vesoe.blogspot.com - I was in Kansai last weekend and decided to spend half a day around the Osaka city central; Dotonburi and Denden Town.
Known colloquially as "Den-Den Town, " Nipponbashi is known for its many shops which specialize in furniture, tools, and "otaku" interests such as electronics, animation, manga, and collectibles. Nipponbashi is often compared to Akihabara Electric Town, its equivalent (in terms of focus) in Tokyo.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipponbashi
The day was fun and relaxing because I didn't have any plans nor shopping list so I basically just strolled by instinct. It turned out unexpectedly fruitful as I not only found a few treasure shops, I also found myself in a new Anime’s launch event! Come and join me on my leisure stroll from the Kintetsu Osaka-Namba Station to Den Den Town @ Nipponbashi.
Spotted Hey! Say Jump’s subway advertisement!
Within the long long stretch of covered shopping mall called SennichiMae
Fabric stores within the mall.
The legendary Idol merchandise store’s franchise xD? Okay, probably not but I am still so surprised to see one such shops even though I’ve already seen the ones at Harajuku.
Kancolle x Lawson!
Random Sword Art Online poster inside the Convenience Store. Didn't go into the store for a better look because I had an ice cream in my hand haha
A Meido (Maid) giving out flyers on the street
I think she was from Maidreamin which is just across the street.
I chanced upon a costume store called Lovepop-studio too. Click here to see their array of colourful wigs and cosplay accessories!
And directly across Lovepop-Studio is a Maid cafe!
This particular cafe has a very Parisian touch to it hehe
Walked pass a bunch of girls with costumes that reminded me of AKB48.
After some walking, I finally arrived at Den Den Town!
Maid Cafe again!
Arcade shops with a lot of UFO catcher. I personally lost 300yen in a futile attempt to catch a Levi Ackerman figurine >.<
The UFO Catcher machine in question -_-
K-Books!
The Love Live girls beside the entrance of K-Books
The line of Gashapon machines outside K-Books
Assist Wig shop is just beside Animate!
And the Animate store itself! Look at the Uta Prince billboard on top xD
If you're looking for popular anime and game merchandise, please come check us out! Animate Nihombashi is part of a chain of more than 100 Animate stores across Japan specializing in anime, comics and games. We are located in Nihombashi in the southern part of Osaka, the holy land for subcultures on par with Akihabara in Tokyo.
On the first floor, find manga and audio-visual products, and on the second floor, find character goods and cosplay. The wide aisles make shopping a pleasant experience.
We highly recommend our ""Omiyagi"" gift corner in the Nihombashi store, where you can buy specialty local items available nowhere else, as well as confections from all over the country.
When you come by, we hope you will visit the Omiyagi gift section to find something that's perfect to take home as a memento of your sightseeing.
Rows after rows of Anime and Manga goodness!
Touken Ranbu merchandise were on pre-orders the time I went. The merchandises are scheduled to come out in August 2015.
Better photo from Otakumode.com xD Pre-orders are also available online for the US fans via Otakumode.com .
Otakumode is also accepting pre-orders for Touken Ranbu Wall Posters.
This expression and the extra accessory (what do you call that? The white pompom thing you use to clean your sword) is SO CUTEEE >w<!
There were more Touken Ranbu merchandise on pre-orders! Aren’t they cute? Even for a non-fan like me, I felt tempted to get one LOL
Touken Ranbu Bookmarks! These are pre-orders too-_-;
Honestly , for a paperback Bookmark I’m really having problems understanding why they need to get pre-orders in and deliver so many months after (unless I’m misunderstanding something here).
It shouldn’t be that hard to just print it right O_o?
These bookmarks are manufactured by a Japanese Anime Merchandise company called; Gift. Such an appropriate and interesting Name isn’t it? Hahaha. Click here to buy online.
Kancolle also occupied a significant promotion space in the store. I was however, a little surprised there isn’t more Kancolle merchandise. Are they no longer popular or have they all sold out already?
A Kancolle standee beside a gashapon machine.
Also spotted this very interesting set of figurines on sale! It probably wouldn’t have caught my attention if not for the fact that I understood the Kanji (Yeahs to my Chinese roots!) and knew it was talking about Wakayama Castle, a place I had just been the day before!
Click here to see my Wakayama travel diary.
I did some googling and now understands that these boxes actually doesn’t hold figurines but rather, 3D models of Castles and Fortress from all around Japan! They are manufactured by http://doyusha-model.com/
Official Website: http://dengekionline.com/shirohime/
There’s even a game version of this initiative called ‘Shiro-Hime Quest’. Mobile and PC version available!
The game it seems, is voiced too. Pop over to their website and click the sound icon beside each Castle Hime. Aren’t they adorable?! I’m not sure how far the storyline goes but from the little I’ve seen, I think it’s an awesome way to get young people interested in Japan’s geography and historic places. Like they say, in Japan, they can make everything kawaii xD.
For those of you who have been following TheCosplayChronicle’s Facebook page, you would also know know that I stumbled upon Kekkai Sensen (血界戦線, Blood Blockage Battlefront)‘s Anime Premiere! I happened to be at the top level of the store when I saw 2 Animate staff standing around waiting and ushering people into a mysterious blue alley. It then dawned upon me that maybe a premiere was happening and maybe I could be there to watch it!
Official Website: http://kekkaisensen.com/
I paced around suspiciously for 5 minutes before I finally plucked up the courage to approach the staff (I nabbed the chance when only one of them were around heheh *gutless*) and after a bit of failed japrish conversation, my main takeaway from the staff was Okane wa Nai (Money not required) . And the next moment, I found myself seated comfortably in a little room with near 100 other people.
Turns out it was really an Anime premiere and a Seiyuu was even invited. Seiyuu invited for the event was Uchida Yuuma who voiced the little Alien; Sonic. The programme went on to having an interesting interview with Uchida Yuuma for the next 30 minutes which I completely did.not.understand -____-;;;
So I entertained myself by marvelling at how good looking this guy is. He looks a lot better in real life. With a light coloured and perfectly anime styled hair, he appeared to look somewhat like a mixed blood to me. I’m sorry guys, the interview was interesting but I really didn’t understand anything. I only know at one point, the host/interviewer requested for Uchida Yuuma to voice act as a female. He was really embarrassed in the beginning and even attempted to cajole his manager’s help by openly seeking his manager’s approval on stage. But in the end he obliged and went on to do such an impeccable performance it even managed to tickle someone like me. Through out the entire interview, he had a Sonic plushie with him and he constantly talked and pretended to puppet it on stage in a very adorable manner.
Then it was finally time for episode 1 of Kekkan Sensen! It had a lot of nice actions and looks pretty promising.
This was the survey form each attendee was given and expected to fill up before leaving. Obviously I left mine completely blank as I whizzed away embarrassingly, trying my best to assimilate and hide within the leaving crowd.
The very adorable Sonic Bookmark each attendee was given.
Daimakura pillows in K-Books
Random cute Anime plushies around the area. Check out the Kancolle ones at the background!
I then randomly found the Good Smile x Animate Cafe. Featured series of the month was Touken Ranbu. Click here to see my blog entry about the cafe!
Official Website: http://hacostadium.com/
In the same building was also Hacostadium Cosset, a Cosplay Photo Studio and HacosPlus, a Cosplay accessories shop!
Hacoplus at level 2.
When Maid Cafe gets boring, the Idol Cafe arises! Unfortunately, it didn’t entice me enough to step in.
Random Love Live Daimakura pillows
Hope you guys enjoyed my little leisure stroll around Osaka’s Anime Mecca; Den Den Town. I had wanted to end the day with a Maid Cafe experience but decided against it since I was alone and can’t take photographs inside of it and well... already been to a couple of Maid Cafes so I don’t know how surprised I can be.
The next time you’re in Osaka, I highly recommend you pay a visit to Denden Town for your dose of Anime and Pop Culture goodness. The merchandises here are cheaper compared to Akihabara (Tokyo) though the area is also significantly smaller
However I advise you to visit early as the area seems to close relatively early as compared to it’s Tokyo counterpart. This place is roughly 15 - 20 minutes of walking distance away from Namba Train station.
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