Village Vanguard stores are nearly ubiquitous in Japanese shopping malls. These stores are like a celebration of entertainment subculture, such as video games, anime, pop culture stuff, and American movies. Every Village Vanguard store is unique. The merchandise depends on the purchaser and stores are decorated with handmade signs. Here you will find merchandise for retro video games, cute characters, anime/manga characters, and American stuff like Kermit the Frog, Ghostbusters, E.T., Chucky, and so on. We even found Pepe the Frog merch there a few years back!
Village Vanguard is primarily supposed to be a bookstore. Mayu has bought several books from there about food and such. She's bought a few books written by Japanese tourists who visited Southeast Asia and India in particular, focusing on culture shock. I had no idea how filthy and disgusting India was until she told me about what she'd read. Wild. Candy stores in which the candy is riddled with ants, people defecating EVERYWHERE, rotting human corpses floating down the river next to where people bathe, etc. Disgusting.
Anyhow, there are lots of books about subculture. I've bought many books on retro games, for example. You'll see different types of books in the photos below. I took these photos at the end of January and I am just now finally compiling this to post on my website.
So much neat retro gaming stuff, including Pac-Man, Puyo Puyo, and Space Invaders. Neat. I bought that little Space Invaders folding table. It's alright, but it's all plastic. I was expecting it to be a bit sturdier than that.
Village Vanguard has a lot of manga, especially manga with great internationa appeal, such as Evangelion and Akira.
Buttloads of Pokemon crap.
Dragon Quest kicks ass. My daughter Ulan isn't as big into Dragon Quest as she once was, but she still likes the Slimes. Look at the custom-made sign in the picture on the left with the Heal Slime. This handmade sign recreates the popup dialog box. "Look here, those looking to buy Slimes!" And the box below that gives the "command" options: BUY / BEG.
Ulan likes Kirby, but she's never played a Kirby game before. I think the only Kirby game I physically own is a pinball game for the Gameboy.
Minecraft and Mario stuff.
Lots of Nintendo stuff.
I'm not a big Zelda fan, but this heart pillow is tempting.
Ghibli stuff is cool.
On the right is the selection of Ghostbusters merch.
Dragonball stuff.
Village Vanguard has cool T-shirts, but they are always horribly expensive.
This Jaws sign is cool.
On the right is a plush doll of Chupacabra, by the same character creator of Chiikawa. Cute!
Left: Delorean Time Machine Owner's Manual. Right: Artbook of Ron Cobb, who did designs for Alien, Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and many more movies.
Next: On how I became a MAGA tard.
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mail: greg -atsign- stevethefish -dot- net