Hey, are museums in your area just too boring for you? Is the local library being a real Snoozeville? Do you wish you could stroll into a world made out of your favorite anime? Then how about making your way to the Westfield Topanga Mall and checking out The Loop’s new Crunchyroll Interactive Pop-up store and seeing what wonders are in store for you!
Step into My World
The Loop is a retail store space that rotates periodically with the latest in exclusive merchandise, collectibles, apparel, and at times features themed or interactive scenery influenced by the brands, franchises, games, music and celebrating cultural moments. In this instance, they’re collaborating with Crunchyroll, displaying a few of their flagship shows of the year: Sentenced to be a Hero, Bananya and Solo Leveling. Just enter through the shop, step into their backroom, and be instantly transported to worlds befitting hardened criminals turned knights, a quaint little village full of cute banana cats or an RPG character come to life.
Sentenced to be a Hero: from the creators of Scum of the Brave (2026) comes a new twist on the new hero. Unrepentant criminals punished for their vicious crimes are now faced with banding together as a military unit in order to fight Demon lords in a fantasy world. Unable to die even in battle, they must complete their sentence until all the lords are defeated.
Bananya: From the producers of Donyatsu (2013-14) and Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure (2022), a new mini-series of cat-like bananas living on a small star near Earth. Curious about the “meowteors” falling from the sky, the Bananyas get into some mischief to find out the mystery of the “round thing” (Earth) where the meowteors are coming from.
Solo Leveling: A-1 Pictures presents the story of a world where hunters battle it out with monsters in order to protect the human race. Sung Jinwoo, the weakest of the hunters, was almost killed along with his party after fighting a double dungeon. Then he came across The System, a mysterious program that allowed the user to increase their strength when leveling up. Now Jinwoo must journey alone throughout the land and fight stronger opponents and figure out where his true power came from.
What are Ya Buyin’?
We spoke with the attending store associate, and they did reaffirm that the items sold there are limited-run items that are exclusive to the store there only. The interactive popup store itself will be available until August of this year, or while supplies last. The Loop is located at the Westfield Topanga Mall in Canoga Park, on the first floor adjacent to the The Village section food court, directly below the AMC Topanga Movie Theaters.
HOWEVER, we took the survey, and one of the questions we were asked to choose from a list of other anime shows that we’d like to see at other pop-up store venues in the future… NANI?! Which means Crunchyroll may have plans for other pop-up stores featuring other anime, so keep your eyes open and your flying nimbus raring to go because there’s a lot more in store for us! Pun not intended.
