The holy land somehow landed right next to me: Anime Pilgrimage: GIRLS BAND CRY (Kawasaki) is now officially underway.
Like I mentioned in Monthly Log: 2024-04:
GIRLS BAND CRY
One of April’s three big originals. I wasn’t planning to watch it. Band-themed shows usually aren’t my thing.
I clicked into episode 1 on a whim. Wait, did they run all the way to Kawasaki? Interesting.
The back half of episode 1 has a lot of landmarks I’m familiar with. Seeing everyday scenery turn into an anime stage on screen is such a strange experience. At that point I had to keep watching.
I’m up to episode 5 now. Great script (Hanada-sensei), stable as always. Dense pacing, and the story progression feels reasonable.
Production-wise, it’s 3D, but it looks comfortable. It plays to 3D’s strengths: lots of expressive micro facial animations. I’d count the visuals as a plus. Recommended.
The anime is still airing, but I’ve already covered part of the pilgrimage.
I’ll organize this post by episode number, and keep updating it as the show goes on, assuming it keeps giving Kawasaki more screen time.
On Bangumi I ran into this post: 末日列车去哪里·吾野·圣地巡礼记录.
It used Google My Maps to tag locations on a map, which looked incredibly convenient.
So I spent a little time putting together one of my own:
- GIRLS BAND CRY 聖地巡礼（川崎部分）. The pins are arranged in the order they appear in the anime, and this post follows the same order.
OP
EP01 - 00:02:40
This OP shot is at the intersection in front of the DICE building.
EP01 - 00:02:44
Near the exit of the MORES shopping street.
EP01
EP01 - 00:09:36
仲見世通 (Nakamise-dori), on the way out from JR Kawasaki Station toward the shopping street.
EP01 - 00:09:55
A tiny alley (really tiny). Don Quijote is right across from it.
EP01 - 00:18:07
The small slide in 南河原公园 (Minamikawara Park).
I shot this from too high up. I really should have crouched lower.
There’s also a horizontal bar next to it, but all the playground equipment is sized for children.
The only thing an adult could plausibly use is the swing nearby.
EP01 - 00:20:48
The pedestrian overpass. Walk a little farther and you’ll reach the JR Kawasaki Station entrance.
That guitar is seriously durable. Wind, rain, even getting slammed onto the ground, and it still came out fine (
EP01 - 00:20:59
LAZONA, a huge mall.
There was an event that day, with a few tents set up in the plaza.
EP01 - 00:21:04
azalea, the underground shopping arcade. Several rows of shops, pretty lively.
I once saw a photo book that suggested it already looked like this back in the 1980s: marble floors and stainless steel columns. Thirty to forty years later, it still doesn’t feel dated.
EP01 - 00:21:08
The above-ground part of azalea. There’s often street performances around here.
EP01 - 00:12:14
Yoshinoya Kawasaki West Exit. The most iconic shot of episode 1 is obviously this one: double middle fingers at Yoshinoya 🖕😄🖕
But I didn’t have the guts to take photos inside the shop.
EP02
EP02 - 00:11:21
さいわい歩道橋. Looking down at the Tama River from the bridge.
The anime’s camera is super wide, and I couldn’t capture it with my lens. So here’s a “close enough” photo.
EP02 - 00:11:25
さいわい歩道橋, middle side.
EP02 - 00:11:28
さいわい歩道橋, right side.
EP02 - 00:11:29
さいわい歩道橋, right side.
There are three bridges over the river. From near to far:
- JR: a white bridge, covered in rust, used by the Keihin-Tohoku Line (JK) and the Tokaido Line (JT)
- Keikyu: a blue bridge, Keikyu Main Line (KK)
- Rokugo Bridge: not visible in the photos. A normal bridge for cars, bikes, and pedestrians
The three high-rises in the distance are fancy apartments. Great view, and I’m sure the price matches (lol).
EP02 - 00:12:27
There’s a small park under the bridge. I found the background for the “pinky” pose too. Very faithful. Had to take a shot.
EP02 - 00:12:27
Switched to manual focus, pulled the focus closer, blurred the background, and tried again.
If you cut out the character from the anime and paste them onto this background… it would fit perfectly.
EP02 - 00:13:39
The mid-episode transition of episode 2.
There are lots of places to sit around here. If you have time to kill, taking a walk by the river and spacing out for a while is genuinely relaxing.
EP03
EP03 - 00:10:14
CINECITTA, apparently a cinema with some history, with an Italian(?) architectural style.
The 2021 Tokyo Love Story used this place as a reference. I recognized it immediately.
EP03 - 00:19:56
Still LAZONA, this time from the front.
To get this angle, you need to go up to the very top floor, but that observation deck seems to close around 6-7pm, so you can only shoot in the daytime.
EP04 (no photos)
Most of episode 4 isn’t in Kawasaki, so I didn’t take any photos.
EP05
EP05 - 00:07:56
The anime is still incredibly faithful. I didn’t even notice before that the third floor is a live house.
EP06
河原町団地
The place where the duo lives: 河原町団地.
It’s a massive housing complex. I’d walked past it a few times before, but never actually gone inside to take photos.
The architecture always struck me as unusual, so I did a little searching and found this article:
川崎にSFの巨大な未来都市？ 白亜の近未来的高層団地「河原町団地」とは？
Some casual photos to pad the post
A massive steel frame in the middle of the building.
Close-up of the steel frame.
The outside of the corridor on this building is decorated with white panels, kind of like a space station(?).
That inverted-Y shape was built in the 1960s, and it still feels very sci-fi today.
A rare wild groupie’s precious photo
EP07 (no photos)
Episode 7 doesn’t have many Kawasaki shots.
Kawasaki City Hall Poster
When I visited the observation deck on the top floor of Kawasaki City Hall, I ran into a GIRLS BAND CRY poster by chance.
I missed the first chance to take a photo, so I waited in front of the screen for a while and got it the next time.
Closing
These are all ordinary places I already know, but the moment they show up in an anime they start to feel strangely magical.
The production is absurdly faithful, down to the backgrounds (enough to make me wonder if the staff just pasted in real photos as texture maps).
That level of detail also makes it much easier to identify locations from screenshots.
Thinking back on why I chose to come to Japan in the first place, anime was probably part of the reason.
But even after being here for a while, I still haven’t done much pilgrimage work (staying at home is simply too comfortable).
This is the first time I’ve properly gone out to shoot a location pilgrimage on purpose. I got to wander around, take photos, and visit a few spots I normally would have ignored.
The difficult parts were judging the perspective, choosing the right focal length, and getting over the psychological hurdle of taking photos out on busy streets.
Anyway, the whole process was a lot of fun.
The anime has aired through episode 7 so far. I’m curious what other landmarks are still waiting to show up next.
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