Interest
Real-Life Bookstore in Love Live! Sunshine!! Closes on May 31
posted on by Kim Morrissy
The Marusan Book Store in Shizuoka Prefecture's Numazu City will close on May 31 due to the building's deterioration. The store was depicted in the Love Live! Sunshine!! anime series as Hanamaru's favorite bookstore, and have since been a popular pilgrimage spot for fans of the series.
The physical state of the building can be seen from a photo circulating on Twitter dated from May 6:
まじか！マルサン書店が閉店😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/LNOzB2sR44
— 高海千歌 (@akihirochika01) May 6, 2022
According to the store's owner Jun Masuda, the surrounding area is currently being redeveloped, but the refurbishment costs were too high to keep the building up to standards: "It would have been in the tens of millions of yen, so it would have been practically impossible," he said.
The city of Numazu has enjoyed a spike in tourism since the anime's first season debut in 2016. Masuda said that fans have continued to visit the bookstore "even to this day."
Source: Yorozoo News (Kazuki Matsuda) via Yahoo! News, Otakomu
