When did Mandarake Torrance close?

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:30 pm

Does anyone know when Mandarake closed their Torrance California store located in Mitsuwa Plaza?

I've been trying to pinpoint dates, but I've been having no luck. The last time I bought a cel from them was June 22, 2000. I can't tell if they closed in 2001 or 2002.

Can anyone narrow the date down further? Searching the Animanga Forum doesn't seem to help.

EDIT:

Wait...it had to be 2002 or after at least because of what I bought in their closing sale. I know that much.

benten · Post by **benten** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 5:52 pm

Since I don't live in California, I can't place an exact date to the store closure. However, I purchased goods at the Torrance in January 2002. By June 2002, Mandarake had opened their store in Santa Monica. I made some purchases at that time (June 8, to be exact) and received some free cels as part of their opening celebration, so the store couldn't have been open very long at that point. I remember arranging to meet with a couple of fellow shitajiki collectors to go scope out the store together. I believe the Torrance store was already offering some "moving" discounts when I was there in January 2002.

Oh, by the way, the free cels were:
http://benten.rubberslug.com/gallery/in ... mID=254862
http://benten.rubberslug.com/gallery/in ... mID=254863
http://benten.rubberslug.com/gallery/in ... mID=254864

Mackettric · Post by **Mackettric** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 6:05 pm

Beginning of 2002 sounds right. I know Mandarake's store in Torrance was still open in Dec of 2001. I went there to pick up a cel, I believe they said something about moving to Santa Monica then.

I wish there was a Mandarake in LA still. Nothing can beat their stores in Japan but it'd still be cool if they had a store in the US at least.

Mackettric · Post by **Mackettric** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 6:06 pm

double post sorry.

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 7:29 pm

Thanks for the info guys. That means they probably closed the store between February 1st to April 30th then. That helps narrow it down a lot more.

Thanks. I should have kept better records. I know I visited the Santa Monica store once, but I have no idea when it was.

Yeah, it's too bad there's no store in the U.S. I miss the Torrance store. I used to visit that plaza, look at the Japanese products and then get something to eat from Fumiko's over there. Fumiko's gave such large portions and it tasted so good too. Too bad they closed up too not to long after their cook left to start his own food place.

We didn't visit the plaza much after they both closed. I only went to the Japanese video stores every once in a while.

So Manadarake never opened up a San Francisco or New York stores like they were thinking of doing?

Post by **JWR** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:32 pm

I remember that Mandy Torrance closed and moved to Santa Monica which turned out to be a very big mistake.

The price of their store rental as well as rumored other problems the store closed on December 31st 2002.

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:45 pm

Wow...they didn't last very long at Santa Monica hmm? They opened in 2002 and closed in 2002.

I didn't know they closed so quickly. I remember when I visited there I saw a very nice Lain cel there, but was told than an employee was going to buy it. Too bad. I would have liked to have had that cel.

benten · Post by **benten** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:11 am

This topic made me curious. Does anyone remember when the Mandarake Torrance store opened? I made my first purchase from the store on January 3, 2000. And, I did attend Animexpo 1999 in July 1999 and pretty much made the rounds of all the then existing Japanese goods stores in the LA area, and Mandarake wasn't one of them. Also, I found this entry:
http://www.animenation.net/blog/2002/12 ... a-closing/
which indicates that the whole history of Mandarake USA retail operation lasted only 3 years.

Also, I was wondering if the Kimono My House in Emeryville CA is still going. Its website is at:
http://www.kimonomyhousetoys.com
and still says that they have been in business for 20 years (started in 1980). So it has been at least 10 years since they have updated that page. That shop had the most "interesting" inventory of any that I have ever been in. The last time I was there was in September 1999.

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:40 am

My first purchase at the Torrance store was August 27th, 1999. I bought a couple of Maison Ikkoku Kyoko cels there. I recall it being shortly after they opened, but I'm not sure how far into it it was.

Boy...that store used to be so fun going to and looking at the new cels in the store windows and display cases. I remember that cool white haired character Urusei Yatsura cel in the window. What was her name...Yuki?

I should have taken pictures.

Anyone have pictures?

graymouser · Post by **graymouser** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:16 am

I remember being so excited when I heard that they were opening a store so close to where my parents lived (about 15 minutes or so away). I could stop by there whenever I drove up to see my family. I visited the store when it was in Torrance. I remember it had a great selection of Vampire Princess Miyu cels. I wish I had bought more cels there when I had the chance. I had assumed that there would be other opportunities.

I also heard that the high rent was only part of the problem. The different buying/selling habits of Americans compared to Japanese caused them to have increased expenses. It may be only talk, but I was told that while it was common for Japanese to bring in used items to Mandarake for trade or cash, Americans rarely did this. Americans tended to sell on ebay or traded online. This decreased the amount of newer stock that Mandarake USA could obtain locally to resell. The stores were more dependent on what could be imported, which drove up costs.

As far as when they opened, here is an old Animanga thread on the subject. It says that it was planning to open on August 27, 1999.
http://www.eu.animanga.com/db/celsarchi ... var=tnb=30

Here is the last post I could find on Animanga from Mandarake USA. It is dated September 29, 2002. So they were still open as of that date, though maybe not in Torrance anymore.
http://www.eu.animanga.com/db/celsbook/ ... var=tnb=30

Golden Boy · Post by **Golden Boy** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 7:31 am

I actually sold a cel to Mandy at their Torrance store. It eventually ended up on the main site and was bought soon after. I recall seeing a Ninja Scroll cel in the display case and debating on getting it. Went back the next week and it was sold. Doh! That store was also my first exposure to the doujinshi world. I remember going to the Santa Monica grand opening and just waiting to grab a cel I had scoped out earlier. Despite the high prices, the bubble days were fun.

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Tue Mar 16, 2010 11:46 am

graymouser:

Yeah, that sounds about right. The business model just wasn't able to work and the profit was not enough compared to the rent. It must have been expensive to bring over inventory through shipping. After awhile the inventory didn't change much. The used manga was just about always the same. The cels didn't even change as much.

There were decent cels in their bargain bin, but after people found out about them they went through there regularly just to get cels to resell on eBay. Then people found out when the new cel shipments were coming in and they bought those too before you got to see them. At the beginning though it was great. Got to see some nice stuff.

I don't think I even heard of Mandarake was before I heard they were opening that store. At least they sell online in English now. I don't think they were before that.

Does anyone know what took Mandarake's spot in the (former Mitsuwa) shopping plaza? I haven't gone in there for years.

EDIT:

Wait a minute...I'm confusing the Santa Monica Mandarake store with the Animate store. I seen the Lain cel at the Animate store in July-October 2001. Woops. Sorry for the confusion.

Maiko · Post by **Maiko** » Wed Mar 17, 2010 1:09 am

They closed several years ago. Last time I went was probably 2003.

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:17 pm

Today my dad went into the Mitsuwa Marketplace. He said that where the Mandarake store used to be is now about ?six tables to eat your food.

So the store retail space is not even there anymore.

Video Japan outside of the Marketplace is still open from what I can tell from what I could see from my busride past there. I don't know how the rest of the inside of the Marketplace is.

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:03 pm

Going through my old e-mails manually since the messages didn't show up through searches I see that I bought some discounted closing sale VHS tapes and LDs from them on May 28, 2002. As of June 14th, 2002 it appears they still hadn't closed the Torrance store yet.

So now I'd say it looks like the Torrance store closed June 15th, 2002 to early July 2002 (most likely the end of June 2002). The Santa Monica Mandarake store opened May 31st, 2002 11:00AM local time so there was a bit of an overlap for awhile.

The smaller Santa Monica store had lower rent and eliminated the misc non-doujinshi used manga since not many people were buying those anyway. They retained the artbooks though.