Animate LA — Local services in Torrance

(Grand opening review)

Came here on opening day and had fun visiting. I loved shopping and window shopping. They mostly had mainstream stuff (not surprised).

On day 1 I saw a big Nijisanji section (lots of nijipuppets, acrylic stands, some framed merch, etc), the Hololive collab (also lots of Hololive in general), a decently sized figure collection (none secondhand and of various sizes), lots of manga, artbooks, Nu Carnival, lots of Genshin, gacha machines, small BL merch section (but lots of BL manga), Jujutsu Kaisen, Spy x Family, lots of Blue Lock, lots of Haikyuu, Attack on Titan, Bleach, The Quintessential Quintuplets, Tokyo Revengers, Oshi no Ko, Obey Me, some Fate merch, lots of Radio Eva (Evangelion) merch, and much more. Don't recall if I saw Naruto.

On what they didn't have, they didn't really have an otome game or josei section. No Honkai Star Rail (likely because it's very new). No Holostars despite having Nijisanji and Hololive. No Pokemon.

Generally merch would range from figures, nendoroids, clear files, blind boxes, acrylic stands, nuis (chibi dolls), bromides, keychains, clothing (depending on series), and can badges (pins). There were also small acrylic stands in the Genshin section that doubled as a keychain. If you don't really collect merch, this is what merch is generally nowadays.

In terms of pricing the items were marked up from their yen prices. Some items were still a deal depending on what you bought and taking shipping prices into account. Some stuff in the store you couldn't find online at a reasonable price anymore and wouldn't even be on their online shop either. But if you're an online shopper and spot something you like, check to see if the same item is cheaper elsewhere if you want to save money. I also compared prices with some other stores in Little Tokyo like Kinokuniya and Soragumi that had some of the same merch and Animate was just slightly more expensive (like a buck or two).

(Review 2 months later, December after holidays)

This store has a lot less merch than I remember! Maybe they got cleaned out during the holidays? Anyway a lot less Nijisanji Nijipuppets and Genshin stuff.

And now that my grand opening-colored glasses have been removed, the stuff can be pricy lol. Some stuff were a good deal depending on merch but some were very upcharged. For example a Genshin acrylic I bought on day 1 was $40 (one of the anni acrylic assembly stands, I probably bought the only one on the shelf) but my friend went to an Animate in Japan and it was $20 usd 😭 (def won't be buying Genshin merch at US Animate again)

Anyway its good this store does have vtuber merch. They may stock some vtuber merch that you may already have a hard time finding online at a reasonable price... it really depends though. Helps to cross check...

As a hardcore anime fan, I had to check out this store just so I can prove I went here. Even though I am an anime fan, I was very disappointed but not upset and I will explain to you why.

My favorite anime’s are considered niche. Anime is already a niche but branching off from a niche to a smaller sub-genre makes it harder for fans like me. Now I didn’t give it 3 stars because of my experience, I am going to be honest with you but this location’s selections on what they’re offering for sale is a very specific target audience and I don’t fall under their category of their target consumer. But I will list what I saw available for anyone who hasn’t been here will either be a grand visit or maybe a disappointment.

My main objective was looking for merch of Natsume’s Book of Friends. I understand it’s not popular but I was told animate has it all. It is popular in Japan so I made the assumption they have the same merch for sale simultaneously with Japan. I didn’t find any at the Torrance location. Maybe in its Japan locations, but not here.

If youre a big fujoshi aka boys love or fans of Bishonen men, this location is definitely for you! They had a wall of just popular series from popular yaoi titles or bishonen men titles like idolish 7 and paradox live. There was also additional sections of popular sport shonen titles that’s also popular in the fujoshi community like blue lock and haikyu.

Also, they have another wall for vtubers and hololive stars here. If you like those, it’s definitely a must! They have better selections of merch of those listed than kinokuniya.

The bonus for me though was the merch for gachas here. I was in disbelief there was merch of Blue Archive! One of my fav gachas! I hardly see merch of it at little Tokyo and seeing it here made me so happy! Other gacha merch offered here were fgo, bandori, honkai star rail, genshin, nikke, wuthering waves, and umamasume. If youre a fan of those gacha, they’re there!

Then you got the general mega popular anime titles which is the typical normies and casuals would know like demon slayer, spy x family, and Naruto.

They also offer manga, figures, and imports but it’s better to go to kinokuniya for those. Nothing exclusive you can find here. Heck there were book offs and a Barnes a noble at this mall. It’s better to go to those for a better price.

As for staff, can’t really judge since it was the holidays but the cashier was a really sweet patient young man dealing all these obnoxious loud customers I was surrounded with.

I hope this little amount of info will prepare you on what you will experience when visiting this...

vast majority of the goods here will be the super popular content. Did find some interesting gems. Be prepared to pay the JP equivalent price plus a 50-75% markup (500¥ can badges going for like $8+ tax)

Plus side is, you can guarantee everything here will be new and is official merchandise. Staff are very friendly and will help you find things if you need it. Worth checking out at least once.

This location also has several gachapon machines (although the mall overall had gachapon machines spread out with varying costs)

Otherwise, you will find the usual suspects, acrylic stands, blind box can badges, rubber straps, clear files, some figures, art...