Anime is Not Just in Tokyo: Part3!

Welcome to Part 3 of my series on Japanese destinations outside of Tokyo, Japan and the amazing anime that happen there! Though there have been hundreds of anime that take place in the huge Asian metropolis of Tokyo, a location doesn’t need to have a population of over 35 million people or cover over 5,000 square miles to inspire some amazing anime. Quaint little towns on small Japanese islands can be anime worthy locations too. And unlike their more urban counterparts, some of these more rural places can have pretty amazing origin stories all their own. We’ve already visited the snowy Northern island of Hokkaido and the bustling port town of Yokohama, now we’ll explore something a bit smaller before sailing off to the sunny tropical islands of Okinawa. Because there is so much more to anime’s Japanese locations than just Tokyo! So let me welcome you to a four part blog series highlighting wonderful places outside of Tokyo Japan and the thrilling, heart warming, and fun anime that happen there.

Enoshima

Unlike Yokohama, there isn’t a lot of different anime series that take place on Enoshima island. Though this island might be short on anime series, it isn’t short on stories! Enoshima is perhaps the most unique place I will be covering in this blog series. According to local legend, Enoshima island was created when the goddess of music and dance Benzaiten lifted the land out of the ocean creating both the island and her cave shrine. And that’s where Benzaiten decided to stay. Though many kaiju sized cities in Japan have long and interesting histories, not many also include the land the city was founded on being created by a deity! And the cave shrine of Benzaiten is still accessible today and is a popular tourist destination. Another interesting feature of Enoshima island is that it’s accessible by a bridge. I live in the Pacific North West of the US, and there are a lot of little islands in the region, but almost none of them are accessible by bridge and instead you have to take a ferry to reach them. So, I thought it was very unique and convenient that a person could just drive or take a bus to Enoshima island if they wanted to.

For everyone that noticed my Japanese grammar mistake, I’m aware that the “shima” of Enoshima means island, so when I call the location Enoshima island, I’m calling it Eno Island island. But I decided that for people that are not very familiar with the Japanese language the added information of an additional “island” would be helpful. So throughout this post I will be adding the extra island to Enoshima.

Tsuritama

It’s a shame I don’t have many opportunities to write about Tsuritama, because it is one of my favorite fish related anime! It has so much heart, and it has great visualizations of inner feelings, and is one of the funniest alien invasions I’ve seen in anime.This is a wonderfully weird anime about Yuki Sanada, a very shy boy that lives with his ill grandmother in a small town on the rather secluded island of Enoshima. It’s also about the fish alien named Haru that decides he’s going to be Yuki’s friend whether Yuki likes it or not! Natsuki Usami (a classmate of Yuki and a skilled fisherman) quickly gets reeled into make a trio of friends. Not long after the alien Haru shows up things start getting really weird around the island, which is saying a lot because Haru is certainly not a boring person. Fishing boats are found around the island drifting in the water with the crew in an odd trance while doing a Macarena style dance. Even more bizarre government agents show up to investigate the situation, and it’s hard to tell if they make the situation on Enoshima island better or worse!