The Straw Hat Pirates sail into the City of Angels with cool California-exclusive merch.
The hearts of otaku were dealt a painful blow this week when visa problems lead to the sudden cancellation of two Umamusume concerts in Los Angeles, which were supposed to be the franchise’s first musical performances on American soil. It’s not all bad news for anime fans in the City of Angels, though, as the opening date has been announced for the first-ever permanent One Piece specialty store in the U.S.!
It’s not going to be stuck in the back corner of some random strip mall, either. The One Piece Mugiwara Store will be waiting for visitors inside downtown Los Angeles’ Westfield Century City shopping mall on Santa Monica Boulevard, right down the street from Beverly Hills.
▼ Mugiwara is the Japanese word for “straw,” as in “Straw Hat Pirates”
The shop will be opening on November 6, stocked with a wide variety of One Piece merch, featuring both items imported from Japan and exclusive items that aren’t available anywhere else, even at the One Piece Mugiwara Store branches in Japan, such as apparel items with a California license plate motif, surfer-version Chopper, or the message “I love LA” with an Op-Op Fruit in place of a heart.
The Surfer Chopper design was created specially for the L.A. store, and will also feature in some sort of interactive in-store experience that includes audio messages for visitors to hear.
▼ Figure,s furoshiki wrapping cloths, and a whole lot of blind-buy trinkets will be among the items imported from Japan.
With the One Piece anime debuting 27 years ago, and the manga two years before that, there should be plenty of pent-up demand among American fans for an entire shop dedicated to the series, and as a crowd control measure, reservations will be necessary to enter the One Piece Mugiwara Store between November 6 and 12, and can be made through the shop’s official website here.
Source: PR Times, One Piece Mugiwara Store
Top image: One Piece Mugiwara Store
Insert images: PR Times
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