Saturday, May 15, 2010

Walk in Akihabara -9-

continued from "Walk in Akihabara -8-".

I showed a shop called "Sofmap" before, and one of its outlets named "Amusement" sells anime or idol-related dvds, and cds. It is considered a shop that has the greatest number of secondhand discs in Akihabara. When I came here it was still advertising a video gamed called "End of Eternity", which was out on January 28.

An exhibition by illustrators was held at this shop called "Comic Tora no Ana A". This shop sells manga mainly and they sell Doojin manga as well. "Doojin" is manga that was drawn by amateur people, and it often has adult contents.

"Tora no Ana" has an annex called B and there is a section for girls and the shop made it easy for them to get in by making the atmosphere familiar to girls.

And when I got in, the B shop was playing some scenes from the second season of K-ON!!. It was playing this in order to advertise the Blue-ray dvds that will be released. And those who buy the dvds will get a life-size Azusa tapestry.

When I was walking along Chuo Street, there was this section where video games for computer were displayed.

You can actually play all of the video games available there. This is a game called "Unlimited Hearts". You can visit its website by clicking this. I don't have any console, so those pc games were really appealing.

Do you know a discount store called "Don Quijote"? There are many outlets of it in Japan, and people can buy so many kinds of things from Zippo lighters to grocery very cheaply.

And the 8th floor of the Don Quijote in Akihabara has a space for the AKB48 theater. I don't think all anime fans are in favor of this girls' idol group. I'd rather listen to songs by Seiyuu instead. AKB48 is so popular that there were some cheating involving their concert tickets.   

I have often spoken to foreign people under 40, and most of them said they grew up watching anime. Japanese adults still don't understand why anime is so appealing to many people, but it is completely different from Disney's anime, and the storyline of each anime is well-wrought. For example, the Haruhi novel had been already supported by many people before it was released as anime.