NEWS
EXPLORE THE STORE: MANGA SPOT
The Shops at North Bridge, Chicago
Posted by Milton Griepp on July 2, 2026 @ 12:55 am CT
We visited the Manga Spot at The Shops at North Bridge, a mall in the Chicago Loop, on Sunday, June 28.
Manga Spot is a 2-1/2 year-old retail chain owned by Kadokawa Retail Ventures, a division of the Japanese publishing giant, which also owns Yen Press, Anime News Network, and digital manga, light novel, and audiobook platform BookWalker parent M12 Media in the U.S. The chain is overseen by Kadokawa Retail Ventures CEO Kurt Hassler. Jim Killen, who was the graphic novel and manga buyer for Barnes & Noble for years, is the Director of Retail Operations
As of April, Manga Spot had 10 stores, including the Chicago location, which opened about a year ago (see “Kadokawa Plans Rapid Expansion”).
The location we visited had 18 bays of manga plus additional displays, giving it more space for manga than some of the largest Barnes & Noble stores (see “Channel Check: Barnes & Noble”)
Click Gallery below for a photo tour of a Manga Spot store!
View Gallery: 12 Images
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Milton Griepp
Editor-in-Chief. Milton Griepp’s multi-decade career in the business of geek culture includes distribution CEO, e-commerce retailer CEO, board member of digital comics company, and for the past 25 years, as founder and Editor-in-Chief of ICv2.
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