Andrew and I finish our visit to Akihabara at the huge new Mandarake store, eight floors of nerdvana. Mandarake is a comic/geekery chain particularly renowned for its wide selection of doujinshi (fancomics), and the Akihabara branch is stunning. There is indeed an entire floor of doujinshi, thousands upon thousands of slim indie comics, 90% of them gay porn for girls, packed into bookshelves along narrow aisles. So the men don’t feel left out, there’s also a floor of erotic comics for guys, where none of the customers seem bothered by a huge Caucasian woman peering over their shoulders to check out the bondage art. A floor of anime soundtrack CDs. Two floors of toys. A cabinet of rarities like an early Leiji Matsumoto manga and $10,000 vintage Doraemon figurines. A display of short-skirted cosplay outfits, all of them modeled in the accompanying photographs by the same butch-looking man. And, of course, manga.
— Tokyo, Part 2 - comiXology
Short URL for this post: http://tmblr.co/Zq-Yay6NM6q
