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Japanese Video Rental Store Owner Has Truly Insane Gaming Setup

And you thought your room has too many electronics, or your media collection was bursting your home's seams? Wait until you see Kagura's new house. The manager of two branches of a Japanese video and game rental store chain, he came to light in 2012, when he was the subject of an article on a Japanese gaming website for his obsessive devotion to Final Fantasy XI — he played with ten different accounts. And for each one, he had a different controller, a different monitor, and a different PlayStation 2.

Now that the PS2 service for Final Fantasy XI has ended, Kagura has moved on... to PC, and he still has a staggering amount of electronics in his room.

As you can see, he's since upgraded his TVs and has added Dragon Quest X and Final Fantasy XIV and XV to his itinerary (he's a really big fan of these series). He says buying ten PCs to play FFXI would be "tough"... so he's bought seven instead. He also has three Dragon Quest accounts and two FFXIV accounts, so he's still playing a total of 12 different accounts. He says it's "advantageous" to play online games with multiple accounts and was already thinking of creating a second account when playing FFXI's beta test.

To make switching between all these games easier, Kagura has devised a system for their controllers: each controller has its own spot and many have their own colors, so he can tell which game he's playing by which controller he's using.

He uses this selector wedged in the wall to switch between the various monitors, keyboards, mice, and sound systems. It's just one of many neat features of Kagura's house that optimize his gaming-heavy lifestyle. Kagura is such a fanatic, in fact, that his house was custom-built over a period of six years to accommodate his impressive media collection.

Speakers are sprinkled throughout so Kagura can listen to whatever music he pleases anywhere.

His house also has lots of display cases full of game-related goods.

Kagura collects three of each kind of console — including the exclusive Final Fantasy versions up to the PlayStation 3.

As a good store manager, he labels his game collection carefully.

The house's second floor is entirely devoted to his collection. Shelves run around the perimeter and reach from the floor to the ceiling — and they're tightly packed!

Series are organized by their writer and publisher, just like in a store (seen here is Tokimeki Memorial).

Yuna Kagurazaka, the heroine of Galaxy Fraulein Yuna, gets an honored spot on the wall because she's the source of Kagura's handle.

This is the “2.5th” floor, which formerly held Kagura's old CRT TVs until he sold them. He explains that he chose to build a 2.5-floor house to cut down on costs and taxes; adults can't enter without bending over.

As one might imagine, keeping all these electronics generates a lot of electricity. Kagura hides his cables from public view with these shutters.

Kagura's circuit breakers. Kagura estimates that he uses 120 amperes of electricity, while a normal household uses 30 to 40. He also pays about 20,000 yen ($177) per month for it; he doesn't need heating, but in the summer the bill increases to 24,000 yen ($213). Given the fire risk, he also has high homeowner's insurance.

Although it would take a lot to top Kagura's setup, Shelf Life also regularly features anime fans with impressive and well-organized collections.

Source: DenFami Kiji Okiba: Kisuko Okumura