3/26/17
After my fun and overwhelming experience with Comiket last December, I decided to go to the largest Anime convention in the world, Anime Japan. Also at Tokyo Big Site, this convention was smaller than Comiket. They only used the east halls for the general public. The west halls were used for company representatives and members of the industry. Their website has several English pages and I was hopeful I could better understand this con. They reported just over 145,000 attendees over two days. This was a pay-to-attend con as opposed to Comiket, which was free for the general public.
https://www.anime-japan.jp/en/
I arrived around 10:30 am at the front entrance and was directed to walk to the east halls through the indoor bridge. At the end of the bridge they had me go outside with a few thousand of my closest friends to walk around the entire convention center to the parking lot in back. There they had lines set up for going to various places. I wasn’t sure which line I was supposed to go to, so I asked one of the staff with limited English/sign language where to go. He directed me to one of the longer lines. I found out later some of those lines were for the different stages and you needed special tickets for those. It was about a 15-min walk to get to the end of the lines. Did I mention it was cold and rainy? I then waited in line for another hour before getting into the convention center. Waiting in line, all you could see was a sea of umbrellas. Each row was about 6 feet (2 meters) wide and separated by cones. Only the first and last cones had ropes to show the start and end of the row. I was amazed that everyone followed the invisible lines separating the rows. Even those looking to get ahead followed the lines, they just skirted the outsides.
As you walk in from the cold, the staff hands you a convention guide book and some flyers. The guide book actually has English! The place was, of course, crowded. I went into one of the main rooms. The first thing I noticed was a giant, 20-foot (or 6 meter) statue of a naked guy punching the floor. Below him was a large crowd of spectators. They were all looking at and taking pictures of a muscle woman, not muscular but muscles. You see, she didn’t have any skin to cover her muscles. I realize this was a costume, but it was pretty good. See the photos below. The exhibit was for Attack on Titan. I hadn’t heard of the show, but there were many shows and games at the con I hadn’t heard of. Much later, I discovered there was an Attack on Titan themed exhibit at Tokyo Skytree called “Attack on Skytree.”
Most of the exhibits used cardboard cutouts of the anime characters or posters with release dates. Some had action figures and toys. Some had video displays. They also had props from the shows like musical instruments and clothing. I’m not sure who actually wears the clothes since anime is drawn. I was a little surprised there wasn’t more professional cosplay (cosplayers paid by the company to portray their characters) like the muscle woman. I think those cosplayers came out at scheduled times and I didn’t know the schedule. I did see a few professional cosplayers and a few who should have been professionals. It’s often hard to tell the difference. I’ll talk more about the cosplay later. I saw an exhibit for Warner Brothers and they showed a preview of The Justice League on a giant TV.
They set up an area for food. I was amazed that they had everything written in English, except the ordering sheet. The menu was very basic with 7 different anime-based meals or desserts. Each food item was named after an Anime title or something an Anime character ate, like Attack on Titan Sasha’s Steamed Potato Curry. While waiting in line, there were giant signs in both Japanese and English to help you make your choices. Near the registers, they give you a small piece of paper listing all the food options in Japanese, but not in English, where you circle which items you want. The lady behind me and I stood in front of one of the menu signs for a few minutes, tying up the line, trying to match up the prices and Kanji on the sign with what was written on the piece of paper. Good thing it was a small menu. Then you go to the register to buy the food. They give you colored cards for each item you bought. You present that card to a specific section of the food counter to get your food. Somehow, I managed to buy the right thing.
https://anime.dmkt-sp.jp/animestore/CF/anime-japan2017
After wandering around awhile, I discovered you can sign up for free English guided tours of the convention every hour on the hour. They had several guides each leading a group of around 4 or so people. Half of my group didn’t show up, so it was just me and another woman. The guide had a microphone and we had an earphone receiver that didn’t work too well. The other woman gave up after 15 minutes and went off on her own. Our guide was Japanese American from California. I’m not sure she spoke Japanese either. I did learn some interesting things about the con. There are three stages for live shows and panel discussions. There are so many people at this convention you have to pay extra to get into the stages. To get stage tickets, you have to buy a lottery ticket months ahead of time. There is no guarantee you’ll get a ticket to the stage area. My guide also told me the Tokyo Olympic Committee chose several anime characters as ambassadors to the games. I recognized about half of them. There was a booth selling swag featuring these characters. Can you name them all?
After the tour, I wandered around some more until it closed for the day. It’s interesting to me how much video games are represented here too. There’s such a fine line these days between anime and video games. Many shows are turned into games. Playstation had a giant exhibit set up for the game “Fate Grand Order.” They set up several VR goggles for people to try out the game.
What Anime convention would be complete without cosplay? Unfortunately, this convention did a horrible job when it comes to cosplay. They had two cosplay areas, one inside and one outside. The outside area costs ¥1000 (about $10) to go to. I don’t know if that cost was for everyone, or just those wanting to take photos. I didn’t go to the outside area. It was rainy and cold, and I wasn’t sure if there was anyone out there. There was no way to look outside either. The inside area was tiny and stuffed behind the eating area. There was barely enough room to walk with all the people crowded in to the small space, let alone take pictures. Suffice it to say, I don’t have many cosplay photos for you in this post.
All in all, a very interesting experience and I’m glad I only went one day.
Joey's travels in Japan 