Photo/Illutration The Gundam Cafe that opened at the Canal City Hakata commercial complex in Fukuoka's Hakata Ward in November (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Gundam fans brace for impact. Japan's very first official cafe devoted to the anime is about to get a whole lot bigger.

Ten years after it debuted in the capital's sanctuary for anime fans, Gundam Cafe Akihabara is undergoing a major facelift that will leave it four times larger when it reopens in July.

The renovated cafe will feature standard Japanese Showa style coffeehouse fare including curry, coffee and desserts. However, these treats will be given a Gundam twist to entertain fans of the space opera series, which premiered in 1979 with the "Mobile Suit Gundam" animated TV show.

Since the Gundam Cafe opened in 2010, other outlets have been established in Tokyo's Odaiba waterfront district in 2012, Osaka's Dotonbori district in March 2019 and most recently, Fukuoka's Hakata district in November.

Gundam cafes, along with selling merchandise tied to the popular anime, provide updates on the constantly evolving and changing universe of the Gundam franchise.

Visit the official website at (http://g-cafe.jp/en/).

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To learn more about the latest developments in Japanese anime, visit the official site of Anime Anime (http://animeanime.jp/).