As those of you who are members of our Discord or perhaps in other shared communities may have heard, I visited Tokyo in Japan. While I certainly checked out a lot of the cultural sites, I also spent far too much time and money picking up anime figures and visual novels. In some ways, this felt like a trip to buy visual novels more than anything else.
After researching a ton, along with wandering around myself, I put together some information. If you’re looking to buy visual novels in and around Tokyo, Japan, this article should work as a helpful guide. The same places all sell anime figures too. I’ve provided Google map links to help guide you right to where you’re going, along with any tips where needed, so it’d be a good idea to bookmark this article for your trip.
If you want to grab some of these without visiting, you can also use ZenMarket, who have kindly sponsored this article. They’re an import service that focuses on helping to order items from Japan, consolidating packages to keep the delivery costs down, and sending items worldwide. We’ve given an overview of our experience with their service and how to use it in a previous article.
Tax-Free Purchases
As a brief note before starting, many of the stores below allow people visiting Japan to make tax-free purchases on any purchase over 5000 yen (not including tax). This reduces the cost by 10%. So to give an example, a cost of 5500 yen (including tax) becomes 5000 yen.
Different stores do this differently, with some just scanning your passport at the register and others needing you to pay the full price and then claim it back from a different register.
Look out for signs indicating this. Not every store offers it, but it can be worth it if you’re spending a lot. This guide doesn’t cover the legalities or exact details of this, so please look into the requirements and keep your receipts if you do this.
Almost New Anime Goods
The vast majority of items I found where you can buy visual novels were from shops dealing in used goods. That said, they were generally in very good condition and any issues were listed on labels. If you can’t read the labels, Google Translate can more or less translate them usually. They’re typically fairly clear, along the lines of ‘Box Condition A/B/C, Disc Condition A/B/C’ and any handwritten comments like ‘missing manual’. Anime figures were frequently used also, but more shops did sell newer ones.
Some shops did deal with what were essentially ‘bargain bin’ items, often at very low prices. Even then, all the ones I picked up in this condition seemed great, except for sometimes missing manuals and extras along those lines.
In terms of cost, ‘bargain bin’ visual novels cost between 500 to 1000 yen, but despite the somewhat unflattering term, some of these were pretty good (if older) titles. I found that the cost of an average title was closer to 1000 – 2500, with some jumping up to 2500 – 4500. A handful were notably more expensive, even exceeding the original cost. So while you may find the original boxed Shin Koihime Musou at 500 yen in good condition, that first edition copy of Kanon is likely to be more than 20x that cost.
I didn’t find that the average price varied too much between stores when it came to visual novels, but certain items did. To give an example, I bought Sengoku † Koihime ~Otome Kenran ☆ Sengoku Emaki~ for 2500 yen, but I saw it in multiple other stores for around 4000 yen. So it can be worth shopping around.
Buying New
Most stores I looked at had very little in the way of new copies of visual novels, excluding the very latest releases. There was one exception, which I’d suggest as your first stop.
Sofmap AKIBA Amusement Hall, Akibahara
Sofmap is the biggest place I found to buy visual novels in Tokyo. They take up an entire two floors, 4F for new ones and 5F for used. A few console ones are mixed in on 3F too.
Just due to sheer size, Sofmap has the widest variety of titles. As always though, assuming you’re looking at used titles, whatever is in stock will vary wildly and even visiting a few days later will introduce some new titles. You can spend at least an hour just wandering the shelves here.
Sofmap had comparatively few cheap deals compared to some of the other stores, but there were a few sub-1000 yen titles here. I managed to pick up the original Da Capo at 980 yen as one example.
Trader Headquarters, Akibahara
Trader Headquarters (not to be confused with other Trader branches) has nearly an entire floor dedicated to PC visual novels on 6F. The selection was quite good ranging from very recent titles to classics like the original ONE and ToHeart.
There’s a small discount section with visual novels for around 500 yen each. None of the titles were any that I’d heard of. That said, while prices were more or less the same overall, Trader Headquarters is perhaps slightly better on average than some of the others.
Other floors had some interesting stuff too. 2F had Sister Princess and Sakura Wars for the Dreamcast, while 5F had a lot of bishoujo figures.
Trader 2, Akibahara
Trader 2 had a relatively big collection too, including a cheap discount corner. These can be found on 2F. Figures and other games are found on 1F. Essentially it’s just a scaled-down version of Trader Headquarters, but worth a browse.
Surugaya Speciality Store, Akibahara
Surugaya Speciality Store can be a little misleading if you read the signs. If you proceed to where it says to find these types of games on the 5F, you’ll find very few of them and mostly just versions in cases. Instead, you need to proceed up to 7F where you’ll find a couple of bookshelves full of boxed versions.
It doesn’t have a great selection, so I’d only check it out if you’ve got time.
Mandrake, Akibahara
Mandrake has branches in quite a few places around Japan. The one in Akibahara has about 5 bookcases full of visual novels on 5F. You can also find console games on 6F, which includes some console visual novels. I didn’t find many great deals here, but it is where I came across my much cheaper copy of Sengoku † Koihime ~Otome Kenran ☆ Sengoku Emaki~.
Lashinbang, Akibahara
This branch of Lashinbang had 4 bookcases full of boxed visual novels, along with a handful of unboxed ones. These are on 2F.
One thing that did stand out for this branch was that it had a handful of visual novel figures. Most stores had plenty of figures, but they were almost entirely for popular anime or at best visual novels that also had an anime adaptation. This one actually had a few figures and other goods for Yuzusoft titles like Dracu-Riot!
Hard Off, Akibahara (and Elsewhere)
I was given a tip to check out Hard Off for visual novels. At least from the ones I looked at, I didn’t have much luck. There are two branches in Akibahara and I didn’t find any visual novels in either or most others I looked at around the city. I did find a couple of titles in the one in Ueno and in fairness they were AIR and Pia Carrot, both ones worth picking up.
You might get lucky, but I’d not hold out much hope for Hard Off.
Before We Leave Akibahara
The following are worth checking out for other things, but not for buying visual novels themselves. BookOff, MelonBooks, and Liberty 5 all have anime-related goods. K-Books (in Radio Kaikan) had a handful of console visual novels too and a good selection of merchandise. The Yuzusoft store has visual novel merchandise for that developer but doesn’t open until 4 PM.
While you’re in Akibahara, you might also want to see if any collab cafes of interest are going on at Stellamap Cafe. When I was there, they were running an event for titles by Palette like Mashiroiro Symphony HD -Love is Pure White-. There’s also a monthly free event at the Akihabara Hirose Musen Headquarters called Charara where developers come and show off upcoming titles, which is interesting as long as you can follow along in Japanese.
Nakano Broadway, Nakano
Nakano Broadway may be slightly out of your way, but it’s worth exploring. It’s a rather large complex. It’s worth noting that it doesn’t open until 10 AM and many of the stores inside don’t open until 12 PM.
Most of the stores inside Nakano Broadway are branches of Mandrake. They separate into different branches here, like Mandrake Galaxy which specializes in console games and Mandrake Special 4 which specializes in anime figures.
I spent about four hours looking around the various stores and I still probably didn’t see everything. It feels a little like a maze at times. If you ask a staff member, they’ll have a map they can give you. For visual novels, you’ll need to go to Mandrake Deep on 2F. It’s opposite a cosplay store.
There isn’t a huge selection with only one aisle of visual novels, but I did find a good variety there and some cheap ones. The sheer volume of other anime-related items in the building makes it worth the trip though, especially if you like figures. There are also some nice restaurants in the area and some obscure older goods.
The easiest way to enter this is by going out of the exit from Nakano station which has you go over a crossing, and then through an inside area with a row of shops. There’s another entrance but if you’re coming from Nakano Station, then taking the exit that leads there is a much longer route.
Lashinbang, Yokohama
Yokohama is perhaps a little out of the way for some, but it’s often recommended as a tourist destination to those visiting Tokyo. It has a different feel to the main city too.
This branch of Lashinbang isn’t worth going out of your way for if visual novels are your purpose, but it is near the train station if you’re going there anyway. It had a very small selection, though some particularly good deals. That said, it had a very wide variety of anime figures and they were generally cheaper than any other place I’d found, including the other branches of Lashinbang that I visited.
I’ve seen this referred to as a hidden gem and I can see why. It’s slightly hidden away, being up a set of stairs next to a store full of gacha machines.
Can’t Find What You Want
Between limited stock and the availability of used items, it is somewhat down to luck whether you can find what you’re looking for. I personally checked out all of these places and still couldn’t find a copy of Da Capo Plus Communication, Kimi Ga Nozumu Eien ~Latest Edition~, or Kanon for the Nintendo Switch.
If this happens, then it’s probably best just to try online. If you’re not in Japan, then using a service like ZenMarket is likely to help. That’s how I got some more obscure stuff like Time Paladin Sakura. I ordered a new copy of Kanon for Nintendo Switch via ZenMarket when I got back too. If you’re visiting the country, then you could see if you can buy online and if your hotel will accept packages for you, though timing might be tricky.
Thanks again go to ZenMarket for sponsoring this article. If you’d like to purchase the physical visual novels, please consider checking out their service and don’t forget to use code NOOKGAMING when signing up for 800 Yen worth of ZenPoints toward delivery.
If you are looking for another visual novel, you may enjoy Da Capo or Angelic☆Chaos RE-BOOT! We have also covered a wide variety of visual novels both original to English and localized from Japanese, which you can check out here.
A gamer since the days of Amstrad and DOS and someone who has dabbled in a variety of professions. He enjoys a wide variety of genres, but has been focusing on visual novels and virtual reality in recent years. Head Editor of NookGaming. Follow him and the website on @NookSite.
