As you may have noticed, we make a big deal out of our kids’ birthday parties. We get super into the themes and have fun planning them for months. Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten to do much the last few years, and with a spring birthday, Sawyer had two years in a row without a party. Now that we are starting to gather again, we delved back into a themed party for his big 1-0 last month. Sawyer chose an anime-themed birthday party, including details from some of his favorite animes. Whether you’re planning your own anime party, a Demon Slayer party, a One Piece birthday theme, a My Hero Academia party, or a Naruto birthday party theme, you’ll find lots of inspiring ideas in today’s post. We’ve got anime birthday decorations, anime party food ideas, party activities, party favors, and more. Our party was a blast, and I know yours will be too with these easy anime party ideas!
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More party themes like these anime party ideas
- Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra Birthday Party Ideas
- The Legend of Korra and Avatar: The Last Airbender Party
- Pokémon-Themed Birthday Party
- Classic Nintendo Birthday Party (Mario Bros., Zelda, Kirby, and More)
- Bendy and the Ink Machine-Themed Birthday Party
- Lego Movie-Themed Birthday Party
- Dungeons and Dragons Birthday Party
Sawyer wishing hard before blowing out his 10 (!!) candles on his traditional Texas-Sized Donut from Round Rock Donuts. Every year he requests this instead of a cake.
Anime birthday decorations
Our overall anime themed birthday party color scheme was yellow, black, and white with natural/bamboo elements and an occasional pop of red. The party backdrop included a roll-up reed shade (a curtain piece repurposed as party décor) which was placed behind a table covered in a black tablecloth. We placed an assortment of reasonably priced DRACAENA bamboo plants from IKEA on the table, as well as on other tables throughout the party. These plants now live in my kids’ rooms to care for as a special memory from our party.
The anime birthday decorations banner I made myself with a printer and construction paper. The font I used is Ceviche One, which matched one of the fonts from our party invitation (edited and printed from this template from Poster My Wall).
Surrounding the backdrop and at other spots around the party were bundles of these One Piece balloons, which were a great addition to our anime party decorations.
I also included tablecloths made using fabric patterned after Zenitsu and Tanjiro’s kimonos from Demon Slayer, which I purchased by the yard from Spoonflower.
Anime party food ideas
We had a lot of fun planning our anime party food ideas. Between inspiration from the different anime shows and an assortment of delicious Japanese food in general, there were a lot of ideas to choose from. For food serving, I used a 3-pack of bamboo serving trays, small bamboo storage bins, and misc. trays, dishes, and spoons purchased from H Mart. I created the food signs myself from this template from Poster My Wall, resizing and editing to our needs for the various signage and labels. For serving plates and utensils, we used this set of biodegradable square palm leaf plates and birchwood utensils, plus these smaller square palm leaf plates for desserts.
Since we included a Naruto birthday party theme, we had to serve ramen, as fans of the show know how much Naruto loves his Ichiraku Ramen. For the party, I prepared a large amount of packaged ramen noodles (from H Mart) and served them in mini takeout boxes with disposable wooden chopsticks. I also included pieces of real naruto fishcakes (found at H Mart) on top.
We served both meat and vegetarian gyoza, which was one of the most popular anime party food ideas from the event.
Sawyer requested onigiri (rice balls) for the anime party food spread. We had a lot of fun making them together. I followed this recipe.
We kept some onigiri plain, then topped some with furikake rice seasoning and others with black sesame seeds.
Spam musubi was another special request, which was also really popular with both kids and adults. This is the recipe I used.
In case of picky (or less adventurous) eaters, we served cubes of meat and cheese with these adorable ninja sword food picks. I mean, why use a toothpick when you can use a ninja sword??
Not pictured, we also served teriyaki marinated grilled yakitori chicken, skewered on these 6-inch bamboo skewers (the perfect size for grabbing and snacking).
Sushi was a must for the party. We served a selection of sushi rolls and fake candy sushi (more on that below) in a food station that we titled “Sanji’s Sushi” after the cook character in One Piece.
I saw these adorable candy sushi ideas from Kara’s Party Ideas and Catch My Party on Pinterest, and knew I had to try some myself. For our party I served Swiss Rolls (which I froze to make them easier to slice into mini rolls to look like cut sushi rolls) and a dessert version of nigiri (made with Rice Krispie treats, Swedish Fish, and green apple candy belts).
Both the real and candy sushi went really fast – I definitely recommend having extras ready to restock your table.
I’m obsessed with how cute the sliced Swiss Rolls looked, and it was SO easy.
Another one of our anime party food ideas referencing One Piece was a fruit station we titled “Devil Fruits” after the magical fruits that grant the eaters superhuman powers. Sawyer and I chose an assortment of real fruit that looked similar to various Devil Fruits in the show.
Not pictured, but also included were a few flavors of Pocky snacks.
For beverages, I included an assortment of Japanese soft drinks (found at H Mart) and water bottles with labels made by editing and resizing from this invitation template from Poster My Wall.
I included the Japanese character for water on the label, which I printed on regular printer paper.
Make sure to have a recycling container at your party so every plastic and glass bottle can be recycled after use!
Anime themed birthday party activities
One of the easiest ideas for an anime themed birthday party activity is to watch some anime! Have your favorite shows on TV in the background.
Another easy and fun party activity was a station to decorate bandanas to make your own headband with symbols (inspired by Naruto’s Leaf Village headband). I purchased bulk plain bandanas in the party colors (yellow, black, and white from Amazon) along with light, dark, and metallic fabric markers (from Michaels). These bandanas were not only creative anime party ideas, they also doubled as a party favor. The tablecloth is fabric patterned after Zenitsu’s kimono from Demon Slayer, which I purchased from Spoonflower.
Kids can also battle role play, which is especially fun if anyone comes to the party wearing cosplay (Sawyer dressed as his favorite character from Demon Slayer, Zenitsu).
Anime themed birthday party favors
I loved this idea that I saw on Pinterest to present the favors in takeout boxes with a souvenir set of chopsticks. I got 32-ounce takeout boxes from Amazon and chopsticks from H Mart, and filled the boxes with an assortment of anime themed birthday party favors from Amazon (this My Hero Academia party favor set, this Demon Slayer party favor set, and an assortment of Attack on Titan stickers) and Japanese candies, cookies, and treats (from H Mart).
The labels we made using that same invitation template from Poster My Wall, edited and resized to print on standard 2″x4″ Avery labels. We also added a custom graphic that Grayson designed as an anime character based on Sawyer. It was a special and unique touch that made for a special party gift from Sawyer’s older sibling.
It was so nice to throw a proper party for my kids again! I hope this helped inspire your own anime themed birthday party! If you do use any of these anime party ideas, I’d love to see them! Tag me on social media at @fabeveryday to show me, and I’d love to reshare your party pics!
Kendra Stevens says
Awesome party theme, my son is turning 14 and loves anime and everything Japanese inspired. I will use your ideas as an inspiration. Great Job!
Ramona Cruz-Peters says
Thank you so much! Your son sounds a lot like my kids!