Designing a Cross-Disciplinary Engineering Community Through Anime

I run “Engineer Anime,” a community where engineers share lessons they have learned from anime. In this community, we organize events where engineers give presentations about insights they gained from anime and connect them to their own experiences in software development and engineering work.

At these events, speakers present ideas inspired by anime stories, characters, or production processes, and relate them to topics such as software development, organizational design, and career growth. For example, some speakers discuss teamwork and organizational structure by examining how teams collaborate in anime. Others reflect on engineering careers and learning through the personal growth and struggles of characters. There are also talks that use the anime production process as a starting point to discuss project management and team structures.

Using anime as a shared cultural reference helps lower the barrier to discussion. Participants with different backgrounds and experience levels—from students and early-career engineers to experienced professionals—can easily join the conversation. Because many people are already familiar with anime stories, discussions often start from something relatable and naturally expand into deeper reflections about engineering practices, teamwork, and personal growth.

This approach also encourages cross-disciplinary dialogue. In addition to technical topics, discussions often explore broader themes such as craftsmanship, collaboration, leadership, and how people grow through challenges—topics that are not always emphasized in traditional technical events.

In this session, I will introduce how a community built around lessons from anime can create meaningful conversations among engineers. Through concrete examples from our events, I will share how story-driven discussions can make technical and professional topics more approachable, and how communities can create inclusive spaces where people from different backgrounds and experience levels can learn from each other.