Shopping for Anime (and Manga) in Japan

by Geoff Cowie

You should be aware that anime in Japan is expensive. A check through ANIMERICA magazine, reveals that a 25 min tape costs ¥4800, and a 50min tape will cost ¥9600 (that's about £70, plus UK VAT and import duty.) This is the bad news. You should also realise that more laserdiscs are sold in Japan than tapes, as the tapes are mainly made for rental.

However, laserdiscs are frequently cheaper than tapes, and re-issues, or compilation discs, are often much better value for money. Boxed sets of LDs (e.g. the seven-disc Iczer-3 Super Blowing Up Box) are popular and are usually good value. Some shops have twice-yearly seasonal sales in which LDs, especially the older ones, are usefully discounted and tapes are sometimes slashed to a fraction of the original price.

In Japan a LD player costs as little as £200 (the cost of three laserdiscs). Remember though, that a LD player is a bulky item that weighs about 10kg (22lb), and after you've had it shipped back and paid the duty you'll still have to buy a transformer and a NTSC TV set. And it may not play PAL LDs.

At this point I should remind you that many popular anime items are now on release in the USA at prices rather cheaper than in Japan, and can be ordered via the UK for your personal use.

If you are interested in music, there are several CDs for every anime series: the soundtrack, the theme music album, and the drama CD. (the latter is music + dialogue). Look for these in specialist anime shops. The CDs cost about £20 each, and I didn't see any on cassette.

Availability

New stuff should present no problems. If you want to find something older but popular, like Project A-Ko, you should be able to find it all on laserdisc, but if you want A-Ko on tape you may have more difficulty. Some items, e.g. OUTLANDERS and DREAMHUNTER REM #1 are definitely unavailable, while other less popular items like 2001 NIGHTS or TO-Y may prove elusive. Many of the popular TV shows are re-issued as CLV laserdisc sets. Unfortunately in most cases the discs seem not to be available individually and your chances of finding tapes are even slimmer. For instance you can get the RANMA OVAs, or a very expensive boxed LD set of the 161 RANMA TV episodes.

Some shops instead of giving a discount hand out freebies to buyers. These freebies can include handfuls of animation cels that can be sold for cash when you get home.

Browsing through an anime LD or tape rack you'll come across many familiar items, more than half of which are helpfully named in English script.

Pitfalls

1. There are still a few Betamax tapes around: make sure you don't buy one by mistake.

2. Finding a shop in Tokyo is not an easy matter, as many streets are not named and buildings are numbered in order of construction. And the shop may be on an upper floor. Even with a bilingual map of the city plus a map from a magazine like Animage or Newtype, showing the shop location, it can still be a time consuming and frustrating hunt. The most useful specialist anime shops are in the Akhiabara dist

3. Be aware that a tape or disc will contain only one 25-min OVA, not two as in America.

4. Being able to recognise what you're looking for can be a problem and you should be prepared to recognise the Japanese title or the box spine design, or be able to ask for what you want. Don't assume that people you meet will speak fluent English; few do.

5. Beware the airline weight limit. You can only bring back 20Kg plus your hand baggage, and it is all too easy to exceed this limit with a modest shopping spree. The airlines don't usually weigh the hand baggage, but take my word for it that lugging 25+Kg of bags across Tokyo is no joke. Travel light, or give the excess away to avoid paying punitive excess baggage charges (about £50 a kilo!)

6. Do NOT buy Japanese graphics software as it doesn't work on non-Japanese PCs.

Manga

Buying manga is much simpler, as the popular reprint titles can be found in bookshops anywhere. There are also specialist shops like Manga no Mori in Shinjuku. Manga is also very cheap, cheaper than comics in Britain or America. (Remember also that some Japanese manga can be bought in Japan shops in London.) Again, recognising what you're looking for can be a problem.

If you get the chance, spend half a day at a Japanese SF convention or comics fair, where you will be able to get dojinshi (manga fan magazines often produced to an amazingly high standard) or even fan anime. Both are unobtainable in the UK.

Conclusion

To the laserdisc collector, Tokyo anime shops are LD heaven. Your only worry will be how to get that URUSEI YATSURA boxed set home and how much the customs duty will be. If you have a NTSC VCR, you won't have so much choice but should be able to find some tapes worth buying. Best buys however are manga reprint volumes from about £2.50 each. You should be able to find a tie-in to your favourite anime, or discover some superb art.