Anime Contents Expo 2011 Updates

The official website of Anime Contents Expo (ACE) has opened today, bringing more details about this new anime industry event, whose first edition will be held this year at Makuhari Messe in Chiba prefecture, between March 26-27. By no small coincidence, this coincides with the last two days of the traditional Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF) - which many of the top anime and manga companies will boycott, in sign of protest to Tokyo's recently passed amendment to its Youth Healthy Development Ordinance.



ACE 2011 will be held in Makuhari Messe Exhibition Halls 3 & 4, with visiting hours open between 09:00 and 18:00 on both days (March 26-27). The entrance fee will be 1,500 yen for a single day, and apparently there will be no two-day passes. Those interested in buying tickets early can refer to the "Tickets" section on the official website.

The organizers - and exhibitors confirmed so far - include Aniplex, Animate, Kadokawa, King Records, Good Smile Company, Geneon Universal, Nitro+, Frontier Works, Marvelous Entertainment and Media Factory. Additional exhibiting companies are invited to apply between January 25-31.

Last month, a group of 10 manga publishers called "Comic 10-Shakai" have also expressed their intention to boycott TAF 2011, in response to the same revised bill passed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which expands the list of "harmful" anime and manga that can't be sold or rented to people under the age of 18 - among other nasty provisions. It'll be interesting to see what becomes of TAF, and how many companies will join the new ACE expo in the end.

And, of course, it'll be all the more interesting to see some booth-babes galleries from two events at the same time!