Anime North, Meet JDM: The Crossover Episode Everybody Saw Coming (May 23rd - 2:30 to 4:30pm)

Waifus, Wrenches, and Why Your Next Car Might Be imported from Japan!

From Initial D to Wangan Midnight and MF Ghost, JDM cars became anime and gaming icons. This panel explores their cultural impact and the real-world side in Canada—how fans import, own, and maintain the cars behind the myth. Includes history, bosozoku, modding and itasha culture.

The JDM Dream is rolling into Anime North on May 22nd and 23rd, and yes, we’re bringing the cars with us. JDM Cars and History: Saturday at 1430 (2:30 -4:30 pm) in Plaza C (Delta Hotel).

 We’ll be joined by ONITA — the Ontario Itasha car club — for a glorious collision of Japanese imports, anime culture, vinyl-wrapped automotive chaos, and the kind of parking-lot conversations that start with “Wait… you imported that?” and end with someone Googling Japanese auction sheets at 2 a.m.

Cars, Anime, and the Beautifully Weird Place Where They Meet: Saturday May 23d at 1430 (2:30 pm) in Plaza C (Delta)

We’ll also be hosting a two-hour lecture on the history of JDM cars, their cultural/historic origins in Japan, importing, itasha, and that wonderful intersection where car culture and anime culture shake hands, trade stickers, and immediately start arguing about wheel fitment and waifus. Whether you’re into rare Japanese cars, anime wraps, import rules, or you just want to know why someone would put their favourite character across an entire hood, this should be a fun one.

Come Say Hello!

We’d love to see you there: Saturday at 1430 (2:30 pm) in Plaza C (Delta).

Come check out the cars, ask questions, talk anime, talk imports, and prepare to be entirely surprised — and maybe mildly offended — to learn that in today’s completely normal and definitely-not-cursed car market, importing a car from Japan can actually be cheaper than buying one here.

See you at Anime North. We’ll be the ones near the cars, trying very hard to pretend this is a rational hobby.

Ask you questions in Advance!

Have some questions you'd like our panel to answer? Post them here and we'll answer them live!