Tokyo Anime Fair 2010

After failed to publish this to an English and Indonesian newspaper, I decided to put it on my blog. Mottainaidakarasa.

Goku came into the stage and performed his famous movement to expel a powerful beam of energy. Then, a cute MC asked the children who were attending the show to answer what movement it was. A boy came to the stage and answered, “It was Kamehameha” and he got a souvenir of Dragon Ballz.

Doraemon booth staged a similar quiz for kids. How old is Doraemon? There were 3 choices. First was 10 years, second was 20 years and the third was 30 years. A boy chose the third answer and he got a Doraemon souvenir. Another stage of Toei Animation, there were 17 “pretty cure all stars” dancing. Too bad, no picture taking was allowed. They would report it to Kanda police station if someone was caught taking pictures.

Tokushinsha film Corporation showed 3D of “Garo – Red Requiem” which had breathtaking creatures with powerful strength and frightening extended limbs. Fresh, good-looking actors an

d sexy actresses were the cast members of this movie. The acting ability is not important of this movie. It emphasizes more on the fantasy, animation, action and 3D effect. The war-like march drum-beat music added the movie’s dynamic excitement. Garo 3D movie trailer lasted for 5 minutes with magnificent splinters of breaking glasses, water drops, clash fire from swords and weapons. When Garo kicked his enemies, we may see his boot’s sole as if it was in front of our face. The 3D effect makes the sword look longer, sharp and protruding.

Pierrot Co., Ltd. gave out Naruto’s shopping bags for free. Other companies did so with colorful shopping bags, paper fans, balloons, posters, and plastic document folders. People collected those gimmicks because they were free of charge and had beautiful, vivid anime pictures. Some mature adults showed their childish side by collecting many of them and some gas balloons although they did not bring kids with them. During the stage shows, some middle-aged men sa

t at front near the stage that blocked the view of little children sitting behind them only to get a better view of the performances on the stages.

Anime vocational schools, colleges and universities also participated in the Fair. Besides promoting their curriculum programs, they showed many works of arts from their students, such as paintings, drawings, pictures and animated videos. The west side of the exhibition hall was set for shops and stalls which sold varieties of anime goods from characters collectibles, dolls, toys, CDs, towels, T-shirts, cell-phone straps, folders, pictures, cards, stuffed bread in cans, glasses, stationery and so on.

Pretty girls with anime costumes were handing out the brochures, gimmicks and posing for pictures. These picture takings were allowed because they were not famous celebrities. One alluring girl with black police hat and shorts whose face resembles to Ayase Haruka, a cute and sexy Japanese actress, posed for pictures and handed out brochures of Zebraman 2 that will be screened on May 1^st. She intentionally fixed her upper bra in front of male photographers only to get their attention. Of course, many of them came flocking and took photos of her. Next to her booth, there were some samurai men (ojiisan - middle aged man), wearing full costumes of samurai. Because of her, no one wanted to take those ojiisan pictures. Some blond white faces also posed as anime characters in this exhibition. One cute girl with long blond hair was approached by a nearly bold, middle-aged man. He gave her his name card and talked to her. She seemed uninterested but she had to be polite to people as she was hired by NTT.

Perhaps the second biggest income after Japan automotive and electronic industries will be anime (animation films) and manga (comic books). They have been ones of Japan’s images all over the world that attract people to come to Japan or to study Japanese. What Japanese cartoon movies have you seen? Voltus, Lulu, Ikyu-san, Candy-candy are anime during my childhood time. Nowadays, Doraemon, Crayon Shinchan, Chibi Maruko, Naruto, Detective Conan, Dragon Ball, Pokemon, One Piece and many others are stuffing our TV programs not to mention other comic series being sold in the bookstores. This year “Doraemon” celebrates its 30^th anniversary and so do Gundam Plamodel series. “Chibi Maruko chan” celebrates the 20^th anniversary of its first broadcast on TV. “Crayon Shinchan” celebrates its 20^th anniversary of comic serialization. From 2 public days, more than 105,000 people came to the Tokyo International Anime Fair on Saturday and Sunday. This year fair attracted about 1,000 people more than last year. The increasing number shows that more people like anime and fantasy stories that make anime business a flourishing trade.

Tokyo International Anime Fair that was held in Tokyo Big Sight from March 25^th to 26^th at East Exhibition Hall presented 244 exhibitors with 615 booths, mostly from Japan and a few representatives from other countries such as Thailand, China, Korea and UAE to promote their animations, cultures and next anime exhibitions in their countries. China, the nearest country that has a large number of business deals with Japan, had their own space for the ministry of culture and Chengdu City Commercial Affairs Bureau that could facilitate business between companies in Japan and China. Thailand promoted “Character and Licensing Expo Asia” that will be held in Bangkok this year in May. Korea promoted their animations and “Asia Content and Entertainment Industry Fair and Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival.” Otakorp from America promoted Otakon Convention in late summer at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Otakon comes from the word “Otaku” and “Convention.” In Japanese modern slang “Otaku” means an anime, manga and video games maniac. UAE representative promoted the Dubai International Character and Licensing Fair that will be held in November 2010. It was an exciting moment to see these animation development and progress in Japan as well as other parts of the world. Hopefully next year there will be more of animations from other parts of Asian countries