Ikebukuro Otome Road

You will probably imagine Akihabara if you heard word," Otaku." How about another Otaku heaven in Ikebukuro?
Akihabara concentrates on males customers while Otome Road in Ikebukuro attracts girls with anime items and Dojinshi (self-published) magazines, it is now known as a 2.5 dimensional world.

The area has always had stores selling BL (boys love) products and related items and for this reason it was known as Fujoshi’s heaven.
However, with the recent increase in the number of books and stories targeting girls there are more love games, books, comics 2D male idols and voice actor related items being sold in the shops.

There are also butlers’ cafe besides the shops so it is probably more suitable to call it Girls’ Otaku Heaven rather than Fujoshi heaven.

Otome road itself is very short and if you were just walking past, you will go through it very quickly. But if you are walking around the shops it will probably take a day.

At the front of Otome road is the entrance to ANIMATE Sunshine branch.
From 1st to 3rd floor of ANIMATE is a cosplay (costume play) shop, ACOS Ikebukuro main store.

On the 4th floor is Rashin-Ban Ikebukuro Isho (costume) section that sells second-hand character costumes and dolls related items.

From 5th to 6th floors are HACOSTADIUM cosset Ikebukuro main store that specialise in cosplay photography.

On the 7th and 8th floor are ANIMATE Cafe that features popular characters from animes to games.
It is definitely a popular destination for the girls who love cosplay, but if you ever want to have a meal surrounded by your favourite characters, you must book in advance. It is nearly full every day.

Shops other than ANIMATE sell and buy anime DVDs, game softwares and related items. If the items you are looking for are from popular stories, the girls often have difficulties finding the one they have been looking for.
The popular items are sold out a moment it goes online, or if they are sold at shops, they are sold out even if you had been queuing all day. Many otome (mean "the girls". in this column it means "the otaku girls") love to come to these shops that buy and sell rare items.

Many second-hand items are bought without being opened from the package so they are practically brand new. You will sure to find something you like here.

At last, I am going to introduce the features of each shop to find that you want.
K-BOOKS in Ikebukuro has seven shops; for comics and software, for doujin books shop, or for figures.
You will find lovely and tidy items in K-BOOKS. There are comparatively broad aisles, so you can find that you want quickly.
Compare with K-BOOKS, Mandarake and Rashinban divide into their items roughly. You will take an effort to get the book, but these items are cheaper than in other shops. Perhaps you would catch reasonable and rare books, especially Rashinban.
If you in a hurry, you should go to K-BOOKS. But it is better to go shop to shop for wonder to a item in reasonable price.