Animate

The Animate Group is one of the largest anime and manga japanese companies. The holding oversees numerous subsidiaries involved in adjacent and complementary sectors, such as MOVIC (which, among other things, produces licensed merchandise), GAMERS (a retail store chain), PIXIV (a platform that’s a mix of Patreon, Canva, and Fiverr), mobile game development companies, and much more.

What we’re interested in here, however, is their retail store chain.

Animate is one of the largest retailer of anime, video games and manga in Japan. The first flagship store of Animate was opened in 1983 in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.

Like many other stores in Japan, for music, video, manga, and game software, the company frequently includes exclusive bonus items for customers who pre-order. These bonuses can range from promotional posters, stickers, postcard, and variant covers, to unique and creative collaborations with manufacturers.

Animate currently has stores in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and United States.