Our story since 2006…

1,985

Members

454

Meetups

186

Articles

20+

Talks

As a registered nonprofit in Illinois, we’re committed to bringing new and exciting anime experiences to all Chicagoans.

November 2006

🚀 Launched AnimeChicago.com

This whole endeavor started as a simple news website to make Chicago’s anime communities more visible and connected.

May 2012

👋 Started a Club

Maintaining a website for six years was a passion project, and we needed more help. After asking around for potential authors and editors, there were enough people saying they wanted to join a club. So we started one.

January 2014

Joined Meetup

The stars aligned when AnimeChicago had a large enough team and we wanted to grow bigger. We joined Meetup to reach more anime fans who valued in-person meetups and socializing on the regular.

The 2015 team prepping for our first Symposium.

April 2014

Formed Nonprofit

After eight years of personally funding the organization’s bills, we decided to incorporate and truly bring our mission of educating Chicagoland on Japanese pop culture to a bigger stage.

May 2016

🇯🇵 Explored Japan

A group of us planned our first long-distance trip! We absorbed all the cuisine, entertainment, nature, and history that Japan had to offer over the course of 10 days.

Nine members traversed the sights of Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto over 10 days.

C2E2 and Meetup.com invited us to host events in their 2016 Fan Village.

We presented our second Symposium at the Japan Information Center of Chicago!

November 2016

10 Years and Counting!

It’s been a wild ride! AnimeChicago has faced many challenges in the previous decade, but each one has made us evolved and grown stronger.

October 2017

A Thousand Members

Our humble little club hit 1,000 members and we couldn’t be prouder.

Small group discussion “Anime Circle” discussing an anime title.

Want to add to our story?

We’re open to collaborative pitches, big and small.