COUNTRY GUIDE 01 · VERIFIED 2026-08-24
Two lenses belong on the same page, but never in the same statistic. Industry evidence describes the Japanese animation market. Location evidence describes how particular stories connect to real places.
TWO EVIDENCE LENSES
All monetary figures below are 2024 estimates published by the Association of Japanese Animations. They are market totals, not counts of fans, titles or visitors.
PRODUCTION / BUSINESS
AJA calls this the narrow anime industry market: estimated revenue across commercial animation production companies. It grew 9.1% year over year.
Definition: company revenue estimate · Japan anime industry · data year 2024END-USER MARKET
AJA calls this the broad anime market: estimated money paid by users across domestic and international segments. The international segment was ¥2.1702T.
Definition: end-user spending estimate · not country-by-country audience data · data year 2024PILGRIMAGE LENS · 3 JNTO EXAMPLES
These examples come from one JNTO location guide published March 30, 2021. They illustrate different relationships; they are not a complete ranking of Japanese pilgrimage destinations.
Kanagawa · Fictional setting inspiration
JNTO connects Hakone landscapes with the fictional Tokyo-3 setting and identifies visitable places including Hakone-Yumoto Station, Lake Ashinoko and Owakudani.
Evangelion archive ↗Saitama · Setting model · fan visits
JNTO describes Kasukabe as the model for the school city and Washinomiya Shrine as the basis for the shrine where the Hiiragi sisters work. This is a location relationship, not a production credit.
Browse animation records ↗Gifu · Setting model
JNTO identifies the fictional Kamiyama as based on Takayama and presents the preserved old town as a visitable reference point. AniMerchive does not treat that association as proof of local production.
Continue discovery ↗FRANCHISE LENS · OFFICIAL POKÉMON SOURCES
Pokémon shows why AniMerchive treats games, animation, TCG, merchandise and place-based activity as one fandom while preserving what each source actually proves.
ORIGIN · GAME
The Pokémon Company says Pokémon was introduced in 1996 as Game Boy role-playing games. AniMerchive therefore records the franchise as game-origin—not anime-original.
Official game history ↗SCREEN · ANIMATION
Animation is one of the official franchise businesses. It extends the same characters and world through screen stories without replacing the game-origin classification.
Official video business ↗PLAY · TCG
The official TCG overview says the card game recreates the video games’ battle and collecting elements. That makes it both a play route and a collecting route.
Official TCG overview ↗COLLECT · SHOPS
Pokémon Centers sell original merchandise and host game and TCG programs. They are official retail and activity hubs—not evidence that every item is always available.
Official shop overview ↗PLACE · LOCAL ACTS
Pokémon Local Acts matches Ambassadorial Pokémon with Japanese localities to help promote their attractions. This is an official collaboration relationship, not a story setting, production location or audience statistic.
Official Local Acts ↗Classification note: Local Acts does not make every participating prefecture a Pokémon story setting or pilgrimage site. Availability of merchandise, events and local collaborations can change; verify the current official page before travel or purchase.
FROM PLACE TO COLLECTION
Use the buying guide to choose a retailer, or search CDJapan for current books, music and character goods. Confirm the exact release, stock and delivered cost at the store.
BEFORE A PILGRIMAGE
SAME FANDOM · DIFFERENT ROUTES
Move from place context into the medium or activity you actually want. These routes do not imply that every title has every kind of product.
Scope and method. Country of production, creator origin, story setting, pilgrimage location, official local collaboration, publication market, audience market and fandom activity are stored as separate relationships. This page uses no cover art because no additional publication right was established for this edition. Market data was checked against AJA, location claims against JNTO, and the Pokémon cross-media and Local Acts relationships against official Pokémon sources on August 24, 2026.
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