Animate

Animate (株式会社アニメイト) is the retailing arm of MOVIC and is the largest retailer of anime, games, and manga in Japan. The first and headquarters store of Animate opened in 1983 and is located in Ikebukuro, a district in Tokyo, Japan. Currently, there are 38 Animate stores in Japan, and one in Taipei, Taiwan. However, for a brief period of time, there was also one in Southern California, specifically in Los Angeles, which closed some time in 2003. After Biblos closed in April 2006 due to the failure of its parent company, Animate became its parent company, renaming it Libre Publishing.

Collaboration with Broccoli
On January 23, 2008, Animate's rival company, Broccoli, announced that they collaborated with Animate and made a new company "AniBro". Animate holds 70% of the company, while Broccoli holds 30%. The president of the company will be the CEO of Animate, although he will continue to manage Animate along with AniBro. AniBro plans to expand using the AniBro brand to many places in Japan.