One of the world’s largest anime events, the annual Tokyo International Anime Fair 2010 (TAF 2010), was held last week from March 25th – 28th at the exhibition center Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba.

The event this year attracted more than 130,000 anime fans and included 231 exhibitors from Japan and 59 from abroad, including many famous companies like TOHO, Toei Animation, Studio Ghibli, Fuji TV, NHK, Konami, Bandai, just to name a few.

Along with snooping around the incredibly crowded booths, the anime hungry visitors could shop for latest anime goods at Anime Bazaar, take photos with live characters, enjoy live stage shows or stop by at Creator’s World to see the creations of highly talented young artists who are advancing their professional career to gain major status in the anime industry. In School Zone, prospective students could find out everything about study programs of several famous Japanese animation schools.

Let’s take a look at some highlights.

Artworks of animation students.

The exhibitors displayed their creations on rather prestigous tech:

Left: NEC's 3D display for watching in 3D without the need for special glasses. The system is very convincing, yet it seems like it will take some more time before it's fully watchable without noticing the slight shift in the image. Right: fun ultra thin (about 3 mm) display was attracting attention in the booth of Studio Anima.

Anime studio Kamikaze Douga promoted itself by parking a flashy vehicle right in their booth:

Fans could meet some of the singers who perform songs for anime, like the popular female duet Neko Jump from Thailand. The comedian with pastries in his wig was seen on several stages making sure that nobody got bored by any chance:

One of the booths featured a case with a shiny Playstation 3 console, covered with 24-karat gold:

Needless to say, there were plenty of figurines to be seen everywhere. Below we caught a special edition of the popular virtual idol Hatsune Miku, named Metallic Miku:

The UFO-like Tokyo Big Sight, the location of this year’s anime fair. The photo was taken during a 1-hour wait in line:

Have you visited this or previous year’s Tokyo International Anime Fair? How was your experience? You’re welcome to write in the comments below.