To the question « Why are you interested in Japan ? », most of the foreigner students answer that this is Japanese culture which attracted them before coming in Japan... And, if some of them are fond of J-Pop and Idoles, or of the folklore and old cultural traditions as Ikebana, Tea Ceremony or Calligraphy, most of them are deeply interested in mangas, animes and video games. Actually, I am one of them. And this is why I am so happy of having discovered the Paradise... in this building of height floors named Animate.
This paradise for Otakus (or Geeks) but also for all mangas, animes or video games' fans can be found in Ikebukuro. This shop is one of a chain, Animate, which sells products related to these different medias in Japan and in Taipei, in Taiwan. There are 38 shops in total (and only one of them is in Taiwan) and the one of Ikebukuro is the main one. It is really close to Ikebukuro Station, right in front of the Sunshine City, this building of 60 floors which towers above the district.
The Animate Tower distinguishes itself thanks to its blue vertical boards, all around it and at its top, on which is written the name of the brend: Animate. As it name says it, it is a tower: a tall building of eight flours but really narrow. For instance, there is not any escalator and these is with your legs that you will have to go to the top of it through its eight flours where an impressive amount of diverse items from lastest mangas, animes or video games pile up.
The first flour is the one of the magazines, the food related to mangas, animes and video games (well... of the snacks...) and vending machines: against 100 or 200¥, in fonction of the ojects and of the licence, you will receive a plastic bowl which contains a gadget. From the second flour to the fourth included, you can find the books. As they are in Japanese and as you can find most of them in all the book shops, I did not stop and I carried on going up. Indead, I was more interested in the fifth and sixth flours, respectively dedicated to character goodies and figurines... Goodies being notably keyrings, plastic folders or game cards with the head of your favourite characters, while the figurines have many shapes and sizes. There is for instance the interesting concept of traded figurines, notably offered by Square Enix: this is a good way to obtain not expensive figurines (under 1000¥) but not always the one you want. Indead, you can buy a box which contain one of the figurine of a serie of five or six figurines, without knowing the one you are buying... Then, you will have to find someone which is ok to trade or to accept the one you got. Finally, there are two last floors, the seventh and the eighth, which offer CDs and DVDs.
The biggest interest of that kind of shop is the novelty of the products wich are sold. An interesting system in this building is the existence of posters announcing the next products and some bar codes linked to these posters to let you reserve the products you are interested in. However, there is also an inconvenient to this novelty. Most of the products are changing really fast in fonction of the popularity of the mangas and of their actuality. An example ? Today, the popularity of Naruto seems to be slowing down in Japan, notably in constrast with One Piece which is omnipresent, and only a little space was dedicated to it... a plastic folder, three postcards and four keyrings and that was all... Same assessment for Square Enix's products. Only the last released games were present. It was impossible to find products from before Final Fantasy XII (except the main characters, as Tidus, Cloud or Squall).
To conclude, I think this is useless to say that this kind of shop offered expensive prices (do not be surprised to have to pay around 1000¥ for a keyring or a cellphone decoration)... which does not prevent it to be overcrowded and to be visited by Japanese and foreigner people. As this is a place where, if you are interested in mangas or even Japanese culture, you can stay during many hours dawdling between books, figurines and diverse items. This is the paradise, as I have already said to you ^^
Marièke POULAT
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