Tokyo government opening anime art archive museum this fall

Ikebukuro continues its rise to top-tier otaku destination.

After several years of flying largely under the pop cultural radar, Tokyo’s Ikebukuro neighborhood has risen to the status of one of the city’s great otaku entertainment districts. That got kicked up a notch this past spring with the opening of a gigantic new flagship store for anime specialty shop Animate, but that’s not the only noteworthy Ikebukuro anime event coming in 2023.

Next month will see the opening in Ikebukuro of Anime Tokyo Station, alternatively called just Anime Tokyo (ostensibly to help avoid making people mistakenly think it’s part of the for-trains Tokyo Station, which is on the other side of town). A quick four-minute walk from Ikebukuro Station, Anime Tokyo will be a three-floor facility dedicated to Japanese animation, and will include an archive of anime cels and production art materials maintained by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

“Anime is a killer app of Tokyo, and of Japan,” said Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike in speaking about the Anime Tokyo project. “It is something that should be utilized and treasured. I hope to make [Anime Tokyo] a place where people can come together and foster their imaginations.”

Anime Tokyo will operate on the first, second, and first basement levels of the Fujikyu Building East Building 5 office, near Minami Ikebukuro Park, in the space previously occupied by the Maruzen stationery store. The archives will be located in the basement, where tens of thousands of pieces of anime art, including cels from landmark series Tetsuwan Atom/Astro Boy, will be stored, with a portion on rotating display.

▼ Fujikyu Building East Building 5

On the ground floor, visitors will be able to participate in workshops where they can experience how animation is created, and the second floor will house rotating exhibitions of popular anime series and a related merchandise shop.

Anime Tokyo is scheduled to open on October 31, presenting a convenient alternative to everyone who’s heeding the plea from the head of Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward to stay away from that part of the city on Halloween.

Location information
Anime Tokyo Station / アニメ東京ステーション
Address: Tokyo-to, Toshima-ku, Minami Ikebukuro 2-25-5
東京都豊島区南池袋2-25-5
Website

Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, Comic Natalie
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