Days one and two of Tokyo Anime Fair are business only, like the beginning of San Diego or New York Comic Con. The convention is relatively small compared to SDCC or NYCC and it’s much smaller than Comic Market (Comiket). Comiket fills all of Tokyo Big Sight, but TAF occupies just one part of the East Hall. The show floor feels bigger than New York Anime Festival… closer to the size of New York Comic Con’s floorspace.

Most of the booths are promoting new shows. My Japanese isn’t that great, so I have a hard time telling what else is being promoted—animation studios, mostly.

There is a very small dealers area with limited merchandise. No cosplayers are around (yet) except booth girls. However, the group of alchemist cosplayers promoting the new Fullmetal Alchemist series were apparently company employees and not booth babes. (I didn’t get a picture of them.)

Pre-registration is required for the panels (the symposium) and the panels are in Japanese, so I haven’t gone to any of them. Usually at a convention I mostly go to panels…

That isn’t to say I’m not having fun! I’d forgotten how much I love anime. Being here makes me feel happy, somehow, even if the anime industry is shrinking. I really love animation.

There are restrictions on photographing people, so my photographs are mostly of weird stuff and posters. Here are my photos from day one: