TOKYO - The Tokyo Character Show was held at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center this past Sunday and Monday. Over 57 exhibiting companies showed off characters from anime, manga, and video games - over 800 products in all.

　　Today's businesses are really taking this so-called "character business" seriously. Selling character goods is a very popular method to get people's attention to games and products, and most importantly convert that brand awareness into additional revenues.

　　For the video game fan, there were several must-see companies at the show - companies including Bandai, Capcom, Konami, Namco, Sega, SNK, Square, and Takara. Thousands of otakus (die-hard fans) gathered at the convention center to be relieved of hard-earned cash.

　　Most of the products for sale at the show were shirts, telephone cards, figurines, and stuffed animals - but some of the products are sold only in Japan.

　　If you're a Square fan, then Final Fantasy VIII is what you want to hear about. The game's release date is still far away, but Square has already prepared an attack on your wallet. It has FFVIII shirts and Zippo-style lighters.

　　Takara showed off a Honey (from Fighting Vipers) and Tokimemo figurine.

　　Namco will soon open its own shop called Entertainment Goods Store in Japan. To promote the store, Namco exhibited a variety of products, ranging from a Nina (from Tekken) figurine to a variety of shirts and key chains to a Pac-Man Paddle Ball and even a Tekken drink (which is supposed to energize your uh... energy) and chop sticks.

　　The weirdest product at the show had to be the 1:1 scale figurines from Paper Moon. These are life-sized figurines (yes, you read correctly). The characters are from popular anime and video games such as Sakura and Iris (from Sakura Taisen), and Rei Ayanami and Aska (from Evangelion). Those figurines will be produced by special order only and will cost from 300,000 to 500,000 yen (about US$2,100-3,500 at current exchange rates).

　　It is not known how many otakus will actually acquire these products.

　　If you have a large garden in your house (which is unlikely in Japan), you might want to consider buying Character Stones from Takao Concrete. They have a carved-from-stone Mickey, Minney, and Anpanpan (huge popular anime character for little kids). Unfortunately these aren't life-sized.

　　Aside from the many elaborate marketing schemes, several events were also held on the floor. Kadokawa held a Monster Collection card game tournament. Bandai had a meet-the-celebrity event in its booth. And we had a chance to glance at the stars of the Sailor Moon musical show through the crowds.

　　For Western readers, there were several products that you may be familiar with on the show floor - Star Wars, WWF, Gumby merchandise, and Playmate trading cards among them. But unfortunately those received less attention than other products.

　　Most of the goods we saw will not be available at stateside stores - too bad for US and European gamers.