×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Interest
your name Setting Becomes Latest Anime Pilgrimage Site

posted on by Eric Stimson
Nearby town also attracts Hyōka fans

Anime studios have long used real locations as models for their work, and even when these locations are ordinary small towns and suburbs in Japan, devoted fans of the related anime have turned them into "pilgrimage" locations or "holy lands" to visit. With the recent smashing success of your name., the model for Mitsuha's hometown — Hida, a small town in the mountains of Gifu Prefecture — has emerged as the latest pilgrimage destination. Fans flock to the Hida-Furukawa train station, the Hien Shrine, abandoned bus stops, and the local library. It is estimated that the local windfall may exceed 10 billion yen.




The city library

Meanwhile, the setting of the 2012 TV anime Hyōka is modeled after the nearby town of Takayama. Fans visit the Bagpipe cafe, where a key scene in the anime takes place, to order the same thing the characters did and relive the show. The town estimates that it gets 150,000 anime fan tourists a year, with associated revenues of 2.1 billion yen. (Note: Both Hida and Takayama are already major tourist attractions for their scenic setting, historic architecture, beef and handicrafts.)




Other locations used in your name. also attract tourists, especially this stairway in front of Suga Shrine in Tokyo's Yotsuya district. It is featured in one of the movie's posters and is the setting for its climax.


There are many locations of anime pilgrimage in Japan, ranging from the inspirations for classic Studio Ghibli films to countless mundane high schools. Fans have ranked the must-see sites for the time-pressed tourist.

Sources: J Town Net and Naver Matome; Images from Forsaken Gardens


discuss this in the forum (2 posts) |
bookmark/share with: short url

Interest homepage / archives