The eighth annual Nipponbashi Street Festa stamped Osaka March 20, 2012 (Nipponbashi is Osaka’s geek district – much like Akihabara is for Tokyo). Cosplayers turned up in colourful outfits, dressing as characters from their favourite manga, anime, and video games. The street was closed to cars, and otaku flooded the streets, snapping pics, cosplaying, and hanging out.

Crowd reaction outside the court for the Dr. Conrad Murray trial verdict on November 7, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. Murray was convicted in the 2009 death of pop singer Michael Jackson from an overdose of the powerful anesthetic propofol. Sentencing will take place November 29. (Photo by Toby Canham/Getty Images)

British actress Millie Bobby Brown and Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen break the sake barrel during the opening ceremony for Osaka Comic Con 2023 at the Intex Osaka on May 5, 2023 in Osaka, Japan. (Photo by Jun Sato/WireImage)

These stunning images capture some of America's most intense storms from an extraordinarily close perspective. Here: A tornado storm is rolling over the town of Stratford, Texas on May 17, 2016. (Photo by Maximilian Conrad/Caters News)

A pilot demonstrates an aircraft manufactured by US-based LIFT Aircraft in front of Osaka Castle in Osaka on March 14, 2023. (Photo by JIJI Press/AFP Phoot)

An illumination is held at a commercial facility “NAMBA PARKS” in Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture on November 15, 2022. Approximately 650,000 LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs are decorated to imagine waterfalls and meadows at the event. (Photo by Naoya Azuma/Yomiuri/The Yomiuri Shimbun via AFP Photo)

A performer dressed as a zombie performs inside a “Zombie Shinkansen” bullet train bound for Osaka from Tokyo, inspired by the South Korean movie “Train to Busan” ahead of the Halloween season, Japan, on October 19, 2024. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Seiichiro Nishimoto, CEO of Shelter Co., poses wearing a gas mask at a model room for the company's nuclear shelters in the basement of his house in Osaka, Japan on April 26, 2017. With nearby North Korea increasing its show of power day by day with missile launches and nuclear tests, people in Japan are preparing for the worst by building private nuclear shelters, Reuters reports. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)