Happy to see Slam Dunk mentioned, especially with a recently released film[1] animating (finally!) the last part of the manga. The series has aged beautifully.
I went to see the movie in the cinema without knowing anything really about basketball (European) or about slamdunk and enjoyed it the whole way through
I watched that film for the first time about a year ago, and it’s one of those anime I’d recommend to non-anime-fan film nerds and “genre” (horror, sci fi, in this case) fans. Lots of anime’s a bit of an acquired taste due largely to stylistic elements and use of tropes, but that one’s got solid cross-interest appeal, I’d say.
Note that this article shouldn't necessarily be used as a way to find new things to watch; there are some clangers in there to avoid.
I also need to call out Takayama in Gifu prefecture, which is the basis for the fictional Kamiyama from Hyouka, an absolutely wonderful school-life-cum-mystery series from Kyoto Animation.
It would also be remiss of me not to mention Zombieland Saga, where a mad idol producer resurrects dead entertainment stars as zombies to form an idol group to revitalise Saga prefecture.
Hyouka and Zombieland Saga are both really good shows. I especially loved Karatsu in Saga prefecture when I visited it back in 2019.
Apart from Yuri no Ice, Karatsu is also very aware of Zombieland Saga. I walked up to the tourist information desk at Karatsu station and asked if they had a map with spots for Zombieland Saga, and the guy not only got me one, but also marked a few additional spots while guiding me like "You know that scene in episode 1 where the girl was walking in the rain? That's this bridge right here", and lots more which even I didn't remember! I was really impressed how much knowledgeable he was.
The one that jumped out was Magical Girl Raising Project, which a younger me might have described as dark and edgy, but me today would call misery porn (it's not actually porn, just to be clear).
Now that I browse again, most are really good, but some are just a bit dull while being great examples of being from a certain place. Not to call it out in particular, but I ended up dropping Robotics;Notes for being kinda dull, despite it being part of the 5bp semicolon extended universe (Steins;Gate et al).
Also note that anime is not even remotely a realistic portrayal of Japan and should not be used as such like the article is proposing.
It used to be a common phenomenon for western "otaku" to think anime represents life in Japan, then travel there and come to find out that it's deeply racist and xenophobic, has an extremely repressive criminal justice system, a strong "we did nothing wrong in WW2" attitude, and so on.
Having lived in Japan for multiple years in the past and knowing other foreigners who've lived there for a decade+, I'll say that while it's true it's no anime dreamland and skews insular, one's experiences there will vary a lot depending on approach.
For example if you're running with a younger crowd in Tokyo and have become reasonably adept at speaking the language you'll run into a lot less of that kind of thing — a lot of the time people there just aren't comfortable with dealing with those who don't speak Japanese well, and older individuals and more out of the way cities might be less accommodating of outsiders. Often when I see writings online about having a bad time, it's from jaded Eikawa teachers who've made no effort to learn Japanese or branch beyond their friend group of other foreigners despite having lived there for many years.
That said young people aren't running the government there due to being solidly outnumbered, so national policies are naturally going to be more reflective of its older population.
> Note that this article shouldn't necessarily be used as a way to find new things to watch; there are some clangers in there to avoid.
Are there any “much watchers” in the list? For someone who is visiting Japan later this month, has been a couple of times before, and has some (very!) basic language?
Well, taste is subjective and all that but out of that list, I'd say these are fairly objectively successful and popular if you're willing to take that as a rough proxy for "good": Haikyuu, Yuru Camp, Summer Wars, Wolf Children, Girls und Panzer, K-On, Haruhi, and the Shinkai films
I personally also quite like Hanasaku Iroha, Barakamon, Natsume Yuujinchou, Night is Short and Summer Time Rendering
Kinda depends on what you're looking for, e.g. Haikyuu is very much a sports anime and does a lot with the tropes of that genre. If you just want to watch a single good thing that has a bearing on a locality in Japan and isn't a project in and of itself (cough Haruhi cough) or otherwise cult, I'd say just watch Wolf Children.
FYI for "The Shinkai films" it's Your Name and 5 Centimeters Per Second.
The first is the second largest domestic box office ever for Japan (after Spirited Away) while also being critically acclaimed.
The latter is quite well received critically, but was less popular (without spoiling anything, the ending is somewhat divisive). Still at a 63 minute runtime it's well worth watching, IMO.
Also, I'll second the Wolf Children recommendation. Everybody in my family liked it, and that's rather rare for a film.
>I never figured out why CMU would have enough name recognition in Japan to show up in an anime.
CMU is a solid computer science and engineering school which has found a way to get its name thrown in up there with the likes of MIT and Caltech (can't tell you how many times I've seen CS-oriented folks praise CMU like it's MIT). It's also possible that someone at the studio has a connection to CMU and wanted to include it.
I can give him a pass for Digimon -> Summer Wars, since it's understandable why he might want to explore the same space again with full length and without the restrictions being part of a then-major kid's franchise brings.
I haven't seen Belle, so can't comment on that one.
Really nice article with lots of good shows! My personal underappreciated yet awesome and highly recommended ones from that article are:
- Aomori: Flying Witch: Highly relaxing show with lots of nature.
- Wakayama: Summer Time Rendering: A highly highly underappreciated sci-fi thriller that picks up in the latter half and keeps getting better and better, with an awesome ending. Iirc the show was underappreciated in Japan because Disney+ had exclusive streaming rights when it was airing and it flew under a lot of people's radars due to that.
Also, doing pilgrimage for an anime you like provides a really good motivation to actually visit and explore the place. Japan is quite homogeneous but each place has their own charm.
Summer time Rendering was airing on at least BS11 (free channel on satellite broadcast), Tokyo MX and Kansai TV. It was made available on other streaming services like Amazon Prime, d-anime, Abema, etc. after the broadcast ended.
The 2022 Anime Blockbuster Movie Suzume by Makoto Shinkai starts out in Miyazaki Prefecture.(https://miyazakian.com/locations/nichinan/suzume.html) We're often forgotten as a destination, even though Miyazaki is a hidden gem as a Surfers and nature paradise.
I'm trying to change that through my Miyazakian website.
Osaka: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. You can see such shotengai in real life Osaka as well. Also uses exclusively Kansai-ben.
Hiroshima: In This Corner of the World. It made me cry 3 times!
Fukuoka: Manga Bambino! An Italian food manga with a ca. 22 year old protagonist. I dearly dearly loved this manga when I was around the same age. The protagonist is from Fukuoka. This manga was one of the reasons that inspired or motivated me to learn how to cook properly. I liked everything about it: the drawings, the story, the content, the characters, how to navigate the world as a young adult.
I loved In This Corner of the World! It's a really good take on WWII in Japan told from the eyes of an ordinary housewife in Hiroshima.
For Fukuoka, I also remembered that the recently aired Buddy Daddies is also set in Fukuoka. Two assassins end up taking custody of a little girl who is the kid of one of their targets. The kid is super innocent and cute, and from what I've seen, it's more about bringing up a kid (the checklist for things to prepare on day 1 of kindergarten seems very real) in Japan. Can recommend!
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi is probably under-appreciated, as it's overshadowed by some of the studio's more popular titles (including, of course, the juggernaut franchise of Evangelion). It's one of those works that feels inextricably linked to its setting; despite being another wildly imaginative Gainax series, the richness it draws from Kansai history and tradition is impressive.
A suggestion for Kyoto along similar lines: The Eccentric Family (both the original and sequel seasons).
Both the eccentric family and the night is long… are based on novels by Tomihiko Morimi, and have a similar flavor. He’s sort of a champion of an ideal of a magical Kyoto, centering around nightlife and private clubs. And I believe there is talk of a third novel of the Eccentric Family. I love the anime adaptations of his work, the novels themselves in translation I do not care for.
Why is it always Japan and anime? It'd be nice to see articles like "32 Telenovelas for 32 States of Mexico" or "16 Home Renovation Shows for 16 Bundesländer of Germany" every once in a while.
Ever play Civ 5 and get the message how another country is annoyed that their citizens are all wearing blue jeans?
Anime is popular, subculture wise, and people who like it would most likely grew up on the internet. Thus more news about Japan would spread online. We see the same thing with Korea now with kpop, kdrama.
Compare that to Mexico or Germany, where is their cultural influence? Food yes, drinks yes. But there's virtually no media being published on the same scale as Japan. Nor is it constantly talked about.
Japan and anime are a bit special as well, because they tend to always animate their home country or include it in some manner.
I'd say Japan also lost much of their culture during a process of westernization, before and after WWII, but the resulting amalgamation was much more potent (especially memetically) than the mess that China ended up with after Mao.
Surprised that the choice for Gunma was not Initial D [1]. The Anime mentions a lot of places and there are few (if any) vehicles in Anime more iconic than the protagonist's Toyota.
I shouted "The AE86 sucks" into a crowd of car folks once. A fight broke out over if the AE86 could actually do what it wanted to in the show. When I was in high school, probably half the school wanted an AE86. They had just come into legal for import status around that time, having become 25 years old.
Yes. While some of the Anime mentioned by the parent may be known to a more general public, that doesn't mean that it is the same for the vehicle.
For those that know the Anime, Takumi's AE86 is really something different. The car has made more than one cameo in other Anime ([1] for example, but I remember in School Rumble too), street race or drifting scenes often involve a reference to the serie[2], and the Internet is full of people slapping Eurobeat songs on top of a random cartoon [3] or their own driving [4][5].
Write AE86 on Amazon and you will find plenty of stuff about the car.
And I saw more than one case of old Toyotas painted up like in the Anime, "Fujiwara Tofu shop" writing on the side include. And I mean in Europe, not Japan.
Definitely Kyoto. TFA's rec of Night is Short certainly isn't wrong, but the classic Kyoto anime pilgrimage rec is the precursor show, The Tatami Galaxy. You can locate pretty much every scene from the show: https://jamesofwalsh.com/2015/05/17/tatami-galaxy-and-kyoto/
I should write up my explorations sometime as I think it was more detailed than any of the ones I can quickly find on Google in English, e.g. going out to the Keage Incline. It was a great excuse to wander around Kyoto, a great city.
While I'm talking about the Kyoto area and anime, I've got to add that if you've seen Chihayafuru, go to Omi Jingu (近江神宮). Otsu is right there and Lake Biwa is neat anyway. I was able to watch some live karuta, chat about the show and the game, buy some cards and very poorly attempt to play with them (sorry, haven't actually memorized 百人一首 yet!).
i actually visited sendai for haikyuu! i enjoyed my time there a lot - there's a lot of beautiful day trips available like matsushima and yamagata - but i wouldn't recommend visiting it for haikyuu. sports stadiums are not that interesting from outside and most of the actual locations in the manga are based on a small town deep in the countryside.
Kinda surprised they didnt take Zombie Land Saga for Saga prefecture. It's literally made to promote the prefecture. Plus its a wonderful anime with lovely characters
I think they accidentally created a perfect idea for a new anime called "47" where some character on a motorcycle or for some other method/reason takes a trip to all the prefectures in Japan, one per episode, to show the highlights of each location.
I'd watch the heck out of that if the story was decent.
And knowing there would be 47 episode keeps people hooked. They might even use some weird concept like teleporting or like "quantum leap" where they are stuck inside each prefecture for a day or week before they can leave.
While that does seem like a nice idea, I highly doubt it'll materialize because of the sheer cost of ロケハン(location hunting). Atleast some of the key staff would need to visit every prefecture in Japan to take photos, gather local material(a lot of which might not exist online), which would cost time and money; both things the anime industry lacks.
Collaboration between different studios is also not viable because barring some exceptions (PA Works in Toyama, Kyoto Animation in Kyoto/Nara), almost all the studios are concentrated in Western Tokyo.
Unless, if the anime was crowdfunded. Maybe.
(I don't currently work in the industry; I'm just voicing my personal opinion.)
If someone is looking for more recommendations based on anime they've watched and their locations, here's a 2019-version in Japanese (there's a huge number of videos in Japanese it seems, I just took a random version).
Interesting idea. If I were ever to travel to Japan, I'd visit a lot of the cities and towns that are mentioned in Murakami's books, including those that were affected by the gas attacks.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 127 ms ] thread[1]: The First Slam Dunk – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Slam_Dunk
The Japanese title also happens to be a pun: 最臭兵器 (the most stinky weapon) is pronounced the same way as 最終兵器 (ultimate weapon).
I also need to call out Takayama in Gifu prefecture, which is the basis for the fictional Kamiyama from Hyouka, an absolutely wonderful school-life-cum-mystery series from Kyoto Animation.
It would also be remiss of me not to mention Zombieland Saga, where a mad idol producer resurrects dead entertainment stars as zombies to form an idol group to revitalise Saga prefecture.
Apart from Yuri no Ice, Karatsu is also very aware of Zombieland Saga. I walked up to the tourist information desk at Karatsu station and asked if they had a map with spots for Zombieland Saga, and the guy not only got me one, but also marked a few additional spots while guiding me like "You know that scene in episode 1 where the girl was walking in the rain? That's this bridge right here", and lots more which even I didn't remember! I was really impressed how much knowledgeable he was.
Now that I browse again, most are really good, but some are just a bit dull while being great examples of being from a certain place. Not to call it out in particular, but I ended up dropping Robotics;Notes for being kinda dull, despite it being part of the 5bp semicolon extended universe (Steins;Gate et al).
It used to be a common phenomenon for western "otaku" to think anime represents life in Japan, then travel there and come to find out that it's deeply racist and xenophobic, has an extremely repressive criminal justice system, a strong "we did nothing wrong in WW2" attitude, and so on.
For example if you're running with a younger crowd in Tokyo and have become reasonably adept at speaking the language you'll run into a lot less of that kind of thing — a lot of the time people there just aren't comfortable with dealing with those who don't speak Japanese well, and older individuals and more out of the way cities might be less accommodating of outsiders. Often when I see writings online about having a bad time, it's from jaded Eikawa teachers who've made no effort to learn Japanese or branch beyond their friend group of other foreigners despite having lived there for many years.
That said young people aren't running the government there due to being solidly outnumbered, so national policies are naturally going to be more reflective of its older population.
Are there any “much watchers” in the list? For someone who is visiting Japan later this month, has been a couple of times before, and has some (very!) basic language?
I personally also quite like Hanasaku Iroha, Barakamon, Natsume Yuujinchou, Night is Short and Summer Time Rendering
Kinda depends on what you're looking for, e.g. Haikyuu is very much a sports anime and does a lot with the tropes of that genre. If you just want to watch a single good thing that has a bearing on a locality in Japan and isn't a project in and of itself (cough Haruhi cough) or otherwise cult, I'd say just watch Wolf Children.
The first is the second largest domestic box office ever for Japan (after Spirited Away) while also being critically acclaimed.
The latter is quite well received critically, but was less popular (without spoiling anything, the ending is somewhat divisive). Still at a 63 minute runtime it's well worth watching, IMO.
Also, I'll second the Wolf Children recommendation. Everybody in my family liked it, and that's rather rare for a film.
I never figured out why CMU would have enough name recognition in Japan to show up in an anime.
Don’t miss the scene where Japan is saved by a game of Hana Fuda
CMU is a solid computer science and engineering school which has found a way to get its name thrown in up there with the likes of MIT and Caltech (can't tell you how many times I've seen CS-oriented folks praise CMU like it's MIT). It's also possible that someone at the studio has a connection to CMU and wanted to include it.
Has any other director managed to get away with making the same film three times?
>A group of kids save the world via playing battle games in an ultra detailed 3D virtual world.
Now, is that Digimon (2000), Summer Wars (2008) or Belle (2021)?
I haven't seen Belle, so can't comment on that one.
> A director only makes one film in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again. - Jean Renoir
- Aomori: Flying Witch: Highly relaxing show with lots of nature.
- Wakayama: Summer Time Rendering: A highly highly underappreciated sci-fi thriller that picks up in the latter half and keeps getting better and better, with an awesome ending. Iirc the show was underappreciated in Japan because Disney+ had exclusive streaming rights when it was airing and it flew under a lot of people's radars due to that.
Also, doing pilgrimage for an anime you like provides a really good motivation to actually visit and explore the place. Japan is quite homogeneous but each place has their own charm.
I definitely want to visit Nichinan at some point.
Osaka: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. You can see such shotengai in real life Osaka as well. Also uses exclusively Kansai-ben.
Hiroshima: In This Corner of the World. It made me cry 3 times!
Fukuoka: Manga Bambino! An Italian food manga with a ca. 22 year old protagonist. I dearly dearly loved this manga when I was around the same age. The protagonist is from Fukuoka. This manga was one of the reasons that inspired or motivated me to learn how to cook properly. I liked everything about it: the drawings, the story, the content, the characters, how to navigate the world as a young adult.
For Fukuoka, I also remembered that the recently aired Buddy Daddies is also set in Fukuoka. Two assassins end up taking custody of a little girl who is the kid of one of their targets. The kid is super innocent and cute, and from what I've seen, it's more about bringing up a kid (the checklist for things to prepare on day 1 of kindergarten seems very real) in Japan. Can recommend!
A suggestion for Kyoto along similar lines: The Eccentric Family (both the original and sequel seasons).
Ever play Civ 5 and get the message how another country is annoyed that their citizens are all wearing blue jeans?
Anime is popular, subculture wise, and people who like it would most likely grew up on the internet. Thus more news about Japan would spread online. We see the same thing with Korea now with kpop, kdrama.
Compare that to Mexico or Germany, where is their cultural influence? Food yes, drinks yes. But there's virtually no media being published on the same scale as Japan. Nor is it constantly talked about.
Japan and anime are a bit special as well, because they tend to always animate their home country or include it in some manner.
Also (still) the third largest economy in the world, and for a decently long time, second. That necessarily leaves its mark on the rest of the world.
Why doesn't China enjoy the same sort of influence? Because they erased much of their culture during communism.
Although considering the Gunma pick, I'm surprised they slept on Zombie Land Saga for Saga.
[1] https://myanimelist.net/anime/185/Initial_D_First_Stage
The Mach 5 from Speed Racer, Kaneda's motorcycle in Akira, and Lupin the Third's Fiat 500 are far more recognizable to the general public.
In terms of famous anime cars, there's also Misato's Renault Alpine A310 in Evangelion, the Honda Today Turbo from You're Under Arrest...
Also, of course, is Truck-kun, the most famous anime vehicle of all time...
The zeitgeist of car culture knows about Initial D. It showed up on fucking Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and did stuff through the 00s mixed between normal stuff and anime-exclusives. It changed how we talk about cars ( http://www.tunedph.com/thanks-initial-d-elements-car-culture... ) and dropped Eurobeat on unsuspecting ravers and car fans alike ( https://hiddenpalmtree.com/blogs/random-jdm-fan/how-to-raise... )
When Toyota wanted to showcase Hydrogen & Electric cars, they chose to restomod a pair of AE86s: https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/13/23554387/toyota-ae86-bev-...
For those that know the Anime, Takumi's AE86 is really something different. The car has made more than one cameo in other Anime ([1] for example, but I remember in School Rumble too), street race or drifting scenes often involve a reference to the serie[2], and the Internet is full of people slapping Eurobeat songs on top of a random cartoon [3] or their own driving [4][5].
Write AE86 on Amazon and you will find plenty of stuff about the car.
And I saw more than one case of old Toyotas painted up like in the Anime, "Fujiwara Tofu shop" writing on the side include. And I mean in Europe, not Japan.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYDTqU0GAKI [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgmyVTVc-Yc [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97xT8C07crI [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyO2vMGCaK8 [5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ptz91D97R0g
Places with just a few cafes and streets seen in the anime aren't worth the trip.
Something like nature from Yamanashi (Yuru Camp) or Oarai for the tank festival (Girls Und Panzer) would be fun.
I should write up my explorations sometime as I think it was more detailed than any of the ones I can quickly find on Google in English, e.g. going out to the Keage Incline. It was a great excuse to wander around Kyoto, a great city.
While I'm talking about the Kyoto area and anime, I've got to add that if you've seen Chihayafuru, go to Omi Jingu (近江神宮). Otsu is right there and Lake Biwa is neat anyway. I was able to watch some live karuta, chat about the show and the game, buy some cards and very poorly attempt to play with them (sorry, haven't actually memorized 百人一首 yet!).
i actually visited sendai for haikyuu! i enjoyed my time there a lot - there's a lot of beautiful day trips available like matsushima and yamagata - but i wouldn't recommend visiting it for haikyuu. sports stadiums are not that interesting from outside and most of the actual locations in the manga are based on a small town deep in the countryside.
Here's a depiction of each prefecture using characters from the Wojak universe:
https://youtu.be/zStW7hLY51w
Well, this one plays mostly on stereotypes (I assume - I don't know exactly), but still.
I'd watch the heck out of that if the story was decent.
And knowing there would be 47 episode keeps people hooked. They might even use some weird concept like teleporting or like "quantum leap" where they are stuck inside each prefecture for a day or week before they can leave.
See what I mean? It writes itself.
Collaboration between different studios is also not viable because barring some exceptions (PA Works in Toyama, Kyoto Animation in Kyoto/Nara), almost all the studios are concentrated in Western Tokyo.
Unless, if the anime was crowdfunded. Maybe.
(I don't currently work in the industry; I'm just voicing my personal opinion.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlvPi09jVoA
I'll try listing them the ones below (brackets contain English names):
1. Hokkaido
Haiyore! Nyaruko-san: Sapporo City
Boku dake ga inai machi (Erased): Tomakomai City
Kanon: Sapporo City
Seitokai no ichizon: Sapporo City
Golden Kamui: All across Hokkaido
Servant x Service: Sapporo City
Sora no method: Toyako Town
Omoide no Marnie (When Marnie Was There): Kushiro City
Kimi ni todoke: Haboro Town
WORKING!!: Sapporo City
Saikano: The Last Love Song on This Little Planet : Otaru City
Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru (Beautiful Bones -Sakurako's Investigation): Asahikawa City
2. Aomori Prefecture
Kumo no mukou, yakusoku no basho (The Place Promised in Our Early Days): Aomori Prefecture
Flying Witch: Hirosaki City
3. Iwate Prefecture
Inugami!: Morioka City
4. Miyagi Prefecture
Kannagi: Sendai City
Haikyuu: Sendai City
Wake Up, Girls: Sendai City
5. Akita Prefecture
Itoshi no Muco (Lovely Muco): Akita City
Kumamiko: Akita Prefecture
6. Yamagata Prefecture
Omoide Poroporo: Yamagata City
LEVEL E: Yamagata City
7. Fukushima Prefecture
Mikakunin de Shinkoukei (Engaged to the Unidentified): Kooriyama City
8. Ibaraki Prefecture
Girls und Panzer: Oorai Town
Momokuri: Mito City
Noucome (My Mental Choices are Completely Interfering with my School Romantic Comedy): Mito City
Sakura Trick: Inashiki City
9. Tochigi Prefecture
Yosuga no sora: Ashikaga City
Mokke: Tochigi Prefecture
Nasu: A Migratory Bird with Suitcase: Utsunomiya City
10. Gunma Prefecture
Nichijou: Isesaki City
Initial D: Mt. Akagi, Mt. Myogi
Sora yori mo tooi basho (A Place Further than the Universe): Tatebayashi City
Aku no Hana: Kiryu City
Houkago no Pleadas: Oota City
11. Saitama Prefecture
Lucky Star: Kasukabe City, Kuki City, Satte City
Saekano (How to raise a boring girlfriend): Wakou City
Tsuki ga kirei: Kawagoe City
Crayon Shin-chan: Kasukabe City
Yama no susume (Encouragement of Climb): Hanno City
Kokoro ga sakebitagatterunda (The Anthem of the Heart): Chichibu City
Kobayashi-sanchi no maidragon (Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid): Koshigaya City
Kamisama hajimemashita: Kawagoe City
Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion: Saitama City Oomiya Ward
Anohana: Chichibu City
Urawa no usagi-san: Saitama City Urawa Ward
12. Chiba Prefecture
Ro-kyu-bu! : Matsudo City
Kin'iro Mozaic: Narashino City
Action Heroine Cheer Fruits: Otaki Town
Futsuu no joshikousei ga Locodol yattemita: Nagareyama City
Oregairu : Chiba City
Amagami SS: Choshi City
Oreimo: Chiba City
Watamote: Chiba City, Funabashi City
Fireworks: Choshi City
13. Tokyo
Doraemon: Nishitokyo City
Sazae-san: Setagaya Ward
Love Live!: Chiyoda Ward (same ward as Akihabara)
14. Kanagawa Prefecture
Squid Girl: Kamakura City
Hanayamata: Kamakura City
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai: Fujisawa City
High School Fleet: Yokosuka City
Kokoro Connect: Yokohama City
Evangelion: Hakone Town
Tari Tari: Fujisawa City
Major: Yokohama City
Bungou Stray Dogs: Yokohama City
Release the Spyce: Kawasaki City Kawasaki Ward
After the Rain: Yokohama City
School Days: Sagamihara City
15. Niigata Prefecture
Idol Incidents: Niigata City
Dream Eater Merry: Jouetsu City
16. Toyama Prefecture
Yuru Yuri: Takaoka City
Persona: trinity soul: Toyama City
Sakura Quest: Nanto City
Another: Nanto City
I want to eat your pancreas: Imizu City
Wolf Children: Kamiichi Town
17. Ishikawa Prefecture
Hanasaku Iroha: Kanazawa City
Angel Beats: Kanazawa City
Rescue Wings: Komatsu City
18. Fukui Prefecture
Glasslip: Sakai City
GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class: Fukui City
19. Yamanashi Prefecture
Asatte no houkou: Hokuto City
Munto: Ichikawamisato Town
Yuru Camp: Minobu Town
Mayoiga: Doushi Village
20. Nagano Prefecture
Slow Start: Karuizawa Town
Ano natsu de matteiru: Komoro City
One Off: Iida City
orange: Matsumoto City
Onegai Teacher: Oomachi City
Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin: Nagano City
Summer Wars: Ueda City
Saki: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1vPkjCFRUP2pHyR... (I couldn't read the town name so have a map with all the spots marked instead)
21. Gifu Prefecture
Kimi no na wa (Your Name): Hida City
Koe no katachi(A Silent Voice): Oogaki City
Higurashi no naku koro ni (When the cicadas cry): Shirakawa Village
Nourin: Minokamo City
Hyouka: Takayama City
Ren'ai Lab: Gifu City
Haganai (I have few friends): Gifu City
Bokura wa minna kawaisou (The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior): Gifu City
22. Shizuoka Prefecture
Gabriel Dropout: Hamamatsu City
Love Live! Sunshine: Numazu City
Captain Tsubasa: Shizuoka City
Chibi Maruko-chan: Shizuoka City
Amanchu!: Itou City
Ichigo Mashimaro: Shizuoka City
Natsuiro kiseki: Shimoda City
Granblue: Itou City
23. Aichi Prefecture
Gotoubun no hanayome (The Quintessential Quintuplets): Toukai City
Denpa onna to seishun otoko: Nagoya City
Usagi Drop: Nagoya City
Subete ga F ni naru: The Perfect Insider: Nagoya City, Minamichita Town
Geobreeders: Nagoya City
24. Mie Prefecture
Hanbun no tsuki ga noboru sora: Ise City
Nagi no asu kara (NagiAsu –A Lull in the Sea): Kumano City
Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions: Ootsu City
Donten ni Warau (Laughing Under the Clouds): Ootsu City
26. Kyoto-fu
K-ON!: Kyoto City
Tamako Market: Kyoto City
Inari, konkon, koi iroha: Kyoto City
Uchouten Kazoku: Kyoto City
Deaimon: Kyoto City
The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl: Kyoto City
Kyousougiga: Kyoto City
Hibike! Euphonium: Uji City
Kyoto Teramachi-sanjo no Holmes: Kyoto City
27. Osaka-fu
Ryuuou no oshigoto(The Ryuo's Work Is Never Done!): Osaka City
Hand Shakers: Osaka City
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi: Osaka City
28. Hyogo Prefecture
This Art Club Has a Problem! : Himeji City
Wakaokami wa shougakusei (Okko's Inn): Kobe City
Fate/Stay Night: Kobe City
Sakamoto desu ga? : Nishinomiya City
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Kobe City
Keijo: Awaji Island
Suzumiya Haruhi: Nishinomiya City
Grave of the fireflies: Nishinomiya City
29. Nara prefecture
Beyond the Boundary: Kashihara City
Red Data Girl: Totsukawa Village
Penguin Highway: Ikoma City
30. Wakayama City
AIR: Mihama Town
Binchoutan: Minabe Town
Binbougami ga!: Wakayama City
Lamune: Shirahama Town
31. Tottori Prefecture
Free!: Iwami Town
32. Shimane Prefecture
Blue Seed: Izumo City
Sguy & The Family Stone: Izumo City
33. Okayama Prefecture
Tenchi Muyo!: Okayama Prefecture
Hirune Hime (Napping Princess): Kurashiki City
34. Hiroshima Prefecture
Kamichu!: Onomichi City
Sora to umi no aida(Between the Sky and Sea): Onomichi City
Kimi no iru machi (A town where you live): Shobara City
Tamayura: Takehara City
Tanaka-kun wa itsumo kedaruge(Tanaka-kun Is Always Listless): Hiroshima City
Kono sekai no katasumi ni (In This Corner of the World): Kure City
Ponyo: Fukuyama City
35. Yamaguchi Prefecture
He Is My Master: Ube City
Mai Mai Miracle: Hofu City
Oku-sama wa Mahō Shōjo: Bewitched Agnes: Hagi City
The Wings of Rean: Iwakuni City
36. Tokushima Prefecture
Minori Scramble: Tokushima prefecture
37. Kagawa Prefecture
Karakai jouzu no Takagi-san (Teasing Master Takagi-san): Shoudo Island
Seto no Hanayome: Mitoyo City
Poco's Udon World: Takamatsu City
38. Ehime Prefecture
Mai:HIME: Matsuyama City
39. Kochi Prefecture
Poppin'Q: Nakatosa Town
Ocean Waves: Kochi City
40. Fukuoka Prefecture
Yuyushiki: Fukuoka City
Sketch Book Full Color's: Fukuoka City
Sono Toki, Kanojo wa: Fukuoka City
Sora no otoshimono (Heaven's Lost Property): Asakura City
Cooking Papa: Fukuoka Cuity
Kakuriyo: Bed and Breakfast for Spirits: Kitakyuushuu City
Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens: Fukuoka City
41. Saga Prefecture
Zombieland Saga: All across Saga Prefecture
Yuri!!! no Ice: Karatsu City
42. Nagasaki Prefecture
Barakamon: Goto City
Sakamichi no Apollon: Sasebo City
sola: Nagasaki City
Ao no kanata no four rhythm (Aokana - Four Rhythms Across the Blue): Goto City
Iroduku: The World in Colors: Nagasaki City
43. Kumamoto Prefecture
Natsume Yuujinchou: Hitoyoshi City
Aki no Kanade: Kumamoto Citu
44. Oita Prefecture
ReLIFE: Oita City
Prefectural Earth Defense Force: Oita City
45. Miyazaki Prefecture
Hyakko: All Across Miyazaki Prefecture
46. Kagoshima Prefecture
Robotics;Notes: Tanegashima Island
5 centimeters per second: Tanegashima Island
Princess Mononoke: Okushima Island
Umi monogatari: Amami
47. Okinawa Prefecture
Harukana Receive: Uruma City
BLOOD+: Uruma City
Haitai Nanafa: Naha City
Eureka Seven AO: Ishigaki Island
Asobi ni iku yo: Naha City
...Wait. It's almost 4 AM and I have work in a few hours. What am I doing? Sorry for the long comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doVV1a7XgyQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIC-XmyEfhI and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi4fGPPPmGA