Sailor Moon Once Again Goes Pop Culture In Japan

Locations in Sailor Moon Featured in New Book of Anime Locales!

On April 26th, a few stores in Japan's famed Akihabara shopping area began selling a new book ahead of its official release. Pilgrimage NAVI is a book about varied sites in Japan that are featured in anime. Some of these are historic, while others are of varying importance. This complete guide features sites all over Japan, photos of the sites and how they were used, and even includes traffic tips. This book is the result of a recent boom in fan pilgrimages to these areas in the wake of such popular series such as Sailor Moon, Maison Ikkoku, Lucky*Star, Evangelion, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and many more. This book was edited by Drill Project, and one of the writers said that this book is like finding different pieces you may not know about a destination or looking for places used in anime and manga that might be near your home. This is also a new way for Japanese people to enjoy Japan if they want to, he added. The book was released in May and sells for 1260 Yen or $13.63 USD. Sounds like this is a fun guide for any anime fan visiting Japan in the future and looking towards seeing some of the sites seen in their favorite anime! Fans can taste parts of the book here. The


Osaka has Anison Fever!

Not too long ago, we told you about Kotono Mitsuishi, Mitsuko Horie, Akira Kamiya, and Himeka being involved in Anison Grand Prix preliminaries in Osaka. On her blog, Kotono was excited to be going to Osaka to judge this contest and hoped that she could judge confidently. She reminisced too about listening to anime theme songs songs like the fans do now when she was younger and how much she loved them! One lucky cosplayer flattered Kotono when he told her that he liked her voice! On April 30th, an Anison Night concert was held in Osaka featuring four bands playing lots of favorite anime hits and lots of cosplayers attending. Hits from Sailor Moon, Slayers, and many more had the audience singing at the top of their lungs, and cosplayers were cosplaying from series old and new, from Gatchaman to Ar Tonelico! This was held at Beronica Entertainment Dining in Osaka, and one of the fans at the event was quoted as saying that having these newer bands bring in a new twist on older anime songs was unique. There was also a magic show and some open Anison auditions. The producer Masato Koga said that the recession has led them to really improve their performances and try to figure out how to entertain everyone across all generations of anime fans. He wants to try to continue these events to cater to everyone’s tastes! The General Manager of Beronica doesn’t want people to point at this “one dumb event” and hopes that by word of mouth, more people will attend. We hope so too, this sounds like a LOT of fun! The next Anison Night is scheduled for May 27th.