 |
SINGAPORE, Sept. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Anime is no longer a niche interest. Simultaneous regional releases mean fans across Tokyo, Manila and Jakarta are watching the same new season the same week, and social platforms turn a single striking scene into a shared reference overnight. That speed is now showing up in travel: fans are now excited to explore real-world destinations matching a street, a shrine or a shopfront to the frame they just watched.
Digital travel platform Agoda has been mapping where that instinct actually leads, and the answer is refreshingly scattered, from small train towns and teahouse alleys to convention floors.
Hokuei, Tottori, Japan
This quiet town on the Sea of Japan is the birthplace of Gosho Aoyama, creator of Detective Conan, and it has leaned into that fact with total sincerity rather than spectacle. Get off at Yura Station, renamed Conan Station, and walk the 1.4-kilometre Conan Street to the Gosho Aoyama Manga Factory, passing bronze statues and Conan-themed manhole covers the whole way. No queues, no crowds, just a small community that decided its most famous export deserved a proper welcome home.
Jiufen, Taiwan
Stand on Jiufen’s steep lantern-lit stairs at dusk, tea steam curling out of the Amei Teahouse, and the resemblance to Spirited Away’s bathhouse town is hard to unsee. With Taiwan’s Mid-Autumn Festival lighting up lanterns across the island in early October, this hillside village above the sea is at its most cinematic exactly when travellers are looking for a reason to go.
Nagakute, Aichi, Japan
Twenty minutes outside Nagoya, Ghibli Park has turned a former Expo site into full-scale walk-through sets: Satsuki and Mei’s house from My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s moving castle towering over the Valley of Witches, Kiki’s family bakery down the lane. It rewards patience over speed, with no rides, just corners of Miyazaki’s world built at true size for anyone willing to take the Linimo train out from the city.
Busan, South Korea
Korea’s animation industry has its own headquarters here, not in Seoul. The Busan Global Webtoon Center anchors a local comics scene the Busan Webtoon Festival celebrates every year, and Seongbuk Traditional Market has been reborn as Webtoon Ibagu-gil, its stalls and stairwells covered in murals from home-grown artists. It’s a fan pilgrimage that runs alongside Busan’s beaches and seafood rather than competing with them.
Manila, Philippines
Filipino anime fandom is some of the most committed in the region, and every October it converges on SMX Convention Center for Cosplay Mania, the country’s flagship three-night event of costumes, guest artists and anisong concerts. Pair it with Okada Manila’s own otaku festival circuit, and Manila reads less like a side trip and more like a fandom capital in its own right.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s Comic Con has grown into one of the region’s biggest pop-culture draws, pulling fans from mainland China and across Southeast Asia into halls of cosplay competitions and exclusive merchandise drops. Outside convention dates, the city’s dense collectible shops and gaming arcades keep that same energy running quietly in the background all year.
Jay Lee, Regional Director, North Asia, at Agoda, said: "What’s interesting about this trend is how local it’s become. Filipino cosplayers, Korean webtoon artists, and a Japanese town that built its whole identity around one manga creator are all part of the same story. Our role is making sure travellers can find a room near the town or the convention hall, not just the destinations already on every list."
Travellers ready to follow the trail can find a range of accommodation, flight and activity options near any of these destinations on Agoda.com or the Agoda app.