Like many countries around the world, Japan also hosts Comic Con every year (twice in fact, in two different cities). While it has been suspended since 2019 due to COVID-19, it was finally back November 25th-27th, 2022, in Tokyo. Like its Western counterpart, Tokyo Comic Con is mostly focused on movies and comics from Western sources - but this is Tokyo Comic Con, so you can bet there was also some anime!
Anime and manga were more present at Tokyo Comic Con 2022 than they had been at any past years. Typically, anime can be found mostly at anime events in Japan, and Comic Con has been more of a place for Marvel, Star Wars, Harry Potter, DC, and that sort of media. This year, though, there was plenty for otaku to see alongside all the usual Comic Con paraphernalia, which was great for fans who like both sides. We had the chance to visit Tokyo Comic Con on Sunday, the final day of the event, and kept our eyes open for whatever anime and manga we could find. While it was still not the centerpiece of the event - and it shouldn't be, considering that is not what Comic Con is at its core - we found more than we were expecting. And we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of some of it.
Incredible Figurines
The biggest area for anime and manga fans to enjoy was inside Prime 1 Studio's massive exhibition of figurines. There were plenty of figures from Western games and movies for sale and for show, but there was also an entire wall dedicated to Japanese anime and manga characters. There was everything from classic hits like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Fullmetal Alchemist to newer series like My Hero Academia, and even this season's smash hit Chainsaw Man.
The figures were well out of an average person's price point, each one selling for more than $1000 USD. But they were also just there for fans to enjoy and photograph, and there were huge queues to see the most popular characters and series. Denji and his trusty companion Pochita from Chainsaw Man were particularly popular, with their own separate queue to photograph them.
Bleach x Coca-Cola
Another anime making the rounds this season is Bleach, which is back for its final season after a nearly ten year anime hiatus. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is airing right now, six years after the manga finished. Bleach had done a special collaboration with Japanese shoe brand Atmos and Coca-Cola at Tokyo Comic Con, and set up a huge event space within the Atmos area.
Inside the Bleach area, there were huge posters from the collaboration with Coca-Cola on sale in Japan right now, including a life-size standee of the main hero Ichigo. There was also a display of vintage-style posters featuring many of the characters from Bleach enjoying classic bottles of Coke. There were also special t-shirts for sale from the collaboration.
Slimes Abound
Finally, the last anime with its own special section at Tokyo Comic Con was That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (hereafter abbreviated to TenSura, its Japanese nickname). The anime has been particularly popular in Japan lately, and can be seen just about everywhere in a lot of advertising and in a lot of collaborations. Due to that popularity, TenSura had its own area rather than having to be hosted by another brand or shop.
The TenSura display at Tokyo Comic Con had plenty of life-size standees of the main characters for fans to pose for photos with. There was also a huge amount of merchandise for sale as well, including smaller things like keychains and bigger things like t-shirts. The entire display was 360 degrees of TenSura, with something to see on every side of the space around the main shop. It was also not very busy on Sunday, so it was easy to get some good pictures with the displays.
While big names like Marvel and Star Wars - and this year, Stranger Things - still dominating Tokyo Comic Con for the most part, it was good to see some anime featured as well. The event itself was smaller than it had been before COVID-19, but hopefully will continue to grow back to its previous size over the next couple of years. And while it continues to grow again, hopefully there will still be a bit of anime presence for the otaku to enjoy alongside the Western media!