Hello, anime fans! It is nearly that time of year again: Crunchyroll has announced their Virtual Crunchyroll Expo for 2021. The event will take place virtually via stream from August 5–7 only on expo.crunchyroll.com. And the best part (besides all the amazing guests and panels): V-CRX is 100% free to attend. If you did not get a chance to check it out last year, mark your calendars because you will not want to miss it this year.

Recap

For those of you who missed it last year, the Virtual Crunchyroll Expo (V-CRX) brought together the global anime community to celebrate the best and brightest in Japanese animation. Last year, V-CRX hosted panels full of producers, writers, directors, voice actors from many of the new Crunchyroll Originals as well as other popular anime like DR. STONE and Rent-a-Girlfriend. They also hosted Crunchyroll-Hime’s Cosplay Cup, which was awesome!

First Wave of Guests

I’m excited to report that the first round of guests and programming for Virtual Crunchyroll Expo 2021 has been announced. The announcement includes a premiere preview of TONIKAWA: Over the Moon for You OVA, new as well as returning guests, and exclusive merch! 

V-CRX attendees will be able to hear from English voice actor, Cherami Leigh (previously voiced Asuna Yuuki in Sword Art Online, Minako Aino/Sailor Venus in Sailor Moon, and Lucy Heartfilia in Fairy Tail). 

Also announced is Japanese vegetable carver, Okitsugu Kado, who will return to showcase his talent of carving anime characters from vegetables. This will definitely be one to check out as his carvings are phenomenal. He also did some carvings for Star Wars Celebration a few years back and they were super cool.

Cosplayer Vampy Bit Me and content creator Mario Bueno will be back this year to co-host Crunchyroll-Hime’s Cosplay Cup, an international cosplay competition that will take place during V-CRX. This competition was great last year, I’m really looking forward to seeing all the cosplayers from around the world again this year.

A new addition this year is that fans can pre-order an exclusive commemorative t-shirt to wear during V-CRX this year. It will be available for pre-order until June 30 on the Crunchyroll Store here. 

How to Attend

Registration for V-CRX is open at expo.crunchyroll.com. Be sure to sign up for a free pass for this year’s event to catch all the action, announcements, guest panels, and more. I really enjoyed attending all the panels I could last year. It was a unique experience to be able to attend nearly all the panels each day, which would be impossible at a live, in-person event. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait until we can have expos and conventions in person again, but this is definitely an event to check out. Also, when you register, you receive access to all the VOD (video-on-demand) content for the event weekend, which includes any panels you may have missed or just want to watch again. It does not get any more convenient than that.

I hope to (virtually) see you all there this year. Stay tuned for more guest announcements and more as we get close to the V-CRX date.

What do you guys think of this first round of guests? Are there any anime you hope to see get covered at V-CRX this year? Let us know in the comments below!

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