guests include Yudetamago, the creators of the classic manga Kinnikuman; Hyuganatsu, author of the novel The Apothecary Diaries, which was adapted into an anime in 2023; and Taizan5, creator of the manga Takopi's Original Sin, which was adapted into an anime in 2025.

Guests from the anime industry have also been invited, including Shoji Kawamori, an anime director and mecha designer whose best-known works include the Macross and Aquarion series; Risa Ebata, an animator and character designer who has worked on Gravion Zwei and Macross Frontier; and Keiichiro Saito, who directed Season 1 of Bocchi the Rock! and Season 1 of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End.

The guests from the music industry are singer Reol, known for the ending theme song "Kissaki" for Rurouni Kenshin (2023) and the opening theme song "RE RESCUE" for Blue Exorcist: Beyond the Snow Saga; hip-hop artist LOTUS JUICE, who has contributed songs to the Persona series; and ALI, who broke out with the opening theme song "Wild Side" for BEASTARS and the ending theme song "LOST IN PARADISE feat.AKLO" for Jujutsu Kaisen, among others. All of them are scheduled to hold mini-concerts and talk events on the main stage.

Attractions include the Manga Academy Room, which hosts lectures, panel discussions, and talk events by creators, as well as workspaces such as the Manga Atelier and the Anime Atelier, where visitors can learn about storytelling, character creation, and more.

There is also an Auditorium where visitors can enjoy video works on a large screen. Screenings include Labyrinth, directed and mecha-designed by Kawamori with character design by Ebata; Paprika, the 2006 anime film by the late director Satoshi Kon; and Agito: Psychic War, a live-action film celebrating the 55th anniversary of the Kamen Rider series.

The event also puts a focus on cosplay. Visitors can enjoy dressing up and taking photos, and the Spanish qualifiers for international cosplay competitions such as World Cosplay Summit and Extreme Cosplay Gathering will also be held. In addition, there will be manga and dance contests and quiz competitions.

(C)JI Inc./Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc.