TAF 2011 Cancelled by Quake

The 2011 Tokyo International Anime Fair has been officially cancelled, ostensibly because of the unstable power and transit situations.

TAF’s booth occupancy had been eviscerated by the boycott, but the event was set to go ahead anyway, in no small part due to Ishihara’s need to avoid humiliation; evidently only the disruption of the earthquake and inconvenient reactor meltdowns proved enough to prompt the decision.

The competing Anime Contents Expo is said to be “discussing” the issue of whether to cancel as well – as of writing their homepage has announced no change, and in recent post-quake interviews they only say they are giving the matter due consideration, but there are currently unconfirmed reports of it being cancelled as well.

ACE may face the same power supply and saving pressures (although it is not clear whether such events actually consume more electricity than whatever it is the attendees would be doing were they elsewhere), though increasingly it seems the general sense that everything must be cancelled for no specific reason is a major motivation, as evidenced by the cancellation of virtually all of Japan’s upcoming game releases.

With damage to Big Sight and a possible long-term power shortage, there is also concern the next Comiket will be cancelled as well – Reitaisai has already faced such a fate.