Anime & Manga - Tokyo Intro: Experience #4 of 55

Anime and manga are not central to lives of most Japanese people, but they enjoy it and are proud of it as a part of their culture.  Adults often read manga and watch anime, so it isn’t just for teens and children.  You used to be able to ride the trains and see all sorts of people reading volumes of manga on it, but these days, everything is on cellphones.

Anime is Japanese animation, with a style and character associated with Japan.  It is one of the three corners of the modern Japanese pop culture triangle, with the other two being manga and J-pop.  Manga are typically black and white comics that use a style developed in Japan.  J-pop is Japanese pop music that became mainstream in the 1990s, and it is usually upbeat and energetic in nature, but there is great variety to it.  While there are other aspects to Japanese pop culture, these three are the ones that have global influence.  Japanese pop culture, cuisine, and videogames can be considered three equal disseminators of Japanese culture, like the prongs on a trident.

The anime business itself was worth almost 18 billion dollars in 2017, and Japan is a pop culture superpower with a massive world-wide fan base for these media.  These fans all want real-world experiences or merchandise related to their favorite shows or manga too, so there are many opportunities in Tokyo to indulge their desires.

Anime and manga related places and stores are in the list below:

• Akihabara.  See the Akihabara entry for more information on the heart of anime culture.
• Animate Main Store.  Animate is the largest retail chain in Japan for anime merchandise.  They sell anime, games, manga, art books, and anime related goods.  Their main store is nice and spacious in a new building located in Ikebukuro, but don’t get it mixed up with the old location there for costumes only.  This store is a must visit if you are in Ikebukuro. 
• Ikebukuro is in the NW corner of the central Tokyo area.  It is a busy business, entertainment, and shopping area.  The neighborhood received a lot of exposure from the popular anime Durarara which had supernatural and edgy things happening here.   The area also has many attractions like the first Kit Kat Chocolatory store and Sunshine City Aquarium with its penguins.  If you can only see one area for anime attractions, visit Akihabara first, but there are many anime attractions in this area too, including:
• The first Pokemon Mega Center at Sunshine City.
• Pokemon Go store at Sunshine City. 
• Pokemon Bakery at Sunshine City.
• THIS CLOSED at the start of 2019.  Shonen Jump J-World theme park in Sunshine City that has Naruto, Dragonball, and One Piece attractions, but it is targeted towards a younger audience.  A Jump Bar / Izakaya opened in 2019, but will close in 2020.
• Animate main store, Animate costume store.
• Evangelion store in the P' Parco, but it is much smaller than the now closed location in Harajuku.
• Yamada Denki LABI store with a whole floor of Gundam models.
• Izakaya Robo-Kichi where you can enjoy a drink and a meal with old robot anime.
• Otome Road with its many manga and anime stores for female anime fans.
• There is also a Tokyu Hands on the way to Sunshine City from Ikebukuro Station and it has a cat encounter room (kind of like a proto-cat cafe).
• Anime Stores Around Tokyo
• Animate Shinjuku is a pretty large store with an exhibition space on the east side of Shinjuku Station.
• Artnia in Shinjuku.  This is the main Square Enix Cafe and store.  It is in a little blob shaped building and probably worth a trip if you’re big into Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, but the store is not huge. There is another Square Enix Cafe in Akihabara.
• TOWERanime in Shinjuku is located in the Flags building near Shinjuku Station.
• Shinjuku Station’s West Exit has a few anime stores near it.  This includes a Yodobashi Camera that is also great for Pokemon Go gyms and stops, and a Tornoana.
• Donguri Garden Stores.  These are Ghibli product stores found in many locations including Tokyo Station Character Street and the Solamachi Mall at the Skytree.
• Fuji TV Store.  Big store at the Fuji TV Building in Odaiba for Fuji TV which produces and broadcasts anime.
• Godzilla Store in the Marui Annex, Shinjuku.  This is not where the giant Godzilla head is.  A nice store with plenty of Godzilla merchandise, but like the Evangelion Store, it isn’t large. If you’ve made it here, there is also a big Seria 100 yen store here – for something different from Daiso.
• Hello Kitty or Sanrio Stores.  Hello Kitty is everywhere.  There is a big Sanrio Store in Ginza that has two floors, but these stores are all over town.
• Mandarake Stores.  They sell all types of used anime and manga goods, toys, figures and books.  There are branches all over Tokyo.  Big store in Nakano Broadway with some truly collectable merchandise including some really big models.  The Akihabara Store is quite large too.
• Noitamina Cafe Store.  This is a small cafe and character goods store in the Decks Mall in Odaiba.
• Nintendo Tokyo store, the first official store Nintendo store in Japan, will be opening in new Shibuya Parco building in Shibuya.
• One Piece Mugiwara Store. Located in the MAGNET by SHIBUYA109 6F it has an abundance of One Piece merchandise and some life-sized character statues.  There is another one in Sunshine City in Ikebukuro.
• Production I.G. Store.  Merchandise for Production I.G. Shows like Ghost in the Shell, Psycho Pass, and more.  Now in Asaskusa.
• Pokemon Centers.  See the Pokemon Centers entry for more information.  All the Pokemon merchandise you will ever want.
• Sailor Moon Store in the Laforet Mall, Harajuku.  Small store dedicated to Sailor Moon merchandise.  This mall is full of trendy fashion and accessories too.
• Shonen Jump Stores.  Character merchandise for all Shonen Jump manga.  Found in many locations in Tokyo.  A few are the Solamachi Mall at the Skytree and Character Street at Tokyo Station.
• The TV Character Store at the Solamachi Mall is big, and it is for live action and animated shows, but it has lots of anime products.
• Nakano Broadway.  This mall is just outside Nakano Station, on the same train line that you would take to go out and visit the Ghibli Museum.  The mall is an interesting place and the upper floors at the back are full of anime stores, including Mandarake.  It has a more old fashioned feel than the newer places in Akihabara and you will find plenty of interesting shops here, including ones for vintage toys.
• One Piece Tokyo Tower.  This is a One Piece Theme Park at the Tokyo Tower.  If you are a fan, it might be worth a visit. THIS CLOSED MIDWAY THROUGH 2020.
  
• Tokyo Station Character Street.  A section of the mall at Tokyo Station that has many small anime stores.  Try shopping here if you cannot make it anywhere else, but it is definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.  Please see Tokyo Station for more detail.
• Tokyo Anime Center in DNP Plaza near Shinjuku in Ichigaya.  The Anime Center in Akihabara closed in 2017 and it moved here.  The facility hosts various anime exhibitions with some static displays.  Check to see what is showing here before visiting as you will probably only visit if there is something you want to see or are a huge anime fan.
• A large diorama theme park called SMALL WORLDS TOKYO is opening in 2020 in Ariake.  There are miniature dioramas of Tokyo-3 from Evangelion, Tokyo with Sailor Moon, and many other cityscapes. 

• An Anime Otaku Itinerary For Tokyo
• More on anime goods stores.

 
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