Hong Kong Otaku

In this state there aren't many places to buy anime goods...aside the yearly conventions of which there are around three major ones spread out across the calendar.

Taking note on China, they and Japan are currently in talks about cracking down on copyright infringement mainly in terms of further countering Chinese companies that produce counterfeit products.

Hopefully that translates into a dramatic drop in bootleg figures.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i4VflJNnOmgxl6WrSidw9cCzHRYg

London, somewhere in London bound to have a shop that sells Japanese Otaku related stuff.
Been to China Town, no Japanese stuff... Muji Store sells some cool stuff though.

I could never find the watcha' ma' call Planet store. Is it still alive?

Next time I attend to London Excel, I'm going to ask those sellers where on earth I could buy stuff XD

gah, should of asked Daniel Merlin Goodbrey for a free comic >_>

The shop is a very various item
It's like K-books or Mandarake (But Ram and PC board not there ^.^)

We have a nice lil' shop here which sells otaku goods. The store is really small and so is the stock. But he sells some CDs too. The shop is called "tanoshii depato"
And the boss is nice and tries to import for you if he can and u r too dumb to do it yourself.
Apart from that I only know a store specialized on comics who sells manga and anime as well.

The Sino Centre arcade in the MongKok district was a good place to go for otaku goodies when I was there in Hong Kong. Lots of figures and other merchandise.

In Manhattan, there is the Image Anime, the Kinokuniya, and the Forbidden Planet that I frequent. Chinatown has some stuff too, but there you have to be careful of bootlegs.

whatttt!! cosplay ? =O

last time i went to hong kong i found NOTHING related to cosplay/anime
i looked everywhere too including nathan road!!

the only place i saw was on the outside of some shopping centre and i was on a tour bus...... sighhh

Being in Australia = limited in terms places to get your paws on decent otaku goods...
However, there are the regular comic stores/bookstores that sell *some*, e.g. Kinokuniya, Kings Comics (both in Sydney).
Anime DVDs and Manga are both easy to find. But it's goodies like figures and even cosplay that I VERY rarely come across anywhere. In fact, I am about 97% sure you can't buy cosplay ANYWHERE in the entirety of Australia, other than the odd Sailor Moon suit in costume-hire shops.

All I can say is thank god for online shopping! ^-^

- By the way if anyone DOES know of any actual real-life stores in Australia that sell cosplay, have a decent selection of figures and other otaku goods for sale, let me know ASAP XD

Hm not bad...only places I know around here is one shop in Chinatown and a few in Little Tokyo...

I remember squeezing thru those tiny kiosks in HK. Some can't fit more than 3 people. While there is a large assortment of goods, its hard to pinpoint who carries what unless you know where you're goin.

In Calgary, I only know of one store in Chinatown that sells up to date otaku good. Its on the second level of Dragon City mall. YOU HEAR ME TOMMY?! LOL

In Manila there's no other place for otaku shopping like greenhills.
http://www.marvinryan.com/blog/2008/04/14/otaku-shopping-manila/
although I heard there are a number of shop at market-market as well.

I remember in Singapore the only must go to was China Square Central.

In Vancouver on the other hand, the only place I know of is a shop called ultra action toys.

I've been to a couple of places around my local area and the problem is that if you are not a big importer or supplier, the items tend to be preety expensive...i've even seen a couple of shops close up due to no demand or items just being too damn expensive. there are times that buying online was even cheaper than the goods around here locally.

Here in Manila, the only place to go is Greenhills. Aside from a few other figure shops dotted around the metro, that's the only place with the highest concentration.

And nice post, just in time for me to go hunt for goodies for DD Rin when I fly to HK this July.

Here in Toronto Ontario Canada, I would say you should head to downtown Chinatown.
There North Chinatown, you'll find a store called AnimeXtreme, a bit west you'll find a lolita store called Twilyte.
AnimeXtreme I say is one of the stores that I recommend anyone to go to...
Recently I went down and saw a ton of oppai mousepads.
They have a huge selection of manga too!!!
They also have new figures weekly...

in Manila (the Philippines), I go to the following places for otaku raids:
- Greenhills: figures, nostalgia stuff from the '80s

- Divisoria, the single biggest market location in the region: materials for cosplay and doll clothes, assorted anime paraphernalia, collector card game sets

- the good bookstores like Powerbooks and Fully Booked allow ordering of manga, role-playing books, and coffee-table books. I've tried ordering DVDs through them, but they don't seem to know much about my fandom.

(Takarazuka Kagekidan. Hey, Danny, have you ever heard of them?)

- still wondering where else I can order those pound bags of assorted RPG dice. I may have to bite the bullet and get a proper online money service for this.

/shrug

Nathan road? Been there, done that. Need to go again!!! for sure.

But I also want to go to denden town in Osaka again. So many places, so little funds...

MMM notebook RAM =D Hong Kong has a variety of shops with Anime related things ^^

The only anime stores I know of around here is about a 45 min ride by bus and train...and its not a very spacious store either, but it is cramped with tons of Japanese goodies though ^^ Theres also Comicopia and best buy...but only for Manga and DVDs.

Dang...in my area THERE ARE BARELY ANY!! >__< gotta head downtown Toronto, where the good stuff are XD LOL

In my neck of the woods the only good place to get decently priced otaku stuff is online. ^^;

^^; Here in my state no where.....

I see Asuka dollfie there on the first pic but hard to see (>@@)>

If you come to Penang, Malaysia, I'll recommend you to Prangin Mall for cosplay and QueensBay Mall/Midlands Mall for figures... Don't try your luck with Anime here... All of them are bootlegs...

There're many local bookstores that sell bootleg figures as well so beware...

Hmm... I can only think of 2 shops around my area that'll have Otaku goodies.... One is more centered around figures/figurines. While the other has more accessories + some cosplay clothes too. Havnt seen anything dollfies related though. (Then again i probably wont know even if i saw them)

There was more before... but they kinda close down or moved without me knowing >_>

I would probably tell them: "Hey you want to know a good place to get otakue goodies?" If they answer with a yes, then: It's right over there(pointing at my laptop)."

I have to drive to Toronto about 2 hours away to get anime goods. I usually order online and hit up conventions though. Don't know much about doll stuff though.

There's only one place in Brazil I'd recommend: Liberdade district at São Paulo. But everyone around here knows it. =P

HK is otaku heaven if Japan isn't accessible to you (*cough for me anyway*)... you just gotta know where to look for the goods~

Here, stuff are overpriced and you may encounter fakes if you don't know how to tell them apart. However, if price isn't an issue and you have a good eye for em fakies, then Richmond is the best place to go since it's like mini-HK there. Though for me, I end up having to shop online or wait until I take a visit to an anime convention in the states and blow all my money there all at once.

Nice otaku shop hunting ^_^

When I lived in HK, I wasn't as much as a otaku compare to now, I was more into airsoft back then, so didn't actually pay attention to these shops.

There is nothing good in Pittsburgh. Not just for anime, but most specialty goods. The nearest good anime place is all the way back at RIT in Rochester. Same for Photography and Electronics. It's really kinda irritating.

Then again, it's not as bad as fencing. I have to go all the way to New Jersey for the nearest fencing equipment store.

Yeah, otaku stuff anywhere outside of east asia seems to have a pretty hefty markup because they love the scalp.

I don't know any place :S, kinda sad.
Once I went to the most famous comic store in Buenos Aires, just to find that they sell fansubbed anime and copied CD. I asked for 15 different OST and they had half and all of them in CD-R. Got some nice original artbooks but not so many. They also have tons of toys and figures! (but not the latest, and not as amazing as Danny's)
For magazines I recommend "Toshin OCS Bookstore", a japanese library that has tons of books, magazines and mangas in original language, and also imports any artbook or textbook you want from Japan.

Haven't found a way to get an original anime dvd yet, "Camelot" doesn't import them.

Well, here in Barcelona one should go to 'Arc del triomf' zone to find some geek stores (Take the L1 line of the underground and get off at 'Arc del triomf').
You'll find the most at Norma Comics, but there are some other stores where you can find some figures, manga, and even Magic The Gathering stuff.

I've to say they have a lot of 'most-aired-on-TV' things and lack a little in rare items.

God bless eBay and other inet stores.

Barely any shops in Sydney sell anything related to Otaku goods.
If u see 1 or 2, double the content as it's likely bootleg. >_<

North East Toronto, pretty much Markam, check out Pacific Mall. There's also some really really nice hidden manga stores down Steele St. going west around J~Town.

Gemini Jetpack in Kitchener Waterloo was at it's top with titles for rent but they only did licensed stuff and eventually closed down a couple years ago unfortunately.

Never seen dollfies anywhere, which is probably a good thing. I would have bought one. They're so expensive. ):

In my place, I usually go to the shopping mall near my place (Jusco Bukit Tinggi), but occasionally I would go on Midvalley (Kuala Lumpur) on holiday since there's a lot of good stuff over there.

Yup, HK is also an otaku paradise.
In Singapore, there's a few otaku shops but they are all along the city area ^^;

Here in Toronto, it'd either be downtown (Chinatown) or northeast Toronto (Scarborough/Markham). Pacific Mall's ok, but it's mostly bootlegs. In the past, I used to go to Kikiwai, but they recently closed down (I think the owner moved it back to HK. He was a cool guy). Nowadays, I'd rather just get goods straight from Japan (via Tenso is fine too to forego some shipping costs). It's partially to do with the fact that I buy a lot of non-mainstream items.

In Indonesia, Almost every shopping mall has at least one shop that sells otaku goodies.
In Surabaya, there's a mall called Supermall that has 5-6 otaku related shops.
After reading what you guys wrote, made me realize that Indonesian Otakus are quite lucky ^^

There's quite a few places in Oahu [unsure about neighbor islands] that I know of... Lately I've been sticking to ordering online, though, since I don't really go out much due to work, etc. and the fact that I can't drive yet, lol.

There isn't really any place to get good otaku goods here in Edmonton, Alberta so I would suggest going online :)

Don't really have any places around here that keep otaku goods in stock. I typically buy mine at anime conventions.

lol that pic was of a cafe- i thought it was someones living room at first

ahaha I've been there b4

Singapore needs more otaku shops... T___T

There are a fews shop in my neck of the wood. If you are around Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Time Square have 2 anime shops and in Cheras, Taman Tayton View there is a shopping center inside Leisure Mall. I must tell you that these shops does not have the latest goods from Japan so most of the time I need to order them through the internet.

I wish here would be like Hong Kong where you can find tons and tons goodies T_T

I felt like a loser for not finding the best Anime shops in Hong Kong during our trip there last year~~

Anyway, if we got enough savings we're going back there :)

Here in Manila it's all in Greenhills San Juan

All the main branches of most hobby shops are in Shoppesville. Although Great Toys and Special toy store have branches in malls scattered around Metro Manila.

If you're in Cebu City, there's a shop in Banilad Town Center that sells figures but it has fewer stuff. Forgot the name but it's some sort of a satellite branch of Great Toys.

there's just one bookstore that imports manga here that i know of but prices are on the higher side. buying complete sets turns out to be very costly - more than double the mrp.

for electronics, theres seperate places in every major city here where we can get anything if we search enough. in mumbai, lamington road could be thought of as a smaller version of akihabara for electronics. i buy otaku stuff from the internet as most shop keepers here (99.95 percent) are clueless of otaku world.

哇！那件兰卡的衣服我要！ ('~')

i went to hong kong before i met fate/stay night so no otaku goodies from there =S. Singapore had a couple of nice stores in big shopping districts when i went there last year (i got my 1/8 scaled hollow ataraxia saber, swimsuit edition, from there.

In my neck of the woods... you can count the anime/otaku stores in perth on one hand =S, mostly people over here get them online (our stores can also take in online purchases for us) or from our yearly anime rip off prices conventions. However we do have quite a few stores that stock up on manga.

Ah yes, I recognise some of those places! Sino Centre in Mong Kok and the Golden Computer Arcade Centre in Sham Shui Po. I always drop by those places for computer goods and import stuff. Chinese translated Manga and Anime are everywhere but for figures and raw Japanese books, you need to go to these little places. I was there just recently and made a tour of the shops myself ;)

http://xcomprandomness.co.uk/2009/05/18/a-stroll-around-hong-kong-part-iv-import-goods/

If you're in Glasgow UK, English Manga is pretty much in all the major book stores such as Borders and there's a fair selection of Anime in the entertainment stores such as HMV. For the odd raw import goods such as magazines and figures, there's Forbidden Planet.

Anime/Manga goods have gotten more popular over the past few years so it's slightly easier to find them now. Before, you could only get Manga at Forbidden Planet and Anime was very rare at the major entertainment stores.

Still can't beat the goods available online though.

All otaku in my area should be directed to the only otaku store in a 25 mile radius. It's called Gold Star. Luckily for me, and unluckily for my wallet, it is right across the street from the college I will be attending in the fall. For those that don't want to make the almost hour long trip I would recommend Best Buy or F.Y.E. for DVDs, Borders for manga, and the internet for everything else. The states really aren't that otaku friendly. It saddens me.....

Don't think there's much significant ones here, but figures, yes we do have awesome figure shops ^_^

The last time I went to Hong Kong, I was happy to get a Strike Noir, Astray Gold Frame Amatsu, and a few manga anthologies. ^^

The only place to buy figures in my area is FYE, and the selection is generally pretty scarce. I did snag a Pia Carrot figure one day somehow though. :g

Oh man, wish there were shops like that here. Well, there kinda are, but they're too small.

Danny if you wanna I can try and take some more photos when I have time as I am now in Hong Kong; I know one particular Shokugan shop very well so hopefully he can show more what a small shop looks like. Not sure about figure shops as I don't know any shopkeepers very well. Will have to see.

There is NOTHING! Absolutely NOTHING! here in Oregon D:

I wish they had motherboard displays like that here

Hmm, how'd you get those pics? Most shops there won't allow pictures taken of their goods.

Now if they had some stores like that at where I lived, then I would be a happy camper that doesn't have to rely on the internet for some of those Otaku items.

Hmm... we have a few places here. Not so much in the actual city of Vancouver. There's a few in downtown, but I hardly go there... hard to park. Richmond and Burnaby have some pretty good otaku goodies. Mostly Richmond though.

I would recommend them to Japan town in L.A. My city is about ten miles away from L.A., but traffic could make it take long.

OMFG! I need to go back to Hong Kong NOW!

I would be happy if more otaku shops opens in Singapore, especially Tampines since it's near my school. ;p

Looks like it's time i went to give HK another visit

Wouldn't be surprised if a lot of this was bootleg stuff..but I'm no expert anyways. Over here there is *nada* so I'm hoping to save up for my big Japan trip this year.

Here in Aichi-ken, I have to go to Kamimaezu, Nagoya. It's like a little Akiba cuase you have anime shops (like Mandarake and G-Store) and also electronic-stuff shops. It's a little bit far from where I live but the ride is worth it. BTW I've never been to Akiba.... so close yet so far!!! ='(

ther is barely any places to by anu otaku related stuff near me and it suxs big time, usaually i have to order my stuff of the net.

Only place in Melbourne which sells otaku related stuff's is Minotaur in the city, but this store sells pretty much anything in the 'pop culture' category. Other than that some major stores may sell Anime DVD's but not goods as in figures and what not.

Nowhere around my town. Heard they have some shops in major citys like Shanghai and Guangzhou, never been there though.

Aye, there are loads of places like that in HK, and by loads I mean LOADS :O

I have to buy virtually all my 'otaku goods' online because there is no decent physical store I have ever heard of in my country that sells things for a reasonable price.

Sometimes I can get my figures from UK online shops, but for my doll stuff, unless its second hand, it always has to be imported as there's no other way to get it.

Up here in New England there's a chain called Newbury Comics. Despite the name they actually focus on music, but they usually have some import figures and domestic anime DVDs and manga. They even started importing Pinky:St figures, which is awesome.

Then in the barely alive Rhode Island Mall is this place called 'The Toy Vault' which mostly has US Figures and comics, but they have a nice section of wall just for Japanese figures and stuff. They also recently branched out into selling retro games, and even had a few imports for sale. Very neat little place in a strange location. Only two other stores are left in that mall, the rest is EMPTY. I have no idea how they are surviving.

But yeah, it's always awesome finding a figure or DVD I want at those places. For everything else, there's ordering online.

lol i have just been to the shop with the cards,folders and keychains a week ago to buy K-ON CDs. Its located somewhere in Mong Kok, its in a mall with around 3-4 floors. Gotta love going there, but its always crowded =.=

San Francisco Bay Area's pretty spoiled for choice. Japantown is the obvious place, but Chinatown has some pretty quality shops like Sun Entertainment...
http://www.sunentertainment.com/
Half the place is taken up by VCD's of... 'Questionable' origin (though I got my copy of Shaolin Soccer there and no complaints), but the rest of the place is a pretty solid selection of Gunpla and other stuff. Check it out if you're ever in town. There's also I think a Paintball/Airsoft place down one of the alley's between Grant and Stockton, but I can't remember which one so you'd have to be adventurous to find it. Outside of J-Town and Chinatown, you should probably check out Hero's Club out on Clement street.
http://www.artoftoy.com/
If you got enough scratch, it's a great place to pick up resin and vinyl garage kits.
The East Bay is a bit more spread out, but a good "All in One" place would be the Pacific East Mall in Richmond...
www.yelp.com/biz/pacific-east-mall-richmond
A couple of funky little toy stores and a bunch of great places to eat under one roof.
Downtown Berkeley in about a four block square around the Berkeley Bart Station (Center and Shattuck area) is all kinds of nerd and Otaku friendly. I haven't made it down to Oakland Chinatown yet so I don't know if they have anything down there. But I'm sure I'll end up down there sooner or later so... yeah.
All of this but I don't think there's any kind of Maid Cafe anywhere in the Bay Area. Seems kind of a shame. Maybe I should start one, but I can see it going horribly wrong. It may be one of those things common Westerners aren't quite ready for yet. ;P

There are as far as I know not many good otaku shops around my area. Best I've seen is a store that sold some manga books (but they where all translated to Dutch) and maybe a few figures... If you want some hardcore otaku stuff you need to order them from the internet I guess. ^^;

*cries*
I dont have stores like that any place near my town..I have to mail order all my stuff..

I always end up telling people to just drive south and go to Little Tokyo. The only actual anime collector shop, Jungle, there has two shops. The second one is where you'd go to get Gundam model kits, anime and manga goods, art books, and other things. The main shop is also a great place to go when you want to find authentic PVCs and the like, and at reasonable-to-great prices.

And the best thing? They are also located in Japan (which is where they get a chunk of their items from). :3

Good to see HK Otaku having something to soothe themselves with ^^

looks like now otaku place just like chinatown everywhere in the world !!

no stores whatsoever in my neck of woods ~.~, gotta buy online instead...

Here in Kuala Lumpur there are some Otaku shops in some Malls . Usually I go to Sungai Wang the home of Otaku Shops .

They sell mostly figmas and some Figures there and that mall is mostly populated with chinese people ( Not that its against Chinese People ). Whenever I go to Sungai wang I always felt like I'm in a Japenese Mall as mostly in the mall they have Japanese Restaurants.

What place would I recommend to get some otaku goodies in Czech Republic? I don't have to think twice. It's the airport. Go to the airport and leave for some other country, Japan, if possible. Well, there's no direct flight from Prague to Japan so one would have to head somewhere else first, and then get on a plane to Japan there.

I wish we had stores like that in the UK.... it has Dollfie Dreams.... And I see the Clannad serafuku too..... Want... so much...
Damn the UK for not being otaku-orietated enough...

The only place around here is conventions. No shops here. :<

I want those doll clothes! <3

Shops very variety, in my country not shops similar ...snif snif

There's only a few shops I know of outside Chicago, most notable is TooCool. One half of the store is Hello Kitty stuff and the other half is for everything else. Lots of CDs and DVDs, a few Bleach swords, wallscrolls, and Final Fantasy figures (I haven't seen any other figures). The pricing is ok. Other than that, you have to wait for Anime Central to roll around.

Where I live (northern Scotland), there's a toy shop in Tain that sells Pokémon cards and occasionally other Pokémon/Naruto/Yu-Gi-Oh! memorabilia, a Tesco in Inverness in the Inshes that sells random mainstream kids' anime stuff, and a shop in Inverness on Church Street that sells a small selection of figures. There's also one HMV in the Eastgate Centre that has a very small, very expensive anime section and one Waterstones in the same mall with a large but incredibly pricey manga section. There's also one con that's on in Inverness in the winter, but I'm in Achfary so I have to take the train down, but the tracks are always snowed on so I usually miss it. D:

haha, here in zurich theres only one store and most of the stuff is in German. Plus the english stuff is on the pricey side...they do have some bargains though, so it's worth checking from time to time...

Here in Markham, Ontario, I am lucky to have a hobby shop "Hobby King", they stock Gundams, other plastic models, and a selection of figures. Price is very reasonable too. Much better than the stores in Pacific Mall. I highly recommend everyone in the area to check them out.

i been in the store where the door handle says PUSH

that store is in the SINO CENTER in MONG KOK
SINO center in hk is where its at
lots of manga and figures there to buy

over here where am stationed which is vancouver
i say sakura media or book off would be the place for otakus~

No otaku stores here,and i cant order online because i dont have a card and my father wont let me get one.......and even if i did the shipping rates plus tax will really put me off.....better to go to akihabara and pack a bag full of goodies and haul'em back

We have a handful of shops here. It's sad really and most of it is overpriced as well.
And not anything special or rare, basic stuff.

i can only think of one good one where im from....it has alot of manga and anime rentals with alot of figures too

I think there is just one anime shop near where I live, I only went once, it was tiny and overpriced with mostly domestic goods
I would just tell anyone who happens to live here to shop online :/

For Singapore, I'm guessing everyone living here should know about La Tendo and KKnM since they are pretty notable.

Wow, a "Nathan" road? I have got to go there! hahaha

Dollfie World store (first pic) where I got my DD and accessories. ^^

"In Seattle, all we had were a few shops in the International District which sold stuff for more than double the retail price in Japan."

I Can confirm this statement, except for in Uwajimiya's Kinokuniya, where some of the stuff "including J-POP CDs" sell for slightly more, but never more than double (AFAIK). The selection is very limited, however.

i remember there was a mall in mong kok in HK where all 4 levels sold anime, games and other related things

Anime palace...or Japantown in San Francisco...probably Anime palace and the Kinokuniya around here (in San Jose).

hhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!,this is the paradise

Pretty sure those pictures are taken in Sino Centre

Almost nothing in my whole entire state besides a few comic book stores with a limited anime selection. Internet is the way to go for all of your otaku needs in Ohio unless you can make the couple of anime conventions we have once a year.

Wow, I can't even find much of those here

Ahhh, if only more stores like this one existed here in the States, that would make things much more convenient. Too bad though since the costs of imports are just prohibitively high with shipping costs and whatnot.

wait... there are maid cafe in hk?!

i been to hk many times, never encountered any >.>

Cork, Ireland is pretty devoid of otaku stuff, you can only really find manga at bookstores and one specialist special interest shop (which is mostly for hobby things like warhammer, western graphic novels etc).

But the internet is fine for getting things (though not as fun to browse as a real shop), and if they were on sale here they're be a lot more expensive than ordering them through the internet is anyway :p

I don't really bother trying to find stuff here since it's all expensive anyway (if not fake). I tend to buy them when I go back to HK. =D So yeah, I go to the same area mentioned in that article. But there's so many small shopping mall thingies and small shops and so many people... >.< It takes time to explore all those places. I feel that I haven't explored enough. >.>

I'll do that when I go back~ And hopefully with a friend because that's more fun than being alone.

Imagine how it looked like on the midnight of 30th June-1st July 1997

Hmm sorta reminds me of the mall in Guangzhou (a bit to the east of Hong Kong)

I LIVE AROUND THERE!!!

in penang, malaysia - modelland

HOLY!! mushroom cload thats alot of stuff for one man