This is it! Let’s hurry inside!

What you can see in Animate at first is “otaku souvenirs.”

Let’s go up to the floor for girls.

Found Kumamate at girls’ floor. You can play dress-up with teddy bears. These bears were sold out last time! At this time, I got full range of bears!

A thousand of anime and manga goods… I’ll not get bored looking at the shop until morning.

Commercial Manga and Books section. There are so many kawaii yaoi manga that I can’t decide what to buy! I think that yaoi manga artists have great skill in painting.

Of course you can find “not yaoi” at Animate.

Today’s catch at Animate Akihabara
Kumamate with Case Closed and Uta no Prince-sama’s costumes, and three commercial yaoi manga! All of these manga are really nice! Especially “Best Ending? (ベストエンディング？)” by Junta Mio (三尾じゅん太) is so cute. I became huge fan of this manga artist!

The current hot topic is Uta no Prince-sama (うたの☆プリンスさまっ♪). The special campaign is being conducted to mark the release of the new character song CD “Shining All Star CD.”

In front of the cash register is also completely full up with Utapri!

Utapri characters’ cookies. Is Len Jinguji the most popular?

The school seal accessory. Kawaii!

OH! Keigo Atobe (跡部景吾), the popular character of the Prince of Tennis (テニスの王子様) is picking up girls!
“俺様の美技に酔いな！ (Be awed at the sight of my prowess!)”

Unfortunately the anime of Gintama (銀魂) ended, but it is still very popular.

So many character goods are here…

Now we focus our eyes to manga for Otome & Yaoi fans.

Recently, Kuroko’s Basketball (黒子のバスケ) is hot.

One of the big bestseller, “Junjo Romantica (純情ロマンチカ) series” has won enthusiastic support from many fans as a leading manga of Yaoi category over the past 10 years. The author, Shungiku Nakamura (中村春菊)’s other manga are very popular as well, especially “Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi (世界一初恋)” is recent hottest one. It is partly linked “Junjo Romantica.”

Shungiku Nakamura’s illustrations are really attractive.

Today, my interest was “Iyayo Yameteyo (いやよやめてよ).” The author, Lalako Kojima (小嶋ララ子) is a new yaoi manga artist, but her illustrations are very pretty and the story also looks interesting. You can see her blog here. >> mim.vivian.discotica

These days you can often spot “Shirokuma Cafe (しろくまカフェ)” as well. (This is not yaoi manga!)

The anime has been on the air since April.

I found very very cute cosplay bears, “Kumamate (くまめいと)”! You can dress the bears in your favorite anime character’s costumes. The bears and costumes both are for about 800 yen. I wanted to buy a bear and Utapri’s costume, but bears are sold out because it is now becoming popular. What a pity!

K-On! (けいおん！) cosplayed black bear.

Nintama Rantaro (忍たま乱太郎). I could see only black colored bears, but there are other colored bears.

WOW! Various costumes! OHH I REALLY WANT THE BEAR!!!

Kumamate Official Website: くまめいと (Japanese only)

For your information, you can get your costumes in Animate Akihabara as well.

— What inspired you to create NARUTO?

At first I wanted to create a ramen manga, but it was not really suited for children. So I just picked up the name of Naruto (A common topping on Japanese noodles such as Tokyo-style ramen), and combined Ninja story. Both are the pieces of Japanese culture, so I thought that it was a good combination.

— What would you say is the main theme of NARUTO?

Our need for recognition from others. It was a big theme for me, because my idea of ramen manga also was not recognized.

— Who would you target as the audience of NARUTO?

Fourteen years old boys. I can get down on my knees to beg them to read NARUTO. 14 years old is something special for me, because I began to think that I want to be a manga artist when I was fourteen. I want to give fourteen years old boys a dream as same as people who gave the dream to me.

— Do you have a rival?

Manga artists of Weekly Shonen JUMP, and talented young artists.