Animate! Raleigh returns to the Raleigh Convention Center from Friday, January 8 through Sunday, January 10, 2027, kicking off the new year with three days of anime, gaming, and trading card culture in downtown Raleigh. Produced by the team behind GalaxyCon, Animate! is the Triangle's biggest dedicated anime event — and for TCG collectors and players, it has quietly become one of the best card weekends on the winter calendar, complete with organized Pokemon TCG tournaments and a vendor hall stacked with card dealers.
The exhibitor hall is a TCG hunter's playground wrapped in an anime con. Expect dealers carrying Pokemon singles, graded slabs, and sealed product from vintage WOTC through the newest sets, plus deep tables for One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic: The Gathering, and Lorcana — the anime crossover means Japanese exclusives and promo cards surface here more than at typical sports card shows. Beyond cards, the hall offers manga, figures, plush, apparel, art prints, and imports, while the programming schedule delivers voice actor guests, panels, cosplay contests, karaoke, and gaming tournaments including organized Pokemon TCG play all weekend.
Hours are Friday 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM, Saturday 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM, and Sunday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Single-day and full-weekend passes are available through galaxycon.com/pages/animate-raleigh, with kids' pricing and VIP options that add early access and guest perks; advance online pricing typically beats the door. Friday evening is the quietest window to work the dealer hall before the Saturday crowds arrive.
The Raleigh Convention Center is located at 500 S Salisbury Street in downtown Raleigh, with paid parking in surrounding city decks and street parking nearby. Fayetteville Street's restaurants are a block away, and January in downtown Raleigh means easy hotel availability for anyone making a full weekend of it.
Who should attend? Anime fans are the heart of the show, but Pokemon and TCG collectors should not sleep on it — tournament players get organized play, collectors get a dealer hall with genuinely different inventory than sports card shows, and families get a high-energy, kid-friendly weekend where cosplay and card trading share the same floor. First-timers will find the GalaxyCon production polish makes everything easy to navigate.
To get the best experience, buy passes in advance and hit the dealer hall Friday evening or right at Saturday's open, since exclusive promos and Japanese singles sell out first. Tournament players should pre-register for Pokemon TCG events and bring sleeved, legal decks; collectors should bring cash, a want list, penny sleeves, top loaders, and a slab case. Budget floor time for artist alley too — custom card art and hobby-adjacent prints make great pickups.
For passes, the guest lineup, and the tournament schedule, visit galaxycon.com/pages/animate-raleigh or follow GalaxyCon on social media. January comes fast after the holidays — grab passes early and start the 2027 collecting year at full speed.