High Fives and Hot Dogs came to Storyarc with a bold challenge: design a show-stopping booth for Toho Animation at Anime Expo 2025. With over 400,000 fans expected, they needed a 3,300 sq ft space that captured the energy of their top franchises—Jujutsu Kaisen, Spy x Family, My Hero Academia, Dan Da Dan, and Kaiju 8—and gave fans an experience they’d never forget.
For Jujutsu Kaisen, we featured Sukuna’s Malevolent Shrine as the centerpiece and main entrance—complete with sky-high horns, menacing teeth, and an intricate temple-style roof. As you enter, we created an extraordinary photo op around Gojo’s iconic scene in Shibuya Station where he’s trapped in the Prison Realm.
On the opposite side of the Prison Realm photo op was the Black Flash video game we concepted that was fully realized by Playmotion Tech. The game dropped fans right into Shibuya Crossing to time their punches and take on Mahito!
After JJK, the booth flowed into SpyxFamily, where we recreated the super-secret spy headquarters of WISE and Anya’s adorable bedroom. We turned Anya’s dresser into a classic memory game to challenge fans’ telepathic powers. In the WISE area, we even recreated Sylvia Sherwood’s desk—sit in her seat and become the ultimate spy.
Next up was My Hero Academia, where we celebrated the final season by building out All Might Memorial Square. We crafted an open wall for fans to express their love for the show, a big display of the latest key art, and an enormous full-size statue of All Might for an incredible photo moment.
As a bonus—knowing lines would be long around the perimeter of the booth—we designed an extra photo op: the eerie, fan-favorite tunnel from Dan Da Dan, where Turbo Granny lurks to snatch unsuspecting victims. In the series, the tunnel is a warped, claustrophobic maze filled with distorted pathways, grotesque granny-faced barriers, and spatial tricks designed to trap intruders. It’s one of the most unsettling scenes in the show, and we loved giving fans a chance to step inside it—if they dared.
And finally, the last room transported fans to the battle-scarred training grounds of Kaiju 8. Grab your oversized weapon of choice—from Mina Ashiro’s enormous hand cannon to Kikoru Shinomiya’s colossal battle axe! You could also test your kaiju hand speed with a classic game of Whac-A-Mole.
Once the design was locked it was time for the experts at Foster Display Group to bring it to life. Foster Display Group is an award‑winning experiential marketing and trade show exhibit firm with studios in California and New Jersey. They design, fabricate, manage, and install custom booths, exhibit rentals, pop‑ups, and branded environments—handling everything from 3D conceptual design through logistics and on-site execution in-house.
Live Events and Entertainment
High Fives and Hot Dogs
Stephanie Heaston, Executive Producer
Behnam Karbassi, Executive Producer
A.D. Harris, Creative Strategist
Zander Heaston, Production Design
Conception / Creative Direction / 3D Rendering
Storyarc
Douglas Parker, Creative Director
Nate Bear, Lead Designer/Art Director
Yong Park, 3D Animator
Black Flash Game Development / Design
Playmotion Tech
Katerina Luchinina, Founder/CEO
Fabrication / Construction
Foster Display Group
Jeff Pascarella, Director of Business Development
Laurén Cocozello, Account Manager
To complete the experience, we also designed a pop-up Toho Animation Store—a vibrant, high-traffic retail space built right into the booth. Stocked with exclusive merch from Jujutsu Kaisen, Spy x Family, Kaiju No. 8, and more, the store gave fans a chance to take home a piece of their favorite series. It was designed to keep the energy high and the line moving—turning the store into both a shopping destination and an extension of the overall booth experience.
