The otaku tour begins here. Nakano Broadway, also known as Nakano Sun Road, is in Nakano just west of Shinjuku. While Akihabara might be considered the otaku capitol of Japan, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors of this otherwise normal shopping arcade is in my opinion the true birthplace of the whole otaku movement. Mandarake, a shop that bought and sold comics, toys and other collectibles had their humble beginnings here. They became famous because their employees would dress up as anime characters and customers could vote on them. The first time I visited was more than 15 years ago, before Mandarake began expanding and long before they opened up their bigger store in Shibuya in 1994. Since then Nakano Broadway gradually grew into a mecca for anime, toys etc tapering off recently when similar shops began opening up in Akiba. Today, I accompanied Brad and Joe who was visiting Japan. Nakano is a bit out of the way for me so I hardly ever make it up here anymore, but it was a good opportunity to see what new things were out there and take some colorful photos of toys. One of the shocking realizations was that I had forgotten the names of many robots I used to love. This may not necessarily be a bad thing. (above photo: Great Mazinger, I want)

(1) This is one of the main Mandarake Stores, they have many different shops spread out all over the 3 floors (2) Tetsujin No.28 (the first giant robot) guards the entrances of a few of them, there’s a sign saying not to take photos. I didn’t see that until after I took the picture. Oops..(3) This is where you sell your stuff. Line up and wait until it’s your turn to have your manga and hentai anime porn DVDs appraised in the open for everyone to see (4) The view from the 3rd Floor.

It’s all about the toys. Plenty of shops with lots of glass cabinets filled to capacity.

Lots and lots of figures and models and toys and robots and keychains and dolls and bottlecaps and…you name it. It would take a year for me to look at everything. I could only take photos of the store fronts but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There is THAT much stuff here.

(1) There were also a few shops selling anime cels (2) Some of the original ones from Ghibli were very expensive. A cel from Nausicaa fetched more than ¥300,000 (3) This old one from Voltes Five was in excellent condition (4) And a nice one from Gundam of Amuro and Frau.

Lots of good Q-Taro stuff too (1) Whatever this thing was it cost ¥40,000 (3) And this was volume one of the first edition Q-Taro comic ¥15,750.

And of course there were your cosplay shops..

Maids here too! There were a few maid cafes. I believe the maid thing originated in Akiba and then came back here. Anyway this was not a maid cafe but a maid game centre. There was a sign that said no photos but again I didn’t catch it until after snapping the picture.

(1) And hidden in a remote corner was this shop that seemed to sell maid costumes (2) The catalog looks very colorful. Anyone know where I can subscribe to it?