Sword Art Online Collaborates With Kanda Myōjin Shrine

The Kanda Myōjin Shrine has attracted otaku visitors, in part due to its proximity to Akihabara, but also because its official mascot is Love Live!'s Nozomi Tōjō, who works at the shrine in the anime series. The shrine's choice to hire Nozomi brought an influx of Love Livers, and the mix of anime and traditional Japanese culture even caught the eye of One Piece creator Eiichirō Oda.

This year the shrine is collaborating with Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale. The film has earned 2,026,861,020 yen (about US$18.2 million) at the Japanese box office as of Monday. The shrine is hoping its smashing success will draw fans to purchase limited merchandise, like t-shirts, keychains, towels,posters, cups, and ema phone straps. Some of these products are available for early buyers at AnimeJapan this week.

The items will be sold at the Kanda Festival on May 13.

[Via Nijimen]