Anime Anime Global

“Tokyo ComicCon”, the festival of Japanese and American pop culture, was held for three days from Nov. 22 to Nov. 24 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba. We will deliver the scenes of the event in the form of a photo report.

This event was held for the forth time since 2016, and the event Fully contained booths set up by both individuals and cooperations, with great guests such as David Jude Heyworth Law, and Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom,specially flown into Japan to take pictures and sign autographs for fans at the event. Furthermore, booths by individual artists, live performances, event talks and cosplay excited the American comic fans greatly.

■Not only was there a Stan Lee monument, but also figurines.

The monument of Stan Lee, a Permanent honorary ambassador of the event who passed away in 2018, was exhibited like previous years. Lee was born in 1922, and established Marvel comics as one of the top 2 publishers alongside DC Comics. He created great works such as “Spider-Man”, “Iron-Man”, “X-Men” and is known as the “father of pop culture” for his accomplishments.

The figure of Lee was exhibited and sold at the “Hot Toy” booth, as well as autographs of previous famous event guests that were displayed in clear frames

■Enhanced exhibitions of “Batman” and “Star Wars”
This year saw a great hit of the movie “Joker”, the origin story of Joker, a villain from “Batmain” (DC Comic). There was also exhibition items related to”Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” due to be released on Dec. 20.

・ Batman Exhibition
The Bat Mobile (Michael Keaton model) from “Batman” (1989), Bat Bot from “Batman Dark Knight” (2008), Batman suit which Christian Bale wore in “Dark Knight Rising” (2012), and a Joker costume which Jack Nicholson wore in “Batman” (1989) were displayed at the booth.

・Star Wars Exhibition
R2-BHD Droid M, a light-up remote control from “Rogue One Star Wars Story” and “Star Wars Last Jedi” were displayed.

・Others
Terminator T.800 from used during filming of “Terminator” and a body suit which Christopher Reeve donned in “Superman III”.

“DeLorean DMC-12” (replica) a time machine from “Back to the Future” which has become a custom, “Knight 2000”, a dream car which contains special weapons and considered a friend of the main character in a police movie “Knight Rider”, Harley Davidson Fatboy which Terminator rode in “Terminator 2 Judgement Day” was displayed continually from the previous year.

■Corporate booths with increased experiential programs

・Hot Toy
A company renown for their figures of Hollywood movie characters, and it drew attention by providing a photo spot with gigantic figures. The highly trusted company renown for its sales of high quality figurines over 32 nations saw many figurines being sold out at its booth.

・Warner Brothers
From hits such as the “Annabelle Comes Home”, “IT Chapter 2”, the Harry Potter series and Game of Thrones to name a few; various characters and items made an appearance in the photo spot.

・Star Wars
A large scroll featuring the history of the “Star Wars” series was displayed in anticipation of the release of “Star Wars Rise of Skywalker” drawing near. An actual life size figure of the Sith Trooper was displayed as well.

・Marvel
A movie to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Marvel Comics ,in which the authors from “Shonen Jump” and Marvel collaborated was the main exhibition of the booth. By scanning the QR code, users are taken to the “Shonen Jump+” website, which allows fans to read comics drawn by Takahashi Kazuki, Kasama Sanshirou/Uesugi Hikaru, Mizuno Hachi, Ogino Ken, mato, and Haneda Toyoyuki.

・Tokyo Marui
The company displayed and sold wide variety of model guns from movies and dramas to guns which are used by the Japanese Defence Force and police.

・KOREAN PAVILION
The booth featured comics that are read vertically, and are famous even in Japan. The titles include “Surgeon Elise” and “Only I am Leveling Up” , and famous cosplayers such as REVE and J.NERO dressed up in the characters from the comics and participated in picture-taking.
The guests could experience cosplays of the characters, and had an autograph session by the authors.

・My Hero Academia
Japanese comics had booths in the event because they are hero comic related. The booth worked hard on the advertisement of its latest 4th season of the animation, and the movie which will be released on Dec.20 called “My Hero Academia THE MOVIE Hero’s Rising”, and had cosplayers and mascot costumes at the booth.

・Artist Array is where you can meet famed artist guests
The booth had exhibitions from artists both domestic and international, and the guests could purchase exhibited and original works. The booth was so popular as the business booth, having popular artists such as Adi Granoph, who drew “Iron-Man: Extremis” from Marvel Comics.

■■
Tokyo ComicCon had far more domestic and international guests compared to previous years, and had full of exciting contents.There were foreign guests that lived in Japan, and the dress up room for males was packed, despite the number of female cosplayers usually amounting to more than the males, and the room was closed temporary. The event acted as a great spot for American comic fans to get together and interact.

Photograph taken by: Nogi Akira