Belated Fan Event Report: Nipponbashi Street Festa 2017

English language flyer (click to enlarge)

I've previously talked about Osaka's version of Akihabara, Nipponbashi or Den Den Town. It's a pretty decent shopping district for otaku goods spread over two or three streets in the middle of Namba, a few kilometers south of Osaka station. Apart from almost being completely ignored by western anime fans, most fans outside of Japan probably don't realise that the local shopping district also holds one of the biggest cosplay events in Japan every year; the Nipponbashi Street Festa. Held every March, this year marks the 13th time it's been held. Over 10,000 people cram the long street of Sakai Suji (the main street of Nipponbashi) to check out the hundreds of cosplayers who show up.

I hadn't been to this event before, so not knowing what exactly to expect I showed up rather early. I took the subway from my Airbnb place in Umeda to Ebisucho station, where the parade down Sakai Suji was due to take place from midday. In previous years the event used to take place on the Friday before AnimeJapan in Tokyo. As I was going to that event also, I would normally find it rather difficult to make it in time to see AnimeJapan on the Saturday. Luckily a couple of years back, the local shopping district committee has changed the date to the Sunday of the Vernal Equinox public holiday weekend (Shunbun no Hi, which is essentially a welcoming of spring and usually coincidences with the first cherry blossom blooms), so this year it was held on Sunday 19th March. AnimeJapan is held a week after this event, on the weekend of the 25th and 26th of March. I suspect the organising committee realised cosplayers wanted to go to both events and changed the date.

Exiting Ebisucho station, I wandered around the streets where I did find a few cosplayers lingering about. I had been to the Nipponbashi Information shop on the Friday after I flew into Kansai Airport. The told me that photographers had to purchase a lanyard with a badge saying they could take photographs of the cosplayers. It cost ¥2,000 so I was really hesitant to buy one. However seeing most in the crowd who had cameras had one (even the ones just using their smart phones), I thought I'd better do the right thing and ponied up the dough. Cosplayers also had to pay the same amount to participate, but received a wristband instead. As 11am approached, the cosplayers and crowds came out of the woodwork and around 11:30am the police closed off the street to traffic. Everyone got off the sidewalk in unison and poured out onto the road. It was time to take some photos. In this situation I just followed everyone's lead and got in line to take the cosplayer's photo, sometimes asking permission in my shoddy Japanese, then saying thank you and bowing. First shot I took was of some Urusei Yatsura cosplayers;

Click to enlarge all photos by the way. While there was enough "Love Live!" cosplay to last three lifetimes and yes, I did photograph my fair share of them, I thought it might be better to highlight some of more interesting ones I saw. First up here's Kikaider;

Two Logicoma and Tachikoma girls;

And in the same vein, R2-D2 and BB-8 girls;

Surprisingly there was a lot of older shows and characters being cosplayed like Casshern;

And evergreen anime fan favourites like Cardcaptor Sakura;

And a more recent classic, Kill la Kill;

But of course most of the cosplay was recent anime, tokusatsu and game characters. Generally the sexier women and more well made cosplays had crowds of photographers around them such as this Rory Mercury from the "Gate" anime and light novel series;

As I walked around, I noted on a couple of occasions people berating other photographers for not buying the lanyard so they could take photos. I was certainly glad I did! However as the day progressed, it became increasingly difficult to see any of the more elaborate cosplays and photographers jostled for position. At times it was a real crush. I couldn't see these Marvel characters cosplay at all;

There was bit of jostling going on as well and I was almost pushed out of the way by overzealous fans at several points. But the side streets were much more tolerable with plenty of cosplayers about;

Even the local shops and food stalls got into the action like this takoyaki seller;

I also saw this absurdly large traffic cone down one of the side streets;

At around 1pm, the police tried to get everyone off the main street as the parade was about to begin. I got onto the pavement as I thought everyone would too. But they all piled back onto the street and left a little corridor in the middle for the parade participants. The police had to ask the crowd to step back so the parade could pass. As a result I couldn't see much of the parade. There was a brass band, the mayor in cosplay (apparently, I couldn't see him), the local Nipponbashi association committee who looked none too pleased to be there and tons and tons of cosplayers. Local businesses also participated like the maid cafes;

The only other good shot I got from the parade was these Girls und Panzer cosplayers;

After about 10 minutes of trying to see the parade and failing, I sort of gave up and went to Tower Records in Namba. There were also a number of other events that day including a dance party for the cosplayers which went late into the evening. Even though it can be really crowded and seemingly utterly unorganised and chaotic at times, I still recommend the Nipponbashi Street Festa for anyone who is interested in cosplay or fan culture. I found it to be really fun and was really surprised at the variety of the cosplay on offer. Even though cosplay and fan events such as Comiket and AnimeJapan are given far more exposure and coverage in western anime fandom and news sites, this event shouldn't be missed, especially if you're in the country anyway in mid to late March to see the cherry blossoms and AnimeJapan.