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You already know the chorus

Anime songs have a life beyond the screen. Find the DJs shaping that music, choose your first anime rave and untangle the tickets, cosplay rules and trip home.

Things to do near you · GuidesChecked November 3, 202611 min read

A catwalk scene from the organizer’s portfolio. The November 13 listing also advertises a cosplay catwalk, without a checked running time. Touch Grass Entertainment

Inside this guide

Alex Kade has a useful way of explaining his audience. When he plays songs from Demon Slayer or Naruto, people who do not ordinarily speak Japanese sing along anyway. In a March 2026 conversation with DJ Kazu for the Japanese music publication LisAni!, he described a floor connected by music it already loved. The songs had reached people long before they reached the club.

A real date to start with

San Francisco · November 13

Temple, 540 Howard Street. Doors 9 p.m., ages 21+. First-release general admission displayed $27.60 all-in on November 3; Early Bird sold out. Confirm availability and final-sale terms.Check the exact general-admission offer ↗

Before choosing a costume

Temple’s Friday dress code and the promoter’s conflicting bag wording need checking for your actual outfit and bag. Weapon props are prohibited. No cosplay exception was established.Read Temple’s entry requirements ↗

Listen, then choose

Compare the advertised DJs and longer recordings. The organizer’s general roster and playlist are introductions, not a confirmed lineup or set list for a particular night.Explore the organizer’s music and tour page ↗

Find the music before the costume

Start with the advertised DJs and a recorded set, rather than a montage of cheering people. A crowd clip can show a costume or a lighting rig; it says very little about the next ninety minutes of music. Listen for what happens between the recognizable moments. Are the songs being played substantially as songs, or used as pieces of a larger electronic set? Do the transitions make you want to keep listening?

Touch Grass Entertainment describes its anime nights through original remixes adapted for the club. Its tour page also separates anime, video game and K-pop events. That distinction matters before you buy: an organizer can run several kinds of night, and a familiar brand name does not establish the music at a particular date. The anime playlist on its site is a useful starting point, with the explicit qualification that each show differs.

Anisong means anime song. In the anikura scene, the name combines anisong with club, and the music can extend beyond television openings into endings, songs heard within a series, games, idols and fan-created work. AniParty's own account of its mission places that broader A-pop repertoire at the center of its events. Knowing the word gives you another way to search when the sound you want is more specific than anime-themed nightlife.

These are overlapping approaches, not reliable labels for good and bad parties. Read the actual program. An evening built around a vocalist, a remix producer and a collective playing several styles may offer something quite different from a small anisong DJ gathering. Choose the musical promise you can identify, rather than hoping every event using the same two words will sound alike.

A DJ has to do more than recognize the song

Kade's description of remixing is revealing. In the published LisAni! conversation, he talked about preserving what makes an original song work while adding his own treatment. Discussing MELODEA from SI-VIS: The Sound of Heroes, he singled out the chorus and described introducing the music to audiences in several cities. Recognition was one tool; introducing a song was another.

The useful question for a listener is what a DJ does with that balance. An opening theme carries associations before the first transition happens. A remix can lean on that familiarity, then change the setting in which you hear it. Listening to a longer set lets you hear whether the connection between songs interests you as much as the individual references. You do not need a production vocabulary to make that judgment.

The comparison also helps explain why an anime night is not a concert by the people who made every song. A DJ selects, mixes and sometimes reworks recorded material. Unless the listing specifically announces a live appearance, a beloved singer's voice in a mix does not mean that singer will be onstage. Look for the actual billed performers, not just the series names decorating a poster.

Follow the people behind the decks

The roster shows how many different routes lead into this music. Toronto-based ANC3, short for Anime Night Club 3, describes itself as a trio of Canadian brothers combining DJing with live instruments, dance and crowd interaction. Its stated palette reaches from anime and gaming into hip-hop, K-pop, reggaeton, Afrobeats and pop. A listing featuring that group is giving you a more useful clue than the generic word rave.

Kisaki's biography describes another approach: a Korean-Canadian producer, DJ and vocalist with a background arranging Touhou music for Japanese doujin circles, including EastNewSound. Her current description brings rock, J-pop and K-pop influences into midtempo, dubstep and drum and bass. Those details give a prospective listener something concrete to investigate before deciding whether the show fits.

AniParty's DJs offer a different set of reference points. Anime USA's artist profiles describe DJ Appare's interests spanning anisong, tokusatsu, games, VTubers and idols. DJ Smartsteer emphasizes game vocals, Touhou and music associated with NicoNicoDouga. DJ Yuuki also makes room for less prominent series. A niche in one person's library can be exactly the reason another person buys a ticket.

You need not recognize every reference in those biographies. Their value is that they reveal selection: particular people have spent time with particular music. Pick one unfamiliar name, follow an official recording link and listen for a while. That is a better introduction to a community than treating the whole scene as a playlist of the same five famous openings.

The scene has a history longer than your feed

AniParty dates its founding to 2018, when a group of anisong fans and Japanese idol enthusiasts wanted to bring anikura to North American audiences. Its historical press kit records small independent club nights alongside convention appearances. Those are different settings for encountering the same musical interests: one requires finding a room on purpose; another can catch people already moving through a convention.

A Black Cat listing for AniParty Otakubeats on July 31 describes an all-Japanese-music dance party in the venue's Red Room. It explains anikura through anime openings, endings and insert songs. That listing is useful evidence of the format, but July has passed. It is not a standing weekly invitation, and its doors time or bundle offer should not migrate into plans for a future night.

The Japanese industry was exploring the same connection well before the latest touring flyers. In its 2019 account of OMOTENASHI BEATS, Avex described combining anime songs with club culture and preparing voice actor and Aqours member Arisa Komiya for a DJ appearance. The project involved people across music, artist management and animation businesses. It also acknowledged the work around rights and distributing songs internationally.

This longer history makes the current interest more interesting. A touring remix show and an anisong collective do not have to be versions of a single new invention. They can share listeners while doing different things with the material. Once you find a night you like, the DJ names, collaborators and musical references give you a way to keep exploring beyond the next advertisement.

Build a costume for the room you are entering

The catwalk is part of the attraction at the announced San Francisco show. The practical preparation begins with the venue, though. Temple's Friday dress policy restricts items including hats, shorts, athletic wear and certain footwear; the Tixr event terms specifically include sneakers. The anime event's promotion of cosplay does not, in the pages checked, establish an exception. Ask Temple about your actual outfit before committing to it.

Think through the costume in pieces: shoes, bag, headwear and anything you will have to hold. That makes a question to the venue answerable. It also helps distinguish what you need to express a character from what you need to carry for an entire night. A photograph of someone wearing an item at an earlier party is not permission to bring it into a different club.

Touch Grass's rules prohibit weapon props, including harmless-looking homemade versions. Storage is not a dependable workaround: its wording about possible coat check does not guarantee that your belongings will be accepted. If an outfit depends on a sword, staff or other weapon-shaped object, plan a version without it. A convention's prop approval does not settle a separate venue's entry decision.

Bags need a direct question too. The organizer's FAQ permits small bags subject to search, while another part of the same rules page prohibits several named bag types. Temple separately allows small backpacks, fanny packs and purses, also subject to search. These pages do not produce one dependable combined answer. Confirm the exact bag with Temple and the organizer; do not make a purchase or travel plan around the most convenient sentence.

What the November 13 ticket actually buys

The current example is #WeTouchGrass at Temple, 540 Howard Street in San Francisco, on Friday, November 13, 2026. Both the venue calendar and ticket pages show 9 p.m.; use that event-specific time rather than the club's general Friday opening hours. Admission is for ages 21 and over. Bring the physical identification the venue accepts, and ask ahead if your document is outside its published examples.

There are two ticket paths worth understanding. The Temple-linked Tixr page sends general-admission shoppers to an external seller, while separately displaying a VIP package for eight guests. Following its general-admission link leads to KYD Labs. On November 3, that page displayed the first-release 21+ ticket at $27.60 all-in, with Early Bird marked sold out. Those are observations at a particular time, not locked future prices or a promise of remaining inventory.

The same page shows a three-pack offer with a $24 display. The unselected page does not make its full group purchase total sufficiently clear to quote here. Check the quantity and complete amount before paying. Meanwhile, the $922.01 shown on Tixr was the eight-guest VIP table package, including its listed fees and taxes. It is not the price of a single general-admission ticket.

The event advertises original DJ remixes, a cosplay catwalk and anime-inspired cocktails. Do not read the last item as drinks included with ordinary admission: the description does not establish that. The general-admission tiers are described as equivalent in access, with price changing by release. Final-sale terms are prominent. Read them, confirm the date and make your outfit and travel decisions before purchase rather than treating a ticket as an option you can casually undo.

Make arriving alone a smaller decision

You can prepare for a first night without trying to prepare a new personality. Choose a small goal: hear one DJ you have actually sampled, see how a catwalk works, or find out whether this kind of remix is more enjoyable to you in a room. Those are manageable reasons to go even if you do not arrive with an existing group.

Touch Grass links its Discord as a place to find people attending and keep in touch afterward. That offers a way to ask a city-specific question before the event, though membership does not promise an instant friend group or an organized meetup. Check whether a plan is actually being coordinated, and choose a public meeting point if you make arrangements. You can also attend without announcing yourself online.

On the floor, a shared reference can provide an opening for conversation. It does not provide permission for a photograph or physical contact. The organizer's consent rule asks people to get permission before taking pictures of others and respect the answer. An elaborate outfit can represent hours of work; asking about it gives its wearer a choice about engaging, which is part of making a fan space welcoming.

If you need a seat, step-free access, a support-person arrangement or a place to take a break, ask for the actual setup at the particular venue. A touring organizer's general accessibility statement cannot describe every room it hires. The same specificity helps with ordinary plans: where you will meet a friend, how you will contact them if separated, and what you will do if one person wants to leave earlier.

Give the trip home as much thought as the chorus

For Temple, the last part of the night needs a plan made before the first song. BART's published hours run through approximately midnight, and the agency directs riders to its trip planner for the specific journey. That does not establish your last train at a particular station. Check the return trip for the date, destination and direction you actually need, allowing time to leave the venue and reach it.

San Francisco also has Muni's Owl network. SFMTA describes overnight buses running between midnight and 5 a.m., with some routes shortened or different from their daytime forms. A familiar daytime transit trip may therefore be the wrong plan for getting home. Use the overnight route information and regional All Nighter planner, or make a separate ride arrangement, rather than assuming the train you arrived on will still be running.

The checked ticket pages establish a 9 p.m. opening, not a confirmed finish or a complete running order. General club hours and a third-party listing are insufficient reasons to promise when the last set ends. You can choose your departure around a known connection even while the performance schedule remains unannounced.

An anime rave can begin with a song you have carried around for years. The next part is more personal: whose version you want to hear, which room feels worth trying, and how much of the night you want to stay for. Listen to the people making it, settle the details that affect your visit, then leave yourself room to discover a song you did not already know.