How to play GeoAnime

What is GeoAnime?

GeoAnime is a daily game of five questions: read a hint about an anime and find its real-world location (a “pilgrimage spot”) on the globe.

Answers are real places connected with anime: towns and buildings where stories are set, the hometowns of their creators, venues of anime events and more. Questions come from all over the world, not just Japan.

New questions arrive at midnight Japan time, and everyone plays the same five questions that day.

How to play

Press “Start” on the start screen to see the hint for question 1.
Read the hint and work out the place. Questions 1–3 name the anime in the hint; questions 4 and 5 do not, so they are harder.
Drag to spin the globe, zoom with the mouse wheel, a trackpad or the + / − buttons at the bottom right (two fingers on a phone), and tap the place.
After you answer, you see the correct place, how far off you were, your points and a short explanation of the place.
After all five, you get your total and a share text that shows your results as colored dots. Post it on X or LINE to compare with friends.
With “Confirm before answering” on, a tap places a pin and you answer with “Answer here”, so a mistaken tap does not count as an answer.

Scoring

Each question is worth 0–100 points. The closer you are, the more you get.
Questions in Japan are scored more strictly and questions overseas a little more generously, because places in Japan tend to be close to each other.
You have 1 minute 30 seconds per question. Answer within the reading time (30 seconds or a little more for longer hints) to keep your full score; after that it drops, down to half at exactly 1 minute 30 seconds.
When time runs out, your pin is used as your answer (at half the points); with no pin you get 0. Time is measured on our server, so reloading the page does not reset the clock.
Question 3 counts double and questions 4 and 5 triple, for a maximum of 1,000 points. To get 100 points, tap within 1 km of the answer within the reading time.
Colors: 🌟 100 · 🟢 90–99 · 🟡 50–89 · 🔴 1–49 · ⚫ 0.

Streaks and the ranking

Your streak grows for each day in a row on which you answer all five questions that same day.
Log in with Google and choose a nickname to appear in the daily ranking. You can see the top 50, your own rank, the average score and the number of players for today and the past 14 days. Ties go to the shorter total time.
You can play without logging in; your record is tied to this browser. If you log in with Google later, your record comes with you.

Clan Battle

Once you finish the day’s five questions, you can place colors on a shared 100 × 100 canvas: 1 square plus 1 more for every 200 points, usable only that day (Japan time).
Pick from 16 colors and place them anywhere, even over other players’ squares. The canvas starts fresh every two weeks, and finished pictures are kept as a record.
Log in with Google and choose a nickname to create or join a group and plan together in the group chat. Groups are ranked by how many squares they hold on the canvas.

GeoAnime Pro (paid)

GeoAnime Pro, a paid membership, lets you play missed days, random and themed sets of five (Studio Ghibli, World Masterpiece Theater, creators’ hometowns, event venues, overseas spots) and a Pro-only ranking, with no ads. The daily five questions, sharing, the ranking and Clan Battle stay free.

How the questions are made

The questions are written by the operator. Each place and fact is checked one by one against official information about the work, guides from local governments and tourism associations, news reports and so on, and the hints and explanations are written in our own words. We do not use images from the works or quote their lines.

Places connected with incidents, accidents or disasters are never used as answers.

If you find a mistake, please tell us with “Report this question”, shown after you answer.

Visiting the places

Most of these places are towns where people live. Please do not disturb the residents.
Do not enter schools that are still in use or private property.
When taking photos, do not block the road, and be careful not to photograph other people.
Using local shops and tourist information centers is a good way to support the town.

FAQ

Can I play previous days? → Each day’s questions can be played on that day (Japan time). Missed days can be played with GeoAnime Pro.
Can I play on my phone? → Yes, in your phone’s browser (Chrome, Safari and so on).
Why did I get 0 points? → Either time ran out with no pin placed, or you closed the page before answering and did not come back in time.
Why are there no place names on the map? → They are hidden so that they do not give the answer away.

Contact

Please contact [email protected].

Play today’s 5 questions →