AnimeJapan 2014 Blowout
by Zac Bertschy & Hope Chapman,
AnimeJapan 2014 was held over March 22-23rd in Odaiba at the familiar Big Sight event space. In previous years the event had been split into two – Tokyo Anime Fair and Anime Contents Expo. This year the industry came together (check out our interview with the show's Chief Producers right here for more info) and expanded the show, taking over the entire East Wing of Big Sight. Check out the diagram below; in previous years, Tokyo Anime Fair would only take up the top half of this map.
The result was a spacious event with plenty of room for the mob of fans, although the industry itself hasn't grown quite enough to fill out this space. I've been to TAF twice before and the booths here were decidedly scaled-down; Aniplex and Bandai predictably wowed with opulent displays, but previous big spenders like Pierrot had downsized. The fans were out in force for Love Live! swag, obviously the biggest show on display – when early bird ticket holders were let in, we saw people sprinting toward the Bandai booth, grabbing handfuls of free clear files and trading cards. We managed to gain press access to the event before the huge crowds outside were let in, so some of our pictures are still in setup mode, but we did our best to capture as much of the booths and excitement as possible.
As you go through the gallery, you can click on any individual image for a nice big hi-res version. Enjoy!
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