Pop-up opens on June 23-December 31 in Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance

Viz announced on Monday that Donguri Republic, the store chain in Japan which carries official merchandise from Studio Ghibli and other studios, is opening its first pop-up store in the United States. The store will open at the Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, California and will run from June 23 to December 31.

The pop-up store will feature over 400 exclusive gifts and products inspired by Studio Ghibli‘s animated works.

The grand opening will feature a promotional event where purchases over US$100 will receive a limited-edition Donguri Republic Los Angeles tote bag. Customers who attend Studio Ghibli Fest 2026 screenings at movie theaters can also receive exclusive movie film-style bookmarks with certain purchases.

Source: Email correspondence 

The staff for the television anime of Brocco Lee‘s manga adaptation of Nekoko‘s The Exiled Heavy Knight Knows How to Game the System (Tsuihō Sareta Tensei Jū Kishi wa Game Chishiki de Musō Suru) light novel series announced in its second full promotional video on Tuesday that ReoNa is performing the ending theme song “Lv. 1 Shokugyō: Ningen” (Level 1 Occupation: Human).

Kodansha is releasing the manga in English through its K MANGA service, and it describes the story:

“You good-for-nothing bastard. You are the son of a Sword Saint, yet you dare pull such a defective Class!?”

During the Divine Blessing Ceremony of the 15-year-old Elma who came from a lineage of Sword Saints, he had manifested a commonly deemed defective class known as the Heavy Knight. He had been deprived of his position as the next head of the Edvan Household and was then exiled. The Heavy Knight class had an unbalanced status and useless skills, to top it off, it was even said to be a class cowardly and indolent people have.

But, Elma knew better—that this world was the world of the game he had used to play before—and that the Heavy Knight class was the strongest class to exist. Elma made full use of the knowledge he had in his previous life and began his efficient walkthrough of the world he was reincarnated into.

The anime stars:

Shingo Suzuki is the general director, and Katsumasa Yokomine (The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today, Momentary Lily) is directing the anime at GoHands. Takayuki Uchida (The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses, The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today, W’z) is designing the characters, and also serving as one of the chief animation directors along with Keiji Tani (Momentary Lily) and Makoto Furuta (Momentary Lily). Tetsuichi Yamagishi (Cowboy Bebop: The Movie key animation) is the chief director, Hiroshi Ōkubo (K, The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses) is the main animator, Glovision is in charge of sound production, Enji Nakajima and Tetsuya Gunji are the sound directors, and Ludvig Forssell (BELLE film) is composing the music.

SPYAIR will perform the opening theme song “Awake” for the first cours.

The anime will air for two consecutive cours (quarter of a year) on TBS and MBS‘s Super Animeism TURBO programming block and it will premiere on July 2 at 24:26 JST (effectively, July 3 at 12:26 a.m.)

Nekoko began serializing the story on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō (Let’s Become Novelists) website in April 2021. Kodansha published the first print volume with illustrations by Jaian in June 2022, and the fourth volume shipped on December 26. Brocco Lee launched the manga adaptation in Kodansha‘s Yanmaga website in February 2022. The manga moved from Kodansha‘s Yanmaga website to Kodansha‘s Young Magazine in September 2024. The manga’s 17th volume shipped on April 6.

Seven Seas Entertainment also publishes Nekoko‘s Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling and Disciple of the Lich light novel series in English, and also publishes RIO’s manga adaptation of the Reincarnated as a Dragon Hatchling novels.

Sources: SHOCHIKU anime‘s YouTube channel, Comic Natalie