Where is Tokyo’s biggest manga shop?
Earlier this week I was taking photos in Ikebukuro for a story on manga. I asked around to try and find Tokyo’s largest manga shop but drew a complete blank. Shops seem to specialize in one particular demographic or sell second hand books.
Anyway, for what it’s worth, here is a short list of shops I did find. Anyone got other recommendations?
Manga in Japanese
- Village Vanguard. A chain from Aichi-prefecture. I’ve only been to the one in Shimokitazawa, Tokyo. It’s really an Aladdin’s cave with CDs, clothes, imported knick-knacks etc too. The manga is a mixture of current best-sellers, old classic and off-beat Garo type stuff.
- Animate Ikebukuro. This is on “Otome Road” by sunshine city, the female otaku mecca. Several floors of manga, with a slant towards manga for girls.
- K-Books Ikebukuro. Another shop on Otome Road. There are several separate stores dotted round that area.
Manga In English
- Kinokuniya (Shinjuku) Pretty good selection of manga in English. Expect to pay a lot more for English manga than Japanese.
- There must be more ????
Used manga
- Mandarake. Their biggest shop is in Nakano. They have huge range of manga, all second-hand. it’s in Nakano broadway which was otaku central while Akihabara was still selling radios.
- Book Off . A chain of second book stores. EVERYWHERE in Japan and dirt cheap. Older or slightly tatty manga often goes for 105 yen.
well i had a question i live in the usa and love manga just that i cant read japanese and wanted to know if there is a site where i can buy manga directly from tokyo like english manga
amazon.co.jp ought to have a fair selection!