Furu Anime Panikku

Wow, I totally forgot about this post, and more than 2 months later, it’s still in my drafts folder. Browsing through the photos I took in September reminded me that I wanted to write about this while I was still in Japan, but I just didn’t have to time to do so. That, and the unstable network I was using while I was at my friend’s house.

This is by no means a complete list of places selling anime stuff, but rather, the places I’ve spotted while wandering around the city area of Fukuoka over 2 days. “Why only these few places?”, you might ask. Well, I took my own sweet time strolling around, take breaks whenever I pleased. I even took a break at the beach area more almost half an hour.

This Mandarake branch was located in Tenjin. As you can see, it had an entire building to itself.

I can’t really remember how I got there, since I just walked around the area near the Tenjin station randomly and was soon greeted by the building. There wasn’t much here to be amazed with, really, especially if you’ve gone to the Mandarake in Akihabara. I hung around for about half an hour, looking around for stuff that might interest me. The only thing which caught my attention was this pack of Battle Royale Kubricks, the one with the map and marker, but I already had one back home.

One thing interesting to note was the posters all over the store, stating the penalty of taking photos within the premises. If I remember well, you would be handed over to the police and be blacklisted from all Mandarake stores. Also, if you’re a student, your parents and school would be informed. Certainly not worth the effort of some sneaky snaps.

Besides Mandarake, there was a building in the same area which had nothing but otaku-related stores, selling everything from trading cards to figurines. I didn’t manage to take any photos within the building, as doing so might have gotten me into undesired trouble.

The other anime related stores that I came across were in Canal City Hakata, which was a 10 minutes stroll from Hakata station. The Canal City’s a shopping mall, one which was quite huge. It was separated into various sections, and getting around was quite confusing at first. I took about 10 minutes to find out which escalator I could take to get to the cinema.

Most of the stores that anime fans would want to head to were at the basement.

Years back, I’ve always wanted to visit a Pokemon Center

Any Ultraman fans?

For all your Naruto and Bleach needs!

The other stores were kiddy stores selling stuff such as Hello Kitty goods and other similar random things. I had totally no interest in taking photos of those. Anyway, for those wondering what my loot was after visiting these few stores, you might be surprised that I only walked away with an Eyeshield 21 poster and pencilboard, which are now hidden somewhere in my room. The poster’s really awesome, and only costs 800 yen for its B2 size.

I could have actually spent some time going to the Animate branch in Fukuoka, but there wasn’t a reason to do so, since I would be heading to Tokyo in a couple of days. Also, it wouldn’t make sense to increase my luggage’s load while I’m still traveling around, what more alone.

For any fellow animated visual arts enthusiasts who are planning to make a trip to the southern part of Japan, you might want to check out these spots. They were all located in areas with lots of shops that the average person would visit, so if you have any non-enthusiast travelling mates with you, it would be rather convinient for you.

To end off, here’s a photo of the beach I spoke of earlier.