Japan, A Shopping Overview: Akihabara Part Two

Continuing on from part one, my (relatively) comprehensive look at Akihabara.

Onwards from Aso Bit City, if you keep going to the end of the block and turn right, you’ll come across what is probably the nosiest store on the planet; Lammtarra (website NSFW). When you get past the wall of noise from the multiple CDs and anime Blu-ray they are blasting out at the same volume at the same time, you’ll discover a decent amount anime CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray and games around the ground floor. Most are discounted far more than other stores. Upper floors have porn, porn and nothing but porn, so if you’re not into that stuff, avoid at all costs. Another Lammtarra store (called Mulan) is located on the other side of the road about hundred metres up.

At the end of the block is Volks, which I have previously written about. Around the corner is Gamers and beyond that the newly build and opened Akihabara Radio Kaikan. The original was demolished after numerous cracks appeared in the structure after the devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake. A temporary residence was set up during demolition and reconstruction in the building Volks now occupies. The new Radio Kaikan has nine floors of shops including a range figure, toy and rental box stores (Havikoro, Kaiyodo, Astop, RobotRobot, Uchusen, X aka Ekkusu, a couple of Volks shops and Jungle), a model kit shop (Yellow Submarine), tons of card shops, an omiyage (souvenir) shop, a doujin store (K-Books) a shop dedicated to idol merchandise (Trio) and a couple of electronic equipment stores. For more anime merchandise including omiyage, Gamers is right outside the building to your left about 20 metres down. For lunch you should probably go to GoGoCurry. The one near Book Off is far less crowded. The restaurant chain uses vending machine tickets, so figure out what meal you want in katakana/kanji before you go so you’re not bothering other patrons.

At midday I usually head over to Mandarake, mostly because it’s quieter than later in the day. I’ve written about Mandarake in a general sense before, but the Akihabara Complex is slightly larger than the average shop with eight floors. While there are stairs tom floors on the outside of the building, it pays to take the elevator inside the building the highest floor you want to go to and work your way down the stairs the lower floors. Backtracking a bit, you may want to head off to Trader which is located under the Sobu line overpass, opposite KFC. Trader is a second hand game and DVD/blu-ray shop. Sometimes you can get lucky here and find a few bargains. There a ton of shops hidden away in the backstreets around here; a figure shop called Toreka, the Cospa shop, Lashinbang, the second X (or “Ekkusu”) shop, Mellonbooks, Kotobukiya, and another well-hidden figure shop called Kashibako. North of all these shops is the Akiba Culture Zone complex. Like Radio Kaikan, this six floor building hosts a number of smaller shops such as Lashinbang, RobotRobot, Havikoro, Ganking, Astop and Trio. As you can see some chains have a number of smaller stores dotted throughout the area.

On the north side of Akiba Culture Zone, right across the street is Monkey Soft. This is another second had and new video shop. While it does contain mostly porn, there are some mainstream anime bargains to be found here, if you’re lucky. Next door on the left is Fetish World (website NSFW). Sure, it’s a porn store, but a really weird one. The best thing here is the specialised videos of women crushing miniature cities as if they were a giant monster. None of the models in these videos are nude and it’s not really arousing in any sense (to me anyway), but it is bloody funny. If you turn left out of the building and head towards the main road in Akihabara, you’ll see another Liberty figure shop on the right hand side of the road and doujin mini-chain Comic Zin on the corner of the main road.

It’s now time to tackle the main street of Akihabara with its duty free stores full of rude clerks who barely acknowledge you, the main Animate shop in the area, Toranoana, various Liberty stores with figures to idol merchandise and Sofmap amongst others. Around those shops are few more in the back streets; figure shop Toy Altria and Jungle’s main store. Beyond, that to the east is the UDX building and the Tokyo Anime Centre. Depending on what is on display (sometimes key artwork from an anime currently being broadcast), it may or may not be worthwhile. The gift store probably isn’t worth your while, but the Akiba map probably is. The shop is open from 11am, so probably going there first on the day before you tackle Akihabara is the best bet.

Further north up the main street near Suehirocho station are some interesting finds. Soft vinyl toy store Golden Age Toys has a lot of interesting stuff for sale. I’m not really into this stuff so I can’t really say much about the range on offer. In the same area is gatchapon heaven in the form of Akibagatcha and right next door a branch of Gee! Store. Diagonally across from Golden Age Toys is Hobby Shop Tam Tam. This a chain store which has several branches across Japan. Situated on the fourth and fifth floors of the building, they have model kits, figures and hobby supplies galore. Also around this area are a group of hobby shops which bear the name Leonardo. The shops have rare model kits, mostly military, airplanes and cars, but also a few sci-fi and anime kits. Leonardo LG has three shops in the area, Leonardo ET has one. Apparently the original Leonardo store closed a while back, but I’m not sure why there are two separately owned shops now baring its name.

For otakuish type businesses, you’ve come to the end of the line. There really isn’t anything more to explore beyond this area. There are a couple of family restaurants in the area (Jonathans and Gusto) as well as a few other more traditional options if you need a break and are a bit hungry (which by this time, you probably will be). Walking back to Akihabara station, you can knock off any shops you may have missed on the way. As I said in the first part, do your research. Japanese websites like Akiba Scope and Akihabara Online do have substantial lists, but a fair wack of that information is out of date and inaccurate. The best bet is to look up the shop’s website (luckily most have one) to check the address and opening times.

Next time I’ll be continuing on with the anime shopping theme with a trip to Nakano Broadway.

Japan, A Shopping Overview: Akihabara Part One

So what can I say about Akihabara, or Akiba as the locals call it, that hasn’t been said hundreds of times before? Well despite the thousands of articles written about the place in the last 10+ years, there isn’t any comprehensive, up to date guides to the area in English or Japanese. Kind of a common theme in my posts, right? Of course you could just wing it, but why waste time randomly going to shops? Going in unprepared on a holiday is a pet peeve of mine, especially on overseas holidays. The other thing which craps me is the preconceived notions people have about the place. If you want to believe that that it’s all maid cafes and porn, then whatever, go right ahead. It’s your loss.

I get that people see Nakano Broadway as being more “real” and that Akiba can be seen as sterile and fake. However if you do a bit of exploring you can find a lot of interesting shops in nooks and crannies in the back streets. Also the large department store-like otaku shops aren’t necessarily sterile and full of the latest crap otaku shows you despise. Akiba is what you make it really.

Make no mistake; Akihabara is a large and exhausting place to explore. Originally this was going to be a single post. But as I kept writing, I realised that I needed to make it a two parter. Rather than go through individual stores like I have with the previous entries in this series, I’d thought I might explain what I have personally done in my attempts to conquer Akiba. First up, you’re going to need a game plan. Do you want to do it in one day or over two? Do not underestimate the place or the size of it. Though it’s fun just exploring, you may want to pre-plan which stores you want hit and have a list on hand of the merchandise you want get. You also have to realise that by half through the day (or earlier) you’re probably going to be weighed down by the loads of stuff you’ve purchased from the various shops you’ve been to. So here is where you either end the day prematurely or shove your purchases in a locker. Of course the problem is finding an empty locker. Even when you do you still have to hump all of your crap back to your hotel, wherever you’re staying.

If you’re really serious about conquering Akihabara in a day or so and have decided that most of your shopping will be done there, you probably want to stay here for your entire trip. To be honest there doesn’t seem too many great options on Airbnb, so the Washington Hotel might be your best bet. Once you’ve worked that out, you can figure out where the speciality stores are that you want to hit. For a general physical map head to the Tokyo Anime Center in the UDX building for an Akiba Map. The shop is open from 11am, so probably going there first on the day before you tackle Akihabara is the best bet. If you want to make your own map, you could do worse by going to Japanese sites like Akiba Scope. Now while the list of shops on that site and others may be relatively substantial, you can guarantee that some of that information is out of date. Shops are on those lists which no longer exist or have moved. To double check the information (for actual location and opening times), look at the actual shop’s website. Luckily most of these stores, even the tiny ones have websites. Of course the problem with Japanese addresses is that even putting them on Google Maps sometimes won’t give you an accurate mark on the map as to where the shop is. This is when Street View comes in handy. Even so for tiny shops it may be really hard to find where they actually are. Just a quick note before we start on the shops proper, I am not including things like card shops, doujin shops, game shops, maid cafes etc. I am mostly concentrating on shops which sell anime figures, CDs, Blu-rays, DVDs and books.

Once you’ve done your preplanning, it’s time to hit Akiba. First of all, like all shops in Japan, nothing really opens before 10am. I usually get to Akihabara station, departing from Okubo station (on the Chuo-Sobu Line, mainly because I love staying in Shinjuku) at 9:15 am or so. Never go on a Saturday or Sunday if you can’t stand crowds. I prefer the weekdays when it’s uncrowded and easy to move about. The only problem with getting to the station this early in the morning on a weekday is the peak hour crowds. Go after 9:15am if you’re not too keen about riding in overfull trains. I use the Central Gate to exit the station rather than Electric Town Gate. This is because the first port of call will be Yodobashi Camera.

Open at 9:30am, Yodobashi Camera deals mostly with electronic goods, however it is also full of anime DVDs, Blu-rays, games, figures, model kits and toys. As I said before the best thing about this shop is the discounts due to direct competition with rival electronics chain Bic Camera. You’ll save around 5% to 10% of retail prices here. On the seventh floor of the building are a small Tower Records branch and a small book store with lots of niche magazines. I usually spend about half an hour in the Yodobashi Camera building.

Once you’re done there, if you’re outside the main entrance of the store, turn to your left and follow the road under the bridge where you will see a massive tower. This is the Shosen Book Tower. Open from 10am, it is mostly full of otakuish books; the fourth floor has tokusatsu, music and mainstream movie books, the fifth mostly has military books, the sixth has seinen, josei and older manga, the seventh has shonen and shoujo manga as well as some anime artbooks and the eighth floor has sci-fi manga and Gundam books. Anime artbooks in particular seem to have a very limited shelf life in bookstores. However I have lucked out a number of times in this shop, most recently with a pair of “Love Live!"  books.

Once you’ve had your fill here, cross the street and walk west until you come to Book Off. While some may cite the Shibuya branch as the best Book Off store in the city, the Akihabara one is filled to the brim with otaku stuff like CDs, Blu-rays, games, manga and the like. A little further west along the same side of the street is the main store of X (or “Ekkusu” as it’s pronounced by the locals). This shop is filled with competitively priced figures and a few other character goods. If you’re after recently released figures, this is a pretty good place to find them. There is a second store deep in the back streets of Akiba. A few tens of metres up is one of the Liberty shops (designated as shop number 2). The small chain of stores that this company owns are mostly dotted up and down the main street of Akiba. This store mostly has gachapon toys and figures. Beyond Liberty is another hobby store called Aso Bit City. Run by electronics duty free store LAOX, it features hobby and anime character goods (figures, model kits etc.) on the fifth to seventh floors.

In the next part, I’ll be looking at some of the bigger stores on the main road in Akihabara, as well as the shops outside the Electric Town exit and of course the speciality shops in the back streets.

Video Backlog: “Ultraman Ginga”

Publisher: Vicol Entertainment Ltd (Hong Kong)
Format: Region A Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional Cantonese dub and English and Chinese (Traditional) Subtitles.
Length: 12 episodes x 25 minutes
Production Date: 2013
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Teenager Hikaru Raido (played by Takuya Negishi) returns to his hometown Furohoshi during the summer break. He has been living London with his parents for a couple of years as they chase their dreams of becoming musicians. He rescues a childhood friend, Misuzu Isurugi (Miyatake Mio), who becomes stuck in a runaway pram after attempting to help an old lady and her dog (I know, it’s kind of an implausible scenario…). Hikaru says he wants to visit his grandfather at the Ginga shrine, but Misuzu leads him to the local primary school. She explains that the shrine was apparently hit by a meteor and was burnt to the ground. The principal of the school, Kyoko Shirai (Kino Hana) and Hikaru’s grandfather Hotsuma (Tsugawa Masahiko) explain that the school closed recently due to lack of enrolments and the principal kindly let the shrine set up shop temporarily. Misuzu also decided to become a shine maiden. Hotsuma explains that at least the sacred relic survived the fire. Hikaru suddenly feels the need to see the relic, but cannot fathom why he feels this way.

Later than night, Hikaru sneaks into the shrine to inspect the sacred relic. He grabs it and sees visions of large beings fighting monsters. A hexagon symbol briefly appears on his hand. A voice asks him if he seeks adventure. Hikaru is surprised to discover that it seems to be coming for a small plastic doll. The doll introduces himself as Ultraman Taro. Hikaru thinks someone is playing a prank on him. But the doll disappears out of his hand as if teleporting. Taro tells Hikaru to come to Mount Furohoshi. Regardless, the next day Hikaru hikes out to the mountain where he meets Taro. Taro explains that the Ultramen and monster where shrunk and turned into dolls by a malevolent force and traveled through space where eventually they landed on the mountain. On the mountain Taro discovered the Ginga Spark, the sacred relic in the Ginga shrine that apparently has the power to beat its evil opposite, the Dark Spark. However only a saviour can use the Ginga Spark which Taro believes is Hikaru. He also believes that he restore his original form. This involves placing the Ginga Spark on the hexagon symbol on the base of Taro’s left foot, however it doesn’t work.

Later Hikaru bumps into Misuzu who is out having a picnic. She is upset with him that he has taken the Ginga Spark from the shrine, and surprises him by revealing that she already knew about Taro. Hikaru is drawn to spot behind a bush where he discovers another doll, a dinosaur creature called Black King. Feeling as he has nothing to lose, he tries the Ginga Spark on the doll and it works. But somehow Hikaru’s soul has been transposed into the now giant Black King monster. There’s no time to figure out why the Ginga Spark only worked on Black King, as a giant monster seeming revived by the Dark Spark, Thunder Darambia, arrives to attack Hikaru. Just as Hikaru looks like he is about to be beaten, a new doll materialises out of the Ginga Spark, Ultraman Ginga, which Hikaru then uses to transform into and defeat the monster.

Ultraman Taro hypothesises that Hikaru can enter the bodies of the Ultramen and monsters because their souls where removed when they were shrunk and turned into toys. Taro’s soul was retained in his body even as toy due to Ultraman and Ultra Mother protecting him. It also becomes apparent the monsters attacking the town have all been resurrected by the Dark Spark, by someone inside the school. The dark elements of former students of the school have become the elents driving the monsters. Two of Hikaru’s old friends, Kenta Watarai (Ono Mizuki) and Chigusa Kuno (Kirara) even end up becoming the souls of monsters at one point. Even Misuzu becomes a monster. What is the link between the school and the person who is wielding the Dark Spark?

Apparently this show was made as part of Tsuburaya Productions 50th anniversary of the company. Ultraman stared back in 1966, but despite being dubbed in English and broadcast on US TV in 1967, it never really took off in the western world, despite many attempts to get various parts of the franchise into the consciousness of the English speaking world. Not helping is the ongoing dispute over who holds the rights to the various early TV series of the show outside of Japan. In Japan it’s ingrained in the public’s conscious. Everyone knows who Ultraman is. It was a massive hit in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, but popularity of the show waned in the very early 1980’s, until it made a resurgence with “Ultraman Tiga” in 1996.

There isn’t a great deal of tokusatsu material available commercially in English. When that material is available on blu-ray, well, my wallet automatically comes out. As per most Hong Kong releases of this type, it’s pretty bare bones. You get the show and that’s it. No trailers for other movies or TV series, let alone extras for the show. Surprisingly the subtitles are professionally translated (which to be fair is far more common than the Engrish horrors of commercial Hong Kong DVDs of 10 or 15 years ago), but do contain some typos in the latter episodes. The video and audio are good as you’d expect.

However my joy at having a slightly obscure Ultraman show on blu-ray and subtitled was tempered by the fact it’s not a very good show. To be blunt, it plays out as a really crappy drama with Ultraman elements tacked on. The core cast (Hikaru and his three friends) are picked from acting schools who promote their talent if they were male idols and the two female leads are in idol units. The acting is what you’d expect; utterly mediocre at best. The regular supporting cast are older adults (the principal, the priest and an incompetent cop) and like the younger cast are also pretty underwhelming. Admittedly they don’t have much to play off. The script is really hammy and goofy. Nearly all of the action takes place at the school, so with that and the fact the cast is pretty small, you can tell this show has a meagre budget.

But what really pisses me off is the blatant merchandising within the show. The dolls of the Ultramen and monsters are the exact same ones you can find in toy stores all over Japan. Even Taro is the exact same toy you can find in a store. He’s crapily manipulated like a puppet for the entire show, with some close up shots of the actual Ultraman Taro mask added in. At the end of almost every episode, there’s a short called “Spark Doll Theatre” where Taro and a few of the monsters as dolls do silly comedy skit, with Taro usually saying “I want to become big!” at the end. That right there says it all about this show; it’s all pretty daft and silly. Interestingly the follow up series “Ultraman Ginga S” and the latest series “Ultraman X” (which the few episodes I saw on TV in Japan back in November and December didn’t impress me) use the same Spark Doll idea at their core.

The second half of the show is a little better. The core cast, plus a few outsiders become trapped with the school and numerous monsters appear. Somehow it seemed be a lot more intense this way. There’s also the theme of broken dreams played out through the series, though this intensifies towards the end. However towards the climax of the series it, all becomes a bit schmaltzy. Granted this is not all that uncommon in some Ultra series (especially some of the films from the 1990’s onwards), but here it’s just adding to the pain of a show that’s not that great to begin with. All of the monsters and Ultramen (besides Ginga of course) are from or are variants from various Ultra series. One could suggest this is a great budget saving measure as the producers could just raid the Tsuburaya archives for old suits rather than making new costumes. But fans would get a lot of pleasure spotting some famous and rather obscure monsters from years gone by.

Summing up, it’s a pretty crappy show. I can’t believe that Tsuburaya Productions would make this cheaply produced crap their 50th anniversary show. Yes the fights are pretty decent, but that’s all you could say was good about the show. The follow up series, “Ultraman Ginga S”, is more of a traditional team show with lots of mecha as well as monsters and looks a lot better than this show. There is a preview at the end of the last episode of the disc, but so far no blu-ray release of the show in Hong Kong or anywhere else in English. Despite the fact this show is a rarity (i.e. a modern tokusatsu commercially available in English on blu-ray), the quality of the show should make you think twice before purchasing it. 5 out of 10, and I’m being very generous with the score.

Remaining Backlog: Five series, one movie, one OVA also waiting for second parts for two shows to be released before viewing them.

Japan, A Shopping Overview: Record Stores

While the vast majority of posts in this series are anime shopping related, I thought I might like to make some comments on my other great love in life (well, in hobby terms at least); music. After a long period of not really collecting music, I have in the last few years started to buy a fair wack of new and old releases. Tokyo has always had a sort of mythical status music collectors, so when I went over in late 2012 I had very high hopes for what I might find. On the first day I arrived in Tokyo, the first thing I did was to head into Shinjuku and trawl through the racks of the largest independent retailer in the city, Disk Union. However the experience was a bit of a disappointment. I had a long list of slightly rare CDs I wanted, some Lush, the Joy Division box set, Public Image Limited’s Metal Box CD in a tin case, the Beatnigs LP etc. About half an hour of searching later, I came out with one single Lush CD. My requests for music by three piece noise/punk/psychedelic Japanese group eX-Girl were greeted with quizzical looks. This wasn’t what I was expecting.

Certainly the city isn’t some wonderland for music collectors it’s sometimes made out to be. Also in the last few years, even Japan hasn’t been immune to the global trend of downward spiralling music sales. It’s blatantly obvious who record stores cater to. Almost every store I went to had mostly middle aged to old men flicking through the racks. Younger people seemingly aren’t taking up the slack.

The thing is I’m not a rabid record collector, so the following list of shops probably won’t satisfy the hardcore collector. This list is more for the casual fan. Frustratingly most record store guides on the web are old and out of date. Note that it can be very difficult to find some of the smaller specialist shops. Not only do you have to contend with the absurd Japanese address system (and generally no numbers of houses and businesses, and no street signs), but sometimes a lot of the small record shops are so small you could walk by them and not notice. If you’re really serious about record collecting, I’d find a copy of the Record + CD Map 2015 (pictured above), which lists just about every record shop in the country. Issued every year, this last edition was published in December 2014. A new version didn’t come out in 2015 which doesn’t bode well for record collectors. The guide is only in Japanese, but does contain area maps so you can find those obscure specialty record shops. The book is a little hard to find. It’s no longer listed for sale on Amazon.co.jp, however Disk Union stores (see below) apparently carry copies. It’ll set you back around ¥2,800.

Tower Records
Branches: 85 stores across the country
Once a powerhouse in the US, the chain filed for bankruptcy in 2006. However physical copies of music (CDs and records) are still bought in Japan, so the Japanese stores still make enough profit to keep existing. The main store in Shibuya is an amazing sight to behold; nine floors with over 5,000 m² of floor space and almost every conceivable genre you can imagine. Most stuff here is full retail price, however if it’s in print, it’s most likely here. The Shibuya store has an entire floor dedicated to western music, which mostly means imports. They are much cheaper than their Japanese counterparts, but may be more expensive than CDs at home. In the stores outside metropolitan Tokyo, I’ve managed to find a fair few out of print CD singles I was looking for.

HMV
Branches: 62 stores across the country
Not as well stocked as Tower in my opinion. However like their much larger competitor they have CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays. Can’t remember if they stocked vinyl. Don’t recall seeing any in the shops I went to. As per most chain shores of the variety, you’re going to be paying full retail price. If you can’t find the in print Japanese music you want in Tower, HMV would be your next bet.

Books Kinokuniya
Branches: 56 stores across the country
Good for in print Japanese CD, DVD and Blu-ray music releases. Like previously discussed two chains, you’ll be paying full retail prices for stuff. And as I said before in my general anime chain shop post, I found a number of out print CDs I wanted in one Kinokuniya. Though you’re more likely to have more luck with shops outside the metropolitan Tokyo area in that regard.

Bic Camera and Yodobashi Camera
Branches: See previous post
Massive electronic chain store rivals. Most stores stock all the latest Japanese music releases; CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays. Don’t recall seeing a single vinyl record in any of these shops. Best thing about these shops is that because of the intense rivalry and vying  for the consumer’s yen, you’re going get around 5% to 10% off retail prices. Last time I was in Japan, I noticed that there wasn’t a single CD to be found in Yodobashi Camera’s Shinjuku store. Not sure if this is a sign of things to come or Shinjuku is just an anomaly. Hopefully it’s the latter.

Disk Union and RECOfan

Branches: Shinjuku, Shibuya, Nakano, Ochanomizu, Kanda, Takadanobaba, Kitazawa, Ikebukuro, Kichijoji, Machida, Yokohama, Chiba, Saitama, Osaka (Disk Union) Shibuya, Omori, Yokohama (RECOfan)
Two small independent chains operating mostly in the metropolitan Tokyo area. Disk Union has several stores not far from Shinjuku station, each one specialising in a different genre of music; dance, punk, pop, rock etc. Most are situated in the one building which is located in the same block as Books Kinokuniya’s massive main store. The individual stores themselves are usually pretty bloody small, crammed full of vinyl and CD racks with barely enough room for three or four people to browse the store (actually three people might be pushing it). I made the mistake last time of going to the Disk Union alternate rock/indies store on the Saturday morning before I was due to fly out in the afternoon. Five people in the shop, couldn’t get around any of them to browse the racks. Go during business hours on a weekday instead. You can find a fair wack of interesting titles, but most of the shops have been plundered, so don’t expect to find a lot of stuff you might be looking for. RECOfan on the other hand seems to have a lot more vinyl and some rather obscure stuff. Their Shibuya shop is also far more larger than any of Disk Union’s shops.

Other Independents
There are a ton of small used record stores all around the city. Shinjuku and Shibuya are your best bets. As I said before, there is no definitive guide, online for record stores in the city. There is a couple of good guides such as this one or this one, but you’re going to have to confirm that information by looking at the shop’s website (if they have one!). Also note that opening times can be a bit fluid. Most shops in Japan open around 10am, however a lot of these independents don’t open until 12pm. One in Shibuya I was planning to go to was still shuttered at 1:30pm on a Friday. All I can say is do as much research as you can, then hope for the best. As I said before a copy of the  Record + CD Map 2015 is essential for the hardcore collector, but it's a bit difficult to obtain.

Bootleg Shops

The first time I went to Tokyo, one of the things I wanted to do was to buy a Beatles bootleg. The country has had a love affair with the group since the 1960’s (there’s a giant mural of the “Let it Be” album cover on a residential block on the train line from Narita airport) and there’s also been a “collector’s market” of material as well. In other words a thriving black market for bootleg material such as live shows and unreleased or rare studio and radio session recordings. Bizarrely most of this material is sold out in the open in shops that are almost entirely dedicated to bootlegs. Nearly all of these of these kind of shops can be found in the Kitashinjuku area of Shinjuku. There’s a main road which runs parallel to the train line running through Okubo station (west of the line) where a lot of record shops can be found (most more towards the physical centre of Shinjuku). In the blocks west of that road is where you’ll find a lot of these shops. Unfortunately there isn’t any comprehensive, up to date lists of these types of shops anywhere. You may not be able to do much research on these shops before you go either. There’s scant info available on the internet.

On the very last day of my first trip in 2012, I got my Beatles bootleg; a factory pressed four disc DVD set of the still commercially unreleased (on DVD and Blu-ray at least) 1970 documentary film “Let It Be”.

It may be sourced from a laserdisc, but it is the best version of the film until the last two Beatles die off and Apple can finally issue the damn film on home video again. Last time I went in December, the shop I bought it from had seemingly gone out of business. I also went to another bootleg shop which was well hidden inside a multi-story building near a post office. Airs Music Video has a wide range live concert recordings on DVD-R with colour photocopied covers. From 1960’s garage bands to modern stuff, it’s all there in the shop. Of course the question is why would you do into this shop and pay for this stuff when you could easily download it from the web, which of course 100% of this stuff is sourced from.

The best thing about the shop is the photos and messages from musicians who have visited the shop.

A couple of photos I took; first up above, Jim O'Rourke, Thurston Moore (from Sonic Youth) and Beck.

And above, Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave) who also visited twice, a repeat visitor like Thurston, who has been at least three times.

Most who visit are of the prog rock and hard rock variety, but as you can see from the photos alt rockers end up there too. Essentially what happens in these kind of stores is that the musician will rock up and get some free stuff in exchange for a personalised message and photo. It baffles me that they would agree to this as the shop is literally profiting off them by selling bootlegs of their work. At any rate it is great to walk around the shop marvelling at all the musicians who have paid a visit. The floor or so above Airs is a cult video store also run by the people who run Airs. It has a full size Alien figure (from the 1979 film of the same name) outside the entrance.

That’s about it for record shops. I really wish I could have given more helpful hints and links and addresses to shops, but unless you’re living there and going to shops on a regular basis, it’s impossible. Next time I’ll be giving my thoughts on Akihabara.

Video Backlog: “Sailor Moon R”

Publisher: Viz Media (USA)
Format: Region A Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles. Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles.
Length: 43 episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 1993 - 1994
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

After the events of the first “Sailor Moon” series, the Sailor Senshi have no memories of their battles against the Dark Kingdom or indeed the fact they were Sailor Senshi to begin with. However the peace is disturbed with the arrival of two humanoid aliens; Ail and Ann. The pair infiltrate Usagi’s school in human guise as siblings Seijuro and Natsumi Ginga. They cause a minor ruckus with Natsumi being ogled by the boys and Seijuro taking an interest in Usagi, much to Natsumi’s disgust. The pair are on planet Earth to obtain energy for their Makaiju (Hell Tree) which in turn provides them with energy. They use monsters who usually take the form of cards (called Cardians) in order to collect the energy from humans. Soon Ail and Ann are cussing rouble all around the Juban area while collecting energy from humans. Luna can’t handle the mess on her own and reluctantly decides to reawaken Usagi’s memories I order to fight the pair as Sailor Moon.

Later Ail and Ann trick people who audition for a TV drama role into taking their energy. Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako are called into audition, but as the potential cast members are attacked and Sailor Moon finds she is unable to defeat the new Cardian, Luna and Artemis make the decision to reawaken the rest of the Sailor Senshi. Only Mamoru remains unawakened. Usagi attempts to make him remember their past but has no luck. Worst is the fact Nasumi is trying to woo him and make him her boyfriend. As the Sailor Senshi fight off the various Cardian monsters, a mysterious hero who calls himself Moonlight Knight will often come to their aid much like Tuxedo Mask once did. While Usagi suspects it is Mamoru in disguise, the Moonlight Knight shows up in the presence of Mamoru and the Sailor Senshi, which only leads to more mystery surrounding the Moonlight Knight.

After the conclusion of the Makaiju arc, things return to normal in the Juban area of Tokyo. Mamoru’s memory has also retuned and Usagi is once again in his arms. As the couple embrace and kiss, a pink hired little girl and her ball like cat robot appear out of the sky from a pink cloud, forcibly separating Mamoru and Usagi. She says her name is Usagi and clutches onto Mamoru as tight as possible, infuriating Usagi. Searching for the Silver Crystal, the pink haired girl infiltrates Usagi’s family by using her robot cat, Luna P, to alter their memories into thinking that she is a cousin visiting them. However much to her disgust they end up giving her the nick name Chibi-usa. It is later revealed that Chibi-usa is from the future and lives in a city called Crystal Tokyo. She wants to steal the Silver Crystal in order to save her mother.

Meanwhile Black Moon Clan arrives with two objectives in mind; creating negative energy points where the future Crystal Tokyo stands and to eliminate the “Rabbit”, known as Chibi-usa in the current time period. Agents of the Black Moon Clan set up businesses in spots which are important to the creation of the future Crystal Tokyo in order to create negative associations with those areas. However the Sailor Senshi discovers their plots and manage to thwart every single one. At the same time Mamoru begins to have strange dreams where a voice warns him stop seeing usage in order to avoid a catastrophe. Feeling that the prophecies are true, Mamoru reluctantly breaks off his relationship with Usagi, but continues to protect her and the Sailor Senshi as Tuxedo Mask. This causes much confusion and heartache for Usagi and the Senshi.

This second season of “Sailor Moon” saw the departure of director Junichi Sato after the Makaiju arc and future “Utena” co-creator and director Kunihiko Ikuhara taking over the directorial reins. Certainly by the end of the Makaiju arc, things had become a little tired and formulaic. Ail and Ann would release a Cardian monster which the girls would fight and Tuxedo Mask would show up to save the day, and Sailor Moon would finish off the monster. And then you had Ann after Mamoru, Ail after Usagi. Even the rest of the girls had become clichéd with Ami always obsessed with studying and Makoto and Minako obsessed with lost loves.

While Ikuhara’s direction doesn’t drastically change up the format of the show, there’s enough variations to make it more engaging and interesting than what has come before. First up is the introduction of Chibi-usa. While a bit bratty at the beginning, by the end she is a far more sympathetic character. Along with her appearance is the introduction of the fabulous Sailor Pluto (whom I wish would have more screen time in this series) and the Black Moon Clan, who are the alien invaders of the future Crystal Tokyo. It’s interesting that pretty much all of the villains in these arcs are made far more sympathetic and human than any of the villains in the previous series. There’s a theme of redemption and humanisation throughout the series in regards to the villains.

Viz’s adaption, Um, yes… First up, the video is just as shit as ever. Perhaps even more shit than the first set. The source is obviously some sort composite video. It seems to me that they’re run the video through some sort of weird filter that makes what should be solid block colours look blotchy. It’s like they’re trying to cover up some weird pixilation/banding issues in the original source material and made everything look worse. There is so much blatant aliasing and moiré patterns in the video as well as some strange ghosting going on, which looks even weirder, I’m assuming due to video filtering. Compare the clean closing and opening animations found on the two sets which make up the series; they haven’t been touched and look brilliant compared to the episodes. Even worse is the final episode (89) in the set which is a clip show setting up the next series. It looks just dreadful, like a VHS tape was the source. The best you could say is that video and audio are a leap up from the old ADV Films DVD set, but that’s not saying much.

Putting aside the video problems, there are quite a number of positives with this release. As per the first series, the packaging is really good with a lovely chipboard box and attractive booklet. However the booklet could have been improved. Instead of useless episode synopses, some info relating to creators or interviews wouldn’t have gone astray, especially when you consider the mountains of archive of material from Animerica magazine that could have been included. Episode 67 “The Beach, the Island and a Vacation: The Guardians’ Break” (where Chibi-usa befriends a baby plesiosaur), is finally included commercially in English for the first time. The on disc extras, apart from clean openings and closings, are a waste of time. I do not care about interviews of Viz’s English dub cast or what gushing, cosplaying US fans have to say about the series. One thing I found interesting though was the fact that time and time again in those segments was the observation that “Sailor Moon” meant a lot to US female fans because of the lack of strong female roles in the media at the time. That observation is really damning of 1990’s western pop culture.

“Sailor Moon R” is a better than expected sequel to the original series. The final seven episodes (specifically episode 82 to 88) are a fantastic end to the series. For me there’s so much of an emotion punch and genuine excitement and anticipation in those episodes. I forgot how good this series can be. Certainly the “monster of the week” episodes can get tiring, but the end more than makes up for it. Also it’s clear that Ikuhara’s direction in the Black Moon arc improved the show quite a bit. The awful video quality is rather distracting as is Viz’s glacial slow release of the series. Part 2 of “Sailor Moon R” was released in October 2015, yet there is not a peep from the company about any home video release for “Sailor Moon S”. 7.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Eight series, three movies, one OVA also waiting for second parts for three shows to be released before viewing them.

Japan, A Shopping Overview: Anime Related Chain Stores

Continuing on with my series about travelling to Japan, over the next few posts I’ll be covering shopping. Even after a couple of decades of anime fans flocking to Japan to buy merchandise, there still is no definitive website listing stores and places of interest. It’s all a bit odd really as to why this is. Most guides are severely out of date or just really crap. Or worse, both. As I don’t live in Japan this guide, like others, unfortunately won’t be comprehensive, but in this post I’m going to do my best to highlight general shops and chain stores of interest to the average anime fan. I have deliberately not included any doujin store chains like Mellonbooks or Toranoana, mainly because I don’t know anything about that part of fandom. Anyway, on to the list;

Yodobashi Camera

Branches: Shinjuku, Akihabara, Ueno, Kichijoji, Hachioji, Machida, Kinshicho, Kawasaki, Yokohama, Kamiooka (Konan, Yokohama), Chiba, Utsunomiya, Sapporo, Sendai, Koriyama (Fukushima), Niigata, Kyoto, Umeda (Osaka) and Hakata
A massive electrical chain store which can be found in most large cities in Japan. It’s pretty hard to miss the store fronts; a monolithic grey building several stories high, usually close to a major train station. There are a number of departments within the stores which would be of interest to anime fans; music section, games section, Blu-ray and DVD section and a toy section. They do stock a lot of otakuish items (figures, anime Blu-ray etc), so if it’s fairly new, you should be able to find it here. Most of the items, including CDs and home video are discounted more than other shops (5% to 15% off Japanese retail level at least). During my last visit, I noticed that the Shinjuku store no longer stocked CDs. It may be that way for some of the other stores, but all the others I visited did have CD sections. Some branches have other stores situated in the top floors of the building. For example some have branches of Tower Records or book stores. Most have restaurants situated on the top floors as well.

Bic Camera

Branches: Ikebukuro, Yurakucho, Akasaka-mitsuke (Minato, Tokyo), Shinjuku, Shibuya, Tachikawa, Seiseki-Sakuragaoka (Tama, Tokyo), Hachioji, Machida, Kawasaki, Yokohama, Fujisawa (Kanagawa), Sagami-Ono (Kanagawa), Kashiwa, Funabashi, Omiya, Takasaki (Gunma), Mito Station (Ibaraki), Sapporo, Niigata, Hamamatsu, Nagoya, Kyoto, Namba (Osaka), Okayama, Tenjin (Fukuoka) and Kagoshima
Rival to Yodobashi Camera, Bic Camera generally has the same type of stock. But feels like more of a mainstream store, and there isn’t as much “otaku stuff” as you’d find in a typical Yodobashi Camera store. Also Bic Camera branches seems to be more like “standalone” stores; there usually aren’t any independent restaurants or other stores within which occupy it’s floors like Yodobashi Camera. The sole exception I’ve seen is the store in Shinjuku which co-habitats with Uniqlo. Discounts on items are usually on par or a little better than Yodobashi Camera.

Books Kinokuniya
Branches: 56 stores across the country
The massive book store chain. You may be familiar with its Sydney shop. The bigger stores have music and home video sections. The main store in Shinjuku is easily the best. In the block behind the main store is the annex, known as Forrest. It’s about three or so floors of specialised books, i.e. loads of manga, related books (artbooks and the like) and a separate store which features otakuish blu-ray and DVD on the ground floor. If it’s in print, it will be here. I’ve also lucked out on several out of print Japanese CDs I’d been looking for. The main problem though is you’ll always be paying full retail prices. Nothing is ever discounted.

Book Off
Branches: 886 stores across the country
The massive second hand chain. Most shops carry second had manga, books, games, CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays. The company also has a small number of spin off shops called Hobby Off which carry second hand figures amongst other hobby related items and the amusingly named Hard Off which carries second hand audio visual and computer equipment. Of course with any second hand shop, it’s always very hit and miss when it comes to finding what you want and in the condition you want. Luckily most items are in fairly good nick, though things like obis on CDs might be missing. Items can be really dirt cheap, however with rarer items the valuers at the shops unfortunately know their stuff a lot of the time.

Animate

Branches: 117 stores across the country
Easily the biggest anime store chain in the country. If there is merchandise available for a particular show (recent shows of course), it’s here. They also stock DVDs and Blu-rays, manga, CDs and some books. I’ve never seen figures any of their stores, which seems a bit odd. Easily the best shop in the country is their main store in Ikebukuro. Though it is in the heart of the female otaku version of Akihabara (called Otome Road) and naturally focuses on titles of interest to those fans, the average male anime fan should be able to find a wide range of merchandise of their liking. The company’s old main store, a few blocks from their new main store, now contains mostly cosplay items. The only problem with Animate is they charge full retail prices, so no discounts here at all either.

Gamers

Branches: Akihabara, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Machida, Tachikawa, Omiya, Tsudanuma, Yokohama, Sendai, Nanba (Nipponbashi, Osaka), Umeda (Osaka), Kobe, Sannomiya, Kyoto, Hakata, Kokura, Nagoya and Numazu
Another big anime chain store. As per similar stores, Gamers stocks loads of character goods, manga, light novels, books, CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays. They also stock anime versions of omiyage (souvenirs) such as chocolates or Japanese style sweets. Admittedly I haven’t visited this shop often, but I don’t remember them ever selling any figures. And as with other stores of this type, everything is sold at full retail price. Don’t expect discounts.

Lashinbang

Branches: 51 stores across the country
A massive second hand anime and manga shop with lots of used manga, artbooks, CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, light novels, doujin, character goods and figures. Admittedly I don’t go to this store all that often (maybe once a couple years back), but looking at their website, maybe I should have visited it more. I think I may have gone into one and seen some porny doujin near the entrance and decided right there it wasn’t for me. Maybe I should have looked through the whole store.

Volks

Branches: Sapporo, Sendai, Utsunomiya, Akihabara, Odaiba (LaLaport Shopping Mall), Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Nipponbashi (Osaka), Kobe, Hiroshima and Tenjin (Fukuoka)
The manufacturer of model kits also makes the infamous Dollfie dolls and accessories (notably Danny Choo is a rabid fan of that particularly fandom). As a result most of their stores highlight this product line. However most stores have a wide range of hobby related products (mostly concerning plastic model kits and the like) including a wide range of model kits, garage kits and hobby supplies. They also stock  a wide range of anime and robot figures.

Mandarake

Branches: Nakano, Akihabara, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Utsunomiya, Umeda (Osaka), Sapporo, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Kokura
Easily my favourite chain of shops. A series of second had good stores, they pretty much have everything related to Japanese pop culture, however there is a heavy focus on anime, manga, tokusatsu and pop idols, male and female. Most stores have manga, doujin, CDs, games, DVDs, Blu-rays, artbooks, figures, model kits and just about anything else you can think of. I totally blame this chain of stores for my current addiction to collecting Japanese movie programmes. Not all Mandarake stores have the same type of merchandise. The Kokura shop in the AruAruCity complex in Fukuoka mostly has figures and not much in the way of books. The main Fukuoka store also doesn’t have much in the way of books either, but certainly a lot more than the Kokura store. The Nagoya store seems to have a large emphasis on female idols. The main store is located in the Nakano Broadway complex which is three train stops north of Shinjuku. Many of the stores in that complex (more than half of the floor space in the complex is dedicated to Mandarake stores) have specialised stores dedicated to one aspect of fandom such as idols, doujin for men, posters, animation cels etc.

Gee! Store/Cospa

Branches: Akihabara, Narita Airport, Chiba (Aeon Mall Makuhari New City), Namba (Osaka), Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sendai
A small chain of cosplay and accessory stores (also known by the names Cospatio and  Nijigen Cospa),all the stores also stock a wide range of character merchandise, t-shirts, bags, key chains, lanyards and other clothing items and accessories. All the items are designed by the company and the shops don’t actually sell any other manufacturers items.

Most anime stores seem to be situated in clusters in most cities. For example you’ll probably find a store like Mellonbooks in the same building as Lashinbang with a few other shops like a Rental Box store (where the public can directly sell their items by renting out a small space in glass cabinet). Or at least the shops will be in the same block. I’m not sure why this is, but does make shopping more convenient. I’ll be looking at specific anime shopping areas in latter posts, but below are a couple of tips I originally wrote for my previous post about things they don’t mention on travel websites. I decided to cut them out of the post, but will present them here as they’re relevant to this topic;

It Might Be Better To Shop Online if You Are After Specific Items
It’s rather easy to see why Japan is seen as a consumer paradise (or nightmare if you’re not fond of materialism). The shopping options seem to be endless. However if you are looking for some certain items, especially out of print records or CDs or even some anime items, you might be better off looking online. Chains like Mandarake don’t always have everything you want. Likewise record stores in Japan have been picked over pretty thoroughly. You’re probably not going to find a lot of rare stuff, and the stuff you do find may be pretty expensive. Regardless, shopping is still pretty fun there.

Always Take the Elevator

Another shopping tip. A lot of shops you might be visiting, especially specialist hobby shops, will probably not be on the first floor (i.e. ground floor if you’re Australian or British). If you’re shopping all day don’t be a sap and use the stairs. Find the elevator (there’s almost always one) and take it to the sixth floor or where the shop is located. Why wear yourself out climbing stairs all day?

The other thing which I didn’t mention in my previous post is the horror of trying to find shops, especially tiny niche hobby shops who are probably located several stories up in some tiny building with an entrance that’d you miss if you blinked. Japanese addresses are just woeful. There’s no numbers on businesses and houses and usually no street signs. In fact a lot of streets don’t have names. The easiest thing to do is get the address of the shop in English or Japanese and run it though Google maps. Certainly for smaller shops it’s not perfect, for large shops it works like a charm.

Next time I’ll be taking a look at a few record stores.