見たmorphosis

It’s been a while since I’ve written this review – two years ago to be precise. Taro Aso became foreign minister and started pushing anime tourism so there’s a hell of a lot more information available now. When I first started seriously buying up on anime stuff in Tokyo, there was only really the Cheap Bastard’s Tokyo Anime Shopping Guide. I knew nothing of Patrick Macias before writing this review, though I’m a bit more knowledgeable about the scene and the fandom and so on now (admittedly one of the things that makes Randall appropriate as a host is his slight Macias aversion).

I’ve updated and rewritten this review as appropriate – some of the links were dead, for starters. I’m planning to start offering shopping tips in future entries, so don’t fret that this entry doesn’t give you any help – the idea is that it will be forthcoming.

Anyway, here it goes.

This is a review of the book Cruising the Anime City: An Otaku Guide to Neo Tokyo. Yes, many of the links are in Japanese, perhaps even a large majority. Use babelfish (or rather, Excite) and deal. I see this book described as “essential” to any self-described otaku’s trip to Japan. Alas, I feel it only gains that epithet due to the fact that it’s the only book in its field. The best things about this book are the exhaustive maps of the Nakano Broadway complex as well as the maps of the Akihabara area. Unfortunately, these will be rendered largely obsolete in several years time due to turnover of stores. It has an extensive section on Mandarake, including information on the founder, which is somewhat creepy but will continue to be relevant due to the fact that Mandarake at least doesn’t appear to be closing down anytime soon. The small photos in the map of Nakano Broadway are very useful, however, I doubt the usefulness of including contact information for the stores, given that they probably don’t speak English.

However, even amidst all this practical information, it neglects to mention those small, yet important facts, such as a.) many of the stores at Nakano are closed on Mondays and b.) most anime stores open quite late, around 10am-12pm. It also lacks basic practical information on buying stuff, like basic Japanese phrases, no explanation of the fact that many stores don’t display prices including GST and a general lack of in depth description of the range of items available.

That’s my main problem with the book. On one hand, it assumes you’re a total anime noob by explaining terms like “Otaku” and “karaoke“, yet it assumes you know exactly what you want to buy in Japan, whether it be doujinshi, trading cards, figures, soundtracks or whatever, without giving any details of what that actually entails. A glossary of terms would have been a welcome addition. It would also have been good to have some practical bargain hunting tips (e.g secondhand doesn’t necessarily mean bad, gashapon are cheaper in sets).

The section I had particularly high hopes for, the “places in anime which exist in real life” in particular didn’t live up to my hopes. The section on Morning Musume is larger for gods sake. Demon City Shinjuku is set in Shinjuku? Who would have thought? However, as yet from what I see, there appear to be few English resources on the net in that particular vein, so I guess it’s somewhat forgiveable.

It kind of pisses me off when this book ventures into personal travelogue. I’m thinking particularly the report on Comiket 2003, which basically boils down to “It was really crowded, here are some pics of what I bought” and doesn’t give any useful information to the prospective traveller (particularly when the values of the items bought are given in US dollars rather than yen). There are two maps (one from 2003, one from 2001 drawn from memory), which is the one practical touch, but if one was serious about going, one should buy the catalogue beforehand anyway, rendering it largely pointless.

The tour of Toei studios is another largely pointless aside within the book. Pointless because the studios aren’t open to the layperson and the account segues quickly into a discussion of Toei studios in general, and then into a ramble about the state of anime in Japan, which is all well and good but what seems to be a promised first person account of the Toei Studios does not materialise.

That’s the main problem with the book; it doesn’t know whether it is a travel guide, introduction to otaku culture or a collection of anecdotes. Thus it tries to cover all bases in a paltry 200 pages and overextends itself. Yet despite that, it’s curiously devoid of content. I’m disappointed at the total omission of the Ghibli museum (which IMO is a must visit for any anime fan visiting Tokyo, however it’s a bitch to get to and buy tickets for, and details on how to do that would have been excellent) and for that matter, any details about the Animate chain of stores.

That’s one thing I’d do to improve the book; while the in depth info on the Mandarake and Tora no Ana stores was useful, I’d expand it to include other rather prominent stores like Laox, K-Books and Animate. For that matter, there was no section on Book-Off (a great source of second hand manga), which was weird, considering they wasted a whole 2 pages rambling on about the Ramen museum in Yokohama and nostalgia in general.

Basically, for a book with “Anime” in the title, it doesn’t actually have that much on anime.

I would have liked to see a write up of Akihabara in as much detail as the one on Nakano, more information on the various events and anime museums they have in Japan, more features on stores and chains of stores, a wider range of shopping districts covered (I’ve heard there’s some anime shopping in Shinjuku for example, but I’ve never seen any) and a bigger “landmarks in anime” section.

While this book is somewhat useful for a first time traveller to Tokyo and to the armchair traveller with little Otaku knowledge, I feel that it lacks content for everyone who does not fall within these categories. Oh yes, and women too. It’s male-centered to the point of making me despair, with pages dedicated to hostess clubs, bishojo games and cosplay cafes, written with relish. I understand that most otaku are male, however I still think the book doesn’t have to quite so aggressively alientate a portion of its prospective readership.

Don’t get me wrong, I think a resource like this is important. I just wish they’d done a better job with it (or rather, I think I could have done a better job, given the same resources). I know I’ll be returning this book, rather than taking it with me overseas.

Tags: books, merchandise, shopping, tokyo, travel