Japan Expo, 20 years of fun facts: 17th Impact

The 17th Impact celebrated the French Touch, a whole generation of passionate French artists who fell for manga, anime, and Japan, and who went all the way to live their dream, and to go even further, the metal group, Rise of the Northstar, deeply influenced by Japanese culture, also attended.

Japan Expo kept on exploring Japanese culture, popular and modern, as well as traditional. About a hundred traditional artists made the Sakura Stage shine bright. Three Guests of Honor attracted crowds of fans: Hiro MASHIMA, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the manga Fairy Tail; Junichi MASUDA, GAME FREAK inc. director, with a masterclass about Pokémon; the group Psycho le Cému with an offbeat stage performance.

After the success of his first coming, Umi-kun was back in 2016. Yet he almost never set foot at Japan Expo. At first he did apply for Japan Expo, but had not been accepted. When watching his videos, Jean-François Dufour, the festival president, decided to make him come and to create a whole story about him. "Video makers were getting more and more popular and it was very interesting for the festival to help a Japanese creator getting known. For 4 months, we wrote a script with him and appeared in videos showing him audition for Japan Expo."It was to become a 3-year collaboration as Umi-kun would be back again in 2017, and his fans were delighted. He made another series of videos of himself discovering France.

4 days · + 230,000 attendees · + 6,000 signings · 610 hours of program · 32 French mangaka and animators · 20th anniversary of Pokémon · 50 traditional shows · + 60 Japanese artisans · + 300 cosplayers on stage

In 2017, Japan Expo was celebrating the 100th anniversary of Japanese animation​​​​​: ​​​​​follow our news for more information a few days!