Oshi-Katsu Chronicle 2016: Your Name. and Pilgrimage, Pokémon GO, SMAP's Breakup, and the B.League Opens

In 2016, director Makoto Shinkai’s animated film Your Name. became a massive hit, and RADWIMPS’s music reached a wide audience along with the story. The term “seichi junrei” (sacred-site pilgrimage), referring to fans visiting the real towns that modeled a work’s scenery, was featured widely in mainstream news.

In movie theaters, “cheer screenings” where audiences waved penlights and called out to the screen took root, and in summer the location-based game Pokémon GO launched in Japan. In music, Keyakizaka46 made its debut while SMAP announced its year-end breakup, and autumn brought the “Koi Dance” from the drama The Full-Time Wife Escapist (Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu) and the opening of men’s pro basketball’s B.League.

After Watching Your Name., You Listen to the Songs and Visit the Towns

Opened on August 26, Your Name. (Kimi no Na wa.) is an animated film by director Makoto Shinkai about Taki Tachibana, a high school boy in Tokyo, and Mitsuha Miyamizu, a high school girl in a mountain town in Hida, who swap bodies in their dreams. Word of mouth on social media quickly drew audiences from teens to adults, and in the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan’s 2016 per-title tally it grossed ¥25.03 billion (roughly $170 million), ranking first among Japanese films (Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, in Japanese).

The rock band RADWIMPS wrote all four vocal theme songs (“Zenzenzense,” “Sparkle,” “Yumetourou,” and “Nandemonaiya”) as well as 22 instrumental score tracks. Their soundtrack album of the same name, released on August 24 two days before the film opened, became a million-seller (RADWIMPS official, in Japanese).

Fans flocked daily to Hida City in Gifu Prefecture (Hida-Furukawa Station, Ketawakamiya Shrine, and the Hida City Library) and the staircase at Suga Shrine in Yotsuya, Tokyo. Hida City also held a panel exhibition introducing the film alongside local scenery (guide to the 2016 Hida City panel exhibition, in Japanese).

That same summer, Shin Godzilla, directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, opened on July 29. Depicting with rapid-fire dialogue and realism how contemporary Japan’s government, bureaucrats, and researchers respond to the appearance of a giant unidentified creature, it finished second among Japanese films for the year at ¥8.25 billion, followed in third by Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare (¥6.33 billion), whose showdown between Shuichi Akai and Toru Amuro drew many repeat viewers (Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, in Japanese).

King of Prism Cheer Screenings and In This Corner of the World: Fan Enthusiasm Moves Theaters

On January 9, the theatrical anime KING OF PRISM by PrettyRhythm (“Kinpri”) opened in just 14 theaters. Depicting shows by male Prism Stars, the film became famous on social media for its “cheer screenings” (ouen jouei), where audiences switched penlight colors for each character and called out responses to lines on screen; word of mouth expanded screenings to more than 100 theaters nationwide and over ¥800 million at the box office (Avex Pictures / King of Prism official, in Japanese).

On September 17, Kyoto Animation and director Naoko Yamada’s film A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi) opened and earned ¥2.3 billion, followed on November 12 by director Sunao Katabuchi’s animated film In This Corner of the World (Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni), starring Non. Based on Fumiyo Kono’s manga, it carefully depicts the daily life of Suzu, a young woman who marries into a family in wartime Hiroshima and Kure (film’s official production notes, in Japanese).

In March 2015, the year before In This Corner of the World opened, a crowdfunding campaign raised money to produce a pilot film and pitch the project. Backed by 3,374 supporters whose names appeared in the end credits, the film expanded by word of mouth from 63 opening theaters to more than 300 nationwide.

In TV anime, Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World (from April) made heroines like Rem fan favorites, and in October the original anime Yuri!!! on ICE, created by Mitsurou Kubo and Sayo Yamamoto, sparked global enthusiasm for its authentic figure-skating choreography and sent fans on pilgrimages to Karatsu City in Saga Prefecture, the model for protagonist Yuri Katsuki’s hometown (Yuri!!! on ICE official, in Japanese).

Pokémon GO: Walking the Streets with Your Smartphone

Pokémon GO launched in Japan on July 22. Linking a smartphone’s GPS with a real-world map, it had players walk streets and parks themselves to catch Pokémon and collect items at real landmarks designated as “PokéStops” (official launch announcement, in Japanese).

On the first weekend after launch, thousands of players gathered until late at night at parks rumored to spawn rare Pokémon, such as Ueno Park and Setagaya Park in Tokyo and Tsuruma Park in Nagoya, while tourism recovery events were also held in disaster-hit Tohoku and Kumamoto (The Pokémon Company’s announcement at the time, in Japanese).

Keyakizaka46 Debuts, and SMAP Announces Its Breakup by Year’s End

On April 6, Keyakizaka46, formed the previous year, made its CD debut with the single “Silent Majority.” With 14-year-old Yurina Hirate as center, its music video filmed inside the Shibuya Station redevelopment site and its forceful choreography about resisting adult conformity sold 262,000 copies in its first week, setting a new first-week record for a debut single by a female artist (official release information at the time, in Japanese).

At the 8th AKB48 Senbatsu General Election held at HARD OFF ECO Stadium Niigata on June 18, Rino Sashihara won a record 243,011 votes to achieve the first back-to-back victory in general election history (vote count, in Japanese).

Early on August 14, meanwhile, Johnny & Associates announced that the national pop group SMAP would disband on December 31. Following reports of a split in January, fans hoping the group would stay together organized a buying campaign (“flower picking”) for their signature 2003 single “Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana,” pushing cumulative sales past three million copies in December, before the five-hour finale of SMAP×SMAP on December 26 brought the curtain down on 25 years since their 1991 CD debut (record of the breakup announcement, in Japanese).

Hikaru Utada’s Album, Nigehaji’s Koi Dance, and μ’s at Tokyo Dome

On September 28, Hikaru Utada, returning to music after a hiatus for “human activities,” released Fantôme, her first original Japanese-language album in eight and a half years, featuring the NHK morning drama Toto Neechan theme song “Hanataba wo Kimi ni” (guide at the time of release, in Japanese).

From October to December, the TBS Tuesday drama The Full-Time Wife Escapist (Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu, or “Nigehaji”), based on Tsunami Umino’s manga and starring Yui Aragaki and Gen Hoshino in a “contract marriage,” became a social phenomenon. When TBS posted the ending credits’ “Koi Dance”—danced by the cast to Hoshino’s theme song “Koi”—on its official YouTube channel, views surged and inspired a nationwide wave of fan-filmed dance cover videos (TBS Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu official, in Japanese).

On March 31 and April 1, the Love Live! voice-actor unit μ’s held “Final LoveLive! μ’sic Forever” at Tokyo Dome, with live viewings in movie theaters across all 47 prefectures and 10 countries and regions overseas (concert report, in Japanese).

In July, the first TV anime season of Love Live! Sunshine!!, set in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture and featuring the school idol group Aqours, began airing. Pia Research Institute estimated the 2016 domestic live market at ¥501.5 billion (roughly $3.3 billion), down 2.0% from the previous year due to a shortage of large venues caused by renovations at Yokohama Arena and Saitama Super Arena (Pia Research Institute, in Japanese).

The Rio Olympics, the B.League’s Opening, and the Carp’s First Pennant in 25 Years

At the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics from August 5 to 21, Japan’s delegation won a record 41 medals (12 gold, 8 silver, and 21 bronze), including men’s gymnastics team gold and Kohei Uchimura’s second straight individual all-around title, Japan’s first olympic badminton gold by women’s doubles pair Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsutomo (“Taka-Matsu”), Jun Mizutani’s men’s singles bronze and team medals in table tennis, and silver in the men’s 4x100m relay, before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared from a green pipe dressed as Mario during the Tokyo 2020 handover ceremony (Japanese Olympic Committee, in Japanese).

In domestic pro sports, the Hiroshima Toyo Carp beat the Giants at Tokyo Dome on September 10 to clinch their first Central League pennant in 25 years since 1991, with veterans Hiroki Kuroda and Takahiro Arai embracing in tears on the field. Then on September 22, the B.League, Japan’s new men’s professional basketball league merging the previously separate NBL and bj league, opened (explanation from the B.League, in Japanese).

Nippon Professional Baseball (in Japanese) / Record of the B.League opening game (in Japanese)

Watched by 9,132 spectators on a court covered entirely in LED panels at Yoyogi National Gymnasium, Alvark Tokyo won the B.League opener 80-75.

Stories and Spotify: More Ways to Enjoy Photos and Music

In August, Instagram introduced “Stories,” a feature where posted photos and short videos disappear automatically after 24 hours, establishing a casual style of sharing everyday moments from cafes, merchandise unboxing, or on the way to concerts alongside curated feed posts (Meta, in Japanese).

On September 29, the Swedish music streaming service Spotify began invitation-only service in Japan and opened to the general public on November 10, offering both a free ad-supported plan and a ¥980 monthly paid plan with on-demand playback and lyrics display that helped listeners discover artists through official and user-made playlists (report on the day of general release, in Japanese).

In video, Pikotaro’s “PPAP (Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen)“—a character created by comedian Daimaou Kosaka—became a global viral hit after its one-minute video posted to YouTube on August 25 was shared by Justin Bieber on Twitter on September 28 as his “favorite video on the internet,” inspiring imitation videos around the world and earning a Guinness World Record as the shortest song to enter the US Billboard Hot 100 (Billboard JAPAN, in Japanese).

Key Events of the Year

The Year’s Buzzword Awards

The grand prize went to “Kamitteru” (“divine”), a word manager Koichi Ogata used to describe Seiya Suzuki’s back-to-back walk-off home runs in June for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp on their way to their first Central League pennant in 25 years. The top ten also included “Seichi junrei,” “Pokémon GO,” and “PPAP,” while Kumamoto City’s “Fukko Joshu” castle reconstruction donation program—created after the April 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes—received the Selection Committee Special Prize (Jiyu Kokuminsha, in Japanese).

“Seichi junrei” refers to visiting real locations that served as models for scenery in anime and films—a style of fan travel that had grown since the 2000s with works like Please Teacher! and Lucky Star and entered everyday household vocabulary across generations alongside the phenomenon of Your Name., Shin Godzilla, and In This Corner of the World.

In 2017, we trace the spread of “insta-bae” and TikTok, the Kemono Friends zoo collaboration boom, TWICE’s Japanese debut, Namie Amuro’s retirement announcement, the launch of the Nintendo Switch, and the rise of virtual YouTubers.