Forum - View topicNEWS: Kadokawa to Shut Down Anime Hotel, Narita Airport Shopping Venue
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5823 Location: Virginia, United States |
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For the hotel, it seems like poor planning. What is the saying, "location, location, and location". Putting the hotel in an out of the way area isn't going to make you profitable, even if it is anime themed. Maybe if it was like the Walt Disney "Star Wars StarCrusier Hotel" in Orlando. Imagine a NERV themed hotel, where you could visit the various Units and descend to the very bottom and say hi to EVE. Have lunch and dinner in the staff cafeteria. Maybe even attend NERV and Seele meetings.
As for the airport, maybe I missed the initial word about the Anime Deck opening, but I never even knew it existed. I wonder if they even had English advertisments in Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 about it. May be COVID ultimately did it in, but once COVID has subsided and air travel resumed, they should have promoted it again, and with foreign travellers also. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11135 |
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I wouldn't mind going to an anime hotel myself...
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Loveless100
 Posts: 82 |
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Sakura Town has been on my radar since its opening (the shrine there seems really pretty and the museum also seems interesting) but as far as I can remember, the distance from the train station always made it sort of a "I'll get to it later" place. I wondered how that hotel, with that price range, would do, and I suppose this answered my question.
Also, regarding the Narita Anime Deck, I've never flown out of Terminal 2, and the majority of foreigner traffic is out of the Terminal 1, so aside from the pandemic, you would have to take an interterminal shuttle to get there. Also, it was located in a back corner on an upper floor, so unless you were looking for it, you wouldn't come across it. I enjoyed going there (I picked up some limited Love Live merchandise), but neither of these announcements surprise me. I think something like Sunshine City Prince Hotel's concept rooms opening up more to intl fans would be more effective, since it's in the city zone where more tourists want to stay. |
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XSp
Posts: 255 |
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Perhaps this was meant for Japanese tourists only, but if not, it sounds like very poor and/or unlucky planning...
I mean, this is the first time I've heard about both the hotel and the shopping venue... and I'm always following stuff about Japan because I'm always planning the next trip. 
In fact, I don't even remember seeing anything on Kadokawa's YouTube channel... did they even publish something there? I just saw that they used the venue to make a temporary Isekai Museum... another thing I didn't hear anything about up 'till now. Guess I'm the one who's out of touch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7WRneLJbRI The hotel opened right in the middle of the pandemic, perhaps aiming for Tokyo Olympics? They should've done a second round of major advertisement after Japan's reopening. Saitama is a great area for those wanting to stay away from Tokyo bustling area but still close enough to get there by train in a couple of hours, I stayed in a neighborhood in between Tokyo and Saitama on my first trip there, it's super nice. Well, it was, over a decade ago... xD Japan is always changing, I heard the region changed a whole ton since I was there. But none of that matters if you don't advertise it. I also didn't know Kadokawa opened a space in Narita... I know and visited the Pokemon Store there, but this was back in 2018. Perhaps anime studios are needing a coordinator for ad campaigns on the Internet targeting foreign tourists. You know, there are tons of Japan tourist channels by expats and whatnot that have huge followings, but I don't think I ever see many sponsorships and collabs on those other than the occasional rare office tour and whatnot. In any case, too bad... I'd be interested in checking both actually, if they were still there and the hotel had a reasonable price. The hotel rooms don't look too gaudy, it's just simple rooms with some anime paraphernalia. |
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Thespacemaster
Posts: 1106 |
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As others have mentioned, i did not know this even existed before this news article was made.
Also the fact that it opened right in the middle of the covid epidemic probably did not help either. It is probably a combination of poor marketing and bad timing that did it in, what a shame if i knew such a place existed i probably would of gone there. |
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Amiantos
Posts: 342 |
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The series were all over too. Friend and I had stayed in one of the Yuuki Yuuna rooms at the time. It was nice and all but to be real Yuuki Yuuna is a pretty niche series to choose if you're wanting to attract people, especially if you want foreigners. Shame to see it go because honestly the area was nice. That and to be honest yeah it was pretty pricey. They just throw up some banners/wall scrolls in the room and put a cardboard cutout in a pretty standard hotel room then give you themed food and some special stuff. Meant to make it easy for them to change out series with minimal cost. |
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