a shopping complex not far from SHINJUKU (station)

To any anime or idol lover, this place can seem like paradise

a kind of mini Akihabara

One shop you will find all over the place is MANDARAKE

Today we are at Mandarake. It's an amazing place, a world of Manga

To help me out is a professional, Patrick W Galbraith

author of the Moe Manifesto and the Otaku Encyclopedia

You're really enjoying yourself, aren't you?

I am! There is manga everywhere, man!

This is paradise!

Recently worldwide, Manga and Anime is taking off, isn't it?

Yeah, I'd say so. The Manga has so much content,it's a little bit different,

something you might not imagine is being part of comics culture..

But I think it kinda offers range of materials, it draws a lot of new people in to get really excited about it,

They sort of want to tell other people about it,

I think it's the stories, the characters which makes the difference,

Like GOKU versus Superman

They are so different. GOKU is almost flawed, right?

yeah, superman is sort of invincible, right?

he's super powerful, super strong,

He's son of Krypton

Well, he never loses!

He never loses.But GOKU on the other hand, does lose

always knows there's someone more powerful than him

So he gets his friends together, he gets stronger...

He learns, he grows, he dies, he is reborn...

So in a way GOKU is more approachable

He's a little bit more down to earth, more human.

He can be hurt, he can cry, he laughs

So I think people can relate more to flawed characters

than to people who cannot even BLEED!

A little bit more human, right? Closer to me

Although that battle between GOKU and Superman is settled

They did settle it. They said Superman wins because his power level is higher

I think his power level is a little higher, but the thing is,

that GOKU has his crew. And his crew will get together to do a smack down as a team

Not on 1 on 1. That 's not the way things work

Um..in my mind

Anime is basically an animated version of Manga, no?

I'd say a lot of the content comes from somewhere else

You have kind of Anime based on Manga,

based on light novels, based on games

but in a way it is it's own thing.

I don't think it's kind of like a lesser version of the original

It's a different thing

So when you look at "Ghost in the shell" manga

Which is its own thing

And you look at Oshii Mamoru's "Ghost in the shell" film,

Completely different thing

And you can watch them side by side and see...

the major in one way,

and see the major in another way

and they are sort of side by side and

sort of expanded media world

So it's not the case where the book is better than the movie?

I don't think you have to compare them

They both exist side by side, and they are both enjoyable

All this talking and we haven't even looked around MANDARAKE yet

There are toy shops and manga shops

Let's start right here in the used Manga shop where Patrick and I are feeling that OTAKU vibe

How about this? "KISEIJYU"

also known as parasyte

Sci-Fi horror that takes over your brain

Do you know GENSHIKEN?

See this guy?

This is MADARAME

GENSHIKEN is about anime....and Otaku!

I love it.... I am OTAKU!

Well then, take this! ONEPIECE

SANJI!

LUFFY!

ZORO!

Pirates, action, adventure?

What more do you want?

Well then, how about this?

It is SOLANIN

It stars

Two girls....who wants to become...rock musicians

Mandarake is a chain of shops within an amazing array of toys and manga

through the ages

It's almost like a museum, but where things are for sale

These toys really are collectables

A way to connect to the past

Patrick has found some old school action figures

before they became much higher quality

Mandarake has so many unique items

Patrick finds another one, right at the entrance

So this is for sale for 8500 dollars

and it used to be a Gachapon machine

so the capsules are inside the chest

Put the money in here,

and it comes out, here

But it's been changed to a display now

and it's for sale! Look at this guy!

I can't believe there is a Gachapon machine like this in the world!

Only in Japan, beautiful

If you missed a Manga in a series, you can find it here

Want older? How about 1973?

Across the way are these two Manga

The price is reflected in their rarety and condition

This one is from 1948

3 years after the war

This is a 1st edition from a known artist

expensive

MANDARAKE also has an online store

Contact them in English if you have a question

or searching for something

They don't have English Manga

but if you want some Japanese ones, this is the place to be

2 stops from Nakano on the JR chuo line is WAOWORLD Anime studio

It's a division of an education and entertainment company that..

you guessed it...also makes Anime

Kaneko san works with club animators who aim to create a indie movie called chuyaden

Right now they are putting together a promotion video to gather funds

The goal... to produce a feature film based on fan feedback

But first, what exactly is chuyaden?

The story goes like this

Boys and girls face a situation where

the sun is about to disappear

and they fight YOKAI

Japanese monsters

to regain it

Day and Night Yokai do CHANBARA

sword fighting battle

And the hero characters, SHU,YUNA and KENTA

have their ups and downs learning along the way

SHU is a boy who is good at everything but doesn't show his will often

He grew up with Yuna, a quiet looking girl who hates losing

There is also KENTA, Yuna's little brother

and loads of YOKAI, like Nurarihyon and Kasha

Let's see how all the story, and all these characters are made

Wow. Look at all the detail the way he goes back and forth and checks underneath it

Absolutely. Drawing the same characters over and over again in different positions

You have to make sure you give the same quality, position, and detail over and over again

is very labor intensive

When he flips it up and down, you can almost see the action movement

Absolutely. It's moving right there in front of us.We're seeing it being drawn

Amazing

This artist is hand drawing KENTA

Artists work 10 to 12 hours a day, and they need a lot of energy

Like these "GENKI (energy) drinks". Creators live on them

On the other side is where the digital process begins

Each line is digitally entered

It's a time consuming process

This project is planned to be crowdfunded

And a future model on how an original Anime could be created through social networking

It needs to create a strong connection between creator and fans

It's amazing how WAO has created everything in such a small studio, isn't it?

Absolutely. The trailer itself was produced just by the director and

They were able to take these digital tools effectively to produce his own animations

And getting other people involved in the process to take on more and more tasks

Basically put together a coalition of talented artists

And each one of them will probably make their own trailers and their own films

Right. That's how the industry works, isn't it?

In this sense, yes

I think it's keeping it a little bit more fast streaming the process

because they are not just doing one thing,but you are doing more and more tasks

using the digital tools

So in a way it's creating more rounded individuals who can do

creative actions more autonomously

I mean, to be working in this industry, how many people get to do this?

This is where it's happening

You see people getting into it, and working their way up

Learning their skill in the process

We tried digitally coloring the main character, SHU

It's sort of like coloring by number, but harder

You need to have an accurate touch

It looks easy, but for beginners it could become a real challenge

Oh you missed

While we figure this out, take a look at how a Anime scene is made

Several hours of work, crunched into 20 seconds

There are countless movements needed to make just a 5 seconds scene

Here are the final results

Kaneko san explains

There is a lot of excitment surrounding Japan's subculture

Manga and Anime are only going to grow in popularity

Although we have just scratched the service of these massive industries,

There are more and more chances to become part of it

Either as a fan

creator

or Otaku reporters on a Manga rampage

Just have fun with it!