I visited the Anime/Manga trade fair in Kyoto to explore character merchandising exhibitions. My primary objective was to observe current industry trends and identify practical insights to share with my Akibas. The visit proved highly valuable, yielding actionable takeaways that will be beneficial to implement.
Character Merchandising Patterns and Practices
Along the corridor, you see posters of what look like manga books or anime movies. I thought this would be a good idea for Akibas to create character posters for their vTuber show, their photo book, their music project, webtoon, or their manga. Notice there are no QR codes or marketing material on the posters, probably to prevent QR fraud where they put a sticker over the real QR code.
These are larger photo walls to take a picture of or take a picture while standing next to the characters. I can see myself doing this kind of photo wall with the MochaStar characters lined up together. This is already done floor-to-ceiling artwork at most character merchandising shops in Akihabara and Shibuya Q-Front building.
This is a performance stage where your character can come out and introduce themselves in physical form. It can be a cosplay character or someone wearing a mascot. I saw a lot of chibi style anime mascots on stages like this. I guess it's up to you but it should be similar to your character, if they represent anime or an AI performer.
Most displays I go to have the character reference sheets. These are handdrawn but my AI characters have very detailed AI-generated character sheets. These are good for those who want to see the development of your AI character from beginning to end.
Interactive photo booths allow people to interact with your AI character. This photo shoot cost 1000 yen to take at a machine and you can choose the AI characters and post you want to take a picture with. This is also a good idea to have fan engagement with your AI character. Notice me with my Kangol hat they still sell in Japan and my Medellin shirt letting everybody know I’m a Passport Bro - shout out to all the Passport Bros!
Now this is the biggest find there - this is an actual character merchandising purchase booth. Instead of having the products on display where someone can pick it up and walk off like they do at trading cards exhibits, the inventory is in the back using a bullpup design.
On the side, there is a display of all of the merchandise for customers to look at on shelves behind a glass window. Other exhibits have large posters like what you see in the photo as well.
They have a person there holding a poster and advising people how to purchase. Notice in Japan that QR Code is a registered trademark of Denso Wave who created the QR code. So you would scan the QR code, select your items, then line up to get to the counter, and pay. It is likely you have a ticket number. They look up and pull your items from the back shelves.
I looked at other anime exhibits like Momocon and Comicon in the USA on YouTube and did not see this kind of trade booth. It’s really a BOPIS or buy-online, pick up in store workflow. People were actually using this in the photo above to purchase character merchandise.
The Takeaway Solution for Akibas - Trade Show Exhibit
The biggest takeaway is we are going to adopt that bullpup retailing trade booth to create the blueprint for our Akibas to showcase their AI characters. This model fully falls in line to several things we already implemented in Toshikiso. The scan feature, the media streaming, the product listing, the Kossier check-in queuing system are all done in our Kossier and The Merchant and the Flow system.
I go to Tokyo and learn a lot and am very impressed with Japan being a step ahead and very innovative. This is what the Afroasiatic movement is about - adopting success patterns and practices and applying them to our communities so we can do better business and generate new opportunities worldwide.
The nice thing about this booth is it does not have to be limited to anime festivals and can be set up at traditional trade events and I already know it will be the star and standout. I would not focus on just Black Akibas either, I would be inclusive of all Akibas from all backgrounds and other AI characters.
Look, the Akibas already won this, I keep telling you that - she just doesn't realize her real flex and power right now. That’s why Akibas got me in Japan putting in real work for her, because she is loved and we are going to see her win this and we are not talking - it’s manifesting.
The self-ecosystem of your individualism is critical and necessary - you are one of many. We are no longer subscribing to this celebrity-fan pattern in Western media and Black media. The focus is to bring Afro-identity to the forefront so we can present ourselves as who we are through the self-ecosystem by developing products and services using AI.