Are you a fan of anime and looking to plan the perfect day out in Tokyo? We’ve got you covered with 11 real-life anime locations.
If you’ve been a fan of anime for a while and have been planning a trip to Japan, then you’d surely be familiar with the concept of anime pilgrimages, where fans find routes matching the settings from their favorite shows and movies to real-life locations.
Now, the thing about anime pilgrimages is that they are often centered on one single title, so if you like more than one with a passion, you’re going to need multiple days to ensure you can do them all. If you are looking for a route that will cover multiple titles while hitting all the landmarks — in Tokyo, specifically — you’ve come to the right place.
Last month, Teen Vogue traveled to Tokyo for the Crunchyroll 2025 Anime Awards, and we crafted the perfect one-day itinerary based on real-life anime locations. (If you want to spend more time at each location, you can easily split it into two days.)
“Anime is at the forefront of a lot of trends in entertainment. It’s the blurring of lines between film, TV, music, and fashion,” Gita Rebbapragada, Crunchyroll’s Chief Operating Officer, tells Teen Vogue. With anime tourism booming, now travel has also been added to that list.
“[Anime] is a portal into a different culture,” Rebbapragada adds. “It gets people really interested in Japanese culture or [simply] exposed to it, especially young people. It’s so incredible the way that [anime] just opens hearts and minds to other cultures and other ways of living, eating, and looking, and all of that.”
Before making the trek to Japan, Rebbapragada emphasized it’s important to brief and educate yourself on traditions when it comes to table manners, gift-giving, and beyond, especially if you are planning to stay with a Japanese family at any point during your stay. With that as a preface, let’s get into this anime-inspired Tokyo itinerary.
1. Azabu-Juban station and surroundings (Sailor Moon)
Top: Naoko Takeuchi/ Toei Animation
Bottom: Sara Delgado
We suggest starting the itinerary in the morning in the Azabu-juban area of Tokyo, in the Minato ward of the city. If you were a fan of the original Sailor Moon series or any of its predecessors, you’ll surely recognize many locations from this area, as it’s where most of the show takes place. (Creator Naoko Takeuchi famously lived in this area, though it’s referred to as just Juban in the manga and anime.)
AloJapan.com