Ask John: How Do Americans React to Anime Advertising in Tokyo?

Question:
Today’s question was submitted by a reader in Japan.

Welcome back from Japan, John-sama! I enjoyed a lot of photos of you at many otaku spots in Tokyo, especially one where you posed in front of a pachinko parler featuring Evangelion. By the way, as you may know, people below 18 are prohibited to enter pachinko parlers, while they frequently use anime images for advertisement. I was wondering how ordinary Americans like you saw these odd sights.

Answer:
I, like many Americans, know of pachinko as a unique Japanese type of pinball game played with multiple small balls at once. I’m aware that players may accumulate and trade-in winnings for token prizes. I’m also aware that some pachinko parlors secretly exchange the prizes for cash, in effect, illicitly operating as gambling establishments. However, despite knowing all of this, I personally never consciously think of pachinko parlors as gambling establishments, or consciously realized that they’re limited to adult patrons only. The fact that pachinko parlors are so commonplace in Tokyo, and the fact that they’re located on major streets and use such colorful and inviting advertising that they seem as natural as any other restaurant, store, or arcade. (I don’t wish to create the impression that pachinko parlors are seedy or immoral. I hope I haven’t unintentionally created that impression.)

For foreign visitors, objectively, Tokyo streets are a strikingly unusual sight. Pachinko parlors, karaoke establishments, and video game arcades are relatively common in Tokyo’s Shinjuku and Akihabara wards – both areas popular among foreign visitors to Tokyo. Especially pachinko parlors and game arcades tend to advertise with large, colorful imagery and banners. When I was recently in Akihabara, I had my photo taken against the massive Evangelion mural outside one pachinko parlor. I won’t soon forget another pachinko parlor in Shinjuku’s Kabukicho area that had the face surfaces of its stairwell illustrated with panels of a large Hokuto no Ken image, so that a pedestrian on the street directly opposite the stairs would see only a single tall image. I was also slightly taken aback my a pachinko parlor in Shinjuku’s “Sho-Akihabara” area that had outdoor posters for not only Hokuto no Ken, Evangelion, Kaiji, and Patlabor pachinko machines, but also a poster that appeared to advertise a Yakin Byouto pachinko machine. Seeing advertisements for conventional anime themed pachinko machines seems natural, but seeing public advertisements for sexually themed pachinko machines seemed strikingly bold.

Sights like these, both massive public displays of anime imagery, and merely businesses like pachinko parlors and video game arcades in well traveled metropolitan areas, are a rarity in North America, Europe, and Australia & New Zealand. So Western visitors should be surprised by these unusual sights upon reaching Japan. But I think that American tourists in Tokyo don’t always consciously register amazement because these sights all seem so natural and organic within the metropolitan structure of Tokyo. Rather than be amazed by the sight of pachinko parlors displaying massive anime themed imagery, I think that American tourists in Tokyo are a bit overwhelmed by the collective urban environment of Tokyo. I’ve personally visited many of the world’s major cities: New York City, London, Sydney, and Kuala Lumpur to name a few. But I’ve never encountered another city that is as frenetic, concentrated, and modern as Tokyo.

It’s really only in reflection that I’m truly struck by the singularity of Tokyo. While immersed in the city everything feels natural. Even the giant anime and video game advertising billboards in Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Akihabara, and the giant public television screens through Tokyo seem like a natural development of the city. Seeing a fifty foot tall video commercial for Kamen Rider pachinko on the video monitors at Shibuya’s Hachiko Square is, for foreigners, objectively a breathtaking and exceptionally unusual experience. But in the moment, surrounded by the vibrancy of the crowds and sights, it tends to merge into the total impact rather than standing out individually.

I believe that things like anime murals, posters, and flags advertising anime themed pachinko machines are an illustration of the organic nature of anime to Japan. Imagery similar to that would be exceptional, and highly unlikely to appear anywhere in America. Yet in Tokyo it’s commonplace and accepted as typical. Anime programs themselves may not be exceptionally common in the Japanese public view. (While there is a lot of anime broadcast on Japanese television, most of it airs at odd hours, or in limited broadcast.) Anime films do play in Japanese theaters, but they’re usually overshadowed by live action and imported foreign films. Japanese animation itself may not be as exceptionally common in Tokyo as Americans sometimes believe that it is, but examples like pachinko parlor advertising prove that the concept of anime is commonplace and widely recognized in Japan. Furthermore, the heavy promotion of Evangelion in pachinko parlors limited to adult patrons only validates the theory that anime, in Japan, is not necessarily limited to targeting or appealing to just children or “otaku.”