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Tokushima's Machi Asobi Event Planned for This Spring Canceled

The organizers of the Machi Asobi anime and game event announced on Wednesday that this spring's event, which would have been the 27th Machi Asobi, has been canceled because it was difficult for staff to coordinate guest appearances. The organizers plan to hold a scaled-down event this fall, and then plan to hold the event at its normal scale in spring 2025.

The organizers stated that while Tokushima prefecture invests in the event each year, and gave the event's executive committee 80 million yen (about US$529,000) in the current fiscal year, for this upcoming fiscal year that starts on April 1, the prefecture did not allocate any money to the executive committee.

The organizers also stated on Wednesday that the executive committee for the event will dissolve. Prefectural officials and the executive committee stated it is necessary to build a new system in order to hold the event in the future.

The ufotable Tokushima anime studio planned and produced the first Machi Asobi event in Tokushima in 2009, although ufotable is no longer the main organization in the event's production. As of 2018, the semiannual events (held in spring and fall) had more than 1 million attendees since they began.

In October 2019, the 23rd event was delayed due to a typhoon. In May 2020, the 24th event was canceled due to COVID-19. The 25th event was held in October 2022, the 26th event in May 2023, and the 27th event in October 2023.

Source: NHK via Hachima Kikō