Otaku Unite

Place: Kinokuniya

My Rate: 10/10

Location: 1073 6th Ave, New York, NY 10018 (near 42nd street)

I always try to avoid 42nd street, as a New Yorker and as a person who simply wants to avoid tourists. Common sense. Nevertheless, going to Barnes and Noble almost everyday was great except I needed more. More manga, more figurines, more plushies, and Barnes and Noble just didn’t have it all. I knew of other places, too, that I could buy pretty good manga, but none were big enough. That is when I went out of my way and discovered Kinokuniya!

My first thoughts were, “Am I in heaven?”

There was a lot of manga and books in Japanese, it wasn’t till my third or fourth visit to Kinokuniya when I realized they had Rilakkuma plushies, stationary products, and Japanese magazines in their basement! Kinokuniya has a large selection of English and Japanese manga, books that are usually related to Japanese culture and language, and plushies. Here is some of the Japanese manga that really stood out to me at Kinokuniya:

Unfortunately not all the volumes of Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul:RE have been released in English, but I was still fangirling inside just by looking at the covers of the manga! These manga where found on the second floor of Kinokuniya. In the back of the second floor of Kinokuniya, there are Jpop CDs, anime DVDs, and towards the stairs to go down there are anime posters, keychains, and there’s also a shelf where they sell figurines such as Hatsune Miku!

Yes, 42nd street may have more tourists than other locations in Manhattan, it’s totally worth going through crowds of tourists to go to Kinokuniya! Besides, living in a huge city like New York it’s pretty inevitable to come across tourists so why let it stop anyone from going to the places they love? I totally recommend that all otaku visit Kinokuniya! Jaa ne!