One of the first things I did after arriving in Japan in 1991 was head down to Shinjuku, Tokyo, the setting for so many awesome 80s anime series, where I basked in the glory of the giant Studio Alta TV from Megazone 23 then roamed Shunjuku station looking for the "XYZ" chalkboard from City Hunter. (I'm old school, I know.) This tendency for animators to increase realism by setting their stories in real places continues to this day, and if you're so inclined you can drive the mountain roads in Initial D (happily located in J-List's home prefecture of Gunma) or visit the beautiful Edo Period castle where the new film Summer Wars was based -- heck, you can even eat taiyaki while walking around the town in Osaka where the Kanon anime was "filmed." When anime fans found out that the school seen in K-On! was based on a real place -- the decommissioned Toyosato Elementary in Shiga Prefecture -- the school instantly became hallowed ground, and if you go there on a Sunday you can see dozens of other otaku on pilgrimages to show off their cool itasha anime cars. Allowing your location to be featured in a popular anime seems to be lucrative, as the Washinomiya Shrine from Lucky Star has discovered -- the limited goods the shrine sells have brought in millions of yen.
This leads to the question: where the hell is the Eve no Jikan cafe and how do I get there??
The places in your favorite anime series probably exist in real life.
7 comments:
Wow, I had no Idea that Kanon was depicted on a real city. I really want to check that out!
Yes, link here. Good thing I'm so far away from Osaka or I'd be tempted ^_^
I'm so eating Taiyaki in Osaka someday. Preferably without a short girl running into me, but whatever works.
If I ever get back to Japan, I seriously want to visit some of the places used to help create the Misaki Shrine in "Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki."
You already wrote once about Onegai Twins Lake Nagano locations. The Kanon location is almost as big of a surprise as learning that the Twins house actually exists. And that the K-On! School is real, too?? I'm fast turning into an anime tourist myself even though it's only on maps for now :)
I still wanna go to Jackson Hole and get a Jackson Burger after seeing it in Nana.
Aspie, yes, I'll bet they have a serious taiyaki theft problem ^_^
AstroNerdBoy, one thing I've always observed, or thought I was observing, was that gaijin have longer "otaku memories" than Japanese. I'm sure I'm the only one still getting a thrill at the Studio Alta TV, but other Japanese fans have move on...I think.
Darko, yes, imagine how cool it'd be to roam the K-on school? Almost as cool as sitting inside the Uminoguchi station waiting for a train.
FifthDream, yes I wonder if practically every place is based on a real location. I really, really want to go to the Eve no Jikan cafe.
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