is a name given to an area of

Ikebukuro is a commercial and entertainment district in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. Toshima ward offices, Ikebukuro station, and several shops, restaurants, and enormous department stores are located within city limits. It is considered the second largest ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

that is a major shopping and cultural center for

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

and

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

aimed at women. The area is sometimes referred to as Fujoshi Street, referencing the name given to fans of yaoi.

Geography

Otome Road is located to the immediate west of Sunshine City, near

Ikebukuro Station Ikebukuro Station ( ja, 池袋駅, ) is a major railway station located in the Ikebukuro district of Toshima, Tokyo, Japan, shared by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East), Tokyo subway operator Tokyo Metro, and the two private railway operat ...

. Bordered by the

Shuto Expressway is a network of toll expressways in the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan. It is operated and maintained by the . Most routes are grade-separated (elevated roads or tunnels) and central routes have many sharp curves and multi-lane merges that requi ...

, its boundaries are roughly defined as beginning at the Ikebukuro

Animate Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...

Cafe and ending at the K-Books Cosplay Store. Several other stores focused on goods aimed at women are located further west in Ikebukuro, mainly concentrated around the flagship Animate store.''Ikebukuro Otome Map''. Published by the Toshima City Culture and Tourism Section, and the Toshima City Tourism Association. 2012. As Otome Road is only a small area of a larger commercial district, it does not have frequenters who walk around in

cosplay Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, ...

, and is not immediately distinguishable from other streets.

History

Ikebukuro has been a destination for

otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in ''Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorativ ...

since the 1980s, with notable attractions including a branch of the anime goods store

and the ''dōjinshi'' conventions (now defunct) and , both held at Sunshine City. These stores and conventions were initially focused on general audiences; the area would not shift to a focus on female customers until 2000, following a renovation of Animate that shifted the products of the store to appeal to that demographic. That same year, K-Books in Ikebukuro changed its product offerings to specialize in ''dōjinshi'' aimed at women. The term "Otome Road" was first used in the May 2004 issue of '. The area gained further visibility through the 2005 film ''

Densha Otoko is a Japanese movie, television series, manga, novel, and other media, all based on the purportedly true story of a 23-year-old ''otaku'' who intervened when a drunk man started to harass several women on a train. The ''otaku'' ultimate ...

'', which presented Otome Road as the female equivalent to

Akihabara is a common name for the area around Akihabara Station in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo, Japan. Administratively, the area called Akihabara mainly belongs to the and Kanda-Sakumachō districts in Chiyoda. There exists an administrative district ca ...

, another popular location for otaku.

Notable locations

Comic Toranoana Comic Toranoana (コミックとらのあな) is a dōjin shop operated by the Toranoana Inc. (株式会社虎の穴). This shop specializes in selling manga-related items. It is also known by the name, "Toranoana", or simply, "Tora". About th ...

and

Mandarake is a Japanese retail corporation that operates a chain of used good stores. Founded as a used bookstore specializing in manga in 1980, Mandarake incorporated in 1987 and presently operates 11 retail locations and one fulfillment center. The co ...

both operate Otome Road locations specializing in goods aimed at women. In 2005, a

butler café A is a subcategory of cosplay restaurant that originated in Japan. In these cafés, waiters dress as butlers and serve patrons in the manner of domestic servants attending to aristocracy. Butler cafés proliferated in reaction to the popula ...

opened on Otome Road. Otome Road additionally contains multiple

household goods Household goods are good (economics), goods and product (business), products used within households. They are the tangible property, tangible and movable personal property placed in the rooms of a house, such as a bed or refrigerator. Economic ro ...

cosmetics Cosmetics are constituted mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either natural sources, or synthetically created ones. Cosmetics have various purposes. Those designed for personal care and skin care can be used to cleanse or protect ...

, and

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...

stores, particularly stores specializing in ''otome-kei'' fashion.

References

External links

"Otome Road and Doujinshi"
{{coord, 35.7303, 139.7180, region:JP_type:landmark, display=title Otaku Neighborhoods of Tokyo Shopping districts and streets in Japan Ikebukuro Streets in Tokyo

Geography

History

Notable locations

See also

References

External links