If you want anime merch, figures or capsule toys in Seoul, where should you go? This guide compares three places that Korean reporters have each called a “holy ground” for fans: Yongsan I’Park Mall, AK Plaza Hongdae and Kukje Electronics Center. It is a research piece, written from the malls’ own floor guides and store pages, Seoul’s official tourism site and Korean news reports, checked on 22 October 2026 (23 October in Korea). I have not visited or bought anything for it, so there is no ranking and no price comparison. Shops and opening hours change often, so check again before you go.
Three very different ways to shop
Three places have each been called a fans’ “holy ground” in Korean reporting on anime goods, figures and capsule toys. Segye Ilbo (September 2026) walked Yongsan’s “otaku holy ground” tour, Herald Business (February 2025) called AK Plaza Hongdae a deokhu seongji (a holy ground for deokhu, the Korean take on the Japanese word otaku) and Biz Hankook (July 2026) described Kukje Electronics Center as reborn as a “gacha holy ground”. The nicknames are similar, but the shopping is not.
Yongsan I’Park Mall is a large mall directly connected to Yongsan Station, and its hobby shops, many of them official brand stores, are gathered mainly on two floors of one building. AK Plaza Hongdae is a five-floor mall next to Hongik Univ. Station with floors named “Animation & Culture”, “Entertainment” and “Fandom & Acc”. Kukje Electronics Center is an electronics tower in Seocho-gu that opened in 1997, where individually run figure and capsule-toy shops now sit between stalls selling computers and phones.
Two terms before we start. Gacha means capsule toys that come out of a machine; Bandai uses the name Gashapon for its own capsule-toy shops. Ichiban Kuji is a prize draw that the Yongsan shop describes as having no losing tickets. The shop lists below come from each mall’s own floor guide and store pages as they stood on 22 October 2026, plus Seoul’s official tourism site and Korean news reports.
Yongsan I’Park Mall: Dopamine Station and a hobby floor
I’Park Mall’s Yongsan branch is at 55 Hangang-daero 23-gil, Yongsan-gu, and connects directly to Yongsan Station on Subway Line 1 and the Gyeongui–Jungang Line. KTX trains on the Honam Line stop at Yongsan too, and Sinyongsan Station on Line 4 is a three-minute walk from exits 3 and 4.
The anime and game shops are in Living Park, one of the mall’s four buildings. Its third floor is what the mall calls Dopamine Station, a zone that opened in stages from June 2025 and was announced then as about 6,500 square metres with some 40 shops and attractions. On 22 October the mall’s directory for that floor listed an Ichiban Kuji & Banpresto store (described as the flagship of Banpresto, a Japanese brand of prize goods), Good Smile Company, Kotobukiya, Nintendo, PlayStation and a Chiikawa shop. It also listed Mofun, Play in the Box, Webtoon Friends by Naver Webtoon and a Blue Archive theme café with its own goods store. Most shops on this floor open from 10:30 to 22:00.
The sixth floor of Living Park is labelled Kids & Hobby. It includes Bandai Namco Korea Store, which the mall describes as the first store in Korea to carry all of Bandai Namco Korea’s products and services. It replaced and expanded the old Gundam Base shop in July 2025; at the time the mall said it held Gundam Base, Ichiban Kuji and Tamashii Spot Seoul as shops within the store, plus a gacha area with 355 capsule machines. The same floor lists Tamiya, Tomica, Pop Mart, 52TOYS, a LEGO Store and a Sanrio pop-up, plus the Daewon Museum, and Popcorn D Square runs a gacha shop there. There is also a Pokémon Card shop on the eighth floor.
Two things help first-time visitors. The Yongsan Welcome Center, Yongsan-gu’s tourist information desk, is on the third floor, with help in English, Chinese and Japanese and somewhere to charge your phone (11:00–20:00, closed Mondays). Tax refunds are handled at a desk on the fifth floor of Fashion Park, another of the mall’s buildings. The mall does not store luggage, though; it points visitors to paid lockers in front of Yongsan Station Exit 2.
The drawback is popularity. When Segye Ilbo reporters visited Dopamine Station one afternoon in August 2026, the queue outside one shop was so long that people waited a long time just to get in, and the paper reported that fans share routes online that pair the mall with independent goods shops around the station.
AK Plaza Hongdae: Animate and Gashapon Street in one building
AK Plaza Hongdae is at 188 Yanghwa-ro, Mapo-gu, in Hongdae, the area around Hongik University. The mall lists Exit 4 of Hongik Univ. Station, where Line 2, the Gyeongui–Jungang Line and the AREX airport railway meet, as its direct connection; from Line 2’s Exit 8 it is 150 metres towards Donggyo-dong Samgeori junction.
Each of its five floors has a theme, and the official floor guide shows how much of the building now serves fans. The fifth floor, Animation & Culture, lists Animate, an anime specialty store, with an Animate Café, an Ichiban Kuji shop, Play One Piece and Mofun among others; Animate’s own website also puts its Hongdae store on the fifth floor of the Aekyung Tower at this address. The fourth floor, Entertainment, has Bandai Gashapon Street and O Museum. The third floor lists MegaHouse, Iwaya and a San-X shop for Rilakkuma and Sumikko Gurashi, and the second has a Cinnamoroll café and WITHMUU, which sells K-pop albums and official merchandise. It is a single five-floor building, and anime goods and capsule toys are only a floor apart.
The mix is fairly new. Herald Business reported in February 2025 that the mall brought in Animate in 2021 and, in 2024, renovated Animate and opened Gashapon Street, Bandai Namco’s capsule-toy shop. When I checked its website, the mall listed 11:00–22:00 on weekdays and 10:30–22:00 on weekends and public holidays, with no closing day in October. Animate’s site gives the store’s address but not separate opening hours, so check those if you are planning a late visit.
The first-floor facilities list includes a tax refund point, an unmanned currency exchange, a LEGO vending machine, a Pop Mart point and a 24-hour CU convenience store. Pop Mart’s Hongdae flagship, by contrast, is a separate shop at 56 Wausan-ro 23-gil (11:00–22:00 daily, according to Pop Mart). The drawback is competition for the most popular pop-ups: in early 2025 a Gintama 20th-anniversary pop-up on the fourth floor drew so many people that its advance-reservation system crashed, and 20 of its 36 items sold out, the same Herald Business report said.
Kukje Electronics Center: figure and gacha shops in an electronics tower
Kukje Electronics Center (kukje means international) is a 26-storey building at 304 Hyoryeong-ro, Seocho-gu. It opened in 1997 and has long been counted, with Yongsan’s electronics market and Sewoon Sangga, among Seoul’s big electronics malls. The nearest subway stop is Nambu Bus Terminal Station on Line 3.
When Biz Hankook toured the building on a rainy weekday in July 2026, it found figure and gacha shops scattered across floors two to nine, including prime spots beside the escalators. Vacancy had reached the 30 per cent range during the pandemic; a building official told the reporter that the building then steered figure and gacha shops, which had clustered on the ninth floor, towards the seventh and eighth. A photo of the floor directory in the same report shows “figure” on those two floors, and the official said vacancy had fallen below 1 per cent.
Unlike the two malls, these are individually run units mixed in with shops selling computers, phones and cameras, so stock and prices can differ from shop to shop; I found no official opening hours or closing days for the building or its shops. An English-language collector guide from Korea Experience, updated in February 2026, sends readers to the ninth floor for rarer and second-hand figures. I could not confirm that from the building or the shops, so treat it as something to check rather than a promise.
This is also the hardest of the three to plan. The building’s homepage could not be read for this piece, and I found no official floor directory, opening hours or official English-language information online. If you are making a special trip, check opening hours first.
Before you go: queues, hours, payment and tax refunds
Both malls run anime and game pop-ups often, and the popular ones come with rules. Herald Business reported in February 2025 that I’Park Mall had run pop-ups where waiting numbers passed 1,000 and where shoppers were limited to one of each design, and that AK Plaza Hongdae has taken pop-up entry by advance reservation. If there is a pop-up you are after, check the mall’s app or official social media for the booking rules first.
Mall hours and shop hours can differ. I’Park Mall’s standard hours are 10:30–20:30, extended to 21:00 on Fridays, Saturdays and public holidays; the Living Park third-floor shops stay open until 22:00, but the sixth-floor hobby shops follow the standard hours, and a shop’s own hours can be shorter still: Pop Mart’s store finder gives its sixth-floor shop a 20:15 close (20:45 on Fridays and Saturdays). The mall stayed open on Chuseok day in 2026, though some shops closed, and it posts its holiday hours in its notices in advance. AK Plaza Hongdae closes at 22:00 every day.
Carry a card and some cash. A few shops on I’Park Mall’s third floor are cashless, and I found no official note on how the capsule machines at any of the three take payment. Tax refunds are available at I’Park Mall’s Fashion Park fifth-floor desk and at AK Plaza Hongdae’s first-floor tax refund point; at Kukje, ask the shop before you pay. Yongsan Station and Hongik Univ. Station are both on the Gyeongui–Jungang Line, so if you pair the two malls in one day, let a route app work out the connection.
Related on Rank Three: for how gacha, Ichiban Kuji and blind boxes differ, see Gacha vs Ichiban Kuji vs blind box: which random collectible to try in Korea?; if you are thinking of staying near Hongdae, Myeongdong vs Hongdae vs Gangnam: where to stay on a first trip to Seoul?; and for paying at the till, How to pay in Korea as a tourist: foreign card, WOWPASS or a QR wallet?.
Our three picks
- Yongsan I’Park Mall: Dopamine Station and a hobby floorYongsan I’Park Mall
A good first stop. It connects directly to Yongsan Station and has two hobby floors in one building: Dopamine Station on Living Park’s third floor (Ichiban Kuji & Banpresto, Good Smile Company, Kotobukiya, Nintendo and more, open until 22:00) and the sixth floor (Bandai Namco Korea Store, Tamiya, Pop Mart, LEGO and a gacha shop). There is a tourist information desk and a tax refund desk; expect queues at popular shops and check which floor closes when.
- AK Plaza Hongdae: Animate and Gashapon Street in one buildingAK Plaza Hongdae
For a focused visit, especially if you are staying in Hongdae. It connects to Hongik Univ. Station Exit 4 and puts Animate, Animate Café, Ichiban Kuji and Play One Piece on the fifth floor and Bandai Gashapon Street on the fourth. Open until 22:00 every day, with no closing day in October; popular pop-ups can need reservations and sell out.
- Kukje Electronics Center: figure and gacha shops in an electronics towerKukje Electronics Center
For collectors who like to browse. A July 2026 report found individually run figure and gacha shops from the second to the ninth floor of this 1997 electronics tower near Nambu Bus Terminal Station. I found no official directory or opening hours online, and stock and prices vary from shop to shop.
Side by side
| What to check | Yongsan I’Park Mall | AK Plaza Hongdae | Kukje Electronics Center |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Large mall connected to Yongsan Station; hobby shops on Living Park 3F (Dopamine Station) and 6F | Five-floor mall with anime and character shops from 5F down to 2F | 1997 electronics tower; individually run figure and gacha shops among electronics shops |
| Getting there | Directly connected to Yongsan Station (Line 1, Gyeongui–Jungang; Honam Line KTX); Sinyongsan (Line 4) Exits 3–4, 3 minutes | Hongik Univ. Station Exit 4, direct (Line 2, Gyeongui–Jungang, AREX) | 304 Hyoryeong-ro, Seocho-gu; Nambu Bus Terminal Station (Line 3) |
| Hours (checked 22 Oct 2026) | Most Living Park 3F shops 10:30–22:00; 6F hobby shops 10:30–20:30 (21:00 Fri, Sat, holidays); Pop Mart’s own listing says 20:15 (20:45 Fri, Sat) | Weekdays 11:00–22:00; weekends and holidays 10:30–22:00 | Not confirmed; no official information found |
| Closures | Open on Chuseok day 2026 (some shops closed); tourist desk closed Mondays | No closing day in October 2026 | Not confirmed |
| Anime and character goods | Mofun, Chiikawa, Webtoon Friends by Naver Webtoon, Blue Archive café and goods store | Animate and Animate Café, Play One Piece, Mofun, San-X shop, Cinnamoroll café | Not confirmed (the report covers figure and gacha shops) |
| Figures and model kits | Good Smile Company, Kotobukiya, Bandai Namco Korea Store, Tamiya | The floor guide lists “kidult” shops on 5F, 4F and 2F but does not say which sell figures | Figure shops on several floors; “figure” marked on 7F and 8F (July 2026 report) |
| Capsule toys and Ichiban Kuji | Ichiban Kuji & Banpresto (3F); Popcorn D Square gacha shop and a gacha area announced inside the Bandai store (6F, 2025) | Bandai Gashapon Street (4F); Ichiban Kuji (5F) | Gacha shops from 2F to 9F (July 2026 report) |
| Help for visitors | Yongsan Welcome Center (3F; English, Chinese, Japanese); tax refund desk, Fashion Park 5F; no luggage storage | Tax refund point, currency exchange machine and 24-hour CU on 1F | No official directory or official English information found online |
| Watch out for | Queues at popular shops; floors close at different times | Pop-ups that need reservations and sell out; a smaller building | Hard to plan; stock and prices vary shop to shop |
| Good for | A first visit; many brand stores in one building | Staying in Hongdae; Animate plus capsule toys | Collectors who enjoy browsing many small shops |
Where I would start
For a first trip I would start at Yongsan I’Park Mall. It gathers many official brand stores on two floors of one building, it connects straight to a major station, its third floor stays open until 22:00, and there is a tourist desk on the same floor if you need help. If you are staying in Hongdae, or mainly want Animate and capsule toys, AK Plaza Hongdae covers that in one compact building. Kukje Electronics Center is for patient collectors who enjoy going from shop to shop; just check that the shops you want are open before you make the trip. This is not a ranking: they are three different ways to spend an afternoon, and the line-ups in all three keep changing.
