Arisu — Local services in Stonington

I tend to go to mystic a bunch with my family and we aren’t even from Ct . And as a huge nerd having a place to go to shop for the things I like was amazing. I saw so much hype surrounding the store on all social medias. Even friends who wanted to go.

Once I arrived there it looked nice. I loved how organized it was and how some animes you don’t see every day was there such as Yuri on Ice. As a huge anime figure collector looking at the figures I saw some figures I haven’t seen in stores such as fye, hot topic, box lunch or even Kinokuniya. Which made me very happy.

Now there was some things I wasn’t rly thrilled about. I felt like the store was extremely over hyped and I had a friend agree with me on this. We went on different days. Like I said I was happy with the stock selection that was provided.but some of the things I picked Up and saw was just over priced. While some things where reasonably priced, others wasn’t. I saw some WCF figures which I’ve seen gone for $12-$15 at stores such as fye and smaller individual anime businesses such as this store here. But I saw some priced at $20. And wcf are small figures. I saw other figures at their figure wall priced pretty normally. Not horribly either. There was others that I did see have their price racked up tho from their normal market price range.

One thing I’m not 100% sure is regarding some prints, buttons and decals. Before anything I wish to state I am an artist myself. Anyways, I did purchase one thing, and I notice some prints and decals by the cashier. So I looked through the decals specifically and I asked the employee if they had an artist they specifically work with that will drop their stock off in store to sell and they split profit. The guy was so confused on what I asked him, and I completely understand him not knowing what I was talking about at all too it’s fine it’s valid. But it concerns me that they might have just bought some stock online and it was not supporting the direct artist. I personally have no idea but this is what went through my head.

Over all arisu is a nice looking place, very organized and cute. I personally think it was over over hyped and I did see some over priced things there.But I’m willing to go back in a bit to see...

On their Instagram, they said the best day to come was on a Tuesday, so I used a vacation day JUST to go to this place.

They say they’re the largest anime store in New England, but when I went, they barely had anything. Most of the gachapon was sold out, there was barely anything in the food section – I wish I had taken a picture of this, but they literally had the Hot and Spicy Ramen that you can get at Walmart, instead of anything different or authentic. Tell me why my local BoxLunch or FYE, or, dang, even Newbury Comics, had more anime merch than this store?

I understand that they’re a new store and they’re dealing with a lot of big crowds, but on Instagram, they posted a comment saying they’d be restocked on a Tuesday, and that Tuesday wouldn’t have any crowds, so it’s really disappointing that I drove like two hours to get here, only to find less merch than… well, let’s just say that my local Barnes and Noble had more anime merch than this store. Super disappointing.

Lastly, let’s talk about the location of this store.

It’s in a little “village” of gift shops near Mystic Aquarium and Old Mystic Village and this makes the vibes super annoying. You know when you go to an aquarium or a water park, or any “family-friendly” vacation location, and there’s a ton of people with kids walking around, and confused boomers taking up space? That’s the vibes this place has. Kids and babies screaming, moms pushing strollers, boomers wondering why they’re in a store with big ol’ anime statues around as they trail behind their families. So even if you DO go here on a Tuesday, it’s not going to be quiet.

If you don’t care about vibes, maybe that won’t bother you, but I don’t want to put up with that kind of atmosphere while I’m trying to geek out about anime merch. I could’ve put up with it if there WAS anime merch to geek out over but there… wasn’t much.

Also, all I wanted was to take a photo in front of Totoro, but he wasn’t even there.

Did they take him down for the day? Where did the boy go? At that point, I was too fed up with the trip to even ask anyone about it.

Super super disappointing and not...

A wild shop! There are so many things to look at, both for sale and for decoration. There are statues and inflatables indoors and outdoors letting you know you’ve entered a whole different world.

If you love anime, Studio Ghibli, manga, Hello Kitty, or anything else with that Japanese vibe, this is the place to go. Lots of great merch from a variety of fandoms. Stuffed animals, character figures, backpacks, pencils, tea sets, and pretty much anything you can think of that can be licensed and sold.

There is a dedicated section of just coin-op prize machines. Probably three or four dozen in a relatively small area. The wall of manga is a visit unto itself. So many books that cover familiar IPs like Naruto and Pokemon to lesser-known and independent titles. If a manga was made, it’s probably on this wall.

The other half of the shop is a mini-mart of Japanese foods and beverages. Plenty of flavors that will pique your interest. There is also an arcade area (a few machines).

While you’re in Mystic, Connecticut, be sure to stop into this slice of Japanese culture. Even if it’s “not your thing,” you’ll still enjoy taking in all the wild and fascinating...