By By Uriah Aguon Pacific Daily News

Copyright guampdn

Co-owners Manuel Tagle III and Dyllan Llagas created Anime Oasis as an outlet for local artists to reach a wider audience and provide another place for anime lovers to come together.

The business’s soft opening is set for 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21, and the grand opening is expected to follow within a month after.

It’s located at 202 NR Sangalang Building, Dededo, across 7-Day Supermarket.

In addition to apparel, merchandise, and accessories, there will also be arcade games and a PS5 set up for attendees to play.

“We still need to take into consideration what people think, what we can do better,” Llagas said. “There’s always room for error, especially in small businesses that are starting up.”

The shop will have multiple areas showcasing different artwork from some artists from around the island, whether hand-drawn, buttons or pins, acrylic, or 3D printing.

“We’re trying to create an outlet for them to be able to reach a wider audience, at least the anime audience here on the island,” Tagle said. “We’re trying to provide an opportunity for smaller businesses to showcase what they have. [We] try to help them grow at the same time that we’re growing, [because] this was a fruition because of the community having so much faith in us and backing us, and we want to give back to the community that’s helped us along the way.”

Before Anime Oasis, Tagle and Llagas were both owners of individual businesses, MSKP Scentcerely Yours and Unity Designs, respectively. MSKP is a pop-up anime shop Tagle started with his family three years ago in mid-2022, and Unity is a custom printing business for anime stickers. The pair decided to merge their ventures shortly after meeting, aiming to create an “oasis” for anime fans in Guam.

‘Oasis for anime’

“I started off by telling [Llagas] that I would carry his products and sell it for him on a consignment,” Tagle said. “Based off of that, we’re just expanding it into a shop. [We] bring anime to the community around the island [and] want to become the oasis for anime around the island.”

The business sells anime-themed merchandise, figurines, Funko Pops, apparel, and offers custom sticker printing and customized apparel and accessories, such as shirts, jackets, pants, shorts, and handbags.

“For the last three years that we’ve been doing pop-ups, a majority, if not all, of our customers have been asking, ‘Do you guys have a shop? When you guys can open our shop? Where can we meet you?’” Tagle said. “The demand has been there almost from the beginning, and Anime Oasis has become a fruition of their prayers, and we’re answering their prayers as well as ours, because ultimately, we did want to create a business where we have a brick and mortar, so to say.”

Anime Oasis serves a growing popular but itself is a niche service, being one of three businesses in Guam catering to anime culture, the other two being Geek Out and MacTech.

“Believe it or not, there’s a big anime community on Guam, [but] there’s only a select few places where people can go,” Llagas said. “We’re pretty much adding in our own touch to where people can come hang out, shop, and figure out what they want to do. We’re also trying to mainly focus on artists, because we also do art ourselves, so we’re trying to bridge artists towards the community [and] bring everyone together [in] a place where they say, ‘We can go here, hang out, meet up here,’ so this thing is really for the community itself.”

The pair will continue to do pop-up events to service customers who cannot reach the Dededo location. They have previously set up at the Donne’ Festival, Tumon Night Market, Village of Donki, and other places.

“If people can’t make it to the shop, whether it’s the southern people or people that can’t physically come here, we are still going to continue to pop ups,” Llagas said. “But don’t get the products mixed up, because there are going to be a lot of products strictly Anime Oasis you can only find in the shop. Then, we still will carry some products from MSKP and Unity, but for the most part, we’re going to keep it a little bit different from each other, so it gives benefit to both locations.”

Llagas added that they can further accommodate customers across the island to some degree.

“We do meetups, but we have shipped to the mainland,” Llagas said. “We have shipped to international, so we can do shipping for our apparel stickers and stuff like that. No official website yet, but then we’re still working on that one. Delivery is kind of hard, because when you already have a [location], people already think, ‘I can just go over there to pick up my orders,’ so maybe not, but [to] meet them halfway, they can probably pick up their orders at the pop-ups.”

Tagle and Llagas emphasized their gratitude to the community for its support and intention to continue supporting local artists and similar businesses to pay forward the kindness they’ve received.

“If it wasn’t for them, this wouldn’t be a viable option for us,” Tagle said. “We really, truly appreciate everybody for visiting us during our pop-up all throughout these whole three years and hopefully many, many more years in the future, now that Anime Oasis is a reality. It’s all surreal at this moment.”

Llagas added how he imagines and hopes the shop will become a “place to go, where they can be themselves [and] want to make stuff come to life through their vision.”

“We [want to say] you’re not alone, because in the anime aspect of Guam, yes, it’s a big community, but just like anywhere else in the world, a lot of people look down on it,” Llagas said. “It’s not as mainstream as people would want it to be, [but] we are here.”