Animation Store Manager

This is the Animation Store Manager!! Anime Tenchou is a CM character for Animate, one of Japan's biggest retailer of anime, games, and manga. The character series was created by Shimamoto Kazuhiko for publicity purposes. Later adapted into a manga, a weekly radio drama and this OVA animated by GAINAX and directed by Anno Hideaki. Anizawa Meito is the blazing store manager. He is a fireball who loves animation merchandise at heart. He takes over the dying wish of the former store manager, though still alive, who was attacked by the rival store and becomes a “store manager” of newly opened animation goods specialty store, Animate. The scarlet, “store manager visor” is his trademark.

Directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi, Hideaki Anno, Animation Store Manager leans on a strong ensemble — Akira Ishida, Hiro Yuuki, Hiroaki Hirata — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about animation titles of 2002.