Forum - View topicPlaces to buy anime/manga in Vancouver or Seattle?
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Buster Blader 126
 Posts: 1207 Location: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada |
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I will be in the Seattle area (Bellevue, specifically) tomorrow for my cousin's graduation, though I will stop by Vancouver along the way.
Are there any residents of (or those familiar with) the two cities here that can point out any shops that sell anime/manga, whether it's a specialty store or a major retailer? Specialty stores would be great. In terms of Seattle, I'm just going to assume that a Borders/B&N, Wal-Mart and a Best Buy exist. Fry's and FYE do not seem to be in the city but in the neighbouring municipalities. How long would it take by car to get to those locations? What about Big Lots? Any other potential USA retailers I'm missing for Seattle? |
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Sheleigha
 Posts: 1674 |
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In the Vancouver area, there used to be a couple anime-specific stores, but it looks like only one is left! I think the Richmond Sakura Media finally closed down... I saw that they moved into a tiny location in their mall, but when I went back, they seemed to have disappeared, or maybe moved again.
But their Metrotown branch is still open! I was in there recently and it's still going! Buyer beware: I've bought OSTs from them to find out they are Taiwanese bootlegs  Everything else is fine though!
http://www.sakuramedia.com/website04/aboutus.htm for infos/location! Also, if you happen to be a fan of Pokemon, there are some Seattle-specific places where you can localized versions of the Japanese Pokemon Center plush! The only other places in the country that have them are in NY and Florida (and yet the Seattle area has 3...) |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Sakura Media is the only place that springs to mind. I'm not sure where you'll be exactly but it's no biggie to get there. You can take the sky train directly to the Metrotown stop in no time and it lets you off directly into the mall.
There is also a little place called Comic Scene in Evergreen Mall way out in Surrey. Nothing worth making a trip over but if you happened to be in the area they do have a decent selection of manga. Honestly, from what I've seen though your best bet is to shop in the US if you're already going. Way better value. In Canada prices are still quite inflated and haven't changed at all to reflect the current exchange rate. This is especially true with manga. |
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
 Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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Wow. That's not much advance notice. Still, I live in Bellevue and I can point you to the specialty anime store I use. http://anime-raku.com/ It's in downtown Bellevue near Barnes and Noble and fairly close to Bellevue Square Mall. Also, there's a Best Buy not far from there which also has an okay selection of anime, though not as big as they once had. |
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DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
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In the heart of Seattle's International district, you will find the Uwajimaya Japanese grocery. They carry mostly food (of course), but they do have some sanrio and cultural items at the front of the store. Plus you can load up on choco horns and melon bread.
Anyway- conntected to Uwajimaya is Kinokuniya, a Japanese bookstore. MASSIVE import manga section. Upstairs has an awesome soundtrack/jpop selection, but you are going to be paying import worthy prices on that stuff. Plus there's assorted figures/plush/knicknacks about. Just outside of Uwajimaya is a lil' anime model shop. I don't know their name, but walk the block around Uwajimaya and look for the anime statues in the window. I didn't get a good look around there- I've been once and got hassled by a crazy homeless lady for money the whole time. A little farther down, inside of a nondescript white shopping arcade front (there's a travel agent and a Japanese rental store, as I recall) is Pink Gorilla. They sell retro and import videogames. They get good stuff, but it gets pricey. I know there's another Pink Gorilla in the city somewhere, but I can't tell you how to find that one. If you're willing to go down to the Tukwila/Kent area, there's a shop called Sweet Kitty and the Great Wall Mall. The mall is mostly Chinese grocers and knick-knacks, but anime business will move in and out of it from time to time (haven't been there recently). Sweet Kitty is a combo sanrio/anime shop. The owners are wonderful people, but they do sell some bootleg stuff, so be careful what you buy. I'm sure I'm missing somewhere here, but that's what I know. |
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Dessa
 Posts: 4438 |
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There's a couple Big Lots I know of (Lynnwood and Shoreline) that have some anime, but not a large, decent, or consistent collection. In downtown, there's a couple used places that might have stuff (one's near Pike Place, forgot the name of it, and I'm blanking on the other at the moment), but not a whole lot outside of Uwaji/Kino.
I don't know where the one(s) in Seattle is(are), but Half-Priced Books carry a good anime/manga selection around here. The two I know of are Lynnwood (near our Big Lots, actually) and Everett. There's actually not any Walmart that I know of in/near Seattle, the closest is at the 164th exit in Snohomish County, north of there, and last I heard it was closed for remodeling. There is a Borders in downtown, it's near Westlake Center. Barnes & Noble is in Pacific Place, which is a couple blocks north of Westlake. I have no clue where any Best Buys are near Seattle, other than Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood. Oh, and Sheleigha, when I was at Alderwood's Pokemon Center, they actually told me that the others (or, Tacoma's specifically, at least) were closed. |
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EricDent
 Posts: 997 Location: Georgetown, TX |
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There was a place near Northgate Mall as well called Kicks Hobby Japan, which mostly sold toys/models. Not sure if they are still there though.
Right across the street is a Best Buy. The Redmond Best Buy (near Microsoft) was the "Place to go" for anime for a while, but that was before the big "anime crunch" that Best Buy went through. If you have the time, you could go to Everett Mall where there is a place called Comic Stop that had a pretty decent selection of Manga & toys. There were several Borders in the various malls (mostly Lynnwood & Everett). Pretty close to the malls were some Best Buys & Barnes & Noble's. The place in Bellevue (near the Barnes & Noble) may have closed down, since the last time I went there they said they were going out of business (this was about 3 years ago). The place downtown (in the international district) is mostly speciallized in toys/models. Really close by is a place called Pink Godzilla that speciallized in games (including imports), and a video store (rental) that specialized in Japanese movies/shows. BTW really near those places is the grave & one of the dojos of Bruce Lee. I agree that Kinokuniya is probably the best place to go, they do have a rather large section of English manga as well as the MASSIVE amounts of Japanese manga. They also have a CD department, and while they are a bit pricey, there is some good stuff. If you want to walk a bit (or take the bus) you could go to Pike Place Market, there is a cool comic store there and they have some Japanese toys/manga. |
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Sheleigha
Posts: 1674 |
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I heard that Tacoma is just a vending machine now, so maybe it used to be bigger but the "store" closed? I have yet to go myself, so it's just what I heard. Northgate I believe still has the larger kiosk too. |
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Lodossdreams
 Posts: 21 |
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Fry's from Bellevue is like 10ish min away from Bellevue if your around i-405.
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Buster Blader 126
Posts: 1207 Location: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada |
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Update:
- Anime-Raku was pretty sweet. It's even within walking distance from my uncle's restaurant! I had a good conversation with the guy there. Wound up getting the Eva tin, the 4th Marmalade Boy box and Galaxy Angel Rune Vol. 4. Galaxy Angel Rune Vol. 4! 
I also wound up getting Cross Game Vol. 3 & A Bride's Story Vol. 1 at the nearby Barnes and Noble a couple of hours ago. The Borders in the area is indeed gone. - Kinokuniya & the market were pretty nice to visit. I almost got Cross Game Vol. 1, but I got picky with the condition it was in and wound up not buying it. Pink Gorilla was nice, though I left quickly after I saw everything inside. The model shop I went in-and-out of. - Downtown Seattle: Golden Age Collectibles didn't have any of the pricier manga I wanted, (tax is only 5% on books), so I left. Nice place, though. Xanadu had that dusty feel to it, but the staff were friendly. Their manga selection wasn't as good as I'd hope, though. They have a manga sale going on, but I opted not to get anything else in fear of running out of packing space. - Borders still exists in downtown Seattle, so I visited it. I did see a Rozen Maiden Traumend boxset & a FF7: Advent Children boxset that have been marked down 40%, but I didn't bite. They also didn't have Cross Game Vol. 1. Missed out on the B&N in the area, though. - Vancouver looks to be a no-go tomorrow. 
- Still don't know if I can hit the HPB & Best Buy in Bellevue. Anything else outside of Bellevue/downtown Seattle look to be a no-go as well. |
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EricDent
Posts: 997 Location: Georgetown, TX |
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Glad you had a good time!
I lived up in the Seattle area for over 20 years. Was that Anime-Raku place the place in Bellevue (upstairs near the Barnes & Noble)? Maybe they decided to stay in business due to fan feedback. BTW there is a reason that the Seattle area has 3 Pokemon Centers, cause that is where Nintendo is. |
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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EricDent,
Anime-Raku is still there. It was bought by new owners a few years ago and, in fact, still has some of the inventory from the previous owners. They also have a booth at Sakura Con every year. |
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EricDent
Posts: 997 Location: Georgetown, TX |
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Thanks for the info!
I attended Sakuracon a couple of times, and even knew the person who did the con guide. |
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Dessa
Posts: 4438 |
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You know Julian, Eric?
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EricDent
Posts: 997 Location: Georgetown, TX |
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Not sure if she still does it or not, but a friend's wife named Penny Anderson did some stuff for the guide books. I am not sure what exactly though. They were my "inside" people so I got a free wristband to see a concert, and I could have gone to the "guest dinner", but I was uber tired and just went home.
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