Step into Chengdu’s Vibrant ‘Pain City’: Unveiling the Thrilling World of Tianfu International Animation City

Q: Do the leaders of Tianfu International Animation City understand the two-dimensional world?

A: “For three years, we have been helping the leader to improve his ACGN culture every day… So far, the results are quite good. The leader’s two-dimensional vocabulary is enough for basic communication with comic fans.”

The above is a dialogue between Tianfu International Animation City and the two-dimensional community.

How “painful” is the ACG community? Not only is it painful for others to understand their language, but they also take on pain bags, pain cars, pain houses… As long as there is a carrier, everything can be “painful”. The so-called “pain culture” refers to using favorite anime peripherals as decoration.

In recent years, the two-dimensional world has become a new track chosen by various players, and has gradually become one of the consumption choices for Generation Z to meet their emotional values ​​and social needs.

Against this background, Tianfu International Animation City, which takes Generation Z as its main target customer group and aims to build the country’s first animation-themed integration center for industry, commerce, tourism and education, is planning to transform itself into a “pain city.”

With the increasing traffic, Tianfu International Animation City has experienced the “pain” that every project has. After self-adjustment, especially after repeated interactions with the ACG community and constant communication with merchants, Tianfu International Animation City is trying to transform the literal “pain” into the ACG sense of “pain”.

Tomorrow (26th), this “Pain City” which was fully started at the end of 2021 will officially open. At present, how much “pain” is there? On the eve of the opening, the National Business Daily Tianfu Cultural and Creative Cloud visited Tianfu International Animation City.

01

As the first batch of main business formats to settle in, goods stores (homonym of goods, referring to two-dimensional peripherals or derivatives) mostly open at 10 a.m. or even after noon.

On weekday mornings at Tianfu International Animation City, what can be heard more often is the sound of renovations behind the fences of other business formats’ stores.

“One of our most important tasks now is to follow up on the renovation progress of the merchants to ensure that the project can be delivered as scheduled.”

Li Meng, deputy general manager of Sichuan Tourism Investment Manhua World Tourism Development Co., Ltd., the operator of Tianfu International Animation City, used the two keywords “hot” and “full of enthusiasm” when talking about the current situation of the project party and the merchants settled in the city.

During the interview, he apologized several times for replying to messages midway. After the interview, he had to attend another internal meeting immediately.

Although it has not officially opened, the Tianfu International Animation City, which was in trial operation during the Mid-Autumn Festival, has already attracted considerable traffic. Data shows that more than 20,000 people came here, and the sales of some trial operation businesses exceeded 1.6 million yuan.

However, rather than talking about “achievements”, Li Meng would rather share a series of preparations being made by Tianfu International Animation City.

The first is the traffic problem, which has attracted much attention from consumers. During the trial operation, this was also the issue that was widely criticized on social media.

At present, Tianfu International Animation City is about 15 minutes’ walk from the nearest subway station. In addition to ordinary consumers, this is a big challenge for Cosers who carry large bags.

“After our continuous coordination, there will be ‘painful’ bus connections when it officially opens.” According to Li Meng, Tianfu International Animation City and Chengdu Bus Group have jointly created the “Dimension Exclusive Animation Bus Station”, which will have 4 special routes.

Since the project was made public and its special social media account debuted, Tianfu International Animation City has been in the process of “feedback to improvement,” “listening to the voice of the market and making the project better and better,” said Li Meng.

However, earlier, the main question or concern of the two-dimensional community, including the merchants settled in the city, was whether the leaders of Tianfu International Animation City understood the two-dimensional world?

In response to this, in a tweet from the “Manmanbai” Entrepreneur Salon, the official account of Tianfu International Animation City simply answered in the “Q&A”:

“For three years, we have been helping the leaders to improve their ACGN culture every day… The results are quite good. The leaders’ two-dimensional vocabulary is enough for basic communication with comic fans.”

In a conversation with the operator of Tianfu International Animation City, the reporter heard the word “Furui” (derived from the English word furry, which means anthropomorphic animal images and characters) from a person in charge born in the 1970s. This word belongs to the context of the second dimension. “I can’t explain it clearly to my peers. I prefer to communicate with young people.”

02

Although it has not officially opened yet, the strategy of “eating the valley” of Tianfu International Animation City has already gained high popularity on social platforms. According to comprehensive evaluation, “wide IP coverage” and “ability to offer a good price” are the key words of the strategy.

“I can only say that the boss of that shop still has some strength,” a shop owner commented when he learned that the Guzi shop next door had launched the new sushi series of Chiikawa launched in Japan in early September.

According to the reporter’s observation, in terms of major categories, in addition to “Japanese Valley”, there are also millet stores that focus on “national Valley”. In terms of IP, the introduction of a millet store shows that the store has more than 150 IPs. In addition, many stores have more subdivided product selections, some focus on fan works, and some focus on second-hand.

“At present, Tianfu International Animation City has a total of 53 Guzi stores, which is considered to be relatively large in the southwest region.” Li Meng said that in addition to the Guzi stores, the business positioning of Tianfu International Animation City is strongly related to the two-dimensional dimension, so there are also stores such as the “Three Pit” Selfie Hall.

Some popular brands have also become “pain stores” after coming to Tianfu International Animation City. For example, KFC in the project is the first animation theme store in China.

It is worth mentioning that the Ancient Promise – Sanxingdui and Ancient Civilization Cultural and Creative Experience Hall is also one of the first stores in the country in the project. “In addition to conventional cultural and creative products, there is also a digital viewing experience. What we can reveal about the latter is that the effect is quite ‘explosive’.” Li Meng said.

In his opinion, the first store related to Sanxingdui culture here also has something in common with the two-dimensional culture. Li Meng said that Sanxingdui culture also needs to be expressed in a younger way, and cultural creation is one of the attempts.

“In addition, an important part of the two-dimensional culture is ‘secondary creation’, just like what we call ‘pain bags’, which are actually the re-expression of related culture by young people after their own thinking. Can the Sanxingdui culture originating from Sichuan be expressed in a similar way?”

In fact, the positioning of Tianfu International Animation City as “boundless integration of industry, commerce, tourism and education” also conveys that the project is not just a commercial complex, but also involves the creation and aggregation of industrial chains.

A typical example is that whether it is Guzi store, “Sankeng” store, or Sanxingdui cultural and creative store, they actually provide a huge offline consumption scene for the upstream and midstream links of related industries.

At the same time, the project itself also has an operator, Manshijie Technology Co., Ltd., which specializes in providing support, incubation, financing and other functions to related companies.

“For example, when young people come here, it may be their first time to start a business, and there are many procedures that they are not familiar with. The first thing we do is to help them simplify the process as much as possible,” said Jiang Zhongyou, chairman of Manshijie Technology Co., Ltd.

03

After more than 3,000 days and nights of opening, Chengdu’s old American comics store – Manga Man – also came to Tianfu International Animation City and became one of the ones currently rushing to complete the renovation.

“It can be regarded as a ‘two-way rush’. We first learned about this place, and then the staff responsible for the investment promotion of the project also found us.” According to Ashley, the cartoonist’s manager, compared with the old store that is about to close, the new store is the most significant. One difference is that its area is three to four times that of the old store. “We can do a lot of things here that we couldn’t do before.”

For example, the store has a more spacious venue for movie nights and a small stage for talk shows. The accompanying bar is also themed on Star Wars.

When the reporter communicated with store owners including Ashley, they generally expressed their expectation for the popularity that will gather after the official opening of Tianfu International Animation City.

On the Internet, a large number of netizens are also closely following the developments of Tianfu International Animation City.

For comparison, the Xiaohongshu account of Tianfu International Animation City, which has not yet officially opened, already has 17,000 followers, while the Shanghai Bailian ZX Creative Fun Center, known as the “Akihabara of China”, has 20,000 followers.

On the Internet, the topic of “ACG saving traditional shopping malls” has caused heated discussions. Behind this is the huge market opportunity contained in the ACG economy.

Take Bailian ZX Creative Fun Center as an example, the sales in the first half of this year exceeded 200 million yuan, and the cumulative passenger flow exceeded 5.5 million. From the perspective of a single IP, on March 29, the first stop of the Chiikawa x Miniso themed flash mob was held in Shanghai Jing’an Joy City, and the sales amount reached 2.68 million yuan in 10 hours on the first day.

Looking at Chengdu, after years of development of the two-dimensional culture, there are already local comic exhibition brands such as the World Line Anime Expo and ComiDay28, which is known as the “most famous ACG fan exhibition in the southwest.”

Tianfuhong, located in the city center, has rapidly become a landmark of two-dimensional culture in recent years and the first stop for many two-dimensional fans when they come to Chengdu.

“As relatively professional exhibition halls, Xibo City and Century City host comic exhibitions on a larger scale and with more types; Tianfuhong also has a lot of consumer formats that are strongly related to the two-dimensional world. In comparison, Tianfu International Animation City is able to host comic exhibitions of a certain scale, and is equipped with places for two-dimensional dancing, makeup, and check-ins, as well as consumer formats. Overall, the project is a supplement to Chengdu’s two-dimensional market.” Li Meng said.

(Source: Daily Economic News)

Source: Daily Economic News

Original title: Tianfu International Animation City: Chengdu’s second dimension “Pain City” is here

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