Ikebukuro

Hmm, some anime goods, some manga, even some LDs. These Ikebukuro surely has. Yet what is it about Ikebukuro that keeps us coming back for more? Surely, it must be the porn. You can just feel it emanating, pulsing from the stores. You step inside, and with trembling hand, reach out to touch...

From the JR Ikebukuro Station

1. After getting off the train, take the Metropolitan Exit (there will be signs in English).
2. Once you exit the ticket gate, head straight and take the stairs down to the street.
3. At the street level, head left and down until you come to a pedestrian underpass on the left.
4. Take the pedestrian underpass, and keep going straight until you come to an intersection. Sanity check: to your left you should see a McDonald's, and across the street should be a bookstore called Junkudo.
5. Cross over to Junkudo and head left down the street.
6. Continue until you come to a big intersection (along the way you'll cross a little intersection, so emphasis on big). Sanity check: across the street is a Cafe Spazio and a Lotteria to the left of it.
7. Cross over to the cafe and go down the street between it and Lotteria.

To Animate/Books Lashinban/K-Books

1. Head down this pedestrian street until you come to the end. Sanity check: Tokyu Hands department store should be on your right hand side.
2. There will be a vehicular overpass (there's a better name for this thing, but I can't think of it right now) running in front of you. Cross under it to the other side of the street.
3. Once on the other side, head right and go down to the next intersection.
4. At the intersection, turn left and head down the street (or you could just cut across the bike lot before the intersection).

Animate Goddammit, I earned a smackdown. As we should all known by now, Cheap Bastard thinks Animate sells over-priced crap. Sadly, this time around he found a desired CD single which he had to this point not found anywhere else. For people who have been in this situation, you understand why he had to buy it. They still sell over-priced shit, though! Anyhow, Animate moved from their ricky-dink building last year to a nice, new, six or seven-story building. Since Ikebukuro is supposedly the site of the original Animate, it's not too surprising. They also kicked K-Books manga section down the street in the process. Basically, what we have is a bigger Animate selling the same shit, just more of it. One thing we can appreciate about this Animate however, is that they have a Western-style toilet. True, it is a cramped Western-style toilet, but as snobby Americans will quickly understand, a cramped-ass Western-style toilet is much, much, more desirable than a Japanese toilet.
Books Lashinban The space formerly occupied by Animate has been taken over by Books Lashinban. On the ground floor Lashinban sells used manga and new anime goods. The second floor carries new and used DVDs and CDs, and also telephone cards. The third floor carries new and used hentai manga and doujinshi. See, you just gotta understand, this shit is like water and oxygen. You need it in order to live, which is why any decent store carries some amount of porn. Whether it comes in video or paper form, it will be there! Porn, porn, porn, porn, porn! Funny enough, the back stairs (through which you get to the third floor) were blocked so you couldn't go straight down to the street. Even funnier is that you have to walk through security sensors going from one floor to another within the store (those things you walk through that resemble stunted metal detectors). Funniest of all was that one poor customer accidently set them off on his way out, and those cashiers were on his ass. Okay, I guess that wasn't funny... it's not like I'm the one writing this fucking monologue. Wait a minute, actually I am. Oh well.
K-Books anime section The first floor carries a small assortment of goods and posters, and a large assortment of collector telephone cards. The prices on the goods are decent, however the prices on some of those phone cards are more obscene than any hentai manga I've ever read. Verge mentions that they had a 900 yen catalog of the telephone cards they sold. He figured shit like that would be free, while I'm trying to figure out how he remembers shit like that at all. The second floor carries carries mostly CDs and DVDs, along with some other miscellaneous shit like pre-recorded anime tapes. Most of it is used, but I think there's some new stuff mixed in as well. As far as I can remember, everything is discounted with the exception of some of the more popular, rare items like certain posters or cels.
K-Books manga section This damn section keeps moving in the last three years that I've visited Japan. The stairs up lead to the women's doujinshi section. Cheap Bastard almost went in there, but halfway up the stairs, he sensed that there were no men in that store, and he knew why. See, Cheap Bastard has developed this fine psychic shit that guides him through this ephemeral quest. Although, looking at the picture now, Cheap Bastard should've noticed the sign on the stairs saying "Ladies' doujinshi upstairs." Anyway, so he went back down the stairs, and saw another set of stairs underneath going down. Aha! Yes sir indeedy, you go downstairs to get to the regular manga and the pone. Everywhere we go Cheap Bastard tries to point out the fine hentai manga and doujinshi, as that's just added value. As for pricing, everything is discounted except the doujinshi (which can be hideously expensive). Just as a side note, good show K-Books for hooking women up with comic porn.

To Anime Fantasia/Manga No Mori

1. From K-Books/Animate head right, back towards the intersection.
2. Cross under the vehicular overpass back to the other side of the street.
3. Head left and immediately take the first side street right.

Anime Fantasia They've expanded, somewhat. The ground floor has new/used regular and hentai manga, plus a few art books. The second and third floor are rental anime videos, with a tiny section of videos and LDs for sale. The fourth floor carries a small section of men's doujinshi, and a larger section of women's doujinshi. I thought it was extremely cool how I walked up to the counter and paid for my doujinshi (with Street Fighter's Sakura experiencing a higher calling on the cover), and the lady cashier didn't even blink. If she thought Cheap Bastard was a filthy pervert, would she have folded up the receipt in a nice oragami manner before she handed it to me? I think not. Goddamit, that is a quality we need more of in our youth!

Manga No Mori I don't usually shop here because the stock is all at retail price. Still, they have a plethora of manga, magazines, some artbooks and some softcore hentai manga (the way to pornography begins with but a single step).

To Shinjuku Bookstore/Gamers

1. From Manga No Mori, head right down the street.
2. You'll quickly arrive at an intersection. Turn right and head down this street.

Shinjuku Bookstore They carry a small selection of regular manga, and a large selection of porn. Artbooks, magazines, doujinshi, manga, even live-action magazines and videos. Porn, porn, porn, porn, porn. Oh yeah, it's all retail price. Gamers The store is split up into two sections: on one side of the stairway is the video game section, and on the other side is the goods section. Some of the video games were discounted, others were retail. The prices on the goods were mostly retail pricing with some discounts here and there. Oh, what do I mean by goods? Um, CDs, trading cards, magazines, artbooks, manga, shirts, cosplay outfits, and a smattering of other junk. The Gamer mascot, DiGiCharat, was in full effect with a large range of merchandising.

To Comic Tora No Ana From Gamers, head right down the street. At the intersection, astute observers will note that we are back at the street where we began our joyous adventure. Head left, back towards the intersection with Cafe Veloce and Lotteria. Along the way, take the second sidestreet left. Comic Tora No Ana will be down the street on the left. Comic Tora No Ana Shit, we almost missed this store. You figure, how can we miss a big fucking store like that? Oh children, you try hunting for stores in a foreign land, and you will surely understand. Anyhow, this place is fairly impressive. The first floor carries magazines and what looked like novels. It wasn't porn, so I ignored it and went upstairs. The second floor carries regular manga for retail price. Better, but not good enough. Going up to the third floor, visitors will find new hentai manga, doujinshi and doujinshi soft. The shudder begins, but I know I can find an even better fix. The fourth floor: used hentai manga and doujinshi. Oh my God... like a fiend in a pharmacy. Why is it that we in our country have not developed this aspect of our culture? Military leaders would say this is a porno comic gap!

To Tachibana Bookstore From Comic Tora No Ana, head right back to the main thoroughway. Back on main street, continue our sojourn back to the intersection with Cafe Veloce and Lotteria. At that intersection, cross the street to Tsutaya Records. From Tsutaya Records, head right down the street. Take the first side street left. Tachibana Bookstore will be on the left (look for a set of stairs going down). Tachibana Bookstore They carry porn. At this point I want to say something witty, but nothing comes to mind. Anyhow, they have live-action magazines and videos, but who cares about that? What our freakish readers will be interested in knowing is that they also carry hentai manga, doujinshi and doujinshi soft for retail price.

To Aishin Multimedia Branch From Tachibana Bookstore, go back to the corner of Tsutaya Records (I assume you can manage that without my help). Look right around the corner of Tsutaya and down the street. Stare long and hard until you see JR Ikebukuro station. Good. Now, some of our readers out there will wonder: why the hell didn't he have us take that exit from the train? The answer: dunno, I just never went that way. Now, go down the street and enter the station. Once inside, go down the stairs and look for the west exit. That should keep you occupied for a little while. Hint: look for signs in English. When you finally get back out onto the street, you should see a McDonald's on the other side of the street. Cross the street over to the McDonald's and head right. Turn left at the first cross street. Take the first sidestreet right (this will require you crossing the street). Aishin Multimedia will be on your right. Aishin Multimedia Branch Take the stairs up. These fuckers have pretty much phased out their LD section, with the second floor being entirely anime and live-action DVDs. I don't buy import DVDs yet, but Verge does so he checked the prices and they were all retail. The third floor has adult anime DVDs, PC games, and a very small anime LD section. For the life of me I cannot remember what the prices were like. The fourth floor was live-action porn. Nothing to see there, son.

To Liberty From Aishin Multimedia, return to the west exit of the JR Ikebukuro station. First, orientate yourself with McDonald's in front of you (note that you are NOT on the the same side of the street as McDonald's, you are on the side with the station entrance!). Now, whereas last time you headed to the right to get to Aishin Multimedia, this time head left. Liberty will be in a building in front of you and to the right. Check the side of the building for a sign in katakana. Liberty is on the second floor. Liberty The second floor is mainly music CDs, although they do have some LD box sets. Inside the store is a set of stairs up. Upstairs they have new and used video games, CDs, LDs, and LD box sets. The selection's small, but the prices are usually right. Hell, they even had a 15% off sale on LD boxes when I was there. Whoo-hoo! By the way, you may notice these small purple plastic rods taped to the merchandise. Be careful not to accidently fuck with these rods, as that will cause them to emit a loud whine (i.e. they're anti-theft devices). This will point undue attention to you, forcing you to go into "belligerent American mode" to escape embarassment.

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