I recently visited Gashapon Bandai Official Shop in Torrance and had a really fun experience. The…read moreshop is packed with rows of capsule toy machines featuring popular anime, manga, gaming, and Japanese character merchandise. Very reminiscent of my recent trip to Japan. The atmosphere was exciting and nostalgic, especially for collectors and anime fans. The store was clean, organized, and easy to browse. Some of the most popular items that I found here included Dragon Ball, Pokémon, and Sanrio just to name a few. There were also miniature food keychains and cute animal figures. You have to be careful here as once you start a collection it can be pricey to complete your collection as you don't know what you will get with very token and capsule toy spin. Every machine had something unique and it was hard to leave with just one capsule. I ended up getting a Sanrio one and a Pokémon capsule toy. I am just disappointed in the pricing of these capsule toys. I understand that when I was in Japan I only paid at most $4 for a capsule toy but here, the range varies and can go up to $12. Yikes! Overall, service was good. Staff members were friendly and helpful when I had questions about the machines or needed assistance with tokens and exchanges.

Located inside Mitsuwa, near the food court area. They offer trinkets, toys, and other neat…read morecollectibles. The prices vary depending on the item, $1-$3. There is a pay station where you can use your credit card to purchase coins to get the item you want. Very pricey for what you get.

I believe this place splits into two stores in Weller Court? On one side is a bunch of fanmade…read moremerch that they split profits with the artist, which I think is super nice/cool of them to do! This side is much smaller than the main store and has some empty areas, but well laid out. The main store where Kinokuniya used to be is really cool! I'm very, very impressed by their selection of gacha game merch. This stuff is hard to find even in some shops in China, so I appreciate that they brought it here to the states.

The space is a good size to stock anime and like items, but it felt empty. There wasn't really an…read moreorganized method to find a certain anime product; you just had to browse around and see what they had. Even with whatever they carried, it wasn't much. I don't know how service is here since I didn't interact with anyone. The items I took a closer look at were clothing and it was expensive since they were official merchandise from abroad,

Even though I visited on a holiday Sunday, I'm glad I waited until the hype had slowed down a bit…read more I only waited in line for about 3 minutes before we were able to walk right in. This Studio Ghibli merchandise store is supposed to be a temporary pop-up through December 31, and stepping inside totally brought me back to Japan. The good news is I didn't have to worry about suitcase space this time, but I definitely still had to worry about my wallet! I have to admit, everything was priced on the higher end, but there are so many cute items that would make great gifts for anyone who loves Studio Ghibli. They had a great selection of plushies, towels, journals, keychains, and even chopsticks! I somehow managed to show restraint and only bought a cute box of 10 Totoro pop-up notecards for about $20, and they are SUPER kawaii! Hopefully, they'll decide to make this store permanent after December because I'd definitely come back!

This is a cashless store, and all sales are final…read more The first Studio Ghibli pop-up store in the USA opened here on June 23, 2026, and will run until December 31, 2026. For fans, it's probably like Disney opening its first pop-up shop in Japan. If you're near Lazy Dog Cafe or PF Chang's and look down the courtyard toward the mall entrance, the store will be on your lefthand side. It's nice that the shop has its own entrance to the courtyard and isn't restricted to mall hours. If you're not from the area, is it worth the trip? The showroom, excluding the back room, is about 240 square feet--roughly the size of a one-car garage. The setup feels more like a permanent store than a temporary pop-up. The inventory seems focused on three categories: plush toys, figurines, and printed goods (posters, stationary, etc.). I've heard that licensed retailers carry some of these same items, so maybe this store is convenient for having collections all in one spot. I'm not really into this kind of kitsch, so it feels a bit pricey to me--but then again, I guess I'm not exactly a "fan."

Don't get me wrong! It's a great place for merch and has had a lot of great pop ups recently! The…read morestaff is usually amazing and super efficient. The reason why I'm giving it a 3 out of 5 is because of a bad experience today with the door person. We came in today, July 19th around the afternoon, about 3-4 PM. I understand their bag policy, it sucks but what can you do. We were very compliant with the doorman, but he seemed to have an attitude. Listen man, I get that it's hot and you may be having a day, but that doesn't mean you get to be rude. We went in, and immediately he needed to take our bags. We complied cause it's policy, and I politely told him "oh I have a small bag!" As in to tell him we have another bag to give him. He took it the wrong way and said "trust me I don't want to take it more than you do" under his breath. Buddy, I can hear you. I didn't even say it in a rude way, I'm just informing you that there was another bag. Whatever, we handed all our bags over, one of which was a bag carrying some merchandise (mainly some posters we purchased from another event we came from) mind you, there was 4 posters from a limited time event in there, worth $65. He asked "what's in the bag" all judgmental, like buddy, I get you need to know so you know where to place it on the shelf, but there is such a thing as asking in a nicer way like "is there anything delicate in here" or such. I told him it was some posters I had got. So. TELL ME WHY THIS GUY PUT THE BAG WITH THE POSTERS LAYING FLAT DOWN FIRST AND THEN PROCEEDED TO PUT OUR HEAVY BACKPACK AND OUR SMALLER BAG ON TOP OF IT. BUDDY. YOU ARE USING A METAL RACK SHELF, AND PUTTING HEAVY ITEMS ON TOP OF PAPER. SOME OF IT WAS EVEN ON THE EDGE SO YOU'RE ACTIVELY CREASING AND BENDING MY BELONGINGS. Anyone should know if you have anything fragile like posters, you would put it on top of the other bags so they do not get folded or creased or get and indents. I quickly told him if he can put the bag with the posters on top because I don't want them to get creased or bent. He doesn't say anything and just quickly does it, but he made a face. Buddy, if you don't like your job or can't do it well enough to know common sense like not putting delicates under heavy items, quit and go find something else, and leave your attitude at the OUTSIDE the door. I went home after this, and saw that all of four of my posters were creased in the same spot, coincidentally the same spot that was bent over the edge of the shelf. I don't care if they're posters and they can be replaced, not everyone has the luxury to replace broke items, especially not limited ones, I spent my hard earned money on it for it to be permanently ruined by some boy who doesn't care about other people's belongings despite being entrusted to handle them. Anyways, come for the merch! But maybe leave your valuables someplace where you know they'll be safe from damage.

Place was cool, they did a sega sonic pop up didn't take long and my sister got some good stuffread more

Located in Gardena and all things anime and collectibles. This one is closer to me than the Del Amo…read morelocation. Friendly service from the guy and super helpful. I really wanted to buy so many things here but made a little purchase for myself. I bought one of the Naruto plush keychains blind box and got my favorite. The value for it was worth it. I need to come back for more!

The toy store is small in scale, located in a shared plaza with limited parking spaces. They carry…read morea variety of items, such as figures and posters from popular animations, and some random selections of blind boxes.

Out of the ashes rises a phoenix…read more I was surprised to see Harmmy Anime while crossing the street near the 99 Ranch Market. Crazy to see that they went from hot pot (IYKYK), to a spot at the mall, to a stand alone store. They're located right next to the Takashima. Funny enough, even with less space than the mall, I feel like they have more stuff and stock than before. The walls are LINED with so many kuji (raffle prizes) that you can purchase and win from. This ranges from anime series like Freiren, Haikyuu, etc. , cute Sanrio characters, to even series like Spongebob, and of course, Hatsune Miku. There's lots and lots of them, and you can take a look at the wall to see what prizes have already been won. There's a good amount of acrylic stands of characters, keychains, some cute plushies and plushie key chains (Chiikawa, Sanrio, etc.), some prize and other smaller figures, and lots and lots of blind buttons! There's a discount shelf at the bottom, but it's a pretty fair price for around $4-7 depending on the series. Lots of LADS (Love and Deep Space), Chinese series and danmei (I can't tell if it's all BL or not), and other various series like Frieren, Haikyuu, Tomie, Cardcaptor Sakura, Naruto, Kirby, Detective Conan, Identity V, Kaiju No. 8, etc. There's also Hoyoverse (slop) wall of goods too. There's also a LOT of LADS stuff here, so if you're a LADS girly you can easily build a shrine or an ita bag just with the stuff that you get here. The worker there was polite and stood at attention at his post the entire time that I was there. I got the Natsume Yuujinchou gacha buttons (they were discounted) and the Tomie buttons. Happy with what I got and I really liked that the Natsume buttons came with protectors and extra cheki cards. Cute! Now that they have a wider selection of kuji and goods that aren't just massive figures (though they still have that too), I can see myself stopping by more frequently.

Really cool store with lots of anime figures at good prices! If you are looking for new stuff from…read moreJapan go here!

Kodansha House was so much fun! I went with my sister and we had a blast. Some of the exhibits are…read moreso stupid but still so much, we were just laughing because they were great! The staff were also so nice and friendly and they ended up laughing just as much as us seeing everyone's antics! So good. They had magic spells, motorcycles, kicking a soccer ball, pretending to eat humans, and many more. If you're an anime fan, I highly recommend this place. We went after Anime Expo finished on a weekday afternoon and the line wasn't so bad. The line was actually longer for the store but the store is small and mainly manga and t-shirts. Best of all, the entire exhibit is FREE. You really can't get much better than that. If they have this next year, I'm going again!

Free popup! Was really looking forward to visiting this while it was were in LA…read more It comes in two parts, and interactive room with visual displays, games, and photo ops of the published work, and a gallery/merch room with the books available to read. The interactive room was really cool, and staff were really friendly. Lines were surprisingly not that long for a Friday during lunch time, but there was still a lot of people. The merchandise, in my opinion, could've been more varied. Prices were very affordable. A few items were already sold out too, but lacked in options/diversity. I completely understand the limited amount fue to the pop up nature, but just a little bit more would've been nice. As for the printed displays/artwork. It was really cool seeing them and reading the information. I felt like how they printed some artwork (like Witch Hat Atelier) could've been better. It's printed on canvas, and unfortunately I felt like the texture of the canvas interfered with the delicate line work of the art style.

It's a small shop, but they still have a good selection. Cashier was pretty friendly…read more I wish they were slightly more organized, but it's a resell shop, so can't complain much there.

If you're new to Bookoff, this is a great place to start as it's not so overwhelming. You can find…read morea great selection of Anime merchandise, I was so Happy to find a vintage Hello Kitty Charm for my work bag. If there was something like this near me when I was growing up, damage would have been done. Made me miss Japan walking into Bookoff and enjoying the merchandise!