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In "Air Doll," there are several scenes overlooking the town of Ghin-machi (Minato) from a high place.
An overlooking scene also appears in the beginning of the story where Nozomi looks around the town on the rooftop of "Oka building" in her first day. Overlooking scenes I am talking about here show wider landscape from a higher place, in which we can even see Nozomi's rooftop below.
These scenes are very interesting in which I can overlook the entire town.
Now, where are these scenes filmed from?
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By observing the scene, I understand it was shot from the northwest of the town. So, I referred to a map to locate the place. Then I found two prospective buildings.
- "First Ozone Building" six-storied office building completed in 1990
- "WELT Ginza east" 12-storied residential building completed in 2005
The latter building has twice as many floors as the former one. However, difference of the height of two buildings is not so large. I guess this is because an office building has rather higher ceilings. Both buildings were there when the movie was shot (assumed to be between late autumn in 2008 and early in 2009.)
Upper floors of either building can be the point of the shooting. I need more detailed study to find the right place.
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A clue is buildings seen far away in the overlooking scenes. By observing some distant buildings, I can find a set of buildings whose corners are aligned on a straight line. By observing such straight lines in two directions, I can find the position of the camera as the the cross point of thoes two lines.
I chose four buildings in the overlooking scenes A1, A2, B1, B2, and found a cross point of two straight lines connecting the corners of A1 and A2, also B1 and B2. (See a figure)
| Building A1: |
Rivercity 21 Skylight Tower |
| Building A2: |
Christopher Hills (In the story, next to Ghin-machi park; Miki and Chiyoko live here.) |
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| Building B1: |
Famille Tsukishima Grand Suite Tower |
| Building B2: |
Pléiade Ginza Est |
These are all residential buildings.
The cross point of the two lines falls on the First Ozone Building, around the top end of an exterior stairs, on the rooftop.
The figure is simplified due to its limited size to display here. For the details refer to an individual map by clicking the figure. (or: CLICK HERE)
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# Click an image to display on a map
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I can find First Ozone Building on a satellite photo of Google Maps taken (assumed to be) around 2012 and on Google Street View taken in December 2009.
Then, I tried to find the building in pictures of Minato that I took in June 2013 when I visited the town for the first time.
However, I can only find WELT Ginza east building standing across a street, to the west of First Ozone Building. I can find no First Ozone Building in the pictures. What's going on?
It is not common to demolish a building, which was completed in 1990, in 2013. To demolish a reinforced concrete building within 30 years sounds strange. So I planned to visit the town again in September to confirm the fact.
To my surprise, in the town, I only found a large hole at the site where First Ozone Building was.
Supposed to be, the building had been demolished early in 2013. A new residential building was being built there and I could see old broken piles sticking out from the bottom of the large hole on the ground.
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I marked a position of First Ozone Building and the camera position of the overlooking scene on a picture that I took in September 2013 from the apposite bank of the Sumida river.
As shown in the picture, the building was located where the town of MInato and the Sumida river was able to be overlooked.
The position of the building is assumed based on Google Street View; the left-most picture aligned in the bottom part of this page.
In GSV, a building having an elevator machinery space on the roof and standing in front of WELT Ginza east seen in the center, is First Ozone Building. (GSV pictures might be updated in the future.)
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Incidentally, in the movie, I found a scene in which First Ozone Building was seen in a distant background.
It is the scene Nozomi looks around the town on a rooftop in her first day.
It looks like a figure shown here. Nozomi walks to the south on a rooftop of Oka Building and First Ozone building appears in a background.
This scene also told that the overlooking camera position was on First Ozone Building, not WELT Ginza east which stood across a street, the west of First Ozone Building. If the camera was on WELT Ginza east, an elevator machinery space on the roof of First Ozone Building must have been seen in the scene.
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In mid-2013, the place where First Ozone Building was looks like pictures on the right.
(Same pictures displayed in a balloon in a map, site "Overlooking the town.")
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You can view First Ozone Building in Google Street View with pictures taken around 2010.
❖ Descriptions here and Google Street View's images are based on SV display acquired on July 14, 2020.
Images from SV might be different from what I expected since SV's link addresses occasionally change.
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# Building at the center w/ an elevator room
- From the Sumida river
- taken: Aug. 2010
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# Building at the center w/ an elevator room & exterior stairs
- Grocery store Hideo dropped by at left of the corner
- taken: Dec. 2009
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I could not possibly imagine that the building was demolished.
"The town where the air doll lived" is changing rather rapidly.
Written: October, 2013 mKm
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