Animate Girls Festival is a large-scale annual event in Ikebukuro celebrating "everything for girls"—anime, manga, voice actors, merch, otome games, cosplay, and more. This year, the festival was held on November 3 and 4 at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.
This year, the theme was "heart," and a wide variety of projects for customers created to share gratitude, love, and devotion were spread out both in Sunshine City and as part of the city's Downtown Project. A total of 109,238 attendees visited the area—41,443 of which entered the main hall (135% of last year's count)—breaking the event's record for number of in-person attendees.
In addition, 385,948 attendees joined online—many of whom viewed the stream of the Ikebukuro Sunshine City Fountain Square (Alpa B1 Hall) stage.
The main event hall (Sunshine City, Ikebukuro) hosted 100 booths with merch counters and exhibits for anime, games, and other beloved content. Throughout the event, attendees also enjoyed the many booths that hosted events starring voice actors, mascots, and more.
Several popular franchises were showcased on the Ikebukuro Sunshine City Fountain Square (Alpa B1 Hall) open stage this year, drawing passionate reactions. The game "Aoyama Operetta" took the stage with a special performance from the cast and introduced the newest character joining the smartphone game; LemonSquashScore unveiled a new music video; and more.
Even without a ticket to the Animate Girls Festival main hall, the Ikebukuro City Downtown Project gave visitors plenty to do in the area. A collaboration coaster campaign had visitors collecting coasters from seven major titles, including "TSUKINO TALENT PRODUCTION" and "Tokyo Revengers." The "Fate/Grand Order" series set up an exclusive pop-up shop called FGO MART＠ANIMATE GIRLS FESTIVAL 2023. In addition, the Ikebukuro Autumn Culture Music Festival in AGF2023 was held simultaneously, which saw four groups of artists perform at the Global Ring Theatre in Ikebukuro Nishi-guchi Park.
Main Event Hall
The main event hall hosted booths from 100 exhibitors that each held displays, merch sales and mini events. There was a great deal of exclusive AGF2023 merch on sale, some of which is available now in limited numbers at the "After AGF2023" post-event sale.
Attendees who entered the main hall were given special shopping bags (first come first served). November 3 attendees received "NIJISANJI" bags, and November 4 attendees received bags featuring "3D LIVE Uta no Prince-sama ALL STAR STAGE -MUSIC UNIVERSE-" and "Utakata no Uchronia."
Ikebukuro Sunshine City Fountain Plaza
A lavish 14 titles took the stage at Ikebukuro Sunshine City Fountain Plaza! There was a wide range of content—talk shows, vocal performances, news drops and more—getting everyone fired up around the fountain.
Animate Girls Festival 2023 Celebration animate game fight!! Let's Puyo Puyo!
To celebrate Animate Girls Festival 2023, a game tournament was held for the first time in AGF history: animate game fight!! The lucky first game to be played was the puzzle game "Puyo Puyo eSports." Entrants included the four members of Let's Play group ORETACHI NO ASOVIVA, a.k.a OREVIVA: Ptera Takahashi, Meiya, Nerochan and Average.
What's more, employees at the Animate Girls Festival 2023 booths were challenged to take on the four members of OREVIVA, which brought out plenty of fighting spirit.
Footage from the event has been permanently archived on the animate Times YouTube channel.
・animate game fight!! Let's Puyo Puyo! Archive
・animate game fight!! Let's Puyo Puyo! Page
FGO MART＠ANIMATE GIRLS FESTIVAL 2023
A pop-up shop selling merch featuring special designs inspired by the servants from "Fate/Grand Order" was set up for a limited time at the special event space in the Ikebukuro Sunshine City Alpa B1 Hall. After entering the unique shopfront and passing standees featuring especially-created art, the inside of the shop was lined with original merch featuring the logos of FGO MART and 15 servants. The shop was packed with customers every day of the event.
Collab Coaster Present Campaign
While Animate Girls Festival 2023 was on, participating stores in Ikebukuro City's downtown gave out free coasters (38 types total.)
Ikebukuro Autumn Culture Music Festival in AGF2023
Animate Girls Festival 2023 was on, participating stores in Ikebukuro City's downtown gave out f
The Ikebukuro Autumn Culture Music Festival in AGF2023 was held at the same time as AGF2023, which saw four groups of artists perform at the Global Ring Theatre in Ikebukuro Nishi-guchi Park.
Ikebukuro Autumn Culture Market 2023 and AniBizMate
"Ikebukuro Autumn Culture Market 2023," which had a great number of food tents that allowed visitors to enjoy delicious cuisine in the Ikebukuro autumn air, was held yet again this year in the park in front of animate (Naka-ikebukuro Park.)
The "AniBizMate" job fair was also held in the same park, for the third year running. There were many events on the program, including an interview stage project featuring animate career info and dazzling guests from the entertainment industry.
acosta! ~Animate Girls Festival 2023 Special Edition~
This event saw a huge number of cosplayers participate.
After AGF2023
Some of the merch sold at Animate Girls Festival 2023 is available at animate International. Don't miss this chance to get your hands on AGF2023 exclusive items!
SALES PERIOD: November 23 10:00AM－December 10 11:59PM 2023
WEBSITE: animate International
WARNINGS:
・Sales may end early if stocks run out.
・Not all items from AGF2023 will be available. Only a select line-up will be available.