The other day I had some time, so I went to Nakano Broadway.
I love figures, and a few years ago I visited Nakano Broadway just once. I wanted to go again, found the time, and went. There are tons of shops dealing in toys, manga, used books, and the like.
Look it up and you'll get the picture — it's close to a smaller version of Akihabara. I like American toys and Japan's retro toys (Astro Boy and so on), so Nakano Broadway's vibe fits me better.
Of course Akihabara probably has more stock overall, but the crowds are brutal, it's so big that walking wears you out, and I'm not into that distinctive street scene of touts for maid cafés or hostess-style cafés lined up.
Nakano isn't that far from my place, but you have to transfer at Shinjuku, so going gets a little exhausting.
For a while I transferred at Shinjuku on the way to work, and morning commute stress was unbearable. This sounds spiritual, but just walking through the dense crowds around Shinjuku or Shibuya stations feels like it drains my luck and leaves me wiped out.
The other day I had business in Shinjuku and stopped by the well-stocked Kinokuniya there looking for an art book I wanted — I was completely exhausted.
Back to Nakano Broadway. Naturally a lot of anime and manga fans gather there. Beyond that, there were quite a few high-end watch shops — mostly aimed at inbound visitors. Shops targeting foreigners drawn by anime culture, I'd guess.
Inside Nakano Broadway, Mandarake specializes in anime manga, figures, and related goods, and it takes up roughly a third of the place. It's so big there's even an employee-only café inside the complex.
(That "one third" is purely my impression — not an exact figure, so cut me some slack.)
By the way, Mandarake has plenty of stores outside Nakano Broadway too.
Looking Mandarake up now, I noticed it's a listed company. As of end of July 2024 the market cap is about ¥39.6 billion — a year ago it was around ¥10 billion, so nearly 4x in a year. Go back two years and it was about ¥4 billion, so 10x in two years. PER around 30x. Impressive. I didn't picture a brick-and-mortar reuse retailer growing that fast in that span, but apparently e-commerce sales have been solid.
I also checked nearby companies in similar businesses for comparison. Figures below from Buffett Code:
I'm not that sharp at financial analysis, so I won't dig deep — but the peers also seem to do reuse only. Some cover a wider range of reused goods, so Mandarake's focus on anime/manga used goods is probably why operating efficiency looks higher.
Comparing UI/UX across peer e-commerce sites (including sites that sell anime goods beyond reuse) might make for an even better analysis. Unlisted, but Surugaya or Animate might be closest to the real picture?
(Side note: looking at Mandarake's shareholders, Kaikai Kiki — run by artist Takashi Murakami — was a major holder with about 3.5% until a few years ago (seems sold since). So that larger Kaikai Kiki store in one corner of Nakano Broadway suddenly made sense.)
Macro-wise: a few years of COVID and working from home meant more decluttering and more used toys circulating — and people like me, wanting to fill out our rooms while staying home, got hooked on that stuff.
On YouTube, talents who love soft vinyl and anime — Kendo Kobayashi, Bad Boys' Sada, Shoko Nakagawa — have videos enjoying Mandarake, so Mandarake's name recognition may be rising too.
For toy/retro fans like me, Sada's channel, and also Ijiri Okada's and Ginshari Hashimoto's channels, are recommended — they lean into Showa-era manga and figures. Not strictly toy/manga, but Cookie! (Kukki) covers fashion and music and is hilariously good. I'd love it if Kenkoba ran a similar channel.
I've bought figures at Mandarake (a retro Mickey Mouse, and weirdly cute Burger King burger-and-fries figure goods). Being able to calmly browse that mountain of figures in a slightly dark shop is a fun shopping experience. And personally, knowing everyone else in the store also loves figures or manga gives me something like a sense of belonging — it feels good.
From the customer side, when you want to look at toys/figures, you go to Mandarake, not Bookoff, right?
I started out writing that Nakano Broadway was fun, and somehow this became a "Mandarake is amazing" blog.
P.S. I thought about inviting a friend to Nakano Broadway, but I don't really have friends who share the hobby. Shopping alone is insanely fun, but I'd like a friend whose tastes match.
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