Holo in Ikebukuro
Fabrice Requin
Hello and welcome to my blog. This blog is considered my haven when everything...
Now each time I look back at this night, I must have been high on something to be able to do what I did. Since Arriving in Tokyo, The three of us were too pre-occupied with visiting the city that we didnt have the time to think through what exactly we were going to do concerning Project Holo. We were looking at something distinctive which re-presents well the city for example Kyoto is known for being the “old japan” with its tradition hence Fushimi Shrine is nicely reflected, and similarly with Nara being another example with its Temple and deers, on the other hand Tokyo is different. Tokyo is now known for its modernity and therefore we werent keen on doing places Like Imperial Palace or Sensoji Temple. We were mulling over Tokyo Tower but then after some twisting and turning in bed one night, I finally came up with an Idea. Kinda like Orchard Road in Singapore, Tokyo is known for its multiple city centers like Shinjuku or Akiba or Shibuya as a whole. After discussing it with Wibi and Kelsey the next morning, We rounded off the Choices to Ikebukuro, Shibuya and Akihabara. Ikebukuro was then chosen to do first given that it is the main setting of the Japanese light novel series, anime, and manga, Durarara!! which was one of the major influence in the creation of Project Holo.
Here’s the Reference where you see Karisawa and Yumasaki carrying the lifesize cutout of Holo in episode 1. We decided to replicate in someway the scene by doing exactly what they did, walking around the place with the cardboard. The thing is there are more implications doing that in real life compared to just watching it animated. I wonder if Karisawa and Yumasaki would have done it if they were real ^^. Anyway on the night we set out to Ikebukuro from our location Toyosu. The night was particularly cold and it was just past the rush hour time. It took me a while to get her ready out of the box, whats different tonight compared to all the previous locations was that I would be holding her completely opened up without being folded and in the box and then taking her out for the shots. As I got started I made sure to zone out and disregard as much the crowd around me. It was more challenging, embarrassing but fun at the same time. We had quite a few folks who recognised Holo and yelled out “Holo, Holo!” or “Ookami!” which made it worth it, One of them was a group of girls who were walking beside me and at the traffic light Wibi asked them for a photo. We tried to locate as many places similar to the series and luckily we did! The tall Cinema Sunshine building in the background.
We walked around for 1.5 hours and had to cut short because we wanted to cover Shibuya too. This was quite an amazing night so far, where Holo relieved her experience in Durarara!! I hope we pulled it off and I hope you understand a little bit more about the project – head over here for more in-depth information.
Dont forget the night continues but in another post which Im sure you would want to see as its the lively Shibuya!
Ikebukuro is one of Tokyo’s multiple city centers. At the district’s center stands Ikebukuro Station, a busy commuter hub that handles over a million passengers per day, making it the second busiest railway station surpassed only by Shinjuku Station. Ikebukuro is also considered to be a center of otaku culture which is located along the Otome Road just north of Sunshine City. However unlike Akihabara where the fandom is predominately male, Ikebukuro is catered more towards the female audience. Such include more butlers cafes compared to Maid cafes, and dojinshi or self published manga or novels especially suited for women. You can still find anime, manga and cosplay related shops such as Animate, Mandarake and K-Books.
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Fabrice is a blogger, full time university student, web enthusiast and founder of Fateful Encounters.. This blog is his final haven when everything seems nuisances; urging him to assess and to share his thoughts and his own findings to the world, or at least to his fellow neighbors in the blog sphere.
Cool! I can’t believe that that place actually exists and looks like that in Ikebukuro! This post is made of win.
Surprising what anime can have ^^
Now I sort of know why you carry around that cutout of Holo. That anime scene from Durarara!! explains it. I guess I should get around to watch Durarara!! when I have time as I have many other friends who’ve watched it already.
Durarara!! is a recommendation, all about gangs and such. ye it was kinda hard to get the message across as to why I am doing that, hopefully this posts clears things up/
Oh man, oh man, and thus everything is right with the world right now. Pretty cool, if there was one place you had to take Holo it had to be this one.
Indeed right? Its the place where It all began in Durarara!
NICE~! Score with the girls xD
Lucky! :D
You can’t be embarrassed while walking around, you should be filled with pride :D. I’m curious on what people were thinking when they were walking past and a Holo cutout was just standing there.
I tried as much to have pride but you know you always have that feeling ^^
Most of them just walked by without even noticing her.. there were some that did and heck they were excited lol
An true hero is you! :D
Thank you kevo!
despite otome-road is place catered towards fujoshis, it’s still worth a go as the animate main store is located there. from my past experience, there are merchandises which are found in ikebukuro animate store are not available in other animate stores e.g akihabara. and another place which i think you should write about is nakano broadway, where you can find good deals of 2nd hand anime stuff (mandarake).
I didnt get time to spend roaming around the shopping district and it was closing :/
but thats interesting, well I wont be surprised as Ikebukuro is mostly catered for girls, I dont think Akihabara would want those especially the guys lol
So, bring Holo in Ikebukuro is a test of courage of your sister and Wibi? and you managed to do it, congratulations Fabrice!
Now I understand, why did you upload the first episode of Durarara on Youtube =)
You saw the video first before the post? lol
Carrying Holo around gets you all the ladies! xDD
I would be really nervous if I ever did that! Good Job!
I’ve never been to Ikebukuro, but I would certainly love to cosplay as Izaya there!
It would be perfect!
If only i was cosplayed as Izaya…
You’ve got a lot of guts carrying around Holo, but you’re building a pretty nice sized harem cause of it, respect! :3
*blushes*
that’s nice to take Holo to the place of her tv cameo appearance.
Ikebukuro was portrayed as a city full of gangsters in Durarara, good you came back safely XD
Haha well dont worry a lot of people who recognised here wouldnt let the gansters touch it!
Are you sure the ladies did come to you for Holo or for you? :D
I would like to say me.. but My names not Holo unfortunately :(
They saying Holo Holo from Spice and Wolf etc etc.
Oh, they don’t deserve you. You are too awesome.
I mean, I could not walk with Holo like that.
That is really wild how people would just keep walking as if nothing was happening. It just goes to show you just how freaking busy life is there.
Funny right! people really mind their own business here in Japan.
I haven’t watched Durarara!, but I rememeber coming across an episode of it while I was in Japan, and funny enough I was staying in Ikebukuro too for a vacation trip while watching the ending song ^^
Haha sure is a coincidence! go watch Durarara!! now, its such a good series.
Awesome, you finally took Holo to the place where she appeared in Durarara. I notice that in that pic with those girls, you’re actually in front of the Milky Way cafe. If you didn’t go in, I recommend that you do the next time you’re in Ikebukuro. They serve great parfaits in there.
It had to be done :)
Oh yes I saw the sign but we didnt go in because we were running out of time since we wanted to go to Shibuya too :/
theres always next time!
I bet people looked at you weird. But then again you did have fun doing that! How much time did you carry Holo around the town anyways?
Of course but whats nice is that some recognised her and even wanted a picture haha.
Well we dedicated one day for project holo which we did in a matter of 3 hours, Ikebukuro and Shibuya ^^
We visited it before so that we could have an idea of what to do and where to go. When we had enough shots and that we covered what we wanted to do and feature we finished it for the day :)