Closing Down: Anime-Exclusive Theater, Idols' Mecca Bookstore in Tokyo

When it opened in 2004, the theater was supposed to be the Mecca of anime culture. It was, in fact, the world's first theater to feature nothing but anime - hence its name: "Akihabara Oriental Comic Theater".

Everybody thought it made sense, but it didn't.

On the very day it opened in 2004, the 105-seat theater dared a long-run of "Lunar Legend Tsukihime" and had a plan to go on showing latest TV anime series. Then, suddenly six months later in October that year, it closed and changed its trademark.  

How did all that happen? One crucial flaw in the project was a lack of vision on the part of the theater featuring nothing but anime. Anime fans are no ordinary moviegoers. As Tokyo Shoko Research puts it, most anime fans have their own libraries of anime DVDs and can watch anything the theater proposes to feature. It's amazing this simple fact was overlooked in the first place.

On September 6, the Tokyo District Court ruled the commencement of the bankruptcy, and what was thought to be a center of anime culture ceased to exist. The amount of indebtedness is reported to aggregate 42.6 million yen.
In Kanda, near Akihabara, stands a bookmart "Shosen", a reputed home of comics and light novels. Autograph sessions frequented here and it was called "Idols' Mecca.

This bookmart is closing this month, September. Kanda is a book town made up of varieties of bookstores. Shosen is one unique bookstore featuring sub-cultural items e.g. professional wrestling and idols.

In 2012, Shosen shifted to exclusively featuring comics and light novels; then in 2014, it remodeled to specifically serve female customers featuring B L (boy's love) and TL (gleans' love) works. Shosen's 1-4 floors is a world of its own loaded with sub-cultural items for female customers.

Now that Shosen is closing, another light turns off in the Kanda-Akihabara area.