Submissions for this year's Aniwow2026 Animation Festival will close at 24:00 on September 14, 2026 (Beijing Time).

Thank you all for your understanding and support. Let us head together toward this grand celebration of visuals and art!

This category refers to moving image works that create movement or character performance through frame-by-frame techniques, including both narrative and non-narrative works. Animated short films may be made using hand-drawn animation, computer animation, stop-motion animation, and other frame-by-frame methods; however, motion capture and live puppetry manipulation recordings are not included. Animated short films must be under 30 minutes in length, with at least 75% of the runtime created using frame-by-frame techniques. In narrative animated short films, the performance of main characters must be created through frame-by-frame techniques. If a submitted work is very close to live-action footage in its final presentation, entrants must submit additional text, images, and video materials explaining why the work meets this category's requirements. Trailers, commercials, and excerpts from animated features or animated series are not eligible for this category.

This category refers to non-single-panel works that express a complete story or creative concept primarily through images, usually supplemented with text and presented through a sequence of panels or images. Excerpts from existing works, or commissioned works of an advertising or promotional nature, are not eligible for this category.

This category refers to digital art works in which audiences participate in the experience in some way, or short films that use digital visual effects technology for narrative expression. This category includes two directions: Interactive Art: works emphasizing audience participation and real-time interaction, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and interactive installations;

Digital Intelligence Imagery: short film works (including fiction, experimental, animation, and other types) created using digital visual effects technologies such as computer-generated imagery, motion graphics design, and AI-generated imagery.

Excerpts from existing works, or commissioned works of an advertising or promotional nature, are not eligible for this category.

This category refers to digital game works that run on electronic media platforms and allow users to interact via video devices. Excerpts from existing works, or commissioned works of an advertising or promotional nature, are not eligible for this category.

1. Entries must have been completed before September 14, 2026, including works created by students of relevant programs at higher education institutions (including vocational colleges, undergraduate, and graduate students) during their enrollment (including graduation works); works created jointly by higher education institutions and enterprises (institutional works take priority); graduates of the class of 2026 may submit unfinished works at the application stage, but once shortlisted, they must submit the completed work (failure to submit the completed work will result in disqualification from the shortlist).

2. Works that have participated in competitions of previous editions of the China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival may not enter this year's competition.

3. Entries may be submitted by individuals or teams, or collectively organized by an institution. There is no limit on the number of entries submitted collectively by institutions. Published works may enter this competition, but this must be indicated as required at registration.

4. Entries must be original works. All entrants must be the legal owners of the submitted works, hold full copyrights, and bear the corresponding legal responsibilities. Collective works may only be entered with the consent of all principal creators and the authorization of the copyright holders.

5. All works that have used artificial intelligence technology must be submitted to the Digital Art category (Category C). Please specify exactly how the AI technology was used in the submission materials.

6. Entries must have healthy content and must not violate the laws and regulations of the People's Republic of China. Plagiarism, imitation, and copying of others' works are strictly prohibited. If others' works are used in an entry, legal authorization must be obtained and written proof of such authorization must be submitted. Otherwise, the organizing committee has the right to disqualify the entry. If the competition suffers serious negative impact as a result, the organizing committee will pursue legal liability.

7. By participating in this animation festival as an individual, team, or organized institution, entrants agree to authorize the Organizing Committee of the 21st China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival to publicly screen, exhibit, and otherwise present their works offline. The above authorization period is from September 14, 2026 to December 31, 2026.

The judging of the "Poplar Award" of [Aniwow!2026] The 21st China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival consists of two stages: selection and judging. In the selection stage, professional selectors will choose the shortlisted works from all entries and hold public screenings. In the judging stage, the jury panel will select the nominated and winning works from the shortlist. The jury will be composed of renowned animation, comics, digital art, and game professionals and scholars, as well as senior executives of relevant institutions. The judging process adheres to the criteria of thoughtfulness, originality, and artistry, and strictly upholds the principles of fairness and impartiality.

1. Animation entries and digital short films in the Digital Art category must all be packaged in Mp4 format, with h.264 encoding for the preliminary selection. After a work is shortlisted through preliminary judging, a ProRes 422 encoded mov or mp4 file of the shortlisted work must also be submitted, with a video bitrate of no less than 6Mbps, a resolution of no less than 1920×1080p, and an audio bitrate of no less than 128Kbps; high-quality compressed or uncompressed files are preferred.

2. Comics and picture book works must be submitted as digital files in TIFF or JPEG format, along with a formatted digital file in PDF format. The frame size must be no smaller than A4 paper, with a resolution of no less than 300dpi. After a work is shortlisted through preliminary judging, a Chinese-English correspondence table of the text within the shortlisted work must also be submitted.

3. Interactive works in the Digital Art category and game entries must include a screen recording of actual gameplay or interaction, or an on-site recorded video of the interaction process, of no less than 3 minutes. Slight editing and subtitles may be added to better explain the concept, but conceptual demo videos or promotional CG animations may not be submitted. The video must be packaged in MP4 format with h.264 encoding, accompanied by a work description document in PDF format. After a work is shortlisted through preliminary judging, the executable file of the shortlisted work must also be submitted (which may be a web-based interactive HTML5 page, a desktop .exe or .app, or a mobile APK or iOS file), accompanied by a work operation manual in PDF format that includes project files and runtime environment instructions.

4. All entries must be accompanied by a content synopsis of 50–80 characters.

5. All entries must be equipped with English subtitles.

Shortlisted works must submit digital files in TIFF or JPEG format of 1 work poster and 3 or more work stills. The poster aspect ratio is 50x70cm, with a resolution of no less than 300dpi.

1. There is no entry fee for participating in the Poplar Award competition of [Aniwow!2026] The 21st China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival.
2. Submissions and judging will be conducted uniformly through the Filmfreeway platform. Entrants should submit their works via the following link: Filmfreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/Aniwow2026

Institutions are welcome to submit works collectively. For submission-related questions, please inquire via email.

Official email: aniwowcuc@163.com

3. The submission deadline for entries is September 14, 2026. All entries should be submitted before the deadline.

4. The organizing committee will notify the nominated and winning authors based on the relevant information in the registration forms and will send out certificates, trophies, and prize money. Entrants must fill in their registration information accurately.

(For more detailed registration and submission instructions, please follow the official website: http://aniwow.cuc.edu.cn/)

​Office address: School of Animation and Digital Arts, Communication University of China

​Mailing address: To the Organizing Committee of the China (Beijing) International Student Animation Festival, School of Animation and Digital Arts, Communication University of China, No. 1 Dingfuzhuang East Street, Chaoyang District, Beijing

​Postal code: 100024

​Phone: +86 010-65783476

​Email: aniwowcuc@163.com

2. "Author" refers to an entrant who has completed registration through the organizing committee's registration procedure. Authors must provide truthful personal information at registration. Although the organizing committee does not substantively verify users' identities, users whose personal information is false or invalid will lose the opportunity to have their works recommended for publication on various media.
3. "Work" refers to a work created by the author in the form prescribed by the organizing committee and within the scope of the competition. Whether or not it wins an award, the author enjoys copyright in accordance with the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China.
4. "Publication" refers to making a work public within the scope prescribed by the organizing committee. Unless under special circumstances, once a work is published, it cannot be withdrawn or deleted.
5. The organizing committee does not accept works that are legally prohibited from publication or dissemination, or that contain any of the following content: a. content opposing the basic principles established by law; b. content inciting ethnic hatred or ethnic discrimination and undermining ethnic unity; c. content that insults or defames others or infringes upon their lawful rights and interests; d. other content prohibited by laws and administrative regulations.
6. To respect copyrights and better protect authors' lawful rights and interests, authors must agree to the following statement upon submission: I hereby declare that I am the copyright holder of this entry. I personally participated in creating this work, and I am responsible for any disputes arising from copyright issues concerning characters, stories, music, etc. I agree that, for the purposes of the festival's publicity and promotion, the organizing committee may broadcast, screen, exhibit, publish, and otherwise use the work on relevant media without payment of remuneration. I have truthfully completed the entry registration form and am responsible for its contents.
7. As a rule, all entries will not be returned; entrants should keep the originals of their works themselves.
8. Regarding plagiarism: a. Plagiarism refers to the act of taking another's work, either verbatim or with alterations, as one's own without the original author's consent.

b. The organizing committee does not have sufficient capacity to monitor all instances of plagiarism. However, once discovered, it has the right to disqualify plagiarized works from the competition. The organizing committee bears no legal responsibility for such infringements; all legal liability for infringement rests solely with the plagiarist.

c. When judicial authorities or copyright holders request the organizing committee to provide the background information of an infringer, the committee has the obligation to assist in providing such information.

d. Authors who submit works to the organizing committee are deemed to have agreed to the corresponding measures taken by the committee under the preceding provisions. After the committee takes corresponding measures such as disqualification under the conditions of the preceding paragraph, it shall not bear liability for breach of contract or other legal responsibility to the submitter, including compensation for damages caused to authors by unfounded infringement claims.

The festival organizing committee reserves the final right of interpretation of the above content. In case of any conflict with the relevant laws and regulations of the People's Republic of China, the laws and regulations shall prevail.

On the afternoon of August 15, two roundtable forums were held at the main venue of the 2026 second Hanabi Creation Festival at the Nanfang Theater, focusing respectively on restructuring animation production organizations and building creators' personal brands. Guests from animation production, directing, AI technology, content platforms, and IP commercialization drew on practical experience to discuss new trends in the content industry amid technological and platform changes.

On the afternoon of August 15, the main venue at the Nanfang Theater hosted a series of exchanges on AI creation, animation production, and creator growth. Xuzi, head of growth at updream, opened with a talk titled "How the all-in-one AI Agent creation platform updream empowers animation creation." Using examples such as uploading scene images to generate graybox references and spatial previsualization, he introduced the new previsualization stage feature of the AI creation platform updream and its role in improving animation production efficiency and control over generated imagery, effectively aiding animation creation.

The first roundtable, themed "How should animation production organizations be restructured in the new era?", was moderated by animation content creator and AniMatter co-founder Bifang. Animation film producer Cai Bo (Nobody), animation director Fu Bo (Mojiao Zhentan), director Huang Chengxi (the Black Myth: Wukong animated short Bu You Ji), and animation director and AI pipeline expert Erpang joined the discussion. On AI's impact on production pipelines and team organization, the guests noted, based on project experience, that complex animation production requires better task quantification and information coordination, and that digital tools can improve cross-team communication efficiency. As technology iterates, animation production organizations may become leaner, smaller-unit-based, and more specialized, but at this stage AI mainly serves to boost efficiency and assist — a creator's aesthetic sense, experience, and understanding of story and people remain crucial factors in determining a work's quality.

The second roundtable, themed "From creator to brand: how to build your own audience?", was moderated by Daxiong, a senior content operations specialist at bilibili. Panelists included Niuyuguo, a signed creator of Bilibili's UP Animation Theater (Waixing Xiaotou Libe), Hong Jiajun, general producer of the Xing You Ye animation IP, Su Anke, CEO and co-founder of Yibenzhengjing with long experience in anime IP commercialization and brand licensing, and Su Fei, senior film media writer at Sir Movie. The discussion ranged from content expression to user operations, IP building, and commercialization paths. The guests agreed that while AI lowers some barriers to content production, long-term creation still depends on consistent expression, values, and professional skill; content is not inherently an IP — only when characters, imagery, or core symbols are truly remembered by audiences and gradually form stable user relationships does a work have the foundation to develop into an IP and brand. Facing a constantly changing platform environment, creators must also keep following audience feedback and strike a balance between content quality and long-term user connection.

On the afternoon of August 15, the first themed salon at the Yonghan Cinema focused on copyright protection in the AI era. Hosted by animation teacher and curator Xiao Jian, the session featured lawyer Wu Rangjun, an expert in the Guangzhou Copyright Bureau's copyright expert pool and director of the Copyright Committee of the Guangzhou Lawyers Association, as guest speaker. Wu has long practiced intellectual property and commercial dispute resolution, with a focus on online games, video streaming, music, short dramas, and other entertainment fields. Tailored to the practical needs of the cultural and creative industry, the salon addressed copyright issues in animation and related creative work.

Starting from the definition of literary works, the salon covered originality, rights ownership, fair use, and infringement determination, and analyzed new copyright issues brought by AI creation through specific cases. Regarding AI-generated content, lawyer Wu Rangjun highlighted creators' creative input such as prompts during the generation process, advising creators to preserve evidence of prompts and revision history when creating with AI. He also engaged with the audience on questions like AI training on existing works and similarity between generated content and original works, offering reference for cultural and creative professionals on understanding copyright boundaries and rights protection in the AI era.

The second salon invited Zou Yi of IFCOMICS Yifu Comics Studio and manga artist Ling, hosted by Bote, a core organizer of the ADSL Exhibition. Drawing on their long-term creative and team practices, the guests discussed manga creation methods, the use of technical tools, distribution, and market changes, as well as the impact of new tools like AI and 3D modeling on the creative workflow.

The salon moved from black-and-white and color manga to how tools like 3D modeling, photography, and AI assist the creative workflow, then extended into authorial expression, distribution, and IP development. The guests noted that new technologies can cut some production costs and broaden creative methods, but a work's core still lies in its content. As traditional print media's influence wanes, manga creators also need to proactively expand channels such as social media and cross-media development, exploring a balance between work and commerce while staying focused on creative expression.

The third salon invited animated film storyboard artist and director Wang Ruijie Jerry (I Am What I Am 2, Liaozhai: Lanruo Temple), hosted by Niangao, business producer at Huamei Animation. The discussion covered shot design, character performance, emotional pacing, and collaboration on commercial projects in storyboard creation.

Drawing mainly on projects like I Am What I Am 2, the salon explored the storyboard's role in pre-production and mid-production. The panel emphasized that storyboards should first clarify characters and emotions, then organize shots and actions around the characters' states while staying aligned with the director's overall creative intent; in team collaboration, room for creative input should be appropriately preserved according to different stages and each creator's strengths. Jerry also shared from personal experience how to turn life experiences into shot language and creative inspiration, offering animators insight into the storyboard's narrative function and actual production process.

On the afternoon of August 15 at the United Bookstore, the Yefeng Game Dev Group brought its 14-day game jam to its final act.

From August 1 to August 14, these game developers stretched the tension of "time-limited development" to a new length over two weeks. At the showcase, every game was playable on site — developers explained their design decisions while players sat right down to try them. No judges, no scores — just feedback from fellow developers and real players.

On the morning of August 16, the third roundtable, themed "Change and constancy — what is a creator's true anchor?", was moderated by animation content creator Bifang. Panelists included animation director Wunian hiro (the Black Myth: Wukong animated short Pi), director Huang Chengxi (the Black Myth: Wukong animated short Bu You Ji), animation director Bai Jie (Da Qian Shijie, Yikong Zhange), director and AIGC artist Huang Jiangyan, and Bengji, head of bilibili's AIGC film and animation category operations. From 2D and 3D to generative AI, the guests agreed that new technologies keep changing animation's tools, pipelines, and creator structures, opening the field to people of more diverse backgrounds — but technology does not automatically produce good work. The more efficient the tools, the more creators need fundamental skills in composition, storytelling, and performance, along with independent aesthetic judgment. Authentic life experience, emotional perception, and the urge to express cannot be replicated by technology, so while continually embracing change, knowing what you want to express and forming independent judgment and personal expression remain the true "anchor" creators must hold onto.

On the afternoon of August 16, the Nanfang Theater hosted a screening of Duxing, China's first documentary on independent games. In his opening remarks, the film's producer said that it held special meaning for the film to appear on a theater screen for the first time on its eighth anniversary. From the outset, the documentary adhered to "no script, no storyboard, no predetermined stance," aiming to faithfully record the living conditions of China's independent game developers and to retain real-world value years later. Facing industry changes brought by new technologies like AI, he said that advances in creation tools are making game development accessible to more people. The roughly two-hour screening set the stage for the subsequent indie game roundtable, prompting the audience to think further about how to pursue more sustainable development and commercial paths while staying true to their love of creation.

The fourth roundtable focused on "Indie games — how can content creators close the commercial loop?", moderated by Pinmingwan Sanlang, founder of the China Indie Game Alliance. Panelists included Chen Heting, director of China's indie game documentary (Duxing), indie game developer CWC (Lost Castle 2), and PC, animation director at peropero (Muse Dash). Drawing on their own experience, the guests discussed project initiation, market judgment, commercialization, and AI applications. They agreed that indie game creation requires both clarity about one's strengths and expressive goals, and attention to market and user needs — by controlling project scope, validating gameplay, and actually finishing the product, a sustainable development path can gradually take shape. AI can improve prototyping and validation efficiency, but a creator's own aesthetic judgment, personal style, and content expression remain irreplaceable.

On the morning of August 16, the fourth themed salon at the Yonghan Cinema invited Guo Yacheng, co-founder of Fengtang Animation and animation director (Mao Xing Dongfang · Yuxiu, Shenqi Xiaowan Miaowenlu), hosted by Bais, head of the Hanabi Animation brand. Starting from the difference between AI agents and ordinary conversational AI, the session used hands-on demonstrations to show how agents participate in creative and daily work, and discussed the changes they bring to content production.

Through real cases such as animation storyboards, prompt organization, and multi-agent collaboration, the salon demonstrated AI agents' applications in animation production, project management, and workflow automation, further exploring how creators can use agents to optimize their workflows. The session also addressed division of labor and boundaries in human-machine collaboration, stressing that a creator's own professional foundation and aesthetic sense remain key to steering a work's direction, and engaged the audience on real-world agent usage as well as the security risks of AI tools and how to guard against them.

The fifth salon, themed "What are the current best practices in AI animation?", was hosted by animation teacher and curator Xiao Jian, with panelists including Roushu Texiao, a signed creator of Bilibili's UP Animation Theater and featured updream creator; Pajiao Xiaoji, a signed creator of Bilibili's UP Animation Theater and featured updream creator; Mai Weijian, CEO of Yingdong Visual; and Daxiong, senior content operations specialist at bilibili. Speaking from perspectives of personal creation, commercial production, and platform operations, the guests discussed AI animation's actual creative workflows, production methods, and industry changes.

From script, storyboard, and asset generation to editing, the salon covered AI's practical use in personal animation creation, and explored differences between personal creation and commercial production in production cycles, costs, and team setup. The discussion further addressed AI's restructuring of traditional animation pipelines and the new opportunities it opens for individual creators and small teams, and, responding to audience questions, stressed that content creation and close collaboration between director and writer remain key to giving a work its character and winning audience recognition.

The sixth salon, themed "How will AI reshape the voice industry?", invited AI music instructor and music producer-practitioner Nencol He Wenxiang and film/animation sound mixing engineer Li Yunwei, hosted by professional voice actor and voice director Geass. Speaking from the fields of music production, film sound, and voice acting, the three guests discussed the changes AI brings to creative methods, workflows, and careers in the voice industry.

The salon showcased an AI music idol MV and, through real applications like AI music, sound effect production, and AI dubbing, discussed how AI improves production efficiency and lowers creative barriers while impacting traditional voice production, extending to new collaboration models like voiceprint licensing and virtual idols. The panel also noted that while AI can handle ever more standardized work, emotional understanding, aesthetic judgment, and personal expression in voice creation still require human creators. Afterwards, the salon held a music workshop where guest Nencol composed a song together with the audience.

During the event, the satellite venues also hosted an "Animation Crowd-Review Session," moderated by Kaimen, founder of PLPL Studio and head of the DonghuaHuan community. Panelists included Danan Jun, executive producer of original animated films (Dahufa, Valley of White Birds, Rain), animation art creator Yibu Xiaoxin (Rain), Roushu Texiao, a signed creator of Bilibili's UP Animation Theater and featured updream creator, Pajiao Xiaoji, a signed creator of Bilibili's UP Animation Theater and featured updream creator, and Ningbo Huntun, senior AIGC content operations specialist at bilibili and animation content creator.

Guided by the principle of "more analysis, less verdicts," the crowd-review session broke down specific problems in each work's creative process through clip screenings, audience interaction, creators' own accounts, and panel discussion. Works presented included hand-drawn pieces Longhu Zhi Xing, Zhongshu Chacanting, Nanke Zoumadeng, and Yingyuanse, as well as the AI-made piece AEGIS. Discussions covered shot language, atmosphere building, character performance, emotional conveyance, and generation control and collaboration workflows in AI animation. Rather than simply judging works "good" or "bad," the session used joint analysis by creators and panelists to help creators better identify the key stages that shape a work's final effect.

Across the two days, the festival's visual identity extended into every event space and outdoor area. Themed signage, event panels, guest profiles, and festival materials blended with the Nanfang Theater, the Yonghan Cinema, and the surrounding urban spaces, building a clear and distinctive event environment for participants.

From venue entrances to public gathering areas, the visual materials and on-site installations centered on animation, manga, indie games, and youth creation not only served wayfinding and information functions but also reinforced the festival's open, diverse atmosphere of creator exchange. Beyond the forums, screenings, and talks, attendees could feel this edition's on-site experience through these spaces and visual details.

Over two days, the genuine exchange the Hanabi Creation Festival fostered may matter more than any answers it provided. The festival will continue to serve as a platform connecting creators with the industry, offering young creators in animation, manga, indie games, and beyond more opportunities to showcase and connect.

​Supporting organizations：Guangzhou Beijing Road Cultural Core Area Management Committee, Guangzhou Digital Creative Industry Association

Edited by <The Reliable Editorial Desk>

How long has it been since you last stood in a public place and loudly, freely declared of the anime, manga, or game you love: "This is just so good"?

I know that in today's climate of "hard opposition" online, openly praising the work you love in front of others has become harder and harder. Sometimes, the moment you say something good about A, people assume you're disrespecting B, C, and D.

Gradually, many people have chosen to stay silent. They still love — they just love cautiously, afraid to speak up. At some point, expressing your passion started requiring a defense strategy first. But this summer, a lot of people tucked that "passion" in their hearts and brought it along with them to Shanghai.

From July 10 to 12, at the National Exhibition and Convention Center, Bilibili World 2026 gathered everyone's love for ACGN in one place.

Day one of BW opened under a typhoon warning, yet I was carrying another, stranger kind of wariness.

That wariness is a lingering side effect of browsing online communities. I'm sure many people are like me — used to the endless noise in comment sections, used to checking someone's "faction" before judging their take, used to running a statement through our heads several times before saying it: "If I say this, will I get screenshotted? If I say that, will I get called out?"

That habit became muscle memory, and I carried it into the BW venue. In front of every booth, I would instinctively do a quick "recon pass" — checking which exhibitors were neighboring which, worried someone might start a fight, on guard against potential "hostility."

But then, I saw this scene on the exhibition floor.

A Genshin Impact Sandrone coser walking side by side with a Wuthering Waves Aimisi coser. Out of respect for their privacy, I didn't take a photo, but you can picture the scene.

The two of them might well be friends in real life. They walked naturally, shoulder to shoulder, their outfits occasionally brushing against each other, each carrying free fan merch in hand to hand out to strangers who came up to interact. When passersby saw them, nobody was shocked, nobody compared whose character was more respectable, whose "won." They simply walked along, like any pair of good friends enjoying a fun convention together.

Of course, we all know that if this scene appeared in a video on the internet — especially with the names of those two games side by side — a comment war of several hundred floors would hardly be unusual.

I stood in place watching them for a long time, until they disappeared from view. In that moment I almost wanted to laugh — laughing at the wariness I'd carried in, which in a setting like this seemed entirely unnecessary.

We take certain sharp voices online far too seriously, and in doing so we forget the genuinely normal ways people get along with each other in real life.

"We need more BWs." That was the first thing I thought once I snapped out of it.

This was also the question I kept turning over during my three days at BW. Why are BW attendees so peaceful, friendly, and enthusiastically engaged? At BW, passion has truly found a way to prove itself.

On internet social media, love for ACG requires debate, requires winning. But at BW, your passion doesn't have to win — it just has to be there.

Another thing that moved me was a male player who, at first glance, seemed to "come with bad intentions." He queued for nearly two hours at the Virtual And You booth, barely spoke to anyone, and after the demo started, he kept jotting something down on his phone intermittently.

So after he finished the Virtual And You demo, as I watched him carefully tuck the merch into his bag and photograph the messages players had left on the interactive wall, I thought he was finally about to go live. After all, he was carrying freebies picked up from booths of all different games, his bags so stuffed they were about to burst — all "trophies" from his earnest participation in the interactions.

Then he opened his phone and suddenly, excitedly, told his friends and family: "Our VTuber community is just the best!"

And it wasn't just the VTuber community. At the Arknights: Endfield booth, countless people held up their phones, greeting the Chen Qianyu coser, hoping she would look at their camera. The Chen Qianyu coser kept playing along, greeting the audience in the most faithful recreation she could manage. Everyone on stage and off didn't know each other, yet in that moment they felt like old friends, expressing "I see you" and "I like you" in the most anime way possible.

Demoing games, buying merch, stamp collecting, cosplay, taking photos, grabbing freebies — online, these things are so routine they can even come off a bit "fandom-brained" or "cringe otaku." But here, they took the shape that passion needs: you show up, you come close, we connect — and that's enough.

At the Neverness to Everness booth, there really was a crimson itasha Porsche Spyder billed as "the world's first pain-wrapped" car. Azur Promilia set up an utterly girlish carousel. Goddess of Victory: NIKKE brought a Dorothy + Cinderella double-doro display. Honor of Kings: World had its flatbread bag, Imo its "no-emo" gag, Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium its tomato bag... The publishers crossed dimensions, carrying in-game memes into reality.

After all, when publishers play with memes online, there's too much to consider. But at BW, everyone simply hoped the publishers would spend real money to surround the venue with even more memes.

Passion has no borders and no hierarchy — that was my new realization at this year's BW. This BW had noticeably more international visitors, and nobody found it strange at all.

I used to think "internationalization" was just a publicity tactic for many conventions — how many overseas guests you invite, how many countries' tickets you sell, ultimately just numbers in a press release. But at BW, internationalism grew naturally. When the momentum of spreading passion is strong enough, language and nationality stop being barriers.

On the second morning of the convention, I happened upon a few visitors from Korea who, after getting out of a taxi, stood bewildered by the entrance signage. Quickly, a passing Chinese attendee, in slightly halting English, asked what kind of tickets they had, then helped contact a volunteer, and together they guided the international guests using the simplest numbers and gestures. Everyone spoke different native tongues, yet they smiled like old friends.

Not speaking Chinese is no problem — whenever someone runs into trouble, people will eagerly gesture and help. What's more, here, the love of the 2D world became a universal language.

This year's BW was also remarkably inclusive toward publishers.

As one of the large-scale conventions that more and more publishers prioritize every year, many spent heavily at BW — some specially-built booths cost seven figures to construct, for example Neverness to Everness spent a six-figure sum on the Porsche itasha alone.

You don't need to burn budget on massive decorative sets; spending on details can catch players' attention just as well: an interactive mini-game like the "Tajiduo whack-a-mole" that makes players chuckle knowingly, or the Endfield frog staring players down on-site, or the publisher inviting the coser their players know best and handing out game merch that players understand at a glance.

Going big and flashy has its prestige, but heartfelt small-and-beautiful touches get recognized by players too. On the BW floor, publishers could bolder-play their memes and greet players with open interaction, while players arrived ready to hunt for more easter eggs and clever touches. This is the most comfortable relationship between publishers and players, connected through their works — and it's how it should be.

When night fell, after BW came BML.

This year's BML may have been the most "explosive" one ever. Honkai: Star Rail, Azur Lane, Zenless Zone Zero, Wuthering Waves, Arknights, Arknights: Endfield, Genshin Impact (sorted alphabetically)... the music of these games was placed on the same stage, presented to the audience in the form of a concert.

No need to explain how these names relate to each other online — put any two or three of them side by side and players will argue for three days and three nights. But on the night of BML, as the melodies of these games rang out one after another, some people cried, some sang along, some waved glow sticks and cheered for every song whether or not it belonged to their beloved game — and nobody argued.

I even saw some solo-stan fans who at first only waved their glow sticks for their own favorite game, but as the show hit its stride, they couldn't help cheering wholeheartedly for every single track, even joining the other players in shouting "!(Game name) is amazing!"

When this parallel-universe moment came to its end, everyone together gave the bold and meticulous organizers that heartfelt cry: "Bilibili, cheers!"

It reminded me of the original purpose of BW and BML: to gather the good things of ACGN in one place — not so fans could fight over who's better, but so more people could see, hear, and feel them.

When everyone gathers together and good content gets seen by more people — that is the relationship these games were always meant to have.

As the show let out, I received a text message from the organizers: "We hope the audience can carry this memory forward." I sincerely hope the hope of the BML command center comes true.

On the way out, the staff waved and thanked everyone as they said goodbye. Some walked slowly, heads down, flipping through their photo albums, smiling to themselves at one particular shot, then scrolling on. Some carried comically huge bags, bulging with the treasures traded for over a full day — proof that they had been there. The bags were almost absurdly large, but the people carrying them wore satisfied faces.

I shuffled out with the crowd, and thinking back on the whole day, the withdrawal symptoms hit earlier and harder.

Perhaps back online, outside BML's offline spacetime, the people who like to argue will keep arguing. But at least for those two days of BML, the passions that usually stay silent got to be expressed openly and proudly.

They stood before the games they love. No debates, no defenses — just love.

Many people say that by its ninth year, BW has evolved toward something more commercial and more seasoned. Others say it increasingly resembles that once-most-famous game convention in the country.

No one can hold back the passage of time, and no one can stop the mainstreaming of the 2D world.

As a veteran otaku, it's hard not to feel nostalgic for the old convention stories. The withdrawal feeling after my first convention as a teenager, the FFF Inquisition, the free graffiti walls, begging for photos on Tieba, free-roam days — those unique memories of an older generation of otaku are mine too. After attending all three days, exhausted, I sat in a coffee shop in the Silverbiz district, chatting with fellow media colleagues about which event to rush to next, while gazing out at the radiant, energetic crowd passing by — and was carried back to the excitement and nervousness of my first convention seventeen years ago.

The typhoon's aftermath still hung over Shanghai. A gust of wind blew past, and I was pulled back into the present.

Every generation has its own marks of the 2D world. Perhaps veteran convention-goers looking at BW2026 will feel that the proportions behind the three letters A-C-G are no longer balanced, that the things they once loved are no longer so common today. The tide is impossible to hold back — but at least in this moment, we can still gather together. Leave the complicated questions to the organizers at Bilibili. As "Let the Wind Tell You" sings:

"If you cling to the years and can't bear to move on, I'll quietly record this poem; if you tire of gravity and long to fly, I'll send the winds of the whole world your way."

As long as this love can carry on, many people, like me, will sincerely hope there can be more BW and more BML — a little more, and then a little more still.