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Anime shop offering 300,000-yen reward to anyone who can help them catch graffiti vandals in video

Casey Baseel Nov 12, 2022
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“We’re not going to take this lying down and just cry ourselves to sleep.”

If you’re an anime or manga fan who’s spent time in Japan, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve spent money at Mandarake. One of Japan’s best chains for used and obscure otaku media, a trip to Mandarake is part history lesson and part treasure hunt, and their amazing selection all but guarantees you’ll find a bunch of items to add to your collection.

Now, though, instead of dropping a fat wad of cash at Mandarake, the chain wants to give a chunky financial gain to you. And no, not by selling your old anime merch to Mandarake, but by doing something much more anime protagonist-like: helping them bring some villains to justice.

Early in the morning on October 22, at about 4:30 a.m., a group of men approached the exterior of the Mandarake Grand Chaos store in Osaka’s Nipponbashi neighborhood. The shop closes at 8 p.m. and doesn’t open until noon the next day, so the staff had gone home by then, but video of the group was captured by a Mandarake security camera that points out towards the parking lot that borders the shop on its back side.

After making sure no one was looking their way, one of the men pulled out a can of paint and began spraying the back wall of the Mandarake building. His friends then added to the graffiti, with a total of either three or four people (hoods and hats make it difficult to tell exactly how many) vandalizing the store.

Makoto Yoshihira, manger of the Nipponbashi store, filed a damage report with the Osaka police the same day after seeing the graffiti, and while the police are on the case, he’s also looking to call upon the collective knowledge of the otaku community, and has put out a 300,000-yen (US$2,128) reward for information leading to the identification of the vandals.

“We’re not going to take this lying down and just cry ourselves to sleep,” Yoshihira said. “I want them brought forward to apologize and pay for the damages,” and online commenters are similarly disinclined to let the taggers get away with what they did.

“If they’re caught, they should have to pay the cost for cleaning up the graffiti and the reward money themselves.”
“Can’t let this slide. Gotta find them and make them pay.”
“There’s a line between what is and isn’t acceptable mischief, but graffiti is a straight-up crime.”
“They’re no better than dogs or cats pissing on a wall to try to mark their territory.”
“I’m really curious about that cute creature crawling along the top of the sign at 2:58 in the video.”

As of this writing, the vandals are yet to be caught, and the reward offer is still in effect.

Shop information
Mandarake Grand Chaos / まんだらけグランドカオス
Osaka-shi, Naniwa-ku, Nipponbashi 4-12-6
大阪市浪速区日本橋4丁目12-6
Open noon-8 p.m.
Website
Email: grandchaos@mandarake.co.jp
Telephone: 06-6636-7077 (after connecting, press 6 to speak to a staff member)

Source: FNN Prime Online via Hachima Kiko
Images: YouTube/mandaray mandarake
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