Kyoto Animation is famous for this, to the point that fans have managed to track down the location and angle of the place on which the background of individual scenes were based.
Nagaru Tanigawa made their work much easier in this case, lovingly describing the various locations in his hometown of Nishinomiya (even if he never named it explicitly), where the novels take place, in great detail. KyoAni people only needed to make a weekend visit to take pictures — it's about one hour from Kyoto by train.
K-On! does this in two ways: the unnamed city is based on Kyoto◊, but since it's stated that the city is not Kyoto, no famous landmarks are shown (the girls subsequently visit Kyoto in a Class Trip). The school's interior and exterior are based on the former Toyosato Elementary school, which is located in the small town of Toyosato (50 km from Kyoto).
Free!'s second season has an episode set in Sydney, Australia. It contains a painstaking amount of work where the external location shots all match to real world places in the city, one example being that a cafe that the characters visited had a lot of new Japanese customers for a period after the episode aired. This includes what some might think of as Eiffel Tower Effect in a title card, because it includes both the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge, but in reality is the actual view from Milsons Point and the North Sydney Olympic Pool.
BECK does this a lot during their tour of America. And seems to have Shown Their Work.
Cesare - Il Creatore che ha distrutto is a meticulously researched historical manga where art and architecture play a major role. Many real places in Italy are rendered in gorgeous detail. In volume 7, Cesare gives his cousin Silencio, and the reader, a tour of the art in the Cathedral of Pisa, and its religious and political significance (Dante Alighieri is involved). The Sistine Chapel is also shown, accurate to what it looked like at the time (Michelangelo Buonarroti appears in the manga, but he was 16 years old then, same as main character Cesare Borgia).
The series Durarara!! recreates much of Ikebukuro (a section of Tokyo) — sometimes disturbingly so. (That vending machine Shizuo uprooted and tossed around in Ep. 3 actually exists.) People have even made montages of the many suspiciously familiar places they've found in the anime.
According to fans of Gunsmith Cats, you can tell when its location scouting in Chicago was done by the state of repairs on some of the buildings.
Kamichu! does this with Onomichi in the Hiroshima prefecture. See here. Of course, everything looks a little newer in the anime—it's set in the period between spring 1983 and spring 1984.
Eden of the East for Washington, D.C. and parts of Tokyo. The mall that Takizawa lives in is a real place - Lalaport in Toyosu. The movie theater in the show looks exactly like it does in real life.
K with Shibuya, though in the show, they call it Shizume. Scepter 4's headquarters, Bar HOMRA, and the Elaborate University High are also all based on real locations in Tokyo.
Love Live! is set in the Tokyo neighborhoods of Akihabara, Kanda and Jinbouchou, so there are many locations from those areas featured in the series. The main area on Chuo Doori around the station is shown quite a few times. The maid cafe where Kotori works is real, as is Honoka's parents' wagashi shop. Apparently their manju really are as great as Umi says (the bridge in the above video also shows up frequently in the anime). And of course, Kanda Myojin, one of the most important Shinto shrines, where Nozomi works as a Miko-in-training. The shrine even had collaborations with Love Live, which is actually nothing new for them - they had similar things with popular Kabuki actors over a hundred years ago.
Love Live! Sunshine!! is set in the seaside neighborhood of Uchiura in Numazu, Shizuoka prefecture. Tourism to Numazu has exploded as a result of the anime's popularity.
Sound of the Sky's Seize is based off Cuenca, Spain. Fans have even gone there to take photos of locales shown on the anime.
Naoki Urasawa's Monster takes you mostly through the scenery of the former Communist bloc, like Germany and Czechoslovakia, as it tries to unravel the mystery of Johan's creation and his past, though some other settings occur as well, such as Southern France.
You can find his references for some of the streets and buildings here.
Most iterations of Digimon do this, at least before the places in question get torn apart by kaiju.
Fuji TV, the station that broadcast Digimon Adventure in Japan, has its headquarters on the manmade island of Odaiba, and it becomes a key location during the Real World portion. Tokyo Big Sight and Palette Town's ferris wheel are also heavily present, as well as Tokyo Tower across the river from Odaiba. Digimon Adventure 02 takes place largely in the Real World and many of the locations are based on real life locations, including the apartment buildings the characters live in and their school.
While Digimon Frontier largely takes place in the Digital World, the few segments that take place in the Real World feature very accurate depictions of Shibuya Station in Shibuya and Jiyugaoka Station in Meguro, where Takuya lives.
Digimon Data Squad takes place in the city of Yokohama in the Kanagawa prefecture, and includes many real life locales in the background; Yokohama Landmark Tower makes several appearances, and an episode is set in a fictionalized version of the Cosmo World amusement park. Masaru's middle school, Otori Municipal, is even based on a real school with a similar name.
Digimon Fusion largely takes place in the Digital World, but the first episode establishes that Taiki and his friends live in Tokyo's Koto ward, with shots of the Sumida River and the Tokyo Skytree. The sequel series largely takes place in Koto, and the Skytree becomes a focal point in the final episodes when the main antagonist uses it to merge Digi Quartz with the Real World.
Tentai Senshi Sunred takes place in Kawasaki, Japan, and matches it shot for shot. The art style of Sunred might not be the one usually associated with this trope, but the locations are all too real.
There's also a flashback that takes place in Istanbul (not Constantinople), Turkey, and the background is a very close reproduction of the Istanbul skyline◊. Also note that the only way to tell that this takes place in Istanbul is to recognize the background, because it isn't actually mentioned.
The town of Kamakura, in the Kanagawa prefecture in Japan, is popular as a setting for anime and manga series, in large part due to its extensive seaside beaches, numerous historic sites with lots of Shrines and Temples, its distinctive local train service (Enoden), and of course its proximity to Tokyo. As a matter of fact, the train crossing near Kamakurakokomae station is depicted so often that it can be considered cliché.
Elfen Lied. Lucy winds up on Yuigahama beach. The stairs of Gokurakuji temple get a lot of screen time, up to and including the emotional ending. Enoshima island and the Benten bridge leading up to it are used for the ultimate battle in the anime, with lots of screen time for the Enoshima Light House Observatory.
In Sweet Blue Flowers, characters are often depicted traveling on the Enoden line. Enoshima island and the Benten bridge are shown as well, but the show gains bonus points for having a scene in the Iwaya cave. The "Milk Hall", the show's main hangout spot, is a real location and the famous Elfen Lied stairs are also shown, this time in a more romantic setting. Mangaka Takako Shimura even based the design of Fujigaya Academy, especially the long woodland path leading up to the gate, on the real-life Kamakura Literature Museum.
Twin Spica takes a more stylized approach, although the shorelines and the Yuigahama boulevard where Asumi goes jogging are clearly recognizable.
In Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Alpha takes a trip to Kamakura, with a very prominent view of Enoshima.
Ping Pong is another Enoshima-set show, with the final scene of the series taking place on the beach near the island. Curiously, the anime depicts the modern "Sea Candle" lighthouse, whereas the manga depicts its predecessor.
The events within Tari Tari are also set in Kamakura, particularly around Enoshima.
HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, which usually takes place in the fictional Kibougahana, has the characters visit Kamakura, which also happens to be Tsubomi's former hometown, for an episode.
Aiura is set in Kamakura. Some local landmarks appear regularly, such as the gate of the Museum of Literature. There are depictions of locations from other towns mixed in, though.
The anime of Myriad Colors Phantom World makes heavy use of Kamakura locales. The main characters travel with the Shōnan Monorail, and Shōnan-Enoshima Station makes a regular appearance. Also, the stairs to Reina's house are clearly modeled after the stairs of Gokurakuji temple.
Though most of The Vision of Escaflowne takes place in the fantasy world of Gaea, a number of real-life landmarks plus a sweeping scenery shot of the ocean from a mountainside reveals that Hitomi's high school where the story starts is in Kamakura.
Someday's Dreamers II: Sora takes place against photo-realistic real-life backgrounds. Of special note are Biei in Hokkaido, hometown of the main character Sora, and the hip Tokyo neighborhood of Shimokitazawa. In one episode Sora and Kohta also go on a date in Kamakura.
Amanchu! largely takes place in the town of Ito on the Japanese Izu peninsula, which is known for its abundant hot springs. The big building at the shore where the cast gets together a few times is a well-known local landmark.
Umi Monogatari is set on one of the subtropical Japanese Amami-Oshima islands. It doesn't get any explicit mention though until the DVD special.
Darker than Black is big on this. All three major localities the TV show takes place in, Tokyo, Sapporo and Vladivostok, were painstakingly researched to the point where indeed it was possible to pinpoint the time the references were taken by the state of specific buildings alone, to the point that it explicitly binds the action to January 2008. The large-scale redevelopment that begun in Summer 2008 in preparation for the 2012 APEC summit, has changed downtown Vladivostok to the extent that it would be impossible to miss, had the action happened any later.
Cat Planet Cuties is set in Okinawa. The credits reveal that the staff worked with the Okinawa tourism board, and does it ever show. There is almost no part of the show that's not showing off the island, its wildlife and its attractions at one point or another.
Tamayura takes place in Takehara, a small seaside town of in the Hiroshima prefecture of Japan, not far from Kamichu!'s Onomichi. The town is rendered with painstaking detail, up to and including touristic signs.
Fractale contains detailed shots of the west of Ireland, and the town in episode 2 is a lot like Galway.
Grave of the Fireflies featured locations that were accurately based on real places from the Kobe prefecture.
Kiki's Delivery Service: The animators visited several old cities in Europe to gather inspiration for the town in the movie, most notably Stockholm and Visby, Sweden. As a result, not only landmarks but also specific storefronts and street signs from these cities are visible in the finished movie.[1] Kiki's bakery was based on a specific bakery in Ross, Tasmania, which has now become a tourist attraction for fans.[2]
Hanasaku Iroha is set in a town modelled after Yuwaku. Comparison pictures can be found here.
The girls from Strawberry Marshmallow live in the town of Hamamatsu, in Japan's Shizuoka prefecture. The artist loves to sneak in references, like maps and local landmarks, and sometimes even mentions them by name.
Many of the locations in Yubisaki Milk Tea are real places in Tokyo, often drawn in surprising detail. A collection of pictures of the real places can be seen here.
Yuritetsu is about four girls which form a railway club and naturally goes by real trains to real stations and sights all over Japan. Their local station Yurigasaki-Joshikoumae is a renamed Hino Station on the Chūō Main Line in Tokyo, but the other places goes by their real names, be it the big Ueno Station in Tokyo or the secluded Koboro on Hokkaido. And since one of the girls, Hakutsuru Tsurumi, is a fan of a series which is obvious K-On!, they are also visiting the above-mentioned Toyosato Elementary School.
Plastic Memories is heavily implied to take place in Singapore. As you can see in this comparison, the city-state's districts and landmarks such as Orchard Road and the Bugis+ mall, are replicated down to the last bit of detail.
Joshiraku the second short have the girls visiting various places in Japan while providing some trivia about the location.
March Comes in Like a Lion uses places in the Tsukishima Area in the Chuo-ward of Tokyo as a reference for the setting, particularly the Tsukishima and Tsukuda districts. The author even marks the locations she used in the omake.
The anime of Sunday Without God has two notable examples. The Valley of Death arc displays the Port du Gard, a Roman aqueduct located in France, and at the beginning of the Class 3-4 arc, the characters briefly visit a church based on Saint Peter's Basilica, which is also shown in the opening.
The bridge in Arakawa Under the Bridge is based on a real bridge located in Tokyo's Arakawa ward. In the anime, some shots even contain the Tokyo Skytree while it was still under construction.
Glasslip takes place in Mikuni, a small seaside town in Japan's Fukui prefecture.
The events of Flying Witch are set in and around Hirosaki City in Aomori, with area landmarks, such as the Hirosaki Castle and Park, and the Taisho Roman Tearoom, being featured as locations that the main characters visit.
The vicinity of Tokyo-3 in Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Rebuild films is heavily modeled on the inland town of Hakone.
Most of Barakamon takes place on Fukue-jima, the largest and southernmost island of the Gotō Islands in the Nagasaki prefecture of Japan. Many landmarks are clearly recognizable, such as the Gotō-Fukue airport, the town of Fukue and Tomie Hospital.
Celestial Method uses real locations from Tōyako, a town in the Hokkaido prefecture of Japan, and Sapporo. Lake Toya, a volcanic caldera lake in Shikotsu-Toya National Park, can often be seen as a backdrop.
Several Western suburbs of Tokyo, such as Musashino, its district of Kichijoji (which is distinct enough to feel as a separate entity, though), and Mitaka right next to them, are popular among the various anime studios as locations for their HQs in Real Life, so they sometimes end up as settings due to their familiarity to the animators:
Musashino gets named explicitly in the novels of Maria Watches Over Us, so the anime uses many locations from Musashino and Kichijoji, especially the train stations. Additionally, Sachiko's family apparently has a summer home in Karuizawa, a resort not far from Tokyo, and in the last episode Touko and Yumi travel to Chichibu (which is also the setting of AnoHana). Also of note are the faithful depictions of Rome, Pisa and Florence in the OVA.
PAW's Shirobako is an animation industry-themedWork Com set in Musashino Animation studio, so it shows a lot of local scenery (including a building of the studio itself, which is a real one), Musashino and Kichijouji train stations with their shopping arcades, the nearby Inokashira park and Benten shrine in Mitaka, etc. It is also full of other Shout Outs to various animation-industry locales around Greater Tokyo.
Holyland mentions Kichijoji by name as one of the two areas where the events happen (the other being the fictional Shimokita).
You're Under Arrest! is an another Work Com, this time about the traffic police department in the Bokuto district of the Tokyo's Sumida ward, and portrays the various Eastern Tokyo locations, including the Tokyo Monorail, quite fathfully.note Except in real life Bokuto doesn't have a police precinct, being served by the ones in nearby districts. The promotional poster to the second seson even features the leading girls against the beauty shot of the iconic red-railed Azuma bridge near the Asakusa station,note Ironically, placing them in the Taito ward, on the other side of Sumida. with the Sumida Ward office and the infamous Golden Turdnote An enormous gold-colored and vaguely poop-shaped sculpture atop of the Asahi Brewery flagship beer hall, that is supposedly a flame blown by the wind prominently featuring in the background (though not the Tokyo Sky Tree, which was built more than a decade later).
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou is a loving and meticulously detailed recreation of the much of Greater Tokyo area, from Kamakura and Yokohama to the south to Musashino to the west and so on, in the Cosy CatastropheAfter the End setting. Yokosuka may be completely submerged by the rising sea levels, but its streetlights are still getting on every night — ten meters underwater.
One of the Hell banishments in the third season of Hell Girl has one Asshole Victim thrown off a green-tinted Empire State Building, with the Chrysler Building visible in the background. Another banishment in the same season also briefly shows the Empire State Building in the background before this episode's Asshole Victim gets chased by a gigantic Ai Enma near the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.
The bridge from which Banri Tada of Golden Time fell, causing his amnesia, is the Horai Bridge in Shizuoka Prefecture, the world's longest wooden walking bridge.
One scene in episode 13 of Charlotte takes place in the Philippines. For instance, the "Walking Street" arch is actually found in Balibago, Angeles City, in the province of Pampanga.
Kochikame does this a lot with local backgrounds of Tokyo, especially in chapter introductory pages.
While Makoto Shinkai is well known for his surreal Scenery Porn, some of his more realistic works utilize this trope quite a lot, with almost all of them having something to do with Tokyo.
In The Garden of Words, the garden where Takao and Yukari meet is Shinjuku Gyoen, a park located in the Shinjuku and Shibuya districts of Tokyo, see anime and real life comparsion here◊.
While the town of Itomori in Your Name is fictional (as it is based on Hida City in Gifu Prefecture), there are still plenty of scenes set in Tokyo, especially this◊ iconic scene from one of the posters. It's so true to life it's even possible to triangulate Taki's address purely from background landmarks.
Yuri!!! on Ice features several real-world locations due to being about international-level figure skating, so naturally it would lead to many instances of this. The first two episodes alone have a lot of examples, which are listed in this Crunchyroll article. Though Yuri's hometown of Hasetsu isn't a real place, it's heavily based on the real Kyushu town of Karatsu.
Despite Classicaloid being an Edutainment Show, it has a recognisable background of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka. In real life, the harmonica-shaped building the bad guys use as a base is called Act City, while the kite festival mentioned in Schu's debut episode actually does happen.
At the ending of Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works], Shirou and Rin visit Saber's grave in Glastonbury Abbey. Assuming that this is indeed where Saber died, it's also possible that this is where or near where Saber pulled out Caliburn (a grass field) and/or died after the Battle of Camlann (a forest, which could have been sawed down), given the similar settings.
Laid-Back Camp is largely set in Yamanashi Prefecture, next to the foothills of Mount Fuji. Some of the camping trips see the cast visit campsites in the area, but the girls also visit other regions: during the fourth episode, Rin rides out to Nagano and visits Mount Tatebochi. Crunchyroll has compiled a list of comparison photos in twoposts, showing how closely the animation follows real life. The anime has also led to a surge in popularity for the campsites shown.
Sarazanmai takes place in Asakusa, a real district of Tokyo, and it uses real landmarks from there as backgrounds. It's an especially appropriate choice since the series also features the street of Kappabashi-dori, which ties into the series' Kappa motif. This is also done quite literally in the first PV and the ending credits, where the characters are animated over real shots of Asakusa.
During the fourth episode of Asteroid in Love, the Earth Sciences Club spends a few days with Yuki's grandparents in Tsukuba owing to their proximity to the Geological Museum, Space Centre, and The Science Museum of Map and Survey. The concentration of research institutes here resulted from a government initiative that was created in the 1960s to relieve overcrowding at Tokyo-based institutes and encourage Japanese scientific advancement.
Dr. STONE: The International Space Station is portrayed in near-perfect detail in flashbacks. Apparently the artist used hundreds of reference images. Senku, Yuzuriha, and Taiju also see the Great Buddha of Kamakura on their journey.
A Whisker Away is set in director Shibayama Tomotaka's hometown of Tokoname, known for its ceramics. Pottery is a recurring theme in the film, and several real-life streets with pottery walls are seen.
Super Cub is also set in the Yamanashi Prefecture. Just like Laid-Back Camp above, but in the other side of Mount Fuji. This has led to Friendly Fandoms between the two series.
Zombie Land Saga of course has the Saga prefecture, and especially the city of Karatsu where the girls live, shown in loving detail (Co-producer Cygames has division located in Saga though its main headquarters are in Tokyo). The many venues and locations the girls visit are also real from Drive-in Tori, Furusato Hall Arpino, Boat Race Karatsu and Ekimae Real Estate Stadium in (located in Tosu). Perhaps unsurprisingly, tourism to these locations swelled after the anime aired.
Little Witch Academia’s Blytonbury is based on the Somerset town of Glastonbury. In fact, the LeyLines terminal is based on the Tor.
Wangan Midnight has races set in the actual Metropolitan Express Highway in Tokyo and Yokohama, with a few races set in the Hanshin Expressway in Osaka. Sections of the Metro Highway include the Ooi U-Turn, Haneda Line, C1, and Route 9, which the characters mention every time they race. The races also go through or pass by real landmarks such as the Tokyo Tower, Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo Sky Tree, Tsurumi Tsubasa Bridge, and Haneda Airport.
