Mandarake Complex
Eight-story secondhand emporium of manga, anime goods and toys, floor by floor by category.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Mandarake Complex in Akihabara, Tokyo follows Masuzo Furukawa, who trained under manga legend Shigeru Mizuki before deciding his own drawing wasn't good enough and quitting. It traces his failed first bookstore, the lesson he drew from it about location, and the tiny stall he opened in Nakano Broadway in 1980 that became Mandarake. As you climb the floors, notice how each one is sorted like a museum of a different obsession.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Nakano Broadway
Retro nineteen sixties shopping arcade turned maze of used manga, toy and idol-goods shops.
Animate Akihabara
Multi-building anime, manga and character-goods complex with an event floor for fan meet and greets.
Akihabara Electric Town
Bustling electronics and anime shopping district born from a postwar radio black market.
Don Quijote Akihabara
Multistory discount megastore stacked floor to ceiling with a jumbled maze of goods, topped by an idol group's theater.
Tokyo Big Sight
Waterfront convention center topped by four inverted glass-and-titanium pyramids jacked skyward as one piece.
DAIKANYAMA T-SITE
Bookstore campus of three low-rise pavilions woven with a T-shaped concrete lattice around mature trees.