As ICv2 reported last week (see 'Japanese Retailer Invests in Digital Manga'), the Japanese retailer Broccoli has invested in Digital Manga--a U.S.-based company--and will help them open a retail store selling anime-related merchandise.   Now ICv2 has learned from sources in Japan that Broccoli has plans to open four to six anime character goods stores on the west coast within three years.  Japan's leading manga/comic shop chain, Mandarake, has had a U.S store operating in Los Angeles for the past year, so the new Broccoli store will not be the first Japanese-backed shop on the West coast carrying Japanese anime goods, but if Broccoli does succeed in opening a chain that size, they will have important economies of scale based on both the parent chain's buying power in Japan and the sharing of expensive freight and customs costs.

 

According to Japanese sources, Broccoli's initial investment in Digital Manga to cover the first store is about $3 million.  Broccoli operates the popular 'Gamers' chain of anime character stores in Japan.  So far there has been no announcement about the name of the first stateside store in the Broccoli chain.  Broccoli is backed by JAFCO, a Japanese venture capital fund (a beast unusual enough to make the descriptor almost an oxymoron).