Anime and Manga in Tokyo

The places

Museum · Mitaka Ghibli Museum The Ghibli Museum is Hayao Miyazaki's own idea of what a museum should be: imaginative, handmade and anti-corporate. A short film screens here and nowhere else. The Cat Bus room for children is one of the most joyful rooms in any museum.

Shopping · Akihabara Akihabara Electric Town Akihabara Electric Town is the densest concentration of electronics, anime and manga in the world. Eight-storey shops stuffed with gadgets, figures, retro games and obscure components. Overwhelming, in a good way.

Shopping · Nakano Nakano Broadway Nakano Broadway is a 1966 shopping arcade reborn as the deep end of otaku culture. Four floors of vintage manga, anime cels, retro toys and watches, anchored by the legendary Mandarake used manga empire.

Shrine · Kanda Kanda Myojin Shrine Kanda Myojin is a 1,300 year old shrine that guards Tokyo's old merchant district, and the Akihabara tech crowd has adopted it, coming to have gadgets and startups blessed. The vermilion halls glow against the office towers around them. Anime fans come too, since the shrine appears in Love Live! and Steins;Gate, and it has issued charms and ema with series like Sword Art Online.

Shopping · Tokyo Station Tokyo Character Street Tokyo Character Street is an underground arcade of 30 official character shops inside Tokyo Station: Ghibli, Pokémon, Sanrio, NHK mascots, all of it. With kids it's a destination. Without kids it's dangerously good gift shopping.

Shrine · Yotsuya Suga Shrine Suga Shrine is a modest neighbourhood shrine in Yotsuya whose crossed staircase next door became world famous as the final scene of the anime film Your Name, and fans come in a steady stream to recreate the shot. The shrine itself dates from the Edo period and guards the area's eighteen former towns.

Shopping · Akihabara Akihabara Radio Kaikan Akihabara Radio Kaikan is the building that has anchored Akihabara since 1962, rebuilt in 2014 as ten floors of hobby shops opposite the station: new and used figures, plastic model kits, trading cards, dolls and a few of the old electronics dealers.

Shopping · Akihabara Mandarake Complex Mandarake Complex is eight floors of second-hand manga, anime goods, retro games, figures and collectibles in a black building on the backstreets west of Chuo-dori. Each floor has its own theme, and it's the place in Akihabara to look for older and out-of-print items.

Museum · Ogikubo Suginami Animation Museum The Suginami Animation Museum is a free museum on the third floor of Suginami Kaikan, run by Tokyo Polytechnic University. A timeline walks you through the history of Japanese anime, there's a dubbing corner where you can try voicing a scene yourself, and the theatre shows anime on a 200-inch screen. Special exhibitions on one studio or series change three or four times a year.

Museum · Oizumi Toei Animation Museum The Toei Animation Museum is run by Toei Animation itself, the oldest anime studio still in business, in Higashi-Oizumi in Nerima. It's small and free, and it covers about seventy years of the studio's work, from its earliest films to the series on TV now. A permanent Digimon display opened in June 2026.

Museum · Minami-Nagasaki Tokiwa-so Manga Museum The Tokiwa-so Manga Museum is a rebuilt Tokiwa-so, the two-storey apartment house in Toshima where Osamu Tezuka moved in 1953. Young manga artists followed him there, Fujiko F. Fujio, Shotaro Ishinomori and Fujio Akatsuka among them. The original came down in 1982, and the rebuilt version in Minami-Nagasaki Hanasaki Park runs exhibitions on the artists who lived there.

Museum · Ikebukuro Anime Tokyo Station Anime Tokyo Station is a free anime centre set up by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and run by the Association of Japanese Animations, four minutes from Ikebukuro's east exit. The basement takes you through how an anime gets made, with real production material. The upper floor holds special exhibitions on one series at a time, and they're free too.

Shopping · Ikebukuro Animate Ikebukuro Animate Ikebukuro is the flagship of the Animate anime shop chain, five minutes from Ikebukuro's east exit. Since a 2023 rebuild it fills a building of nine floors and two basements with character goods, manga, music and games, and it has its own theatre downstairs for stage readings and talk shows.

Shopping · Ikebukuro Gashapon Department Store Ikebukuro The Gashapon Department Store in Sunshine City is Bandai Namco's capsule toy hall, with 3,775 machines on the third floor of the World Import Mart building. Weeks after it opened in 2021 it set the Guinness World Record for the most capsule toy machines in one place, and it's added more since.

Shopping · Shibuya Shibuya PARCO Shibuya PARCO is a fashion mall, but anime and game fans go straight to the 6th floor, where Nintendo TOKYO, Pokémon Center Shibuya, the JUMP SHOP and the CAPCOM STORE TOKYO sit side by side. THE GUNDAM BASE SHIBUYA is due to open in the building in November 2026.

Museum · Kawasaki Fujiko F. Fujio Museum The Fujiko F. Fujio Museum in Kawasaki is given over to the creator of Doraemon, who lived for years in the city's Tama ward. His original colour artwork fills the first floor, a small theatre screens films you can't see anywhere else, and his characters wait for you on the rooftop playground. There's a manga reading room and a cafe too.

Shopping · Odaiba The Gundam Base Tokyo The Gundam Base Tokyo is the official Gunpla centre on the 7th floor of DiverCity Tokyo Plaza, where you can buy, build and look at Gundam model kits, with finished models on display. The life-size Unicorn Gundam statue outside the mall ended its run on 31 August 2026.

Museum · Sakura-shinmachi Hasegawa Machiko Art Museum The Hasegawa Machiko Art Museum is two buildings in Sakura-shinmachi for the creator of Sazae-san. The Memorial Museum covers her life and her best-known manga, Sazae-san, Ijiwaru Baasan and Apron Obasan, with original drawings and photos. The Art Museum, open since 1985, shows the paintings and crafts she and her sister Mariko collected.

Anime and games events coming up

• 1 Aug to 26 Oct The Apothecary Diaries x Tokyo City View: Dance Echoing in the Sky Tokyo City View, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower An immersive tie-in event with the TV anime The Apothecary Diaries takes over the Tokyo City View observation deck, combining artwork, projections and installations. It's the series' first immersive event, themed on the night sky and dance, and runs alongside the deck's usual panoramic views of the city. Official site
• 28 Oct to 8 Feb Shojo Manga Infinity: Moto Hagio, Ryoko Yamagishi, and Waki Yamato National Art Center, Tokyo Major exhibition celebrating pioneering female manga artists and their influence on shojo (girls') manga genre. Comprehensive retrospective featuring original works, manuscripts, and cultural impact of these influential creators. Official site
• 30 Oct to 11 Jan Haikyu!! Exhibition: The Challengers Mori Arts Center Gallery An exhibition on Haruichi Furudate's volleyball manga Haikyu!! at the gallery on the 52nd floor of Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. Official site
• 30 Oct to 1 Nov Ikebukuro Halloween Cosplay Festival Sunshine City and surrounding Ikebukuro streets One of Japan's largest organised Halloween cosplay gatherings takes over the Ikebukuro area with registered dressing rooms, a cosplay parade along Sunshine 60 Street, and stage events at Naka-Ikebukuro Park. The festival runs across three days, with a ticketed adults-only night event on the Friday followed by the main festival on Saturday and Sunday. Official site
• 7 to 8 Nov Sugi-Ani Expo 2026 Suginami Kaikan Suginami's free anime weekend fills Suginami Kaikan, the building that houses the Suginami Animation Museum, with screenings and talk shows on work by the ward's anime studios, animation-making booths, caricature drawing and an anime song ensemble on stage. It's the Suginami part of a joint anime and manga festival run by Nakano, Suginami and Toshima wards. Official site
• 11 to 13 Dec Tokyo Comic Con 2026 Makuhari Messe Japan's big pop-culture convention, in its tenth year: film and comic news, company booths with limited goods, an artist alley and visiting Hollywood actors. Day tickets are sold in advance, and children of primary school age and under go free with a paying adult. Official site
• 19 to 20 Dec Jump Festa 2027 Makuhari Messe, Chiba (day trip from Tokyo) Shueisha's yearly festival for Weekly Shonen Jump takes over most of Makuhari Messe with stages and booths for Jump's manga, anime and games. Entry is free but by advance application only: everyone from primary school age up needs an electronic ticket in the Jump NAVI app. Official site
• 29 to 31 Dec Comic Market 109 (Comiket) Tokyo Big Sight Comiket is the giant fair for self-published manga, anime and game books, with circles selling doujinshi across Tokyo Big Sight, company booths and cosplay areas. This winter it runs three days, the first time since 2019. Entry needs a ticket or wristband, and the afternoon wristband costs 440 yen bought in advance or 1,000 yen on the day. Official site
• 13 to 14 Feb Wonder Festival 2027 Winter Makuhari Messe, Chiba (day trip from Tokyo) Wonder Festival is the big fair for figures and model kits, where about 2,000 dealers sell original sculpts and garage kits of anime and game characters made under one-day licences, with cosplay areas too. The winter edition runs two days this time. Tickets for the summer 2026 show were 3,500 yen in advance and 4,000 yen on the day. Official site
• 16 to 20 Sept Tokyo Game Show Makuhari Messe, Chiba (day trip from Tokyo) Japan's biggest video game show fills the halls of Makuhari Messe in Chiba, about 40 minutes from Tokyo Station, with playable demos, stage events and cosplay. The 2027 show runs five days, and the first days have been for trade visitors only, so check which are public days before you buy. Tickets are sold online in advance. Official site

AnimeJapan, the big spring anime fair that used to fill Tokyo Big Sight, is at Intex Osaka on 27 and 28 March 2027. Source: AnimeJapan

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