Retail chain Animate is dedicating an all-new store in Tokyo to girls’ anime and manga.

Japan’s largest chain of anime specialty stores, Animate already has two branches in Tokyo’s Akihabara, one of which is a six-storey tower of Japanese animation and comics. The demand has prompted it to open this third outlet next month.

All three stores are within a five-minute walk of Akihabara Station, and to differentiate its latest offering, it is being named Animate Akiba Girls Station.

With the growing number of female anime and manga fans, several of Animate’s shops have already expanded their merchandise selections with women as the target market. While most of the floor and shelf space of its branch on Ikebukuro’s Otome Road is stocked with girls’ manga and anime items, Animate Akiba Girls Station will be the first outlet wholly dedicated to female fans.

Reaching seven storeys above the street, the new store will have an entire floor devoted to “2.5-D merchandise”, which refers to items related to live-action adaptations of anime such as musicals and stage shows.