Akihabara might be considered the holy ground of anime but there is also another sacred place – Washimiya in Saitama prefecture.

It’s the location for the popular anime series Lucky Star and there is a movement within the whole town to promote this anime. You can catch sight of posters and photos taken from the anime wherever you look.

Here is the famous Otorichaya Washimiya, managed by Washimiya shrine and Washimiya Town Commerce and Industry Association.

This is also one of the locations appearing in Lucky Star.

Today, we will introduce you to the event in Washimiya – Otakonkatsu: Masked Ball “We may wear masks but nothing matters as long as we love each other.”

Otakonkatsu (organized dating for otaku) is held as a way of revitalizing the anime location of Washimiya and is a new take on the current topic – Konkatsu (marriage hunting).

Otakonkatsu was held at the Washimiya Town Commerce and Industry Association, the sponsers of the event, and it is a popular event with many applicants.

There are also goods and posters of Lucky Star inside the building.

Here you can see the poster of the anime where Otakonkatsu was held.

The theme of this Otakonkatsu was a masked ball. So what was this event about?

The masks are lined up. Just as the title suggests, participants first put on a mask

The only time they are allowed to take off the mask is during confession time and the mask had to be worn throughout the event.The announcers also wore masks.

The event began after everyone put on their masks.This is when the men, who were also wearing the masks, entered the hall.

Both the men and women take their seats for the Otakonkatsu to begin.
All participants had a number and they moved around the hall in turn, before starting to talk with one another.
There was a lot of tension at the start from the participants.

Here are photos of introductions and first impressions.
Then completely losing the nervousness which could be felt at the beginning, there were many different conversations and everyone seemed to be showing a lot of interest.

As we listened to the applicants of this Otakonkatsu talk to each other, there were many who wanted to ‘make friends with people of the same interests’ and ‘make friends with the opposite gender who liked anime and games.’ There were many who participated in the event because they wanted to find and make friends with people of similar interests such as anime and games, rather than to actually find a marriage partner. It was slightly different from the usual Konkatsu events you find.

Many of those found out about the masked ball online or through SNS, and it is also gaining interest from the media.

After changing their seats several times, the communications between the applicants grew stronger.
As soon as they changed to the next person, different conversations could be heard and people interacted with excitement.

After the introductions and first impressions were over, there was a short break.
The break is used to look over what people talked about during the introduction.

After the break came the second round of introductions.
This was the last session where they swapped seats and all the participants had been introduced to each other by the end.

Next came the free talk session.
It was time for everyone to talk with others who they found interesting during the introductions, and all participants talk enthusiastically with one anothe

There was also time to dance with each other, which kept with the masked ball theme. They danced wearing their masks, and this was also a chance for them to spend time to know the other person better.

After the dance came another free talk session.People were even more enthusiastic than the first round. The free talk was split into three sessions and after the last session, they wrote messages to the people they found interesting.

Will their thoughts reach the other person?

They finally took off their masks.

Then came the time to talk without the masks and the end of the Otakonkatsu was near.

They checked to see the other person’s appearance and then wrote down the number of the person they were interested in before going to confession time.

The numbers were read out and those that were written on board were the people considered now to be a “couple”.

Here is a photo of two people who became a couple after the event.
They shared with us, “Even with the masks on, we were attracted to the other’s personality.”

Here we reached the end of the Otakonkatsu.

The Otakonkatsu, held in a town which was used as a location in an anime, had a different atmosphere to the usual Konkatsu. Not only was this a new style of Konkatsu but it was also a place where people with an interest in anime could get together and talk animatedly with many different people.

Those of you who are interested in anime or just generally interested, why not give Otakonkatsu a go?