The Chichibu Bridge in Saitama has become one of the holiest and most iconic sites for anime fans worldwide. This is because the bridge is the setting for the now-classic tearjerker, AnoHana. However, through the years, it has gathered plenty of graffiti and has become quite dirty. Its beautiful flower beds have also gathered a lot of weeds. But worry not, because anime fans recently gathered to clean up that iconic bridge.
The city of Chichibu actually organised all of this through twitter. And sure enough, anime fans from all over Japan signed up to clean Chichibu Bridge. They painted over graffiti, weeded out flower beds, swept the floor, and generally cleaned the area. Local high school students also participated in the clean up, and also said they are happy to have anime fans visit.
Chichibu’s tourism spiked when AnoHana first aired. The city has since then embraced these new tourists and even sell some AnoHana merchandise. They also organise AnoHana-related events in the city as well. As for the bridge itself, let’s just say that they won’t include it in the key visual if it wasn’t important. They also featured it in the promotional material for the live-action film as well.
Source: Saitama Shimbun
cover image via Web Japan
