Toei Kyoto Studio Park — Attraction in Kyoto

We went around 10:30am but there was not so much people, so no need to rush. It feels like those attractions were made for children mostly (ninja training dojo definitely is for young children).

The cursed doll was awesome, scary and very well done. Not recommended for young or sensitive persons.

Ninja mystery house has great ideas, but way too short and once the explanations are done it's mostly a straight line with not much mystery. It's probably also made with children in mind, but I believe there was great potential here.

Laser mission was a bit fun (we were again definitely not the intended target there), but the laser part was limited to 30s which is way to short. Also I'm not sure with my size it was going to work... a good idea though.

The filming set area was fun, probably even more so if you watched movies before using those locations. There's something in the "lake" / water if you go, you just need to wait a bit... it's good fun overall and interesting but mostly empty: lots of houses and places but nothing much in there. It probably makes sense but even though the place is big we didn't feel there was much to see after doing one or two streets. Maybe consider having photos from movies or informations there ? Treasure hunt or any interaction that would make it a bit more alive.

The trick art museum was super fun, great ideas and you shouldn't miss it! A bit repetitive but great and felt really special.

The anime galery was cool, a few things to see but mostly like a museum and not much information. Some videos but a bit limited (some more information, making of or anything only Toei could do would make it a bit more special). Also and to add on that, the shops felt a bit uninteresting. Considering all figures and toys in the galery, I was expecting them to try to sell some of them, but the shops only had cheap stuff. Like, not so much "geek" stuff, which is a bit suprising considering the people potentially interested in the galery in the first place...

Another weird thing in my opinion is that the theme was Evangelion in the first part of the park. It's really cool with a big Eva torso and head. Not as awesome as the real size Gundam to see, but still a very nice one. I was a bit puzzled because Evangelion is by no mean a kid's show, but the park was clearly intended a lot for young children.

Last but not least, costumes, make up and wigs from edo period. We did it, I took kimono + wig and my girlfriend took the kimono only. It was fun, they were very professional and we could walk around in the film set and take a bunch of great photos. On the con side: this is VERY expensive, about 7000 without make up, about 11000 with it, 4500 just a kimono, all that for 1 hour rental (which is plenty since there's not much to do). After that they will take photos of you, and they are really nice, but... 4000 ("small" photo) to 4500 (bigger size) yens for one photo?? After paying 12000 yens for the rental, it felt really excessive. This is way too much... don't get me wrong, that's a great occasion and place to do that, but it's too much and adds up a lot with the rest of park expenses. Basically it costs us more than universal studio japan for one day, but with way less value. No regrets, but please Toei reevaluate your prices...

Overall great ideas, worth it, but weird things from organisers, I hope they have more people because it was very quiet, which could be explained with the way it's a bit all over the place and not very though of, organisation wise. Maybe separate children and...

The Evangelion Kyoto Base is part of Toei Kyoto Studio Park. If you want to get into it you will need a regular ticket for for the Toei Studio Park (you can purchase it at the counter in person, no need to book in online in advance as Toei Park is a much quieter park, therefore it doesn’t book out) however, I do recommend getting the attraction pass tickets to experience the other attractions in the park (haunted house, ninja maze, etc.) and it’s for unlimited usage of that day. *Some attractions do cost additional, you can choose to pay for them once you find them in the park, we however just decided to do what the pass allowed us to do.

The Toei website was confusing in terms of tickets. We weren’t sure if we were getting into the Evangelion part or not since they seem to seperate the tickets on the website. Just ignore the websites ticketing stuff, as it turns out you don’t even need an extra ticket to go to the Evangelion part of the park. It’s actually included in the regular tickets for Toei Animation Park. It’s free entry with the regular tickets to the park.

Before entry of the Unit 01 attraction, they will ask if you want a free photo taken of you in front of the attraction, photos will be taken once they give and scan your ID QR card for the attraction (ID card is for photo collection at the nearby booth, the personality quiz and sync results of the attraction) you can choose to opt out for the free photo they ask at the start, but you will still keep the QR ID card they gave you as it is needed for the attraction.

(If you choose to take the free photo at the start, after the attraction, bring the ID QR code card to the nearby Photo Booth and only ask for the free photo, they will scan your QR code and the photos will appear on screen. *Photos will be taken automatically if you choose to test your synchronisation rate. If you wish to have those photos printed, they will not be free)

Near the Unit 01 attraction there is an Evangelion Cafe. You can purchase food from the regular Ninja menu and/or the collaboration menu. Each item from the collaboration menu gives you an Evangelion coaster (distributed at random, not dependant on corresponding character food/drink) inside the cafe there is a merch shop currently selling Evangelion goods. Outside the cafe there are Evangelion standees, great photo opportunities there.

There is a huge piece of art of Evangelion Lunar New Year outside near the cafe, check that out too, it is currently the year of the Rabbit!

I really enjoyed the Toei Animation Park, the theming around Edo era Japan was awesome. We experienced all of the other attractions as well that were included with the tickets. Staff were very friendly and excited, the food was great! I especially enjoyed the Hawaiian Blue shaved ice they served at a few places. Make sure to catch the shows on schedule! The ninja one was really...

If you are planning a visit for the Yokai Festival, DON’T BOTHER!! Huge waste of time and money. We arranged our whole trip around being here for the so-called grand yokai parade and spent over a thousand dollars travelling from Tokyo to Kyoto especially to see it. The promotional videos on social media made it look so fun, with hundreds of really detailed costumes and activities, lanterns, performances, etc. In reality, we only saw maybe about 10 yokai total and sadly most looked like they bought those cheap masks and outfits from Donki. It was incredibly overcrowded. There was no information about where the parade would start so we found what looked like a main street and waited. The official start time came and went. We waited another half hour, eventually walking around looking and listening out for music or drums or anything to signal the big event… but nothing. It was just a small handful of yokai walking around the park separately and posing for photos. Nothing resembling a parade or performances. You couldn’t even see them properly there were so many people jostling trying to take photos. Otherwise the park seems kind of sad and rundown and there is not much else for adults to do. All the activities, shows and “photo opportunities” cost extra on top of the entry fee. We didn’t bother trying to eat there as the queues were so long it would have taken hours and there was nowhere to sit anyway. So disappointed and a huge waste of time and money to...