animate Akihabara: Which Floor Your Series Is On, Across Three Buildings

Guide · Akihabara

Part of: Akihabara Figures: Where to Buy New vs Used

Browse more: Akihabara Shopping Guide

animate Akihabara, at 4-3-1 Sotokanda, is three buildings. Building 1 is character goods sorted by series: Jump titles on 2F, Blue Lock and Detective Conan on 4F, VTubers, Love Live! and BanG Dream! on 6F. Building 2 is manga, light novels and magazines. The ANNEX has game-series goods, a capsule-toy floor and animate's café. It reopened in this form on 8 August 2026 and is tax-free. I run private anime tours here most weeks, and animate is where guests find this season's official goods.

Unlike the secondhand floors, animate sells new, official merchandise, and it organises it by series. That makes the floor guide the most useful thing to have before you walk in.

What is on each floor of animate Akihabara Building 1?

Building 1 is the character-goods building. From the official floor guide: B1 for older audio-visual and game products and online-order pick-up, 1F for T-shirts, new releases and a Good Smile Company corner, 2F to 6F for character goods by series, and 7F for events such as talks and signings.

This is the guide I use with guests on my Akihabara anime tour, taken from animate's own floor guide on 4 October 2026:

All three buildings are in one block. Tap the map for directions.

What is in animate Akihabara Building 2 and the ANNEX?

animate Akihabara Building 2 is books: recommended new manga and art books on 1F, a Square Enix corner on 2F, new comics and novels on 3F, back issues of shōnen and seinen manga and light novels on 4F, and magazines, shōjo, women's and BL titles on 5F. The animate Akihabara ANNEX has game-series goods on 2F and 3F and capsule toys on B1 and 1F.

The café entrance is on the UDX side of the ANNEX, according to the floor guide. For how animate's collaboration cafés take bookings, see anime collab cafés in Tokyo; for the capsule-toy scene, Akihabara gachapon.

Anime Collab Cafés in Tokyo: How to Get Inwww.animesenseijp.comAkihabara Gachapon Kaikan & GASHAPON Department Store Guidewww.animesenseijp.com

Is animate Akihabara better than animate Ikebukuro?

They suit different fans. Ikebukuro's flagship sits near Otome Road, the centre of women-oriented fandom; Akihabara's is in the middle of a district where you can also visit secondhand, retro and card shops in the same afternoon. Both sell new official goods.

This is the honest section. animate is the right shop for this season's official merchandise and new volumes, and the wrong shop for anything out of print or rare. For older items, go to the secondhand floors after animate: where to buy anime figures in Akihabara and Akihabara manga stores explain where.

Can tourists shop tax-free at animate Akihabara?

Yes. animate's store page marks the shop as tax-free and lists credit cards, transport IC cards and many QR payments, including PayPay, Alipay and WeChat Pay. Spend ¥5,000 or more before tax in one shop on one day and bring your passport. From 1 November 2026 you pay the tax at the till and get it back after a customs check at the airport.

Tax-free shopping in Japan after November 2026 has the new process. animate also gives store bonuses with some new releases; the fair notices on its store page list them.

Character goods in Akihabara

Photos: Yuuki (Anime Sensei)

Frequently asked questions

Official goods at animate, everything else around it

If you would like your series' floors chosen across animate and the secondhand shops, Adventure in Akihabara with Anime is my private half-day walk, three to four hours, never shared with other guests. The price is on the tour page.

About the author. I am Yuuki, a Japanese teacher and Akihabara anime tour guide based in Tokyo. I run private anime tours here most weeks, rated 4.96★ on Airbnb across 171 reviews. I have watched over 1,500 anime series, which is either a qualification or a warning depending on your point of view.

See the Akihabara anime tour →

Sources · checked 4 October 2026

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