Akibanana is a community site that aims to bring fans of Japanese pop-culture, anime, and technological innovations closer to the Japanese creators and Akihabara - our Otaku Holyland.

Our mission is to create a boundless site dedicated to otaku culture and for sharing of articles, pictures and videos; which will invite new people and investment into Akihabara with the shared interest of its continued prosperity.

We will accomplish all this by clearing the channels of communication for open dialogue between fans and creators on this site, and by supporting those who seek to delve deeper into "Akiba"with interactive language and cultural learning tools, maps, reviews, tours (both online and for actual physical visitors) and near real-time information sharing. All this, of course, is only the impetus for fans themselves to take over and generate media and content to fill out their world here at Akibanana.

We aim to introduce and share the best of the anime, manga, otaku and collector cultures under the umbrella of "Akihabara,"* We are also dedicated to being a boon for the niche stores, to giving voice to the "tribe" of Akiba and otaku around the world who find something special in this space apart.

Even as Akibanana seeks to open our home up to new comrades and invite new interests, we pledge to balance that with a conscious that reminds us why we sought to realize this endeavor in the first place: because we are fans too, fans from all places, united by the common bond of this place and vibe. Fandom is something personal that we can now share with all people in all places at all times through Akibanana.

This is a community site, a source of information, a forum for fans old and young, present and apart, male and female, Japanese and non-Japanese. Here, we're all otaku. Here, we're all Akibanana-zoku. Welcome to our world.

About Akiki
Akibanana's mascot character is a little robot girl with a curious and adventurous personality. She cosplays according to her whim and flies around her playground - Akihabara, with her rocket propellers. At night, she gets tired and her propellers turn into a plug that charges her batteries for the next day's adventure.

About Us
We are a group of bilingual foreign content creators based in Tokyo who share the same passion for anime, otaku culture and Akihabara. We know that there are more like us out there so we created Akibanana as a cyberhome for all like-minded to come, congregate and share. We are dedicated and committed to bring the best of what we are experiencing here in Tokyo to those less accessible to Japan, making the world a smaller (and more exciting) place!

*AKIHABARA: Tokyo's famous electronics district where fan elements began to gather in the 1970s and forge connections based on shared pop-culture, fashioning their idyllic wonderland in the heart of a hard-boiled metropolis. Thanks to the 'otaku-zoku', Akihabara has since metamorphosed from a black market for transistor radio parts in the postwar era to a world-class electronics district. Today, Akihabara is the focal point of technological advancements and entertainment innovations from computers to robots to anime to cosplay.

Despite Akiba's current status as Japan's "silicon valley," consumer Mecca and tourist beacon, it is the convergence of otaku subcullture and technological innovations that makes Akihabara unique. It is only here that you can see a robot do kick-stands and a young man clad in his homemade, plate-metal Gundam costume, an interactive 3D-film and waitresses payed to act the part of a bratty kid-sister. Such is the bizarre and ever-eclectic Akiba, a place where anything is possible and less is prohibited, where dreams are given freedom and the busy streets cleared to liberate the youth to parade interests repressed in other places.