Anime Industry Watching No.17: What is the next step for "Tachikawa x Anime," celebrating its 5th anniversary, beyond pilgrimages to sacred places?　Interview with Taro Iwasaki, Tachikawa Tourism Association!

A Certain Magical Index," "Toaru Kagaku no Railgun," "Saint Oniisan," "Gatchaman Crows," "Gatchaman Crows Insight," "World Conquest: Plotting Zwizder," ...... Over the past few years, the city of Tachikawa, Tokyo, has been the setting for Over the past few years, the number of anime productions set in Tachikawa City, Tokyo, has continued to increase. Tachikawa City has incorporated anime into its tourism business and has been developing the city to meet the expectations of its fans, but after more than five years, the city seems to have reached a turning point in its efforts. We asked Taro Iwasaki, vice president of the Tachikawa City Tourism Association, about the city's progress to date.

What are the points that local governments should pay attention to during pilgrimages to sacred places? ......

Iwasaki: One of my close friends told me, "There is an anime set in Tachikawa," and "Did you know that there are anime fans who visit Tachikawa on pilgrimages to sacred places and write about it on the Internet? This was the first time I was told about Tachikawa. I found out on the Internet that there were people who traveled to Tachikawa from as far away as Nagoya. We decided that we should come up with some ideas to make their visit to Tachikawa more comfortable and enjoyable (......), so we got together and formed a team of about five people. That was in 2010.

───What kind of people made up that team?

Iwasaki: The Tachikawa Tourism Association, Tachikawa City Hall, Kotobukiya, a well-known figure manufacturer, Orion Shobo, and Tachikawa Cinema City. At first, we did not know what to do, so we started by creating a map for pilgrimages to sacred places. At that point, we did not even know which company was producing which anime, so we were totally clueless. Therefore, those who came to Tachikawa at that time might have been disappointed to find that there were no goods or anything for sale. As the next step, we went to the animation companies that owned the copyrights and persistently asked them if they would cooperate with us in promoting the local community. Thanks to my efforts, the animation companies gradually began to cooperate with us.

─ Conversely, did you receive any offers from animation companies saying, "We are going to make an animation set in Tachikawa, so please cooperate with us?

Iwasaki: At the time of "To Aru Majutsu no Index" (2008), we had not yet received such an offer. It was only with "Gatchaman Crows" (2013) that we received our first request for cooperation in arranging interviews. The Tachikawa Tourism Association has a department called the Film Commission that introduces movie locations, etc., so we were able to set up a solid cooperation system for "Gatchaman Crows.

─ Isn't "Saint Oniisan" (2012) also set in Tachikawa?

Iwasaki: We cooperated on the 2013 movie version. The main characters, Buddha and Jesus, live in an apartment, so we converted an empty house and recreated their apartment. We opened it to the public so that anyone who went to the shopping arcade where the anime was set could see Buddha and Jesus' room for free. Although it was only during the film's campaign period, quite a few people visited.

However, in the case of pilgrimages to sacred places, it is not a good idea to deprive the fans of the pleasure of finding the location of the scenes on their own. We are careful not to advertise too much, saying, "This place is in the anime.

Which character should be made into local goods?

─ I heard that you put up a flag in front of the station when "Gatchaman Crows" was broadcast?

Iwasaki: That's right. No matter how much we talk about "boosting Tachikawa with anime," there is a limit to what we can do within the budget of the tourist association. So we asked the shopping association in front of the station to cooperate and let us hang the flags on the streetlights. When "World Domination: Zwizdahr the Plot" (2014) aired, we made clear bookmarks and held events for fans, and different organizations cooperate with each other on a rotating basis.

─ ─ When you use characters on flags and clear bookmarks, how do you charge for the use of the characters?

Iwasaki: Of course, we pay royalties when we make goods. However, when we use the characters for "program announcements" such as flags, we sometimes ask for a royalty fee because it is part of our contribution to the local community. We are only borrowing the characters from them.

──A person who made a pilgrimage to Tachikawa uploaded a photo of a vending machine wrapped with characters from "Toaru Kagaku no Railgun" (A Certain Scientific Railgun). ......

Iwasaki: Yes, the vending machine with the original design of the "Toaru" series is only available in Tachikawa, so it is much appreciated by the pilgrims to the Holy Land. We also made four different cans of "Palm Seed & Pineapple Cider," which was inspired by the "Palm Seed Cider" in the anime, and the response was so strong that at one point the cans were sold out.

───How do you decide which character to commercialize?　For example, does Tachikawa propose "let's push this character"?

Iwasaki: Yes, there are times when we do that. There have been times when we have pushed a character that we noticed while watching an anime that "is a sub character, but secretly popular," and the production side has turned us down (laughs).

─ ─ You have been promoting the local community through animation for 5 years now, and the scale of the project has become a bit larger. You have invited voice actors to the "Tachikawa Gakuichi" event, haven't you?

Iwasaki: Yes, last November was the 5th anniversary of the regional promotion through animation, so we spent a little more money and invited voice actors such as Atsushi Abe, Yuka Iguchi, and Rina Sato. At the same time, we had a revival screening of an animated film at Tachikawa Cinema City.

───Tachikawa Cinema City has become famous for its bombastic screenings of "Girls und Panzer: The Movie", hasn't it?

Iwasaki: Yes, Cinema City is an independent cinema complex, so we have a certain degree of freedom in programming. For "Gatchaman Crows Insight" (2015), we held advance screenings of episodes 0 and 1.

───Then, is it difficult to conceive of "turning Tachikawa into an anime town like Akihabara"?

Iwasaki: Yes, there are some who say that they want to make Tachikawa a town like Akihabara. On the other hand, there are also those who say, "Is it safe to push only anime as we do now? ...... Daiichi Department Store in front of the station had an image of being a center of core otaku culture. But now that animate has moved to the south exit, I'm not sure how the whole town will turn out in the future.