Long before Akihabara, Japanese animation began in Nerima. Discover the ward's real anime history, the Toei Animation Museum, and where to stay nearby.
Most anime tourism in Tokyo revolves around Akihabara — the electronics-district-turned-otaku-mecca packed with figure shops and maid cafés. But Akihabara isn't where anime was invented. That happened in Nerima, a quiet residential ward in northwest Tokyo that the local government now officially promotes as "Anime City Ichiban," the number one city for anime. For fans who want to see where the industry actually began, rather than just where it's sold, Nerima is the more meaningful destination — and, conveniently, one of Tokyo's more affordable places to base a stay.
The story starts in the Oizumi-Gakuen neighborhood of Nerima, where Toei Animation, founded in 1948, established its studio and went on to produce Hakujaden (Legend of the White Serpent) in 1958 — the first full-color animated feature film made in Japan. Around the same time, animation pioneer Osamu Tezuka set up Mushi Production nearby, the studio behind Astro Boy, which became Japan's first animated television series in 1963 and helped define the visual style that anime is still known for today.
That concentration of early studios in one part of Tokyo wasn't a coincidence so much as a snowball effect: as Toei and Mushi Production trained generations of animators in Nerima, many of those artists stayed in the area, started their own smaller studios, or trained the next wave locally. Decades later, Nerima still has one of the highest concentrations of animation studios of any ward in Tokyo, and the local government has leaned into that identity rather than letting it fade into industrial history.
The clearest physical evidence of this heritage is the Oizumi Anime Gate, which opened in April 2015 on the pedestrian deck outside the north exit of Oizumi-Gakuen Station. The gate features life-sized bronze statues of characters that trace directly back to studios based in Nerima — Astro Boy, Joe Yabuki from Ashita no Joe, Tetsuro Hoshino and Maetel from Galaxy Express 999, and Lum from Urusei Yatsura among them. Unlike a themed shopping street built for tourists, the Gate functions as a genuine civic monument: it's how Nerima has chosen to represent itself to visitors arriving at one of its main stations, a short ride further along the same Seibu Ikebukuro Line that runs through Ekoda.
A short walk from Oizumi-Gakuen Station, roughly fifteen minutes, is the Toei Animation Museum, located at the studio's original site in Higashi-Oizumi. Admission is free and requires no advance reservation, which makes it an easy addition to a day otherwise spent exploring the neighborhood. Exhibits cover the history of Toei's productions, behind-the-scenes material on how animation is actually made — from key frames to voice recording — and rotating displays tied to current and classic series. Most visitors spend thirty minutes to an hour inside, so it pairs naturally with a longer day of walking around Oizumi-Gakuen and the surrounding streets. Hours vary by source and season, so it's worth checking the museum's current opening times before visiting, but a late-morning or early-afternoon visit on a day other than Wednesday is generally a safe bet.
For visitors who want to see the anime side of Nerima in a single outing, a simple route works well. Start at Oizumi-Gakuen Station and spend time at the Anime Gate, reading the plaques and taking photos with the character statues — this takes fifteen to twenty minutes but rewards a slow look rather than a quick pass-through. From there, walk to the Toei Animation Museum, budgeting closer to an hour if you want to read through the historical exhibits rather than just glance at them. Afterward, wander the surrounding residential streets of Oizumi-Gakuen itself; there's no single "anime street" beyond the Gate, but the area's quiet, tree-lined character is part of what makes it feel authentic rather than manufactured for tourists — this is simply what a Tokyo neighborhood that happens to have made anime history looks like day to day.
If you're staying in the Ekoda or Nerima Station area, the Oizumi-Gakuen portion of this trip is a short ride further out on the same Seibu Ikebukuro Line, meaning no transfers and no need to build an entire day trip around a single attraction. It fits comfortably as a half-day addition to a longer stay rather than requiring its own dedicated overnight plan.
The Anime Gate and the Toei Animation Museum are the two landmarks visitors can actually walk through, but they represent something larger and less visible: Nerima Ward is still home to more than 100 companies involved in anime production today, a legacy of the studios that grew out of Toei and Mushi Production decades ago. Unlike Akihabara, which is built around selling anime to fans, Nerima is where a meaningful share of it is still actually made — office buildings and small studios scattered through otherwise unremarkable residential streets, invisible unless you know to look.
If your visit lines up with autumn, it's worth checking the dates of the Nerima Anime Carnival, an annual event held in the park just north of Nerima Station that has grown steadily since it began in 2007. The carnival brings together exhibitions, talk shows, and screenings in a genuine festival atmosphere, and its location — a short walk from Nerima Station itself — puts it within easy reach of anyone staying in that part of the ward.
Akihabara remains the place to shop for merchandise, and there's no substitute for wandering its multi-floor figure and manga stores. But as a place to actually stay, Akihabara is loud, expensive by Tokyo residential standards, and built entirely around retail turnover rather than everyday life. Nerima offers the opposite experience: real residential streets, supermarket-priced groceries, and a slower pace, while still connecting to Akihabara and the rest of central Tokyo in well under an hour via Ikebukuro.
For fans who want their trip to include a genuine sense of anime history — not just merchandise — rather than only the shopping side of the culture, staying in the ward where the industry actually began adds a layer that a hotel room in Akihabara simply can't replicate. You're not visiting a themed district; you're staying in the neighborhood where the source material for that district was created.
Tokyo Travel's houses cluster around Ekoda and Sakaecho, both on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line that connects directly to Oizumi-Gakuen without a transfer. Nana House Ekoda and the nearby Ekoda Monthly House suit fans planning a longer, slower trip through Nerima's anime history alongside the rest of Tokyo, while Nana House Sakaecho's larger layout works well for groups of friends splitting a trip built around several ward-specific outings — the Anime Gate one day, the Studio Tour Tokyo Harry Potter attraction (also within Nerima) another.
Staying in a furnished house rather than a hotel also means somewhere to actually display or unpack any merchandise picked up along the way, and a kitchen to fall back on after a day spent walking rather than relying on convenience store meals near a train station.
If your trip happens to overlap with the Nerima Anime Carnival in autumn, Nana House Nerima has a particular advantage: it sits near Nerima Station itself, within walking distance of the park where the carnival is held, meaning no train ride at all on festival days. For a trip built around exhibitions, talk shows, and screenings that can run into the evening, being able to walk home rather than catch a last train matters more than it might seem in advance.
Most anime-themed guides to Tokyo route visitors through Akihabara, then perhaps Nakano Broadway, and stop there — treating anime purely as a retail category rather than an industry with an actual history and geography. A Nerima-based trip inverts that. You're not chasing merchandise between shops; you're walking past the office buildings and studio streets where the medium itself took shape, then supplementing that with the two purpose-built landmarks — the Gate and the Museum — that the ward has created to make that history visible to outsiders. It's a slower, more grounded version of anime tourism, better suited to fans who already know the history than to first-time visitors looking only for merchandise.
Is the Toei Animation Museum worth visiting if I only have half a day in Nerima? Yes — admission is free and the visit typically takes thirty minutes to an hour, making it easy to combine with the Anime Gate at Oizumi-Gakuen Station without requiring a full day.
How do I get from Ekoda to Oizumi-Gakuen Station? Both stations sit on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line, so no transfer is required; it's simply a short ride further out along the same line.
Is Nerima connected well enough to Akihabara for a day trip? Yes. Nerima connects to Ikebukuro in around 10–15 minutes, and from there central Tokyo, including Akihabara, is a straightforward train ride away.
Do I need to book anything in advance for the Anime Gate or the museum? No. The Anime Gate is an outdoor public installation with no admission, and the Toei Animation Museum requires no reservation.
Nerima's anime history isn't packaged into a single paid attraction — it's woven into an ordinary Tokyo neighborhood that happens to have shaped an entire industry. Basing your stay near Ekoda or Sakaecho puts the Oizumi Anime Gate, the Toei Animation Museum, and the rest of central Tokyo all within easy reach. Browse Tokyo Travel's furnished houses in the area to plan your trip.
