For many years, Beneath the Tangles has attended anime and pop culture conventions, but in recent years, we’ve expanded our coverage to include festivals, like The Annecy International Animation Film Festival. These events, which aren’t always top of mind for anime fans, can feature anime and anime-adjacent films, topics, and panels—which is exactly why this year, we’ll be covering South by Southwest (SXSW) Conferences and Festivals—especially the conference’s Film & TV Festival.
This Austin event is renowned for its showcase of innovations, as hub for young professionals across the globe, film and TV premieres, and hundreds of live music showcases. But this year offers something unusual—anime-related panels, with Crunchyroll as the sponsor for the Film & TV Festival. They’re also participating in two industry panels, showing off footage from the upcoming Sekiro: No Defeat anime, and showing off their Sentenced to Be a Hero: Teoritta Doll Activation.
We’ll be covering those items, but also looking for other events that may be of interest to you. For instance, we plan to attend the premiere of ANIMA, a new sci-fi movie featuring Takehiro Hira (Shogun) and Maximilian Lee Piazza (One Piece) among its cast; visit the Burger Mart being set up to promote the upcoming season of Invincible; discover information about podcasting, marketing, and other topics important to those in the digital space; and interview artists in Tokyo’s musical showcase.
Keep up with us in this very article, as we drop summaries and thoughts daily from SXSW, starting today and running through early next week (we’ll fill the space below as we move along). Also check out our Twitter feed, where we’ll live tweet some of the goings-on, and post photos; you’ll see even more photos from the event on Instagram (Who knows—we may sight some celebrities and/or drop red carpet photographs!).
So sit back, anime fans, and enjoy the coverage in Austin—right from wherever you are!
Daily
Thursday (March 12) • Weekend (March 13 – 15) • Monday (March 16) • Tuesday (March 17)
Films and Music
ANIMA • Crafting Sekiro: No Defeat: Hand-Drawn Animation & Original Score (Sneak Peek First Look) • TOKYO CALLING × INSPIRED BY TOKYO SXSW 2026
Panels and Events
The Anime Advantage: Brand Strategy Meets Cultural Power • The Big Picture with Steven Spielberg Live from SXSW • Burger Mart From Invincible • Crunchyroll Industry Mixer • How Anime Became a Worldwide Cultural Force • Podcast Movement Evolutions • Sentenced to Be a Hero: Teoritta Doll Activation
Thursday, March 12
ANIMA (World Premiere)
“Anima, the narrative feature debut by director Brian Tetsuro Ivie, is described as a sci-fi comedy drama. It’s also a road movie. That’s a lot of labels for a 96-minute film to carry. And while Anima touches all those notes with an understated sincerity, it’s probably best described more simply: it’s a story about two hurting souls connecting over what matters in life (and what matters in death).”
Read my full review here.
Anima is a lovely film, and one that connects with our work here on BtT in multiple ways, even though you shouldn’t confuse it with “anime.” The premiere itself was lovely, too. Director Brian Tetsuro Ivie was effusive, poetic, and sincere in his praise for the cast and crew, and you could see his faith peek out as he gave his acknowledgments before the screening. I was also thrilled to see Sydney Chandler in person, as she’s become a favorite since her charming and excellent turn as Wendy in Alien: Earth.
Burger Mart From Invincible
A little miscommunication on the timing prevented me from grabbing a burger (I shall return later! I hope!), but I did get to see the pop-up burger restaurant and it does look really authentic. The vibe was joyful, too, with onlookers and excited to try out BM and the wait staff smiling and ready to receive them.
Weekend (March 13-15)
Podcast Movement Evolutions
Friday started with us visiting Podcast Movement’s SXSW event. We got to get in early for the VIP breakfast, and it was a fantastic time of networking while munching on an Austin favorite, breakfast tacos. Yum. A really well-organized event, full of excitement, and filled with people who love the art of podcasting. I’m hoping to return later in the weekend to catch some of their keynote speakers, including influential podcasters and really cool celebrities like Maya Hawke and Sean Astin.
The Big Picture with Steven Spielberg Live from SXSW
Reservations went quickly for this keynote (shock!), and by the time the press was able to apply, they were taken. So, I decided to show up 90 minutes early in line to try to get a seat. It wasn’t early enough. Thankfully, the keynote was shown live on YouTube:
If you’re a fan of Spielberg, I encourage you to watch it. Not only does he talk about his upcoming film, Disclosure Day, but he also talks about the existence of intelligent life, often not using any storyboards when directing a film, and much more!
The YouTube video has now gone private; you can see some of our live-tweeting of the episode through our Twitter account.
TOKYO CALLING × INSPIRED BY TOKYO SXSW 2026
The Tokyo Calling showcase at SXSW was an awesome time of discovery, connection, and rocking out to bands that don’t yet have a huge following in the U.S. But hopefully, that begins to change with this concert featuring six bands from the Land of the Rising Sun: Banshimoku, Enfants, Finlands, Gokumon, Iscream Never Ground, and Rejay:
Rejay (Apple / Spotify), a singer-songwriter from Hokkaido, opened the show and immediately mesmerized the crowd with her pitch-perfect singing and melodic songs.
The rest of the night was thumping with bands featuring more rock-style performances. There was plenty of energy from the bands, feeding into crowds that mostly stayed the entire time, finding respite in groups that offered high-energy experiences but also the kind of familiarity that comes with Japanese-language music for the mostly-Asian crowd.
I sat and interviewed Fuyuko Shioiri, who is the sole member of FINLANDS (Apple // Spotify) ; lead vocalist of Enfants, Dai Matsumoto (Apple // YouTube); and Rejay. Expect those interviews to hit our site in the following weeks!
Monday, March 16
Sentenced to Be a Hero: Teoritta Doll Activation
Animatronics have come a long way. If you’re a child of the 80s and 90s, you might think of creepy ones from theme parks or Chuck E. Cheese. Actually…you might find them even creepier if you’re younger because of the success of Five Nights at Freddy’s. So, creating an experience in which you bring an ultra-cute anime character through life sounds like it could be a recipe for disaster.
Crunchyroll’s Teoritta Doll Activation was anything but.
Super cute, responsive head pats, and featuring the voice of seiyuu Mayu Iizuka, this Teoritta (Sentenced to Be a Hero) doll was carefully crafted, keeping a very anime look that pins it in the animated world, where I think it needs to be for us to accept it as fun and not too strange. Meticulously crafted (documented here), the doll was bounds ahead of the animatronics from my youth. Subtitles flashed above her so you could understand what she was saying, but basically, it was either “more” or “I’ll give you the pleasure of patting my head” (Twwk paraphrase). Super cute and on-point for Teoritta.
If you’re around Austin, you can still come by and pat her head at the Omni Downtown location, right in the atrium/lobby area.
How Anime Became a Worldwide Cultural Force
Promising to “explore anime’s rise and future,” this panel, featuring representatives from Crunchyroll and Twitch, as well as content creator Lena Lemon, was such a positive and encouraging hurrah for anime and what it means to people worldwide.
More to come on this in a longer article later, but I was struck by how all those involved in the panel expressed not only how anime was growing in its cultural cachet, but how meaningful it is personally, from different perspectives—a research one from Jasmina Saleh of National Research Group; a provider and business one from Crunchyroll, where Scott Donaton (Global Head of Brand) kept speaking about experience; a community and brand look by Mary Kish, the Head of Community Marketing at Twitch; and a cosplayer, fan, host, and content creator’s thoughts by Lena Lemon.
Crafting Sekiro: No Defeat: Hand-Drawn Animation & Original Score (Sneak Peek First Look)
I wasn’t able to attend the Sekiro: No Defeat (such a bummer!), but thankfully, Crunchyroll posted the trailer for this really sleak-looking, hand-drawn, stylist series later in the evening. Here it is (warning: graphic violence):
Tuesday, March 17
We wrapped up our coverage on St. Patrick’s Day by visiting one final panel involving Crunchyroll, Twitch, and the Dallas Mavericks (!), as well as attending an exclusive event hosted by Crunchyroll.
The Anime Advantage: Brand Strategy Meets Cultural Power
The panel we attended this afternoon was a really interesting look at anime from an outsider, brand-focused perspective. Featuring representatives from Crunchyroll, Twitch, and the Dallas Mavericks, this panel was really aimed at organizations that see anime as a way to reach a new generation and want ideas about how to incorporate the medium into their brand.
These were the excellent speakers for “The Anime Advantage”:
- Brittanie Boyd, Senior VP of Corporate Sponsorships, Dallas Mavericks
- Robin Tilotta, Head of Brand and Global Marketing, Twitch
- Darren Traub, Senior VP of Global Business and Legal Affairs, Crunchyroll
- Elizabeth Cohen, General Counsel, Crunchyroll (Moderator)
Emphasis from all sides was on creating a personal experience for anime fans, and reminding the attendees that while this audience is excited for brands to celebrate their interest, events need to be authentic. I’ll drop more details (and show you the swag I won!) in our full Crunchyroll post in the coming days!
Crunchyroll Industry Mixer
Crunchyroll was so kind to invite us to their mixer event at the Omni Downtown Hotel where we got to talk to CR employees, press, and guests, while sampling food, seeing Teoritta one more time, and listening to live music:
As you can see, cosplayers also helped host the event!
We’ll drop more photos from it in our later post breaking down Crunchyroll’s involvement at SXSW, but you can also see them now on Twitter and Instagram.
Great breakdown of SXSW! That Sekiro trailer looked awesome, I would have liked to be at that Crunchyroll panel talking about the impact of anime. Looking forward to reading your thoughts on that one.
Also good clip of Burgermart, I haven’t watched that show but I would try the food 🙂