Shopping Guide
Original vending machines designed after the popular Japanese anime A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun have appeared in Tachikawa.
As for why To Aru series vending machines were set up in Tachikawa, the series takes place in a city based on Tachikawa, so to series fans Tachikawa is a sacred place. Just by glancing at the vending machines, you’ll be able to see that they are covered in characters from the series including Index and Mikoto Misaka. Also, the juice sold in the vending machines is an original product called “Palm Tree Fruit and Pineapple Cider” which is based on Mikoto’s usual drink from the series, “Palm Tree Fruit Cider.”
The To Aru series began in 2004 with the light novel A Certain Magical Index published by Dengeki Bunko. A spin-off manga called A Certain Scientific Railgun then began serialization in Monthly Comic Dengeki Daioh in 2007. Each of these works went on to spawn anime and other works. The series is a huge hit with more than 24 million related books in print, beginning with the original light novel, and more than 700,000 copies of the Blu-rays and DVDs have been sold. It is even highly popular overseas.
As previously mentioned, the world of the series is based on the city of Tachikawa, and until now many fans have made seichi junrei trips to Tachikawa for this reason. Beginning in 2011, the Tachikawa Tourism Association launched a project called “A Certain Municipality’s Area Promotion” with help from Kadokawa, the publisher of the original work in the series, and many events that tie into the To Aru series have been held. The new vending machines are also linked to this project, but it extends past just having vending machines set up; an extraordinary enthusiasm and love can be felt due to them going so far as to recreate and sell one of the drinks from the series. Fans will want to try out this juice at least once and taste the flavor for themselves.
By the way, the two who found out about these vending machines were Kirino Kousaka and Kuroneko from the series Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai both of which are now on sale as part of figure maker Kotobukiya’s line of painted and articulated figures called Cu-Poche. Thanks for the help you two!
© Kazuma Kamachi / ASCII Media Works Inc. / Project-Index
© Kazuma Kamachi / ASCII Media Works Inc. / Project-Railgun S
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article.
![A certain Palm Tree Fruit Cider vending machine [No. 1]. Kirino: “On the way from Tachikawa Station to Nishi-Tachikawa Station, we suddenly found Mikoto!＼(^o^)／” Kuroneko: “Somehow the atmosphere is the same, isn’t it?” (Tweet and picture are from Twitter @koto_okaG)](https://resize.cdn.otakumode.com/ex/30.35/u/49af2490c2d6459fad875b689df52366.jpg)
