A new mecha mecca is coming to Shibuya.
The most famous landmarks in Shibuya have long been the statue of faithful dog Hachiko and the gigantic Shibuya Scramble crosswalk. But the downtown Tokyo neighborhood is a place where there’s always space for new trends, and recently there’s another must-visit spot for many travelers. The Shibuya Parco shopping center has been establishing itself as a premier destination for Japanese pop culture fans, and that reputation is only going to grow when later this fall Shibuya Parco becomes the location of Japan’s newest Gundam specialty store.
The Gundam Base is a megastore chain dedicated to the Mobile Suit Gundam anime franchise. The main draw is a gigantic selection of Gunpla/Gundam plastic models, but they’re stocked with all sorts of other merch and collectibles too. With the Gundam franchise as a whole now spanning almost 50 years and over a dozen anime series set in multiple continuities, it can be hard for fans to find the specific items they’re looking for at smaller retailers, making a large-scale Gundam Base really feel like a supportive stronghold for fandom operations.
▼ Video of some of the existing Gundam Base stores
The announcement of The Gundam Base Shibuya comes less than two weeks after the start of the dismantling process for Tokyo’s life-size Gundam statue, which had its farewell ceremony on August 31. The 1:1-scale Unicorn Gundam stood in the Odaiba neighborhood, outside the Diver City shopping center. Diver City has a Gundam Base store of its own, called The Gundam Base Tokyo, and it appears that the Shibuya store will be operating in conjunction with it, not as a replacement. However, Odaiba is part of an island in Tokyo Bay, making it out of the way for many tourists’ itineraries, and with the loss of the Gundam statue leaving the neighborhood without one of its biggest attractions, Gundam rights-holder Bandai might be predicting a drop-off in customer traffic at the Odaiba store, making a location closer to the city center, like Shibuya, desirable.
The Gundam Base Shibuya will be located on Shibuya Parco’s 5th floor, which is designated as the “Chaos Culture Geek” section of the complex. Among its floormates will be Evangelion and Doraemon specialty shops, and one floor above it will be the Nintendo Tokyo and Pokémon Center Shibuya megastores, plus Capcom, Sega, Godzilla, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Weekly Shonen Jump shops, further cementing Shibuya Parco as a prime shopping spot for fans of otaku culture.
The Gundam Base Shibuya is scheduled to open in November of this year.
Source: The Gundam Base official website via Dendaminico Gamer via Hachima Kiko
Top image: The Gundam Base official website
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