Shopping Guide
Chara Hobby, a colossal event that brings together characters and hobby content, was held for two days this year on Aug. 23 and 24 at the Makuhari Messe International Convention Complex. This highly popular yearly event that brings together talked-about content ended as a huge success this year as well.
Chara Hobby was first two separate events: the character event C3 and the hobby event Hobby Expo. This year marked its 14th time held. The event features a wide range of hobby culture including characters, anime, manga, tokusatsu, novels, cosplay, military, figures, and more. It is looked forward to yearly by many fans.
According to an announcement by the event’s sponsor, the attendance over this year’s two-day event was 67,926. This is a roughly 3,000-person improvement over last year’s attendance of 64,938. The attendance breakdown over the two days is 33,573 on Aug. 23 and 34,353 on Aug. 24. Attendance for each day was over 30,000 people. Media outlets covering the event over its two days totalled 77. This also gives a glimpse at the high interest from media in the event’s wealth of content.
No matter how you slice it, the standout work this year was KanColle. KanColle, an anime to which is in the works, is a cross between games, military, characters, and anime and suits Chara Hobby unbelievably well. Many fans were photographing the panels and cosplayers at the KanColle booth set up at the venue, and many fans were participating in the stamp rally held throughout the entire venue. Other popular content was the doujinshi created by a tag team of two hobby magazines at a joint booth between Monthly Dengeki Hobby Magazine and Monthly Hobby Japan. This came with limited Gunpla, and fans wanting to buy it formed a long line.
Chara Hobby is an event that generally attracts mostly males, but according to the sponsor, this year saw many young female fans in their late teens and early 20s. There were also more couples and families compared to previous years, perhaps giving an indication of the culture’s continuing expansion.
Source: animeanime
