News

Japanese city promotes tourism with anime-themed soda kiosks

July 1, 2014

As part of its campaign to attract anime fans, the city of Tachikawa in the Western Tokyo Metropolis has installed soft drink vending machines featuring illustrations of various anime characters from the popular series "A Certain Magical Index" in five locations, the Asahi Shimbun reports.

Anime, the Japanese pronunciation for "animations," are Japanese animated productions which feature hand-drawn or computer animation.

Over 20 million print copies of the original light novel version of "A Certain Magical Index" have been sold. Light novels target Japanese teenagers and young adults.

The anime version of "A Certain Magical Index" features a cityscape which is based on Tachikawa, making the city a tourist destination for anime fans. The Asahi Shimbun said that Tachikawa's reason for installing the vending machines is to get fans to walk around the city while they look for the soft-drink dispensers. Fans can buy an exclusive soft drink at the vending machines that was inspired by a fictitious drink featured in the anime series, the Asahi Shimbun said..

The Tachikawa Bureau of Tourism collaborated with Kadokawa Corp., the publisher of the light novel series, as well as beverage manufacturer Toyo Beverage Co. and several other companies, on the project, the Japanese newspaper said.