This article is based on a visit made on Wednesday, 2 April 2016.
Suginami, a ward in the western suburbs of Tokyo, is home to a number of anime production companies. Thus, it is only fitting that a museum dedicated to animation can also be found in the area. The Suginami Animation Museum (杉並アニメーションミュージアム,
Suginami Animēshon Myūjiamu) is small and somewhat out of the way, but is free to enter.
If you're taking the bus, you'll want to get off at this police station, only 5 minutes from Ogikubo Station.
The bottom of this banner features Piipo-kun (on the right), the mascot of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
The museum is only a short walk away from the police station. The outer walls of the museum building are decorated with reliefs of various anime characters. Can you name them all...?
Upon entering the building, take an elevator to the 3rd floor to enter the museum. It is laid out across three tiers. Visitors may take pictures of the lower and upper tiers, but not the middle (where I am actually looking
from).
The reception desk stands in front of this column, where all manner of anime and manga creators have left their marks, in signature and sketch forms.
A curved wall off to the left displays a chronological list of anime shows. TVs from across the decades loop anime clips of their respective eras.
Giant robots have been a staple of anime since the mid-20th century. Mecha from the
Mobile Suit Gundam (機動戦士ガンダム,
Kidō Senshi Gandamu, lit. 'Mobile Fighter Gundam') franchise, which debuted in 1979, are standing beside the TV on the right. Behind them are figures of the time-travelling cat
Doraemon (ドラえもん), another famous mascot character.
"You wa Shock!" This immortal, semi-English line comes to us from the opening theme song of
Fist of the North Star (北斗の拳,
Hokuto no Ken).
Near the back of this floor, one can learn about what work goes into the animation process. Back to the right of this shot, you can even try your hand at recording a voice track, but it's probably best if you know how to read and speak Japanese.
Why, hello there, beautiful! These statues are characters from the 2007 film
Brave Story, based on a light novel of the same name. The movie was dubbed to English, but was never released in North America.
Re-creations of different animators' desks are displayed to describe various steps of the animation process. You can see how technology has evolved the process over time, with today's productions marrying hand-drawn lines with computer colouring. Even I learned a few insights from all this.
Visitors can try their hand at drawing at one of the lightboxes or computers in this mock studio. Fun fact: When I attended AnimeNEXT 2016 (an anime convention in Atlantic City, NJ), I got almost the exact same
Kill la Kill poster as the one in back, and I even got it autographed by some people who worked on the show!
At one of the lightboxes, I traced this picture of Pinoko and Black Jack, from the anime of the same name. Created by Osamu Tezuka (
Astro Boy,
Kimba the White Lion),
Black Jack is about the adventures of a mysterious, unconventional, and miraculous surgeon of the same name.
The upper tier of the museum is home to rotating exhibits, such as this short film about ghostly yokai. Its name eludes me at the moment, however.
Hours: Open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Admission ends 30 minutes before closing time. Closed on Mondays, and from 28 December to 4 January. Open on national holidays, but closed the day after.
Costs: Free.
Address: 3-29-5 Kamiogi, Suginami-ku, Tōkyō-to 〒112-8555
Access: The nearest train station is Ogikubo Station (JR Chuo
(JC), Chuo-Sobu
(JB), and Tokyo Metro Marunouchi
(M) lines). From Shinjuku Station, take the Chuo (Rapid) line to Ogikubo (JC09, 10 minutes, ¥170, JR Pass OK). From Tokyo Station, the same trip takes 25 minutes and costs ¥310.
From Ogikubo Station, take a JR Kanto bus from stop #0 or #1. Get off at the Ogikubo Police Station (荻窪警察署前,
Ogikubo Keisatsusho-mae) intersection (5 minutes, ¥220). The museum is on a side road across from the police station. It may also be reached on foot in about 20 minutes.
Website:
(English) (Japanese)
