Animate Ltd. (?????????, Kabushiki gaisha Animeito) is the retailing arm of MOVIC and is the largest retailer of anime, games, and manga in Japan. The first and headquarters store of Animate opened in 1983 and is located in Ikebukuro, a district in Tokyo, Japan.
Video Animate
Retail stores
Currently, there are 117 Animate stores in Japan,four in mainland China (Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Chengdu), two in Taiwan (Taipei and Taichung), one in Hong Kong, and one in Bangkok, Thailand.
Former stores
- Sakaihigashi Station, Osaka
- Los Angeles, California (closed in 2003).
Maps Animate
Subsidiaries
- Animate Film (?????????): An animation studio.
- Libre Publishing (?????????): Originally part of BiBLOS Co.,Ltd (????????). Following the bankruptcy of Biblos on 2006-04-05 caused by the chain bankruptcy started by its parent company Hekitensha (???), animate, MOVIC, Frontier Works Inc. funded the company allowing BiBLOS Co.,Ltd to continue operation. On 2006-05-01, the company was renamed to Libre Publishing and became a subsidiary of animate Ltd. However, the company was still registered as established on 2000-12-28.
- Animate Oversea Co., Ltd. (??????????): A join venture of animate Ltd., Kadokawa Taiwan Corporation, and Nongxueshe (later United Distribution Co.). The company acts as an operator of Animate branches in Taiwan and Hong Kong. In 2000, the first overseas store was established in Ximending, Taibei.
- animate Shanghai Co.,LTD. (??(??)??????): Established in May 2011.
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- animate Chinese online shopping platform? (animate????????): A Tmall online store operated by animate Shanghai Co.,LTD., established in 2012-01-06.
- Animate North AMERICA, Ltd.: A North American subsidiary.
- acos co.,ltd. (???????): A subsidiary specialized in costumes.
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- ACOS animate costume kan (ACOS ????????????): A chain of costume shops by acos co.,ltd.
- ACOS Online Shop (ACOS?????????): An online shop for acos co.,ltd.
- Japan Manga Alliance CO., LTD. (???????? ??? ?????): It is a joint venture of animate Ltd., Kadokawa Corporation, Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan, established in 2015-09-01. The company was to be incorporated in Bangkok, Thailand at autumn 2015. The company acts as an operator of Animate branches in Bangkok.
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- animate JMA Co.,Ltd: Established in 2015-09-28 as an 100% subsidiary of Japan Manga Alliance. The first animate shop under the company was opened in 2016-02-06 at Mahboonkruong Center in Bangkok as animate Bangkok store (????? ?????).
- Animate-GyaO Corporation (????????????)/animate Bookstore (???????????): An electronic book store.
Group companies
- Movic Co. Ltd. (?????????)
- Movic Promote Service(??????????????????)
- Marine ENTERTAINMENT Inc. (?????????????????)
- coade (???????): The company name was derived from its own slogan 'Code Anime Design'.
- Frontier Works Inc. (??????????????)
- ANIBRO Ltd. (????????): On January 23, 2008, Animate's rival company, Broccoli, announced that they collaborated with Animate and made a new company "AniBro", with Animate holds 70% of the company, while Broccoli holds 30%. The president of the company will be the CEO of Animate, although he will continue to manage Animate along with AniBro. AniBro plans to expand using the AniBro brand to many places in Japan.
- SHOSEN (??????): Became part of animate Ltd. on 2011-06-29.
Former subsidiaries
- Wanwan plus (???????): Established in 2004, and was later closed.
- Chikyuu ya (?????): Operated by animate since 2008, and was later closed in 2014-12-22.
- coade (???????) Rakuten branch: Established in 2010-12-01, and was later closed in 2013.
- USA Animate Online Shop: An online store for the United States market for Animate North AMERICA, Ltd., established in Jan 2013. The online store was closed on 2016-02-29 with orders made after 2016-02-21 being rejected, but products remain available at selected Kinkuniya Book Stores.
Marketing
Meito Anisawa (?? ??, Anisawa Meito) is Animate's mascot character, affectionately known as the Anime Tench? (?????). He is depicted as a wild anime character with spiky hair and rippling muscles, clad with the Animate uniform, going to extreme measures to promote Animate's goods. An original video animation based on the character was produced by Gainax and released in 2002. Another OVA was released in 2010. An animation project which crosses over Anime Tencho with the Touhou Project was produced by ufotable and aired on November 20, 2010 at the Animate Ichioshi Bishojo Anime Matsuri to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Animate's mascot character. Meito has also made various appearances in other media, such as the Lucky Star anime series and video games such as Disgaea 4 and Touch My Katamari. Meito is voiced by Tomokazu Seki in his anime appearances, and is voiced by Lex Lang in the English dub of Lucky Star.
References
External links
- Animate Group Homepage (in Japanese)
- Animate Official Homepage (in Japanese)
- Animate USA Official Webpage
- Animate Thai Official Webpage
- Tianmao Official Webpage
- USA Animate Online Shop
- Animate International Online Shop
- ACOS Online Shop
- Japan Manga Alliance CO., LTD. homepage (in Japanese)
- Animate-GyaO Corporation homepage (in Japanese)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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