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Girls und Panzer Fans Crowd This Year's Ōarai Fest

The coastal town of Ōarai in Ibaraki prefecture's annual Angler Fish Festival has seen a huge influx of visitors ever since it merged with the Girls und Panzer anime in 2013. The event is nothing short of an all-star example of how local tourism can merge with entertainment. The area suffered greatly after the March 2011 tsunami but attendee turnout for the festival helped bring revitalization to the town. An event that originally hosted 25,000 attendees has since grown to 135,000 people.

That's the number organizers announced for the 22nd annual Ōarai Festival held over the weekend. Series voice actresses Mai Fuchigami (Miho Nishizumi), Ai Kayano (Saori Takebe), Mami Ozaki (Hana Isuzu), Ikumi Nakagami (Yukari Akiyama), and Yuka Iguchi (Mako Reizei) attended the event with theme song artists ChouCho and Sayaka Sasaki.

The increase in attendance unfortunately also brought trouble with it. Similar to recent issues in Love Live! Sunshine!!'s Numazu City, some attendees were disruptive to the locals. Anime franchise producer Kiyoshi Sugiyama wrote on Twitter to specifically ask attendees not to engage in dangerous behavior. He added that there was trouble in the parking lot for the event and reminded visitors that the Girls und Panzer portion of the festival is just a small part and that the event is sponsored by the town of Ōarai.

A local shop owner shared pictures of the crowd filling up Ōarai's shopping district.

The six-part Girls und Panzer das Finale film series will open in Japan on June 15, 2019. The first Girls und Panzer das Finale film opened in Japan in 59 theaters in December 2017. The film features new characters from BC Freedom High School as they engage in a winter battle.

The original Girls und Panzer television anime series aired for 12 episodes in 2012-2013. The Girls und Panzer der Film anime film followup opened in Japan in November 2015. Certain theaters in Japan continued to screen the film through its one-year anniversary on November 21, 2016.

Source: Girls und Panzer Twitter account via Yara-on!