OzAnime Continental

Brought to you by Misao

Welcome to NSW Shopping Tips page. Here, I'll do my best to find you good places in NSW to shop for your anime. Bare in mind that most shops will probably be in Sydney, or around Sydney because I don't have much experience in shops anywhere else! If you happen to know of other places in NSW that sell Anime Merchandise, please feel free to contact me!

Let's get down to business. Most of the shops here will deal with licensed anime videos or manga. Some will have merchandise, but be warned, the merchandise will most probably NOT be direct from Japan... if you get my drift.

This shop has relocated to to the Gallery Level of the Imperial Arcade (which runs between the Pitt St Mall and Castlereagh St).

The owner is Michael Heins, and he deals with licensed anime videos, anime soundtracks, the occasional cel (anime or cartoon), anime artbooks and posters. Also note that he stocks stuff on the Simpsons and other comic books too, but I'm talking about anime here.

Price? It's "up there". The reason being is that most of the stuff is ordered from Japan or America, hence you get guarantee that the products that you buy are the ones you would get in Japan, hence the very HIGH prices. However, artbooks are quiet affordable. He also has a webpage, which is updated often, so check it out by clicking "Cartoon Gallery" at the top.

This shop is located on the first floor in Market City. It contains anime magazines, cd's, figurines, t-shirts, wallscrolls, the list is endless. They don't stock videos. Price is affordable, but, if you read my comments earlier, you're not paying for an "authentic" Japanese product. If you're not an anime purist, go here.

Also located on the same floor as Azone, Game Infinity offers you the chance to buy anime dvd's, vcd's, anime models, and a few magazines. They also offer video games (not anime ones though) and you also have the opportunity to hire out some of the dvds/vcds. The price is affordable, so check it out.

The owner's of Azone also own this store. There is much more models and magazines to offer here, as well as posters. It's located across from Market Street, on George Street. You hafta go inside the building (kinda like Sussex in China Town).

This shop is next door to Modellers World, and sells a while range of anime dvds and vcds for really cheap prices. (with student discounts!) All of it is either in Japanese with chinese subs, or dubbed in Chinese. (minor setback...). I really like the shop because its small and the people are really nice and helpful. So go stock up on anime... ;)

This is THE bookstore if you are after manga in Japanese. They have older manga there, however, they can order recent manga direct from Japan which will take a few weeks. The manga's are around $10. If you want to order the manga, make sure you can find the ISBN and Publisher of the manga as it's quite hard to order it by the name.

Another bookstore where you can get manga, and it's recent manga as well. You also get recent Japanese magazines which come out around 2-4days after the release in Japan, which is very quick. It's also a place where you can get magazine subscriptions.

If memory serves me correctly, this place is outside Fox Studios. They get all the manga that Viz, Dark Horse, etc. have brought out. There's also a couple of anime magazines too.

This place is my source of English subbed and dubbed vcds and dvds, but they also stock a whole lot of j-pop and other anime/gaming music cds. I loooove this shop because the people fully recognise me everytime I go there... (muahaha) and their prices are quite reasonable. (i.e. they're not out to make a killing) They have, really really cheap individual vcds such as Dragon Ball Z and totoro, although they are in Japanese, as I said, who cares? As well as more expensive boxed sets such as Sakura Wars, CardCaptor Sakura, etc, either subtitled in chinese, or english. They have a huge selection. :)

Near the large Grace Brothers store, in the city. I think it's near Centrepoint.

This may be surprising but Dymocks has quite a large section for anime videos (VHS) and a few dvds. The Anime section can be seen when you go down-stairs (it's on your left). Their prices are pretty reasonable and you won't find any Japanese (NTSC) titles here as well as any stuff that's fansubbed or 'not-real' ie. pirated. I accidentally stumbled upon this hidden source when I was buying my little brother a birthday present. They even offer a complimentary gift-wrapping service. Suuugoi!

This American book store is relatively new to Macquarie and is situated in the loft area of the shopping centre. I noticed, when it was brand new that they had a book shelf with a sign saying graphic novels (I became very excited). This is because you can't GET graphic novels in Australia unless they're imported from America, and next to bilingual manga, its the next best thing. ;). A few weeks later, they had a shelf full of graphic novel manga like Video Girl Ai, NGE, Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yasha. How exciting! The Cons: - Because manga is unpopular in Australia, they tend to get a little dog-eared from being read by the otaku's who discover it. After all borders is like a library is it not? - Expect to pay around $30 per book. Ouch.

I discovered this shop when I was wandering aimlessly around the city waiting for friends. It closes early on weekends (which sucks) so your best bet would be going on a Saturday DAY or in the afternoon on a week day. They stock a large range of imported manga as well as graphic novels. A real find! They have those hard-to-find titles such as the old-ish series. Their prices are pretty good. This shop also sells American comic stuff like the simpsons and marvel comics and all that (bleah).

In the last year or two, Target has made a habit of stocking most R4 anime releases. I've seen this in stores as far apart as Port Macquarie (NSW North Coast) and Burwood (Sydney mid/inner west). Grace Bros in the city also has a reasonable selection (all the Madman releases were there last time I looked). Both Target and Grace Bros Sydney also have a reasonable selection of VHS releases.

Unfortunately, this is the only place in Wollongong that offers a scrap of anime. They offer comics (translated) of popular anime like Sailormoon, Evangelion and Tenchi. Comics range from $5 and up, and they also sell some licensed anime videos, posters and t-shirts. The store is located on Crown Street.

I dunno what to call these. Did I say Phantom Zone was the only place that offered anime? Well, I was wrong :). If you go in the Mall, you'll find little trailers full of stuff here and there. These have anime merchandise, but it's pirated. ^^;;;;; I think most of this stuff comes from Korea or something and also, they sell T-shirts of Digimon, Pokemon, Sailormoon and DBZ.

This store sells some anime videos, normally the latest release ones, a lot of comics and books (manga comics, miscellaneous books (ie. Doom series, Resident evil, RPG books, etc)), collector's cards and some models. It doesn't stock VCDs or CDs, but it's the best place to go for harder-to-get anime.