© BROCCOLI

Above: Character goods on sale at Gamers (store interior pictured at below). Tumblers, card games, cute desk-top clocks, lighters—the store has lots to help you spice up your life.

Akihabara, pop capital of animé. Beginning around 2003, animé took over a big slice of Japan’s TV airwaves, and this led to a number of stores setting up shop in Akihabara to sell animé goods. Today there are five or six big stores, and too many small ones to count.

“Popular animé now tend to star some beautiful girl heroine, or fighting robots,” says the manager of one of the bigger stores, Gamers.

The store’s seven floors are crammed with all kinds of animé and manga products: books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, character goods, figurines, card games, the list goes on.

“Our customers range in age from junior high school kids to men and women in their 50s. They are all caught up in the craze, and want to own some part of the animé phenomenon and learn more about it.”

Human-size figurines of video game characters at Kaiyodo (above center photo). The figures are so well made they will take you straight into their world of make-believe.

Fraulein Revoltech (Futami Mami)
© Kubooka Toshiyuki, NBGI
Revoltech (Gurren Lagaan)
© GAINAX, Nakajima Kazuki / Aniplex, KDE-J, TV Tokyo, Dentsu
Fraulein Revoltech (Amami Haruka)
© Kubooka Toshiyuki, NBGI

Kaiyodo Hobby Lobby Tokyo is the oldest Akihabara store specializing in figurines of animé and manga characters. It is owned and operated by Kaiyodo Co., Ltd., which happens to be Japan’s best-known manufacturer in the field. The shop has an international clientele.

“Our overseas buyers tend to go for Shinseiki Evangelion and fighting robots the most. Our manufacturing technology makes it possible for owners to move the body parts, to depict the action or pose they want,” explains the store manager.

The store’s entrance has human-size figurines, and tourists often get their picture taken with them. If figurines are your fancy, what better place to enjoy fantasyland?