Event’s online ticket guideline states attendees allowed “1 ticket per session;” event’s legal page states “1 Guest of Honor ticket per attendee”
©Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation 2025
Several attendees for this year’s Anime Expo event have taken to social media to complain after experiencing issues with the event’s Guest of Honor ticketing system, claiming that attendees who reserved a ticket for multiple autograph sessions had all but one of their tickets canceled due to a “violation of Autograph Policy.”
Anime Expo issued a statement on its Instagram account on Monday apologizing for the inconvenience caused and stating that the convention staff has contacted the “affected individuals” directly.
The statement reads:
Regarding The Guest of Honor Autograph Process: We apologize for the inconvenience some attendees experienced during the Guest of Honor Autograph reservation process.
The affected individuals have been contacted directly, and we appreciate your understanding as we work to improve the experience moving forward.
Thank you for your continued support.
Some attendees who reserved tickets for multiple Guests of Honor had complained that all but one of their tickets have been canceled by the ticketing service Epic Leap, with some receiving an e-mail notifying them that they have violated the autograph policy of “One (1) Guest of Honor ticket is permitted per attendee.”
Attendees are stating that this policy was not included in the new ticketing guidelines that Anime Expo posted on its website on April 17. The posted guidelines state that online ticket reservations are first come, first serve, and that “attendees are only allowed one (1) ticket per [autograph] session.” The same guideline is posted on Epic Leap’s website.
Neither the “How to Get an Autograph at Anime Expo” website nor Epic Leap’s website featuring Anime Expo‘s guidelines specifically state that only one Guest of Honor ticket is allowed per attendee.
Attendees also complained that their tickets were canceled without giving them a choice of which one to keep.
Some attendees who have tried to contact Anime Expo‘s customer support claimed they were in response directed to the website’s legal page, which as of Sunday Pacific Time did state in the Autographs section: “One (1) Guest of Honor ticket is permitted per attendee.” However, this legal website is not linked to in Anime Expo‘s above-linked “How to Get an Autograph at Anime Expo” website nor on Epic Leap’s website that features Anime Expo‘s guidelines.
In an article by Comics Beat posted on Sunday, the outlet cited a Reddit user who argued that the policy was not previously included on Anime Expo‘s legal page. An archived version of the page dated on June 1 does not include the phrase “One (1) Guest of Honor ticket is permitted per attendee.”
As of press time, the Legal page has since removed that clause from its General Policy.
Both the archive page and the current legal page of Anime Expo state: “If there is a conflicting policy on the Epic Experience website that contradicts with the Anime Expo General Policy, the official Anime Expo policy listed here (legal page) will take precedence.”
ANN reached out to both AX and Epic Leap about the situation but did not receive a response by press time.
Anime Expo will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from July 3-6. Some of this year’s Guests of Honor include Final Fantasy XIV director and producer and Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida, The Summer Hikaru Died manga creator Mokumokuren, and voice actor Kazuki Ura, among others.
Sources: Comics Beat (Merve Giray), Anime Expo‘s X/Twitter account, website (link 2), and Instagram account
