Animate Ikebukuro main store.
Animate (株式会社アニメイト, Kabushiki gaisha Animeito?) is the retailing arm of MOVIC and is the largest retailer of anime, games, and manga in Japan. The first and headquarters store of Animate opened in 1983 and is located in Ikebukuro, a district in Tokyo, Japan. Currently, there are 38 Animate stores in Japan, and two in Taipei, Taiwan.[1] However, for a brief period of time, there was also one in Southern California, specifically in Los Angeles, which closed some time in 2003. After Biblos closed in April 2006 due to the failure of its parent company,[2] Animate became its parent company, renaming it Libre Publishing.[3]
[edit] Anime Tenchō
Meito Anisawa (兄沢 命斗, Anisawa Meito?) is Animate's mascot character, affectionately known as the Anime Tenchō (アニメ店長?). He is depicted as a wild anime character with spiky hair and rippling muscles, clad with the Animate uniform, going to extreme measures to promote Animate's goods. An original video animation based on the character was produced by Gainax and released in 2002.[4] Another OVA was released in 2010. An animation project which crosses over Anime Tencho with the Touhou Project is currently being produced by ufotable.[5] Meito has also made various appearances in other media, such as the Lucky Star anime series and video games such as Disgaea 4 and Touch My Katamari.[6] Meito is voiced by Tomokazu Seki in his anime appearances, and is voiced by Lex Lang in the English dub of Lucky Star.
[edit] Collaboration with Broccoli
On January 23, 2008, Animate's rival company, Broccoli, announced that they collaborated with Animate and made a new company "AniBro". Animate holds 70% of the company, while Broccoli holds 30%. The president of the company will be the CEO of Animate, although he will continue to manage Animate along with AniBro. AniBro plans to expand using the AniBro brand to many places in Japan.[7]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
