FELIP, the leading face of the Filipino music scene, visits Japan! After his first live performance in Japan, FELIP’s love for manga and anime explodes with a shopping spree! 【Pocket Money Shopping Spree with Animate】
Animate, a store known for the tagline “If it’s about anime, it’s Animate" offers a wide range of entertainment goods, including manga and anime, across the country. It attracts a large number of anime fans of all ages, including many students who sometimes visit during their school trips!
Have you ever visited Animate with your hard-earned pocket money, buying your favorite character goods, books, or games?
With the hope for everyone to recall that nostalgic feeling of excitement toward anime and entertainment, and for students to relate to it, our editorial team started a new feature called "Pocket Money Shopping Spree with Animate"!
In this feature, we invite a famous individual to Animate's Ikebukuro flagship store and give them 5,000 yen, which is said to be the average allowance of a high school student, to freely purchase various goods and comment on them.
You might also hold reminiscing feelings while watching the guest’s passionate love for the contents and their struggle with the limited budget to pick the goods they desire the most!
The guest for the sixth edition is FELIP. FELIP is a member of SB19, a P-POP boys group, and is also known as a solo artist, dancer, and producer leading the Philippine music scene!
FELIP is currently on the track to fame in Japan after his successful first solo live show in Shibuya on September 2nd, gaining a lot of attention. Fresh out of his headline show in Japan, FELIP visits Animate Ikebukuro flagship store for the first time.
For those who’s curious why FELIP joined this project… FELIP is a self-professed manga and anime fan!
Japanese anime and manga are not just hobbies to FELIP but have had a significant influence on his career as an artist and his life. In particular, he looks up to a certain protagonist so much that he takes inspiration from their hairstyle, shoes, and his way of living.
Despite the hectic schedule with his show, FELIP excitedly went all out for a shopping spree: exploring the store, seizing the opportunity to indulge in goods that are hard to come by in the Philippines.
▼日本語版はこちら!
◆大人気P-POPアーティストFELIPが爆買い!【店舗貸切!お小遣いアニメイト】
Who is FELIP?
Born in the Philippines, FELIP (aka Ken) is succeeding in his career in various fields as a vocalist, dancer, producer, entrepreneur, and songwriter. He initially gained fame as the vocalist and dancer for SB19, the globally acclaimedP-POP group, and further built up his career with his solo debut album at the end of 2021.
His highly acclaimed first solo album "7sins" was released on August 21, 2024!
Love for strong and passionate characters and their stories
Excited to visit the Ikebukuro Animate store, known for its Guinness World Record-sized sales floor, FELIP immediately and eagerly went to the 2nd floor where Animate holds its manga section.
He mainly searched around for the shonen manga (so-called boys’ comics). FELIP picked up globally popular titles like WIND BREAKER, Haikyuu!! and Attack on Titan while sharing stories about his favorite characters and plot lines.
He stopped by the bilingual goods section, but due to the high demand from inbound tourists in recent years, many items were out of stock, much to the regret of the editorial staff. FELIP mentioned that even though online shopping is prevalent, accessing translated manga remains a challenge, and he often asks his staff to get them for him when they visit Japan. "Next time I come, I’ll buy a lot!" says FELIP cheerfully.
(Arrival at the Shueisha section)
FELIP: "It’s a bummer that there aren’t any bilingual editions, but since I’m here, I’m still going to buy some of my favorite manga in Japanese as souvenirs!"
Animate Times: "We’re so sorry…"
FELIP: "I’m just happy to be here! Plus, the manga covers are cool, so they’re worth buying anyway."
FELIP then picked up a volume of Jujutsu Kaisen manga, saying, "I’m buying this one because Choso is on the cover. He’s my favorite character from Jujutsu Kaisen!"
Animate Times: "That’s an interesting choice! Why do you like Choso?"
FELIP: "It’s his deep love for his brothers, like Yuji. Fighting for family is cool, and it’s great when a strong enemy becomes an ally. WIND BREAKER is cool too because the main characters seem like bad guys at first, but they actually protect the town."
Animate Times: “Enemies turning into allies is a universally cool theme, right.”
FELIP is particularly a fan of shonen manga. He loves the passionate characters, those with overwhelming strength, and the ones with aggressive personalities. He says he’s often moved by the intimate stories they create.