Mandarake Nakano

First stop yesterday afternoon, after the ol' shorts and shirt dried out a bit, was Mandarake Nakano, purportedly the Promised Land of anime and mangaites. For those who care, from here that's the Ginza-Ichome Station, Yurakacho Line to Iidabashi Station, then the Tozai Line to Nakano.

Getting to Mandarke is a peace of cake from the station's North Exit (北口　出口 is what you need to look for - I couldn't see any English). Just walk out, look for the Sun Mall (easy to spot, just look for the big opening with a skylight across the street - see me Flickr), go through the mall and eventually you pass into Nakano Broadway, home of Mandarake. Now, Mandarake isn't really one store, it's actually a bunch of little shops within the mall, which also houses other shops (mainly clothing).

Now, if you're looking for Bleach products, you've come to the wrong place, as I sadly found out. Unless you like long-running or vintage anime/manga, you're not going to find what you want. I did find some Bleach stuff, usually a few items next to the Naruto spreads. I don't know where we're going to find anything good, maybe a researched and organized trip to Nagoya will be in order.

Anyway, what you can find at the Mandarake shops are TONS of little figures (with not-so-little pricetags for what you get), anime cels, sketches and backgrounds, movie posters, cosplay outfits (as pictured above), toys, manga books, etc., etc., etc..

Outside the malls there are tiny side streets lined with little restaurants and izakayas (small pub with grilled and other foods). If you're up for a culinary adventure, please enjoy.

I hope I've saved someone a trip with this posting, or encouraged someone else to go. Enjoy. In any event, it's an experience.