Matas Stankericius outside Nendozone, which is stacked with figurines and Pokemon trading cards after its move to Malden Road

IT has been a classic London shopping parade: a pub, a barber’s, a convenience store and so on.

But the bottom of Malden Road now has a more unusual neighbour with the arrival of a shop celebrating the Japanese culture of anime. Nendozone is drawing a different crowd to Chalk Farm after moving out of Camden Market in search of a larger premises.

The shelves at the refurbished lawyers’ office are stacked with figurines and Pokemon trading cards. It has been founded by Matas Stankericius and Luke Rydon, who said the area was perfect for the business.

“Camden is a hub for Japanese culture. There are a lot of anime shops in the area,” said Mr Stankericius. “It’s also just more of a diverse area anyway – where better to put culture that is so far from the UK than into a place like Camden because there are so many different cultures here anyway?”

He said the main reason for the move was the lack of space at their old shop, which meant he was storing stock at his parents’ house in Barnet.

Inside Nendozone

Some familiar Pokemon characters

Now, the pair have plenty of room to stock products from well-known Japanese cartoon series like Dragon Ball, My Hero Academia, Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon. Since opening earlier this month, Mr Stankericius said they have noticed a lot of demand from residents around Queen’s Crescent.

He added: “We weren’t expecting this much love from the locals. A lot of people have said that they saw the sign going up and popped in saying they live two minutes away. “I like being here, it brings something different to the area, it’s refreshing. We’re certainly not dull and are bringing new energy into the area.”

The business was originally the idea of Mr Stankericius’s business partner, Mr Rydon, after he spent nine months living in Japan. They started by shipping products from Japan and selling them on eBay at affordable prices, but the dream was always to have an in-person store. “There has definitely been a boom in people interested in Japanese culture,” said Mr Stankericius. “It started as something small and niche and now it’s become quite mainstream.

“It’s got to the point where if you talk to someone they will know someone that is really into it or their siblings, cousins, aunties or friends are into it. There is always someone that likes it. Anime is basically Japanese cartoons, that’s the whole centre of anime.”

Ultimately, with some work on the shop due to begin soon, the pair hope to open out the space so it can host trading card tournaments, with tables and chairs for people to hang out and socialise.

He said: “Bit by bit places are closing and everyone is saying there is nowhere to go anymore to find figures and to find a place to hang out to play card games. “Our customers are mostly young people so we’d like to give them a place to hang, play games and be themselves.”