I was in anime and manga heaven yesterday. I went to the city to check out a shop called 'Empire Toys'
What happened was my sister's friend borrowed 'Girl Got Game' Volume 2 from her friend, and she said that her friend's sister bought it from a shop called Empire Toys.
So I decided to check out 'Empire Toys'. I have heard of 'Empire Toys' before, they had an advertisement in the newspaper where they were selling figurines of Evangelion characters. I didn't feel like going because I was told that the shop was located on Hay Street in the city, and Hay Street is a very long street with hundreds of shops. But I looked it up on the Internet (www.empiretoys.com.au) and it said that the shop was located near the 'His Majesty's Theatre' car park, so I decided to go because I know exactly where that is (my dad used to work at the 'His Majesty's Theatre' Cafe.
What really put me off was the number of people smoking cigarettes, I hate cigarette smoke, and I had to hold my breath for a long time while walking towards 'Empire Toys'.
I finally arrived, and WOW, it was huge! It had just about every title pf anime and manga from Viz and Tokyopop. They also had anime soundtracks (they also have Star Wars and The Matrix goodies). I spent an hour there trying to decide what to buy. I don't have alot of money to spend so I had to pick just one. I was thinking of buying the 'Inuyasha Action Pack' which consists of 2 books and a DVD, but I didn't want to spend more than $30.
After browsing, I decided to buy the Inuyasha Movie 3 soundtrack for $18.95. I will definately be back to buy more. However, the prices at 'Empire Toys' is higher than 'Electronics Boutique' and 'JB Hi Fi'. The cheapest place to buy anime is 'Big W' but their range of titles is very small.
'Empire Toys' is anime and manga heaven!