Nerima, the birthplace of Japanese animation: the real places
Nerima's claim is specific rather than boastful, and the ward states it plainly: Japan's first colour feature-length animation, Hakujaden, was made here in 1958 by Toei Doga, and the first weekly half-hour television anime, Astro Boy, in 1963 by Mushi Production. The studios stayed. What a visitor can actually see is three things, all of them free or nearly so and none of them in the guidebooks: a station deck with life-size bronzes on it, the museum inside Toei Animation's own building, and a local history museum that keeps animation equipment and cels among the ward's other belongings. It is forty minutes from Ikebukuro on the Seibu line, and it is the least touristic entry on this site by a distance — which is rather the point.
3 places
Statue
Oizumi Anime Gate
Life-size bronzes on the pedestrian deck outside the north exit, standing since April 2015: Astro Boy, Joe Yabuki from Ashita no Joe, Tetsuro and Maetel from Galaxy Express 999, and Lum from Urusei Yatsura. Leiji Matsumoto, Rumiko Takahashi and Macoto Tezka came to the opening. There is a Nerima animation timeline and a graphic wall along with them, so the deck reads as an argument for the ward rather than a photo stop.
- Address
- 東京都練馬区東大泉 西武池袋線 大泉学園駅北口ペデストリアンデッキ
- Getting there
- Seibu Ikebukuro line, Oizumi-Gakuen, north exit, at the station
Straight out of the north exit at Oizumi-Gakuen, about twenty minutes from Ikebukuro on the Seibu line. Outdoors, free, and open whenever the station is.
On the map · Official page · read on September 26, 2026
Museum · Rules of its own
Shakujii Park Furusato Museum
The ward's local history museum, which keeps animation production equipment and cels alongside everything else Nerima has been — the ward's own animation site lists it among its anime spots for exactly that. Seeing a rostrum camera filed between farm tools and war-time records is a better argument for the claim than any monument.
- Address
- 東京都練馬区石神井町5-12-16
- Getting there
- Seibu Ikebukuro line, Shakujii-koen, about 15 min on foot
About fifteen minutes on foot from Shakujii-koen, one stop before Oizumi-Gakuen, beside the park the museum is named after.
Rules of its own. A municipal museum with its own hours and closing days, and the animation material is one part of a collection about the ward rather than the whole of it. Check what is on display before travelling for the cels specifically.
On the map · Official page · read on September 26, 2026
Museum · Rules of its own
Toei Animation Museum
The museum inside Toei Animation's own building, showing production material and the company's history — the studio that made Hakujaden in 1958 and has been turning out Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, One Piece and Precure from this address ever since. A working studio's museum rather than a licensed attraction, which is why it is quiet.
- Address
- 東京都練馬区東大泉2-10-5
- Getting there
- Seibu Ikebukuro line, Oizumi-Gakuen, north exit, about 15 min on foot
Fifteen minutes on foot from the north exit at Oizumi-Gakuen, the same exit as the anime gate.
Rules of its own. Closed on Wednesdays, with irregular closures on top — the museum says plainly to check its opening calendar before setting out, and it means it. Groups of seven or more need to book ahead.
On the map · Official page · read on September 26, 2026
How this list is made
A place is listed when the work, its publisher or the town's own tourism page names it, and the page it was read on is linked with the date it was read. Positions come from OpenStreetMap or from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, never from Google.
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