Anime stores

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danth
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Anime stores

Post by danth »

So, without giving away too much, I visited home this past weekend and found out someone opened an anime store right by the house I grew up in! I was blown away. I grew up in a very small town and it has never had any sort of anime store before. I want to do something to help it but I don't know what. I did buy a Blu Ray there, but they have mostly new anime stuff, of course, which I'm just not super interested in.

The town I live in now, which is a college town, used to have a pretty nice Anime store, but it closed years ago. I loved going there though. They had DVDs to rent and buy as well as all kinds of toys. I miss it.

Do you guys have any local anime stores? How do they survive?
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usamimi
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Re: Anime stores

Post by usamimi »

Back when I lived in WA, there were a couple of anime stores here and there, but most of them closed down eventually when the "anime/manga boom" died down and/or when the recession hit it's peak. There used to be a place in Tacoma, WA called The Anime Cafe that my friends and I would go to every so often, sadly I think that's gone, too--I tried Googling it to find info and ended up finding their ancient home page from when I was still in high school! http://www.users.qwest.net/~acafe/ I'm tempted to email them and see if it still works, lol. :lol:

In the International district in Seattle, there's International Model Toys, which has been there FOREVER, but is slowly scaling down because I don't think they're making nearly as much money as they used to. They used to be in a much bigger location and have a bigger selection, now they're kinda squished into a smaller retail space: http://www.seattlechinatownid.com/eat/d ... model-toys I have mixed feelings about the place because they do sell some legit stuff, but they also sell a ton of bootlegs (Hong Kong bootleg DVDs, those old laminated posters, knock-off keychains....they even have ancient left-over Son May & Ever Anime CDs in a glass case that they want $30-40 a CD for)....but they're been there since I was a kid, so I have so many fond memories of buying anime posters & stickers from them growing up (since I didn't know they were bootlegs back then, lol). They sell a shit-ton of model kits, which I assume is their biggest draw, though. I think the last time I visited they had official blind box toys and wall scrolls, too, at least.

Here in Texas, I've heard there's a couple of anime stores in the Dallas area, but I've never actually been to them since they're kind of out of the way. I've heard most of them just carry merchandise and not much ACTUAL anime because that seems to be where the money is at the moment (figures, cosplay stuff, apparel, knick-knacks, etc.) I know there's also a specific store that JUST sells Japanese snacks, but I can't remember the name...they sell the usual Pocky and Ramune, but also stuff like baked-goods (melon pan, cream pan, etc) and chips. I usually see em at A-kon, too, so I think they probably go to other local conventions as well to sell things and get more sales alongside their physical location. I've heard in Austin there's a few anime stores as well that are pretty good, but I've only been to Austin once (since that's pretty far from where I am) so I haven't been able to check it out.

Locally in my town, there's a video game store that tries to sell anime and anime merch alongside of all the game stuff, but their collection's pretty small since they mostly rely on trade-ins for their DVD/blu-ray stock. But that leads to the occasional deal for me because I've found out of print titles that way for a good price. The only thing that sucks is that they also take trade-ins on bootlegs, so there's always some bootleg dvds for sale there, too.
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Drew_Sutton
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Re: Anime stores

Post by Drew_Sutton »

In the late 1990s, we had a few open around where I lived in suburban north-east Atlanta. Up until they opened, we had some comic shops (to my knowledge) that had some very limited merchandise; mostly translated manga as I recall - in the old 32 page floppy format. And specialty video stores, like Suncoast had anime sections. But the first store I remember opened near us that had a significant anime presence was half anime-half import/specialty video games, called Ultra Play. Anime merchandise there was mostly posters, Cardass cards, figures/toys and some of the other trinkets/candy-prize stuff, along with US distributed tapes (I remember a sizable ADV catalogue there). Games stuff was really cool, too. After a year or so in that location, they moved to a different one with less floor space and introduced fansub tapes for sale (between $15 - $20). Eventually, they went out of business, I imagine due to lack of traffic and sales. A couple of other places opened up as more collectibles stuff became more available here, again, with tons of fansub tapes. One of them I know as still being around but no longer brick and mortar - they sell only at convention tables now. Almost 15 years ago I moved to the north-west suburbs and never looked for anything similar, though I did hear of one or two opening at a mall where I went to University. There was another one that opened just last year, a friend of mine through the convention scene works for them. It's also owned and practically run by another guy who is a dealer at conventions.

Though, I can't think of anything more 'iconic' than the old House of Anime. They had, comparatively, everything, including a healthy general ledger because they were in business for a while. They ran a storefront that was 50% merch, usually HK and Taiwanese "import versions" of CDs and books, posters and such with some import anime games. The other half of the store was their video rental store, built primarily on fansubs until a title was licensed, in which it was replaced. I spent a lot of time there in middle and high school and contributed a fair bit to that bottom line. The storefront had to close, the rumor circulating was Bandai caught wind of some tapes they were renting that were fansubs of their properties but hadn't released yet, so I have no idea how true that was. The owner still deals at conventions, runs his own little dealer's convention and has a good online presence (I remember they were probably one of the first to go online), and is an all around good guy. I think their merch is mostly legit now a days.
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usamimi
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Re: Anime stores

Post by usamimi »

House of Anime was one of my go-to anime shops when they started popping up online. I remember buying goodies for my anime club's contests from them, and they even threw in some freebies when I told them what it was for. I kinda miss how diverse their stock used to be...whenever I see them at cons now, it's mostly jrock stuff and American-made merch (which is understandable...I'm sure that's cheaper for them to get.) I remember the first thing I ever ordered from them: a Sailor Moon sticker set. (They had a Belldandy stamp they used on their receipts, too, I remember being super jealous and wishing I had one....to this day, I still haven't found one, though I did manage to find Urd and Skuld, lol.)
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yusaku
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Re: Anime stores

Post by yusaku »

There was an anime store in Independence, MO a suburb next door to Kansas City. All the typical merchandise was there. The owner was a half Japanese lady. The store was open around 2005, but did not stay open more than two years. The owner was a delightful person, but let too many rentals out and other merchandise on credit. She lost a lot of merchandise renting out to the local kids. i think she was so generous because she wanted company. Her store was an oasis for anime fans. The closest thing we have have now is a store called Yoki in Kansas City river market and the mall in Independence. Only the store has only Jpop merchandise in the form of plush toys and pocky. I am going to make it a point to shop there because they cater to the J pop crowd. I will make sure I support the store so it just will not disappear like the anime store.
The Yoki store has a really a thin inventory; i am going to find something to buy.
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Drew_Sutton
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Re: Anime stores

Post by Drew_Sutton »

usamimi wrote:House of Anime was one of my go-to anime shops when they started popping up online. I remember buying goodies for my anime club's contests from them, and they even threw in some freebies when I told them what it was for. I kinda miss how diverse their stock used to be...whenever I see them at cons now, it's mostly jrock stuff and American-made merch (which is understandable...I'm sure that's cheaper for them to get.) I remember the first thing I ever ordered from them: a Sailor Moon sticker set. (They had a Belldandy stamp they used on their receipts, too, I remember being super jealous and wishing I had one....to this day, I still haven't found one, though I did manage to find Urd and Skuld, lol.)
Yeah - the retail store had a good deal of J-pop/rock merchandise after a certain point, though from the same publishers as their anime OSTs. When they went online, their House of JPop or JRock line was one of their staples. Ditto for when I see them at local shows, mostly music and US-made merch. The US stuff is there, pretty much because it sells.

I remember those sticker sheets, too. I remember buying a couple sheets of Toriyama World ones - had a bunch of Dragonball Z and Dragon Quest (VI, I think) stuff on them. When I was cleaning out the office earlier this weekend, I found the old notebook from when I ran the High School anime club in a box, still covered in those (with a couple of embarrassing Lords of Acid stickers to boot)!.
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Animusubi
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Re: Anime stores

Post by Animusubi »

My local "anime shops" when I was young was actually comic book shops, and Suncoast Video.

When I lived in Tacoma, WA, there wasn't anime specific shops, but there were a ton of places to buy anime. My go-to comic shop was called "Lady Jayne's Comics". She offered subscriptions on comics, so I got all my Animerica and single issue manga, like Ranma 1/2 and Tenchi Muyo from her and her daughter. I also collected Ani-Mayhem cards and got back issues of titles from her too. Sadly they eventually closed down to be an online only shop, but I don't think that ever panned out for them. There was also a larger comic store called "O'Leary's" where I also got back issues of manga and some Ranma 1/2 wallscrolls. Unfortunately it was kind of out of the way, and I only went there twice.

We also had a place called the B&I, which used to have a small Korean gift shop in it that sold Card Captor Sakura and Sailor Moon goods (in Korean sometimes), and it too had a comic shop in it, I bought posters and wall scrolls from. ((there were a lot of comic shops back then in my area it seems, lol))

Like Usamimi said, in Seattle we have plenty of places. International Hobby Toys is the same, X-Kid Z always strikes up conversation with Anthony, the guy that works there. Their space is taller, more than smaller (eventhough it looks that way) so they have the same stuff for the most part. They don't really deal in bootlegs much anymore, they just have the stuff leftover from 10+ years ago. I did buy a Sonmay CD from them recently for $11, because I had been eyeballing it since I was a kid, haha. And then there's Kinokuniya, which sells a ton of anime stuff, it's grown so much. They even sell Dakimakura there now, lol. But they have lots of manga, artbooks, and toys.

Around Washington, there's now a company called "Anime World" that's been popping up all over. There's even one in my old hometown (which is usually a deadzone for anime related things). I even tried to get a job there (but I always unfortunately apply too late). They do however sell mainly bootlegs and cosplay. All the new stuff I'm not interested in.

Lastly, we have lots of mom and pop shops that deal in vintage toys and goods, and many of them have old anime DVDs, manga, and toys from various years. I haven't visited all of them, but there are alot. Though most of the vintage toy shops deal in comics and video games.
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DKop
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Re: Anime stores

Post by DKop »

The last time I went to a brick and mortar anime store was this place called Anole Anime near NC State campus. They lasted a couple of years and shut down I think the end of 2007 or early 2008, but they had some cool stuff there that I got a hold of or never even knew about (its how I first knew about Megazone 23 based on the Garland toy the guy was selling). He had a DVD rental system there, so I was able to watch the first few episodes of Outlaw Star and even rent AnimEigo titles like Riding Bean and Otaku no Video on DVD. To show how nice they were, they would do these "free promotions" where they would stick unsellable items in my bag, which is how I wound up with all of the USA Network Street Fighter animated series on DVD for free.

The only other places I have seen in my life like that was well, Chinatown in NYC the last time I was there.... 12 years ago or something at this point.
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Re: Anime stores

Post by jdoll »

i used to go to seattle to do some shopping but now boise, idaho has a small anime store near our mall that is nice called anime haus
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Re: Anime stores

Post by davemerrill »

We were in Rochester NY a few weeks back and we dropped by their local anime store, which is called "Hammergirl Anime". The anime club at RIT is very active and this store seems to be their home away from home, as it was really busy when we dropped in. Most of the merch seemed to be what you'd see in an anime con dealers room - figures, little gatchapon toys, keychains, hats, shirts, cosplay items, DVDs, lots of manga, some model kits, card games, Pocky, etc. Not much for the vintage anime fan, but on the other hand, we know where Nakano Broadway is.
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