The 18th China International Anime and Game Expo has closed, with 178000 visitors attending China | Anime | International Anime and Game Expo

Several sudden rainstorm eased the heat in Shanghai. On July 16th, the 18th China International Anime and Game Expo, which lasted for 4 days, closed at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition Hall. This was the first large-scale anime and game exhibition during the summer season in Shanghai. The exhibition period attracted a total of 178000 visitors# I love CCG #. The main topic has read 210 million times, discussed 96000 times, and has a total of 90 million related topics on the internet. The exhibition actively implements the national planning and deployment for cultural digitization, making efforts in virtual idols, digital art, digital cultural tourism, and other areas, playing a platform role, strengthening cross-border cooperation, and promoting successful cases.

The exhibition has sparked a trend of "virtual idols"

For four days, the exhibition hall was always a joyful ocean for anime enthusiasts. Numerous anime fans attended the long-awaited anime and gaming event in their luggage. This exhibition covers an area of over 40000 square meters, with more than 280 domestic and foreign exhibitors participating, including MiHoYo, Tencent Video, SMG, Tianwen Kadokawa, Xuanji Technology, Shouwu, Thatskyshop, GOOD SMILE Company, DeNA, Shengqu Games, Giant Network, Kaiying Network, Jumping Network, IPSTAR Chaowan Planet, and Dongman. In front of the CCGVERSE booth, a giant Doraemon inflatable statue with a cute and silly appearance has become one of the popular check-in spots for this exhibition. The creator signing and drawing activities brought by Tianwen Kadokawa, Dongman, and Miyou's gaming community, Miyou, are very popular, and fans waiting for interaction are forming a long queue. The musical "Youth Song: Sanskrit Ballad" has once again stepped out of the theater and had intimate contact with the audience on the main stage of the exhibition.

At each exhibition, we can see the landing of the latest technology and cultural trends in the pan anime field. Entering the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition Hall, you can not only meet the characters in the game "Genshin Impact" by chance, but also see many virtual idols. "Virtual Idol" is usually a "anime idol", which is active in the virtual world as an animation image, some of which are anchors and some singers. Of course, behind virtual idols, there are also real people known as "middle people" playing, but regardless of the situation, "middle people" will not appear.

In this year's CCG EXPO 2023, more than 20 virtual idols from China, such as Tui Ai, VOG, AFAER, Mao You She, Dong Xuelian, and Lightyear Mythology, made their debut in the exhibition hall. On the main stage screen, lively and adorable virtual idols appeared one after another, and anime fans picked up their phones to record the moment of interaction between the two parties. "Compared with the real idol, the virtual idol will not 'collapse', and will always be a perfect image." The fan pavilion of the virtual idol "China Trip Love" said that she is also an animation enthusiast at ordinary times. "Compared with the ordinary animation image, the virtual idol will interact with you in real life. Although she is a anime image, the interaction is stronger." Xiao Li, who studied in Shanghai for graduate school, and friends came to visit CCG EXPO 2023, and he is almost familiar with the virtual anchor on the stage. "In recent years, virtual idols have been developing at their fastest pace. Around 2020, I began to pay attention to virtual idols, mainly by listening to background music in my spare time and learning while listening to virtual idols chat or sing." Xiao Li said that unlike other fans, he may not be particularly concerned about the appearance of virtual idols. "He will pay more attention to the level of virtual idol singing and dancing or whether chatting is interesting. In addition, I also hope to have more 3D virtual idols presented. Due to the high cost and slow cost recovery, there are still more 2D virtual idols at present."

It is worth mentioning that at SMG's booth, the reporter met Dongfang TV's first hyper realistic digital virtual character, "Dongfang Ai," which was her first appearance at a domestic anime exhibition. Different from the anime images of many virtual idols, "Oriental Ai" looks like a real person at first sight. She has long black hair, a high ponytail, fair skin, and a delicate face. Visitors to the exhibition can also receive a postcard of her at the booth. Some of these postcards are photos of her ID, some are photos of her costume, and some are photos of her daily life. Guo Hui from the Production and Production Center of Dongfang TV introduced, "Dongfang Ai appears in the form of a real person, and in the future, she will also appear as a host in large-scale evening parties or variety shows on Dongfang TV."

Exhibitors' Reasons for Choosing Shanghai

Shanghai is the birthplace of Chinese anime, and this summer, anime and game fans from all over the world have flocked to Shanghai. This huge market is attracting a large number of powerful anime and game companies. The enthusiastic market atmosphere is the reason why overseas exhibitors choose Shanghai.

"Digital cultural tourism" is an important theme of this exhibition. In order to enhance the vitality of the industry and enhance the attractiveness of the anime exhibition, this year's exhibition is launching the online and offline interactive exhibition theme activity "Time Traveler". Anime exhibition visitors can play different roles online and participate in booth interactive check-in through the mobile mini program "Time Passport". The fastest player among tourists to pass all the tests lined up at the entrance early in the morning. After the first batch entered the exhibition hall, they completed all check-in within half an hour.

In the central hall of the exhibition hall, there is an immersive "Digital Culture and Tourism Empowering New Consumption" themed exhibition with abundant attractions. The theme exhibition not only showcases the immersive exploration experience exhibition of "The Disappearing Pharaoh" and the illustration exhibition of the "Little Bean Mud" restaurant series by Tenmon Kadokawa, but also recreates the animated scenes of the super popular Chinese anime series "Chinese Fantasy Tales", "Summer of the Little Monster" and "Snack Shop". Black Cat Sheriff has launched a joint camping equipment and set up tents on site. In the eyes of practitioners, Shanghai has a huge cultural and tourism consumption market, leading digital technology, rich cultural and tourism application scenarios, massive content and creative resources, and an active culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. "With the evolution and development of technology, the empowerment of new technologies has brought more possibilities for the content dissemination of the cultural and tourism industry, and the era of 'culture as the body, technology as the medium' has officially begun."

Since last year, the organizing committee has been working hard to build a CCGVERSE copyright display service platform, which was officially unveiled at this year's exhibition. It is reported that with the support of the platform, the catering brand Xinghualou and the game series "Ark of Tomorrow" have jointly announced that they will soon launch a collaborative product. At the same time, CCG EXPO 2023 also launched the "Japanese Animation Film Exhibition" event in collaboration with well-known Japanese copyright company Ouhua Culture and cinema line CGV, screening nine animated films including the "Pok é mon" series, "Rubin III" series, and "Crayon Shin chan" series. Due to the strong anime atmosphere and exhibition popularity in Shanghai, many shows sold out shortly after invoicing. As of the time of publication, the box office for 27 screenings has reached 150000 yuan, with a total of over 3000 viewers. In the second half of the year, the CCG EXPO organizing committee will bring Chinese animated films to Japan and hold the "Chinese Animation Film Exhibition" in Japan to promote cultural exchange between China and Japan.