Links

Links to some of our favorite anime, manga, anime convention and Japanese culture related websites.

News

These are the sites we like to peruse to get our fix of anime, manga, and general Japan news.

• Anime News Network – The 800-pound gorilla of the anime news scene, and without a doubt the best place to get your fix of anime and manga news.  Lots of other interesting and fun featured columns, including the incredibly useful ANN Encyclopedia, a database of pretty much every anime OAV, TV series, movie, voice actor/actress, director, and other staff member in existence; and of course there’s the always-cute and funny Anime News Nina.
• Japanator – They bill themselves as “the site for all your Japan needs,” this site covers such diverse subjects as anime and manga, to Japanese TV, to other elements of Japanese culture, and is truly “your one-stop shop for all things Japan.”
• Sankaku Complex – A site that explores the relationship between anime, manga and games, as well as such media forms as eroge and the visual novel.  Note: you are likely to see some images of a more prurient nature when browsing to this site (in other words, they are most likely NSFW and thus not child-safe either).  You have been warned.

Blogs

Anime blogs that we enjoy reading.

• The California Conventions Blog, as its name implies, covers the goings-on at California’s various anime conventions. A dedicated team of bloggers brings you reports, photos and video from events all up and down the California coast.
• Otaku Experience – The personal blog of Ed Fonseca, who offers interesting insights into new anime (mostly fansubs). With lots of pretty pictures. (I know, lame description, but trust me, it’s a good site. It’s just been a long weekend, I’m operating on almost no sleep, and I don’t happen to have any Mental Power Ups handy…)
• An Eternal Thought in the Mind of Godzilla is otaku expat and host of Otakuverse Zero Patrick Macias’s personal blog, with his observations and insights on anime, Japanese pop culture, and more.
• Culture Japan is famous otaku expat, Culture Japan TV show host, and doll collector Danny Choo’s portal site of Doom.

Communities

Places for anime fans to congregate, share ideas, find like-minded individuals, and whatnot.

• Anime3000 is a portal to all things anime. Here you will find blog entries from sources far and wide, community forums, and an impressive directory of anime-related sites, blogs, podcasts, and more.

Places to Buy Stuff

In this age of cheap and ubiquitous Internet access, there are a ton of places to buy anime, manga and related goods online. Unfortunately there are also a lot of shysters and con men out there who, at best, try and sell you poorly-made bootleg goods or, at worst, take your money and run. But there are a lot of great sellers out there as well, and all the ones listed here are ones we’ve dealt with countless times in the past, and have nothing but good things to say about them.

(Full disclosure: we also have affiliate relationships with most of these sellers. This means that if you make any purchases through any links you find on our website, we’ll get a small “cut” of it. This costs you nothing extra and gets us a little income to help with website maintenance, bandwidth/hosting costs, podcasting/audio equipment, etc.)

• The Right Stuf – They may not have the world’s fastest shipping, but their selection and prices certainly can’t be beat.  Be sure and check out their many “deals” sections, including the Weekly Specials, Bargain Bin, and the infamous “Shawne’s Deal of the Day” for some awesome prices on anime goods.
• CDjapan – THE place to get your Japanese import CD’s, hands down.  Anime OST’s, Jpop, Jrock, they’ve got it all.  And fortunately for us gaijin, the site is in English!  Yay!!
• JList and JBox – Do you want cool Japanese toys, anime/manga tie-in merchandise, snacks, or other things?  Do you, like me, live in a crappy backwater town lacking anything even remotely resembling a Japanese/Asian shop of any kind?  Wish you had a friend in Japan who could buy this cool stuff for you, then ship it to you wherever you live?  Guess what, you do!  J-List has been doing exactly this for countless otaku since 1996.  Their collection of items is vast indeed – anime to artbooks, magazines to manga, lunchboxes to weird Japanese snacks, doujinshi to dating-sim games, and everything in between.  In particular, they specialize in those “weird” items that can only be found in Japan.  If they don’t have it in their San Diego, CA warehouse, then they’ll just get it to you from Japan itself.  Note: some of their items are decidedly “adult” in nature.  Definitely 18+ material here!  If you don’t mind, then JList is for you; if, on the other hand, you do not want to see any of the adult content/items, go to JBox.We are proud to announce that we are now a Friend of J-List! This means that you’ll see banners at various points throughout the sites featuring some of our favorite cool products that they offer for sale. Or you can use handy dandy search boxes (like the one below) to find anything your little heart desires. And, like Amazon, when you purchase a product, it doesn’t cost you anything extra and we get a portion of the proceeds, which goes towards helps us keeps the lights on and the bits flowing.
  
  J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you
• PowerAnime – PowerAnime used to be an excellent “brick and mortar” storefront in the Los Angeles area.  Sadly, the storefront is no more.  However, their website lives on!  They stock an amazingly wide variety of anime goods, from CD’s and DVD’s to gachapon and figures, and more.  Definitely worth your while to visit the site and give them some business – they’re good people. (Note: we do not have an affiliate relationship with PowerAnime. However, we have done business with them for a long time and know them to be good trustworthy folks, and heartily recommend them.)

Other Podcasts that We Like

If you absolutely positively must listen to other anime podcasts (besides the always-excellent Otaku no Podcast, of course 😉 ), may we suggest that you check out some of these?

• TJX: The Japan Xperience – where your intrepid hosts DJ City and DJ Gladiator talk about the Japanese music scene (Jpop/Jrock/etc.) as well as their travels through Japan.  Tons of useful tips on where to go, what to see, and how to do it, and their easy-to-listen-to banter is always entertaining and humorous.
• The Cartoon Geeks – a blog and podcast about cartoons, mostly coming from the American animation industry’s point of view, but occasionally delving into anime and manga, courtesy of guest appearances by yours truly.
• JapanesePod101 (website) (iTunes audio podcast link) (iTunes video podcast link)- OK, let’s face it, we all want to learn Japanese, right?  I mean, do you really trust the fansubbers or the dub companies to get it right?  😉  Seriously, though, wouldn’t it be fun to be able to watch unsubbed raws and amaze your other otaku friends with your mad leet linguistic skillz?  Or maybe you have friends in Japan whom you would like to communicate with more effectively?  Or what if you’re planning on visiting Japan (you lucky devil!) and want to at least try not to look like a clueless gaijin tourist?  Forget those language classes and Berlitz tapes – this is the iPod age!  And JapanesePod101 is there to help.  Consistently one of the highest-rated non-music podcasts, JapanesePod101 offers free daily lessons in podcast form and accompanying exercise sheets.  If you become a paid member (there’s the upsell) you get access to even more learning tools, a forum, various physical course materials, etc.

Internet Streaming Radio

A place where you can listen to your favorite anime and JPop/JRock tunes.  These are some of our favorites.  (Of course, remember that we do have one of our own too, although it’s rather lame in comparison to the ones below)

• ArmiTunes – Insert catchy description here.
• Japan-a-Radio – Insert catchy description here.
• Kawaii-Radio – Insert catchy description here.
• TJX Friday Night Radio Show – Our favorite podcasters have their very own Jpop/Jrock radio show as well, where they play the coolest tunes in that genre.  Broadcasts every Friday night from 6-9 PM Pacific time.
• Tokyo Tower WAWL – A weekly online J-Rock, J-Pop radio show broadcasting out of WAWL Chattanooga State, TN. Broadcasts every Wednesday night from 6-8 PM Pacific time.
• 91.8 The Fan – The first 24/7 live anime radio station featuring news, shows, and interviews