While Japan may or may not be out of the COVID crisis, many of us are still stuck in it. As a result, travel to Japan is very limited right now, and may even be illegal depending on where you are situated. Nevertheless, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba fans can rest assured, as Edith Online is making available a VR tour of the anime series’ latest exhibition in Sunshine City – for a price.
Running until November 11, this latest Kimetsu no Yaiba event has guests running around Sky Circus in Ikebukuro’s Sunshine City and “solving mysteries” together with the series’ characters. The event initially opened its doors on October 2, but recently unveiled its plans for a VR tour that you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home.
VR tours are certainly nothing new, and they are becoming more and more useful as the Coronavirus continues to plague society. Yet, previous virtual tours have been made available for free – just last week, Weekly Big Comic Spirits put one together of Shogakukan HQ for the magazine’s 40th anniversary. This Kimetsu no Yaiba exhibition VR tour, however, requires a ticket: you can acquire one by signing up for a free account on Edith Online’s website, and then forking over 1000 yen.
So yeah, that’s not exactly a massive amount, but this does set an interesting precedent: if Kimetsu no Yaiba can charge for a virtual tour of its exhibition, then why not Haikyu!! or The Promised Neverland? The possibilities are endless.
To a certain extent, this would be a big step forward in terms of digitizing and making anime exhibitions available worldwide, but feels a little bit insulting when such series as Serial Experiments Lain can somehow find the resources to put together a fantastic virtual exhibition at absolutely no cost to the consumer. Surely, with 100 million copies in circulation, Kimetsu no Yaiba can surely spare the cash.
You can go for a VR tour of the Sunshine City Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba exhibition via Edith Online’s official website.