Mandarake is Japan’s largest dealer in secondhand manga and anime goods, and its original Nakano store is not one shop but about thirty, scattered across three floors of Nakano Broadway, each with its own name and a narrow specialty: pre-war manga, animation cels, 1960s tin robots, doujinshi, cosplay costumes, idol photographs, trading cards. The flagship floor near the escalator sells 100-yen comics by the shelf; the Henya toy store a few doors along keeps the rarest pieces in cases priced in the hundreds of thousands of yen.
Do not try to see it all. Pick two or three shops that match what you collect, ask the staff, who know their stock to the issue number, and leave room in your bag. Opening at noon means the morning is for Sun Mall.
Tips
- Each shop has a name and a specialty; "Henya" has vintage toys, "Mania-kan" the rarest manga, "Galaxy" the figures
- The staff will fetch items from the glass cases, but ask before photographing anything
- Mandarake buys collections too; the purchase counter is on the fourth floor