The Tokyo International Animation Fair 2008By Star Hinson & Dylan AcresIntroductionRumic World Messageboard member and webmistress of her own Hiromu Arakawa website, Mobuta.com, attended the Tokyo International Animation Fair's third day and filed a report of the event for Rumic World.The Tokyo International Animation Fair wrapped up its 2008 festival yesterday. The Fair ran from March 27th through the 30th and is a mixture of industry showcase and fan convention. The "TAF" is billed as the world's largest anime exhibition. This year the event featured booths and exhibits from 270 companies and had a record 107,713 visitors. [1] While the fair is only open to members of the animation industy on Thursday and Friday, Saturday and Sunday are open to the general public. The number of visitors on Saturday was an astonishing 51,912! Star arrived at Tokyo Big Sight at 10:30 to find a massive line, but got into the hall relatively quickly. Most of the event was dedicated to the trendy new anime-of-the-moment series like Gurren Lagaan, and Soul Eater, as well as Detective Conan's 12th movie, Senritsu no Gakufu [Full Score]. Additionally, booths were set up to showcase anime's future on Blu-Ray. Of course, without an anime currently on the air in Japan, Rumiko Takahashi's works went mostly overlooked at the event. However with the amount of attention being paid to the "Team Wednesday" event marking the 50th anniversaries of Shonen Sunday and Shonen Magazine Takahashi's series did manage to put in an appearance. Shonen Sunday BoothWhile most of Shonen Sunday's booth was dedicated to their biggest monemakers, Detective Conan and Hayate the Combat Butler, Inuyasha made an appearance in the form of two oversized pencilboards that the booth was selling. Images of the pencilboards can be seen below.
Uniqlo BoothPerhaps the most exciting Takahashi related items of the TAF were on display at the Uniqlo booth. Uniqlo is the clothing company responsible for the limited edition t-shirts created in celebration of the Shonen Sunday/Shonen Magazine 50th Anniversary. The company is releasing t-shirts each week to tie in with various series featured in the magazines. However, Uniqlo displayed some never-before-seen (and currently not for sale) t-shirts that feature characters from both magazines on the same shirt. Additionally, the outside of the Uniqlo store in the trendy Harajuku district has been decorated to feature none other than our favorite alien princess, Lum!
ConclusionSo while Takahashi's works may not have made a huge showing amongst all the newest series at the Tokyo International Animation Fair, Inuyasha and to a greater extent, her older works, are still showing up everywhere. I mean, it doesn't get much cooler than seeing Lum on the side of a building right?Footnotes
Special thanks to Star Hinson for her reporting and all of the photos seen here. For everything related to Hiromu Arakawa visit Star's site, Mobuta.com. |
