The Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF/東京国際アニメフェア) is the biggest and most significant animation trade fair in Asia. This year there were 287 exhibitors at TAF, of which one quarter are from overseas. A total of 126,622 people visited the four-day event (27 to 30 May), which is about 27% more than the previous year.
Pokemon poops fireball on a Shinigami’s shoulder
The majority of the visitors (102,143) attended the event during the public days. TAF was an initiative between the Tokyo government and the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA/日本動画協会). The Tokyo Governor – Shintaro Ishihara (石原慎太郎) is the incumbent chairman of the TAF committee since the first event in 2002. In less than a decade, TAF has become an important industry event on the calendar. The Tokyo Anime Award is conferred during this event.
GROSS NATIONAL COOL
The inception of TAF was a milestone that marked changing status of anime in both Japan and around the world. In 2006, the domestic market for anime reached a size of US$2.4billion. The overseas sales for anime was US$190million according to figures in 2005. It’s noteworthy that 60% of total worldwide exports of broadcasted animation is from Japan. According to Tsutomu Sugiura, the director of Marubeni Research Institute, the world is experiencing the third wave of Japonism. Youths around the world are clamouring for a piece of Japanese popular culture. Other than fashion and cuisine, there is a growing demand for anime, manga, video games and character goods. Young people living outside of Japan want to learn the language, they want a piece of the Japanese lifestyle.
Anime is one key contribution to Japan’s ascendancy as a cultural powerhouse. Douglas McGray observed that while Japan was in her economic doldrums, her international prestige did not wane because the people living outside of Japan are attracted to her (popular) culture – the “Japanese cool”. His article in Foreign Policy suggested that Japan should adopt the “Gross National Cool” index rather than the GNP to measure her power. And the components of the GNC – anime, manga, games, character goods, movie/drama, music, fashion and cuisine – are pretty much denominated by otaku culture.
Joseph S Nye Jr wrote in the same journal that “...a country that stands astride popular channels of communication has more opportunities to get its messages across and to affect the preferences of others“. Japan eventually appreciated the strategic value of her cultural assets, and is learning to take advantage of her formidable soft power. It’s a reverse takeover – people all over the world want to become otakus.
MASS-COMI KEIRETSU
The structure of the animation industry is akin to the keireitsu system – a vertically and horizontally integrated web of businesses in the mass communications industry. Among them are the big boys such as Dentsu, TYO, ADK and Index Holdings . The arrangements of booths within the exhibition hall gives an idea of the topology of business groupings and alliances, as well as their influence in the industry. The keiretsu structure in the industry is also a matter of necessity, since an anime production is undertaken by a consortium made up of distributors, ad agencies, toy companies, merchandisers and then the animation studios.
Aniplex’s Pavilion
Given the convergence of media and the cool-factor of anime, establishments from the wider entertainment industry have also placed stakes in the animation business. An example is Aniplex, Sony’s venture into animated content development. Aniplex in turn owns A-1 Pictures (production house), Bancho Inc (internet and mobile content distributor) and has a majority stake in Voice & Heart (voice acting agency).
Avex Group, the company best known for its music labels, has become an indispensable player in the animation industry. The media heavyweight was represented by Avex Marketing, the arm that takes care of audio visual content production.
To Loveる:Avex Marketing x XEBEC x Tokyo Broadcasting Station x Shueisha
Avex’s strong ties to content publishing industry makes the company a sought after partner. Under Avex Entertainment, ZOOM FLICKER and Avex Mode are the entities putting out anime DVDs and soundtracks on the retail racks. Avex was promoting the latest Shonen Jump anime (fan service) adaptation – To Love-Ru – with cosplayers assuming the form of Lala Satalin Deviluke, and Haruna Sairenji.
Down the same aisle, the crowd is converging at the doujin group to a studio noted for its cultish Sci Fi properties and then a production house handling many of the anime industry’s projects. For TAF 2008, GAINAX promoted the feature film sequel to Tengen Toppa Guren Lagann 「劇場版 天元突破グレンラガン – 【紅蓮篇】」.
GAINAX
Aniplex is also Gainax’s partner in the production of both the hit anime tv series as well as the movie. The booth babes in the orange meido costumes belong to the adjacent exhibitor Geneon Entertainment. This company was formerly known as Pioneer Laser Disc Entertainment, before Dentsu acquired that company in 2003. Dentsu is also sitting on the production consortium for Gurren Lagann.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Gurren Lagann won a Notable Prize for the TV section of the Tokyo Anime Award. Fans can catch the first glimpse of the production sketches for the movie that will hit the Japanese theatres this autumn. Gainax also held a talkshow for the upcoming movie at the public stage – featuring the ensemble of seiyuus as well as members of the production committee.
Yoko Ritona x 3
Booth babes dressed up as Yoko Ritona were handing out freebies such as blinking cloisonnes pin and huge paper bags filled with promotional materials.
Gunmen Cosplayers
The Gunmen cosplayers drew in a huge crowd of photographers, such that staff had to cordon off the area to avoid congestion along the aisle.
The ADK pavilion demarcated another bubble of influence. This mass communication conglomerate is the parent company of NAS, that owns rights to Yu-Gi-Oh! NAS handles the production and promotion of the latest installment of the series -YU☆GI☆OH 5D’s 「遊☆戯☆王5D’s」.
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s D-Wheel
The ADK Anime Group holds a majority stake in animation studio EIKEN, media distributor Super Vision, music producer Right Song Music (RSM), Sesame Street Japan, and (mature readers) manga publisher Nihon Bungeisha (日本文芸社).
Right opposite ADK’s booth was the venerable Toei Animation’s pavilion. Other than the parent company Toei, the animation studios major stake holders are TV Asahi and Fuji TV.
Anchoring the pavilion is the long-running Shonen Manga-to-anime series, One Piece.
One Piece
The cosplayers were anime-accurate in their representation of the characters.
This year marks the Kinniku Man’s (キン肉マン aka Ultimate Muscle) 29th anniversary.
Kinniku Man!!!!
Other than the life sized maquette of Kinniku Man, there is also the show case of the retro rubber figurines that were once sold as candy toys.
There were idols and seiyuus sideshows at the Toei stage.
Kanako Miyamoto (宮本佳那子) Live!
Toei Academy’s talent Kanako Miyamoto (宮本佳那子) performed the ED to “Yes! PreCure 5″ (Yes!プリキュア5, the fourth instalment of the Pretty Cure series).
Following the break, the seiyuus for “Uchi no San Shimai” (The Three Sisters/うちの３姉妹) came onto the stage.
Ikue Ohtani (大谷育江) and Chika Fujimura (藤村ちか)
The anime is adapted from a 4-koma manga of the same title serialised in the kids magazine “Suku-Suku Paradise” 「すくすくパラダイス」. The lady on the left Ikue Ohtani (大谷育江) is a veteran seiyuu who has voiced countless characters for anime, games and audio dramas. The gorgeous lady on the right is actress and seiyuu Chika Fujimura (藤村ちか).
“One Piece” is Toei Animation’s long running cash cow, comparable to “Naruto” and “Bleach” from Studio Pierrot. In 2008, can there be any new shonen genre anime that can unseat these chart toppers, or at least give them the run for the money?
“Soul Eater” 「ソウルイーター」 may probably one of the more promising shonen manga properties that’s being turned into anime for the spring season. It’s a prime time series telecast every Monday, with repeats after midnight later in the week.
Soul Eater: Square Enix x TV Tokyo x BONES x Media Factory x Dentsu
Can an anime adapted from a Shonen GanGan Monthly (Square Enix) title do better than a title based on Shonen Jump Weekly properties? BONES‘ was promoting this series at their booth. Director Takuya Igarashi (五十嵐卓哉, who also did Ouran High Host Club) and eight of the cast members made their appearance at the public stage to talk about the production, as well as to launch the preview of the series.
Meisters
They’ve engaged cosplayers dressed up as Meisters in costumes made by COSPA. Those hug paper bags in the foreground are freebies – very useful for convention visitors to chuck the souvenirs, booklets and pamphlets picked up along the way.
つづく
