Followup: Season 1 is Set in Fuchū

In his twitter feed on April 9th, Cardfight!! Vanguard series creator Ito Akira talked about the Fuchū City Park, a public park located in western Tokyo. Specifically, the park is relevant because of its pond and model displays, which line up almost perfectly with both the anime and manga's depiction of Aichi's city. As one of the cities inside Tokyo, Fuchū is also a part of Kanto, which supports the city's status through MC Miya's announcement in rides 16-22 that Aichi and his friends are participating in the Kanto Regional. Incidentally, real-world regional tournaments are based on city, not region as the anime has it.

The park's pond can be clearly seen in rides 2, 33 and 68. Aichi frequently visits this location when depressed or needing to think through recent events.

Tetsu and Kai meet up by this monument to discuss Ren and the Foo Fighters in chapter 10 of the manga.

Finally, the station that Aichi uses to travel to PSY in rides 6, 23, 43 and 69 is Fuchū Station. By train it would take about an hour to travel between Fuchū and Shinjuku, so there's no discrepancy between these locations and the timing the anime presents.

Fuchū has a primarily service-oriented economy, which makes it an ideal location for a merchandise-based anime like Vanguard. It would not be at all difficult to imagine Card Capital having set up shop here. Ironically, the store that Card Capital is based on is actually located in Akihabara.

(via vg_akira, matibari)

Is Vanguard Set in Shinjuku?

Recently these images, a comparison of Vanguard's 69th episode with a photo taken from Google maps, have been garnering attention via social media websites. The photo depicts Shinjuku Station in Shinjuku, one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, likewise located in Shinjuku, has also appeared in the anime.

Although it was confirmed earlier in the series' regional tournament arc that Aichi and his friends live in the Kanto region (a region of the Japanese mainland, Honshu) the geographic similarities between Vanguard's scenery and the real world suggest that they live in Tokyo. As Tokyo is one of the seven prefectures encompassed by the Kanto region, the information does line up with what little was already known.

If true, then the park that Misaki, Aichi and Kamui stopped at in ride 69 would be Shinjuku Central Park. Based on demographics, their home town may be one of the neighboring cities.

(via matibari)

Update: Additional photos of the Metropolitan Building have been added. (via floreange)