Nanoha Movie Premieres

The premiere of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 1st, has come and gone, giving otaku a bonanza of character goods, queue-making, and of course the wonderful chance to see yet another big name series receive a new theatrical adaptation.

The following images should bring some comfort to those unable to attend a screening themselves:

This photo above, taken at the Milano theatre in Shunjuku, shows the main cast of Nanoha at a meet-the-seiyuu event that started early Saturday afternoon.

The exterior of the Milano:

Eager otaku waiting in one of their notorious lines.

The otaku shown in line before were specifically waiting for the seiyuu panel;  the sign above marks the start of the line.

The photo above is again of otaku waiting, but this time over 200km to the west of Tokyo, outside Nagoya’s Cinema 109.

Unlike the large multiplex cinemas more common in the West, Japan tends towards having a fewer number of screens in its theatres, which often allows a small “movie goods” section in the foyer area.

Anime movies naturally almost always have these sorts of goods booths, and the Milano’s booth is shown below:

Some of the wonderful goodies to be had:

The offerings above are fairly typical for anime movies, ranging from T-shirts to posters and other miscellaneous knickknacks, but the item below is somewhat unusual…

This is a “Repeat Points Card”, another one of the customer loyalty-building bonus cards so loved in Japan.

This specific one offers a small portrait to those who have seen the movie twice, but the real prize comes with 3 repeat viewings; the lucky customer receives a film cel printing made off of film stock from the movie!

The happy owners of these cels are understandably proud – here are just a few of many such pictures upload to 2ch:

Such film cels are obviously quite collectible (not to mention sellable) and a big prize for those otaku able to get their hands on on, although the frames were apparently given out at random by the theatre crew, so fans were not able to specifically pick which frames from the movie they desired.

An ita-truck advertising the movie in Tokyo, a not at all unknown occurrence for otaku marketing.

Some more images of the ita-truck and its little brother spotted in Ikebukuro:

The less than eclectic otaku audience, at the Milano:

This latest anime movie release continues a banner year of sorts for otaku oriented films – starting from Spring 2009 we’ve been treated to the second Gurren Lagann movie, Evangelion 2.0, the first Macross F film, Nanoha the Movie, and next month’s Haruhi movie, all adaptations of top-name series; some have speculated that movies have replaced some of the full series lost in the latest seasons.

It certainly has been a great time to be a cinema-going otaku…

Be sure to see the rest of the coverage from Gigazine, Daienjou and Akiba Blog.