I guess this is Taiwan Spotlight! I briefly mentioned it in another post. I went there back in 2023, mulling over destinations to visit as I had so much time off work built up. Actually, I had originally wanted to go around 2019, but didn’t, then stuff happened, right.
in 2023 I decided I’ll go. Actually, part of the reason I wanted to go was I was attracted by “Sun Moon Lake”, a famous large lake area. I won’t bore with the details (it was great), but I paid Taiwan a visit for around 2 weeks. Let me tell you, it was a really nice place with culture, history, tradition, modernity and so on. But one thing that really stood out was the high- no, massive! Levels of interest in anime, manga, gaming and just Japanese content. Oh, and bubble tea. Yes, that is indeed everywhere, too.
Anime paradise
In those near 2 weeks, it was difficult to not come across something like Dragon Ball, Hello Kitty, Sumikko Gurashi – I love the stuff, but I can see some might find it too pervasive. You’ll see 7-Eleven and Family Marts with branded take-overs, Pokémon Meza Star in many of the same places, and kids wearing adorable anime themed bike helmets. It really is everywhere!
Something that really caught my interest was the figures and action figures. No joke, Taiwan shifted my perspective (I did also visit Japan right after, FYI). Stores I’d check in Taiwan had amazing stock of stuff that I’m a fan of. They had Gundam Metal Builds, S.H.Figuarts, all that good stuff and even Asia-only brand stuff. But then I spotted the crazy statues some shops had. By the way, Taiwanese shops are random and chaotic and usually inside malls or at night markets, but they’re not as organised like in the UK (not a bad thing, it’s fun).
I was able to see amazing statues by Tsume and unknown/Chinese brands that I can only dream to own! These covered properties like Naruto, Slam Dunk, One Piece, Bleach, and the list goes on!
Seeing these displays obviously made me wish I could just take one home (ha!). To be honest, if I lived in Taiwan, I’d probably check out these stores as museums. Having easy access to just walk into a few stores and see these premium format statues was really enjoyable.
Pricing wise, the action figures were mostly similar to Japanese pricing, maybe a little more, while statues were of course more expensive, but likely cheaper than what I’d be paying in the UK!
Just one or two pics isn’t enough, so I actually took a whole bunch of videos and made a dedicated video on this on my YouTube channel.
Location, Location, Location
Like I said, Taiwan is full of anime stuff, but you do still need to go specific areas for certain things. For example, if you want the Gundam Base, then you’d need to visit the tech super mall Guang Hua Digital Plaza in Taipei, a massive tech focused mall connected to a less tech focused mall that has a floor full of figures. I should add, Taipei is where most of this stuff is, being the main city ‘n all. By the way, short walk away is a fantastic bakery that sells sun and moon cakes, pineapple cakes and more.
Another supremely good, but repetitive area is Taipei Main Station underground mall. Listen to me when I say, if you really, really, I mean really like anime stuff, then you are going to get sucked in! It’s like a mile long stretch of small to medium shops and is awesome for trading cards, figures, and there is a really amazing jam-packed retro gaming shop. They have another fork for just fashion if that’s also your thing, but I ran out of time to check it out.
But what did buy?
I didn’t leave Taiwan empty handed. No, no, no. I definitely bought more than I thought, and wanted even more than I expected. But I was heading to Japan right after so I needed to behave. That said, I will say that the single best pick-up on the trip was this:
Yep, the S.H.Figuarts of Gohan with ghost Goku! It was so cheap. I usually want to have the brown shipper box, it’s just how I prefer things, but at that price I made a decision right away. The shop was also really cool. It’s located in Ximen, specifically the Wan Nian Building. There’re other otaku shops there too, so it’s well worth a look.
We’ll meet again…right?
Closing this post out, with Japan being so crowded, if you still want your fix, I highly recommend Taiwan. And even above anime material goodness, Taiwan itself is a nice country. It’s definitely somewhere I want to visit again, and I hope you guys reading may also get to see the appeal of Taiwan.
