While there are many, many festivals hosted all around Japan throughout the year for a variety of reasons, the three biggest festivals are Kanda Matsuri, held in Tokyo at Kanda Shrine in May, Tenjin Matsuri in Osaka in June-July, and the Gion Matsuri, held in Kyoto in July. The Kanda Matsuri, the first of these three festivals, is held on odd-numbered years and began during the Edo Period as a way for the Tokugawa Shogunate to demonstrate the prosperity under the new regime. Over the years the festival has come to be a celebration to promote the wealth and good fortune of people. It’s a historic and famous festival and, this year will see a unique and special collaboration with the popular My Hero Academia franchise.
『僕のヒーローアカデミア 』と日本三大祭のひとつ"神田祭"とのコラボが決定!!
4月中旬より神田明神を中心にコラボビジュアルポスターが展開。さらにゴールデンウィークにはコラボカフェやグッズ販売も!!
詳しくはこちら→https://t.co/cPZXKVXzbD#令和 元年の #神田祭 は #ヒロアカ!#heroaca_a pic.twitter.com/si9v9vpKIu— 僕のヒーローアカデミア_アニメ公式 (@heroaca_anime) April 15, 2019
As part of this collaborative project, starting around the middle of April, collaborative posters featuring characters from the series wearing traditional happi and carrying a mikoshi will be displayed prominently in the area surrounding the shrine, as well as in some other areas of Tokyo including the wider Kanda area, Nihonbashi, Otemachi, Marunouchi and Akihabara. Also, a 3-day-only collaborative store will open within the shrine itself from May 4th until May 6th while the Myoujin Cafe in Bunkyo-ku will offer a special collaborative menu between April 24th and May 27th.
This to me is a rather unique and interesting way to get otherwise uninterested people to visit the festival held once every two years. They aren’t even the only anime collaborating with this year’s festival either, with characters from Is the Order a Rabbit? also being involved in their own Kanda Matsuri collaboration.
You can find more information on the collaboration over on the My Hero Academia official website, while you will also begin to see the collaborative posters pop up in various places if you happen to be in Japan over the next few weeks. While the matsuri would be a great thing to attend in any case, this collaboration makes it an essential visit for fans of the series.