Goal: I'd like to put together a thread which will help those who want to support the anime industry by spending some of their hard-earned money on it. I certainly remember that in the last Animesuki, there were a considerable number of questions relating to where people should go to buy their anime/manga/OSTs. Hopefully this thread will be somewhere that they can go to for some advice. So, I'd like to ask the forum members for their help in suggesting good places to go (not just online, but physical stores too, if you can think of any). I don't want to limit the advice to anyone because of their geographical location, so don't limit your suggestions to American retailers. Preferably I'd like to hear your submissions over
PM, so that they can be checked over before posting, but please feel welcome to post in this thread when it comes to constructive criticism. That should save the moderators some work when it comes to deleting bad site links. I'll try to edit this post regularly with any ideas you give.
Conditions: No Spam.
No Bootlegs. No Silliness.
How to spot bootlegs:- Offering unlicensed anime on DVD or VCD with English subtitles. (The occasional Japanese release does have English subtitles)
- English and Chinese subtitles available.
- Large number of episodes per disc. (6 is rare on an offical release, 7+ is highly dubious)
- Suspiciously low price. (This one is a lot harder to spot)
(NOTE: These are general guidelines. In some rare cases official releases may fit some of these criteria, or some bootlegs may not fit any of them. Please be careful)
For information regarding how to identify an official Region 2 Japanese Disc, see these posts by
kj1980 or
AvatarADV.
DVDs
International
http://www.dvdpacific.com (Deals in $(USD), but prices can be displayed in many other currencies)
http://www.yesasia.com (Not just anime, not just Japan)
Europe
http://www.archonia.com (Based in Belgium)
America
http://www.rightstuf.com/
http://www.animenation.com/ (Also see the The Official Special Offers Thread)
http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com (Might be suitable for international orders)
http://www.animeonestop.com (Anime section of http://www.digitaleyes.net)
http://www.animecornerstore.com
United Kingdom
http://www.play.com (For Region 1 DVDs visit http://www.playusa.com)
http://www.up1.co.uk (AKA United Publications)
Sweden
http://www.webhallen.com
Finland
http://www.filmifriikki.fi
Manga
See
ElvenPath's
Where to buy Manga thread.
Music
See
ElvenPath's
Where to buy japanese/anime music thread.
Merchandise
America
http://www.animenation.com
http://www.animecornerstore.com
Europe
http://www.archonia.com (Based in Belgium)
United Kingdom
http://www.natsukianime.co.uk