Banzai

As a college student who lives in Flushing, I can’t help but to walk into the allure of cute stationary items and heart-​racing k-​pop music! This is your Korean version of a 99 cent store, but some of the products are worth it, because they never sell the fake items, especially the cellphone merchandise in the east side of the store! The cellphone guy is a great salesperson because he is nice. He is great to his customers interested in buying an authentic real phone case (all made in Korea) — for a good deal!

At first, I thought this was a dollar store, which it is completely not!
Located in the Flushing Mall, this tiny glass-​front shop carries some of the cutest kawaii merchandise, as well as beauty products and home goods. The selection is small, but convenient for people that want to be further away from Main Street. To find it, you will have to walk through the secondary food court area on the bottom floor, and it is all the way in the back.
If you are looking for more updated merchandise and stationary, I recommend their Roosevelt Ave location that is not in Flushing Mall.

Chaotic arrangement and a little awkward if you’re not East Asian. Good for all of your cheap Asian goodies’ (stationery, writing utensils, beauty/​grooming products, household stuff) needs. Bonus: cheapest Ramune (a little over $ 1) in all of Queens.

Was shopping with a friend for Hello Kitty Products. Banzai is located at the Flushing Mall and kind of hidden away from the main drag of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue.
Yes, there are many Hello Kitty items to select from pens, pads, clocks, totes, robes and many more items. They have novelty items not just Hello Kitty but Angry Birds and others as well. Walking through the aisles reminds me of the five and dime store. They have household items to an area filled with beauty products (facial masks to make-​up, etc…)
Prices are inexpensive.

Meh I came here looking for bento boxes and they’re all like children’s size. None of the workers particularly gave a crap about me and mostly gave me the «what are you doing here you non chinese person» glares. Everything is complete crap but sells for the price of gold. Junk crap slippers that you can get for $ 3 at K-​Mart being sold for $ 8? LOL? Waste of time. Unless you want some cheap imitation hello kitty items don’t bother.

This is the Japanese version of the 99cent store, and with that foreign affiliation, you can bet that most of the items here are NOT 99cents.
Like Target, I can spend hours looking at the things offered at Banzai. You can get housewares, cookware, stationery, facial products… you name it, they probably have it, just packaged in Japanese wrapping and wording.
This is also a good place to waste some time if you are waiting for something/​someone and in the Flushing Mall area.

Although it’s a joke that they try to make this store seem like a discount store, it’s still an awesome place to buy Asian/​Korean stuff! They have Korean skincare/​makeup, school supplies, houseware etc. that I use and will come here for but I don’t expect it to be cheap.

Just a short walk from MGS world on Roosevelt you’ll come across Banzai with the window full of Hello Kitty and other cutsey gift type stationary things. What I like about Banzai is that it is a more practical store and you can find stuff you’d actually use. Once you walk past the register, the rest of the store reminds me of 100 yen stores back home, or other general merchandise stores like Ito-​Yokado, Jusco, and Isetan. Stores like these can easily be misunderstood by people who haven’t lived in or been influenced by an Asian culture. It may be hard to find something useful for some, and for others like myself I actually make frequent visits whenever I’m in the area. I’ve been looking for a new noren for my kitchen, and I found about 3 ADORABLE Hello Kitty ones here: D! I also like Banzai’s gift area better than MGS World’s because they have more than just wrapping paper and cards. I’m definitely a huge fan.

They have tons of knick knacks here and of course what lured me into this shop in Flushing Mall is Hello Kitty of course!
This place carries fake and real Hello Kitty. I am not a fan of fake Hello Kitty, but I admit I got one because I didn’t find any real Hello Kitty in a form of a spray bottle.
They didn’t have much anything else that I thought was totally cute here.
When I was paying, the girl tried to sell me some mask so I can get a free lipstick.
Ummm, no — I am pretty damn picky when it comes to skincare.

To understand Banzai, you must first realize that it is a Korean-​run store that parades around as a Japanese 100 yen store.
Therefore the products sold here are obviously not going to be 100 yen, even if you could have sworn that you saw the same thing sold at a 100 yen store for (gasp!) 100 yen. It’s going to be marked up because Koreans are in charge here.
That said, this place is a wonderland of fun and toys. You’ve got your obligatory Hello Kitty and friends display, breeze past the ugly grandma clothes, make a perfunctory examination of the cute notebooks and head to the back, which is a smörgåsbord of tupperware, cups, kitchen items, office items, bathroom sundries, the WORKS. It’s pretty much got everything a 100 yen store should have, except that it’s a lot more expensive.
If there WERE another such store that actually sold things for the same price that Daiso did (can’t you guys take a leaf out of their book?) I would certainly stop giving Banzai my patronage, but as no such haven exists I (and the rest of you!) will have to suck it up and make do.
Price aside, the staff is very helpful, if not solicitous and there really is a lot of neat stuff here that you’d have to pay way more for at Bed Bath and Beyond anyway, so it’s not really all THAT bad. =)

I’m confused by this place. I thought it was a Japanese discount store like Daiso and Ichiban Kan, however on closer inspection, there were plenty of items that didn’t seem to be discounted. Towards the front of the store they have plush toys, tote bags, clothing, and Sanrio. The tote bags were $ 12 – 15 and the Uglydolls were regular price too. Hmm.
The back of the store looked more like a discount store with organizational items, dishes, dishcloths, and the random things you’d expect to find at Daiso. The selection is considerably inferior to Daiso and Ichiban Kan though. Cute name, decent merchandise but it’s not a pure discount store.