2/21/2006

First announced on fliers distributed at Anime Expo in 2000, a longterm project of Studio Hard founder, Nobuyuki Takahashi, has been The Anime Press Center (also refered to as Animation Press Center – old url: www.apctokyo.com). Takahashi is widely known as first coining the term “cosplay” in the 1980’s and his company studio Hard has been involved in contract work for many years, producing article contents for major otaku magazines such as Newtype. Going on hiatus for some time, in 2005, the project revived in full force, with the APC having it’s own booth at the Tokyo Anime Fair. Takahashi’s Akihabara Imaginitive Institute drafted the plans for the current incarnation of the APC, describing it in promotional materials as “a Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) system showcasing visual contents talent. This highly-precise system that allows for measured efficiency will serve to untie youthful passion through incorporating the following components: an office space used to carry out various activities such as the transmission and accumulation of data to and from around the world; a PC booth area allowing visitors to receive and transmit data as they please; workshop serving as areas to hold multiple public symposiums and reveal the latest visual systems; and top screens displaying digests anime and Video Game CG visuals.” Additionally their plan called for numerous contents business support functions, events and anime premiere hosting and more.
At the start of January the APC was renamed Tokyo Anime Center (www.animecenter.jp), operations will start there on March 15th when it opens on the 4th floor of Akihabara’s new UDX building, a component of the Akihabara Crossfield facility. Although it retains a number of original core functions, the physical layout of the space and and a number of objectives have been tweaked. Someone close to the project has informed ANS that the center will be involved in the Tokyo Anime Fair in some capacity.

Source: Anime News Service