Tokyo 2012 part 2

[davemerrill]

Tuesday! Another steamy day in Tokyo. Here a poster for Fist Of The North Star related pachinko fun looms over a muggy Ikebukuro.



That's where we went on Tuesday, back down to the east side to hit Toranoana, which is a chain of multi-story manga and anime shops filling all your anime and manga needs. Well, some of your manga and anime needs. I highly recommend everybody visit Japan, it's awesome, but if you're an anime nerd then visiting Japan will really open your eyes because the stuff that you think is awesome and super popular might not be what's awesome and super popular in Japan. Right now the big stuff in Japan is One Piece, Gundam (of course), Cardfight Vanguard, and more One Piece. I'm talking giant billboards, character shirts worn by non-anime nerds, entire shops devoted to merchandise, giant inflatable characters looming over amusement parks, that's One Piece.

Not that there's that much One Piece in Toranoana; the first floor is anime DVDs, second floor is professional shonen/seinen manga, third floor is doujinshi for the ladies, fourth floor is doujinshi for the men and the 18+ men. A surprising amount of the ladies-type doujin - meaning, doujin starring male anime characters who have sex with each other - is devoted to Tiger & Bunny, the corporate sponsor superhero show that was big one or two seasons ago. Well, they're doing each other. Surprise surprise.

We gave Toranoana the once-over and bought some doujin - I got some non-adult dojin starring Spongebob Squarepants and the little tiger Benesse Corporation uses as a children's mascot character. Then we hopped the train over to Shinjuku to visit Sekaido and marvel at their art supplies. Sekaido was absolutely jam packed with girl comic book artists poring over screentone and pen points. We hit the Book-Off, which was full of browsers browsing Y105 manga, and the Tsutaya, which is Japan's big video/book/CD rental chain that has the anime section like you wouldn't freakin' believe, entire series from the 60s and 70s and 80s on DVD and VHS waiting for you to rent. Then we met Roy under the Studio ALTA sign.



This is Shain in front of some kind of Hello Kitty bus in front of the Studio ALTA sign. Anyways Roy was our guide on our last trip, he's lived in Japan for decades and knows where everything is and we followed him in and around the twisty turny alleys of Shinjuku, through a tiny alley full of tiny bars and restaurants, up to a old school tempura place. Had a great dinner, caught up on the news, did some browsing in Bic Camera, had late coffee, went back to Ikebukuro.



Wednesday it was time for the pilgrimage to Nakano Broadway.



This is the mall where Mandarake has its flagship store, meaning two floors full of little Mandarakes selling toys, old manga and books and doujinshi, model kits, games, posters, records, DVDs, CDs, anime cels, etc. There are also non-Mandarake-affiliated vendors with their own shops full of cool old stuff. For a nerd like me Nakano Broadway pretty much needs an entire day devoted to giving it the once-over. We actually got there too early and had to wait for them to open up. Top tip: the escalator goes up to the THIRD floor, so if you take it up expecting to be on 3 and then take the stairs down, expecting to come out on the ground floor, you will be surprised. There are shops on the 4th floor as well. Wear comfortable shoes, take your time.

Some of the stuff we bought:



Prince Planet Sonorama!



Yup, that's a cel from ANNE OF GREEN GABLES.



I felt like I had to buy this record from HELLHOUND LINER 0011 because I borrowed the image I used in the Let's Anime column from another source and I felt guilty. Anyway we shopped 'til we dropped and then left Nakano just as a high school band was setting up in the plaza next to the train station. Went back to Ikebukuro and took a shower, and then we went out to explore the neighborhood a little. Walked down the main drag away from the station and wound up at a Denny's where the road dead-ended into Expressway No. 5, across the street from an airsoft gun store. And that was Tuesday and Wednesday. Coming soon: Oizumi Gakuen and Toei.

Comments

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Awesome on top of awesome!

Funny thing is, there's not really that much I feel I need to complete various things. Cyber Blue, Queen Emeraldas and Gun Frontier manga, maybe go all out and grab the rest of Hokuto no Ken manga. OTOH I strongly suspect I would lose my mind over the things I didn't know I wanted.

And if I found a shop that sold nothing but old plastic model kits I would die on the spot.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

You could complete your Queen Emeraldus and Gun Frontier manga sets for 105 yen a volume. I think the hardcover editions were 300 yen. I didn't pick up as much manga as I should have, I think, but we did get all of Mizuno's FIRE, a volume of ATTACK NO. 1, another volume of Shimamoto's SUPER NINJA DAN and another manga he did I'd never seen, second volume of GENMA TAISEN, all super cheaply. It got to the point where my only concern was being able to lug it all home.

I didn't see a shop that sold NOTHING but old model kits, but I did go into several model kit shops that had a pretty good selection of old kits along with the new kits. I haven't put a model kit together in 25 years but some of those vintage ACROBUNCH kits are kinda sweet.

And yeah, you would totally go to Japan thinking you were pretty sure about what you'd be looking for, and you would wind up discovering amazing stuff you never knew existed. That's one of the great things about the darn place.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

See, that's always been the problem. Several times over the years I've had that "hey, what can I bring you back?" moment and I've always said "it's not the stuff I know about that I really need, it's the stuff I didn't know existed I crave. And of course not knowing it exists, I can't know to ask you to look for it"

Tim has discovered this truth for himself I think. :)

Right now I'm kind of in this mode of wanting to fill the holes in my collection, those gaps that annoy and create OCD moments. I feel a need to do that before I die.

We live in an age of wonder and strangeness. Did you know that a company has a figure of 'Jim Mazinger' from the Violence Jack manga coming out? That's the kind of world we live in. Jim Mazinger.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean with the "can I bring you anything back" question. The fun is being there and finding the stuff you didn't know was there, not filling out a checklist.

[hillsy2k.livejournal.com]

I tried doing the checklist thing, the first time. Now, I don't even bother. I may have a couple things in mind, in the off-chance I find them, but it's far more fun to just discover. One of the mandarakes in Nakano Broadway Mall is devoted to all Showa era stuff...I found an 8Man sofubi set and a Goranger puzzle I never even knew I needed. ;) Great stuff, Dave. Ikebukuro is the way to go; the walk between the station and Sunshine City is so much fun. And the craftbeer bars...oh my. Even with that, I still had to seek out the (original) Lion Beer Hall in Ginza....just to pretend I was in a 60's Japanese film ! (and drink beer.)