Popular Spring 2018 anime Tada Never Falls in Love followed the aspiring photographer Mitsuyoshi Tada and his meeting with the sweet Princess Teresa, who had secretly come to Japan from a small country in Europe. The story is inspired by the movie Roman Holiday, and as well as showing off great spots in the Ginza area of Tokyo, Teresa’s country of Larsenburg and its beautiful scenery were also a topic of interest. Larsenburg was modeled on the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in Europe. It has now been noticed as a sacred place for anime fans, leading to many anime fans to ‘pilgrim’ to the spots which appeared in the anime. Thanks to this, both countries’ Ministries of Economy as well as Luxembourg For Tourism held a presentation for media on 21 September 2018.

The event was part of the Tourism Expo Japan 2018, which took place from 20 to 23 September 2018 at Tokyo Big Sight and was held at the Luxembourg House. Aside from the Chargé d’affaires Christian Muller, government officials in charge of tourism at the Ministry of Economy and the public relations personnel from Luxembourg for Tourism attended the presentation. Also present were staff members from the anime: Director Mitsue Yamazaki and series compositor and scriptwriter Yoshiko Nakamura.

The first part of the presentation was an introduction of the history and geography of Luxembourg a well as some famous tourist spots. Despite the country’s small size, many institutions important to the EU are located there and the number of foreigners living there is also surprising. Yamazaki and Nakamura also told some stories from behind the scenes of the anime. The officials didn’t know that Luxembourg was the model for Larsenburg and learnt about it as it went on air. According to the anime’s staff, they choose Luxembourg as a model for Teresa’s country of origin because it seems that not that many people in Japan are aware of the fact that the country does in fact have a monarchy. Together they even traveled to Luxembourg to do research. The presentation included pictures they took on that trip as well as pictures of the storyboard on screen. Even though there was no snow at the time they visited, the skilled art director and staff members changed the background. Although it was a very short trip, they were able to gather a lot of inspiration during their visit to Luxembourg. Some experiences of Tada-kun reflected their own, such as when the palace guard doesn’t react to him at all. The episode where Teresa falls into a river was born from the fact that there is indeed a river in the city. Other things they did research on never made it into the series. After the presentation, they held a reception, where the Luxembourg professional chefs association showed off their skills in a dinner party under the supervision of Renato Favaro, who created the menu and chose the sparkling wine.

Finally, the guests were presented with a chocolate spoon just like the ones which you may remember from the anime!

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai (Tada Never Falls in Love)

Spring 2018 | Anime Info | Season 1 Review