Chances are that you like anime. Whether you have a favourite show, or at the very least a cute character that you’d love to hang out with, or a place that just seems surreal and utterly beautiful, you might have wondered to yourself at one point or another: I wish I could go there. Imagine my surprise when I found out that, not only is there such a thing, but that there is an entire global economy built around people like you and me wanting to do something as bizarre yet delightful as going to real-life settings of anime. From hot springs to castles, from desserts to culturally and linguistically unique regions, lucky for fans like us places that use to exist only within animated frames can now be visited and admired in person. This blog post will explore the fascinating and growing trend of anime tourism, the economies that it affects and how it impacts local communities, as well as how you can start planning your own trip soon.
The Allure of Anime Tourism
Anime tourism is booming: fans are crossing the globe in search of places they saw in their favourite series. Tourism, unlike stories, exists in the real world. So when travellers recall scenes from anime while standing in the real locations where they were filmed, they inhabit the feelings and atmosphere of anime characters on screen. For many it offers an unforgettable chance to step into the past, or to live the scenes all over again.
Try imagining that you’re standing on the very same streets as your favourite characters, or looking up at the real locations of anime that had lived inside your mind. Anime tourism can be more than just a passive form of entertainment. In March, a massive 184,614 people visited the canola flower fields in Japan that served as the settings of a certain popular anime – and proved that it is indeed possible to touch Japan through anime screenplay. Annakuri tourism is a way to prolong the moment of intense engagement that anim AF viewers have with the anime screenplay. Regardless whether you’re a seasoned otaku or a casual viewer, anime tourism can offer you experiences that go beyond the intimacy of the screen.
Famous Anime Scenes and Their Real-Life Inspirations
Tokyo and Japan’s countryside are seen in numerous anime film locations: Your Name (2016) is one of many works to depict scenes on staircase, one of which is real and can be visited in the bustling suburb of Yotsuya in Tokyo. The staircase has earned the right to be called a holy place, a pilgrimage site for fans to reenact key moments of the film.
Another popular locale is Oarai, Ibaraki, home of the real-world version of the rival school that features in Girls und Panzer, and a town that has thrived on its anime fame, with race-themed events and features. Because anime is about real locations, going to see those places in the flesh creates a thrilling connection.
South again, in Kyoto, ‘Spirited Away’-famous Fushimi Inari Shrine with its orange torii gates attracts tourists who like to engage in polite interactions. One of the shrine’s caretakers told me: ‘Tourists enjoy the place, and we’re happy about it. It’s a cultural exchange through anime tourism.’
The Economic Impact of Anime Tourism
Anime tourism is a passion project for fans, but it also provides a major boost to local economies: according to Hiroshi Takahashi, a cultural economist at Kobe University in Japan, attending fan conventions or visiting locations featured in anime provides a major boost to local revenue for communities. For example, the otaku community surrounding Akihabara in Tokyo is very much a product of the market. Businesses thrive on the animated goods, comics, Japanese pop (Jpop or J-POP), character toys, internet cafés and maid cafés that draw droves of visitors, where fans can shop and experience the offerings of otaku culture.
Courtesy the Japan National Tourism OrganizationThe number of international visitors to anime-oriented sites has increased each year for the past five years, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization. With more otaku – casual fans of anime and manga – travelling overseas, there are numbers to support the jobs, hotel bookings and higher visitor spending per day that travel might bring. Local governments have reacted to the trend by offering travel packages and promoting anime-related tourist attractions.
Its economic ripple effects are felt not just in the city or town concerned but in any countryside region where depopulation is constricting the prospects for rural society: recently, anime tourism has come to offer them a new chance. The influx of fans can invigorate a community, and brings producers and local businesses into constructive collaboration.
Tips for Planning an Anime-Inspired Trip
As for any anime pilgrimage, your prep work needs to be part kitschy and part obsessive. For any particular series, first identify the locations available in the ‘real’ world. All the major Japanese cities have tourism offices that produce handy booklets showing where films and television series were shot; there are also plenty of guides online, and some incredibly detailed catalogues covering the entire nation.
Finally, take a look at your timetable and travel. Some anime locations are off the beaten track and may require you to bounce among means of transportation and travel arrangements. Taking local public transit or following a guided tour is not only the most convenient way of getting around, but also the best way to maximise your sightseeing time and minimise the chance of missing sunset over the lake down the road.
Talk with guides and communities who share your passion and who are willing to take you to lesser-known must-see spots, eat authentic food, or experience a destination through the local lens. Meeting fellow fans certainly makes for a better trip, creating community and transforming strangers into friends Certainly this has been my experience.
Community Engagement in Anime Tourism
While experiencing anime tourism as an individual, fans receive a shared experience that makes their Quintessential Quintuplets pilgrimage feel less like pure consumption and more like an authentic form of community. Media reports capturing fan experiences of anime pilgrimage bear this out. Reading through first-person accounts, one can feel the companionship and sheer delight shared by travellers as they remembered seeing the cherished settings of their favourite anime brought to life. For instance, one hard-core anime fan who calls herself Elena recounted her dream journey last Spring to revisit the settings of the animated feature Your Name (2016) in several towns across Japan.
She tells us about meeting other fans in Yotsuya, comparing notes, sharing stories and taking pictures of each other. ‘When you meet like that, you know,’ she says, ‘language and cultural things, they don’t matter anymore.’
These spaces are further expanded in the online community forums and social media, where happily dispossessed anime tourists offer travel advice, recommendations and, along their routes based on mutual interests. This constant interconnected exchange of experiences and possessions adds to the enthusiasm for anime tourism and turns it into an ultimately communal experience. To an outsider, this might seem like magical thinking: to tie anime’s imaginary geography with the physical geography of Japan. However, it shows that the tourism experience itself is sometimes more real than the launching point: the stimulation of anime series or films.
The Conclusion of a Magical Journey
Anime tourism combines the imagined with actual reality, taking fans who have enjoyed stories from afar to places based on scenes from anime. Fans can experience the same sights followed by a character on screen, but they also gain an appreciation for the background realities that inform what they’ve seen.
So, anime tourism isn’t just a trip, but a cultural transaction nonetheless. It helps us understand place from the perspective of other cultures. It helps fans share a unique experience with each other and with the community in which they’re embedded. It can function as a legacy.
Your Anime Adventure Awaits
And so, are you ready to start your own anime adventure? Whether you’re already planning your next trail or hedging your bets until you see the next big anime with a compelling backstory or the stunning, picturesque landscapes you know you’ll fall in love with, expect an end to wandering and a chance to cross-pollinate the ever-expanding world of anime tourism. Have you been to any of these locations? Did we leave something out? Is there something else you think anime fans should consider visiting? Drop a comment and share your journeys, your discoveries, passion and your gems of anime locations, to inspire other fans to start their very own anime adventures.
Anime tourism offers a different form of cultural enrichment and should not be scoffed at for those that haven’t tired of travel in real and fictional lands. There is real pleasure to be found travelling to see anime sights – but one has to actually make the effort to experience it for themselves. Anime scenes often feel very real, and sites in the real world featuring in anime provide a different form of cultural enrichment, one that stands apart from what anime actually is. We should not demean those who derive value from visiting such places. So, if you too are curious, you can plan your trip.