Anime Stores, Rentals and Theaters?

ajaygautam asks: "For the past few months (on and off), I have been trying to locate Anime stores, rentals and theaters in and around Central New Jersey, but have not been able to find much. Only Blockbuster, which carries a very limited selection. I was wondering if there is a list of such things on the Internet somewhere. I propose that we create this 'Ask Slashdot' a comprehensive list of Anime stores, rental locations and theaters that do show Anime movies."

Comments

Nashville, TN - Belcourt Theatre

[Medieval]

Down the street from Vanderbilt Uni on Belcourt Avenue.. Besides doing art-film movies and Rocky Horror on Fridays, they also show Anime (Metropolis being their latest..)

Well can you get more general?

[Microlith]

Many anime shops are very localized, the only big one I can name is AnimeNation, and they're at www.animenation.com

Most others are tiny and usually exclusive to a city. The majority of anime/manga is distributed retail, through Suncoast/MediaPlay/Best Buy (same Conglom-o), and small comics shops/book stores (by means of Diamond Comics.

Or imports. R2s cost a shitload though, and include no subtitles or english dub (for the illiterate ;P)

As for theaters that actually SHOW anime, look to any LARGE city. Los Angeles, Dallas, New York, many large West and East coast cities will get Anime prints (primarily because prints cost a LOT and the US companies that do this are SMALL).

Rental:

netflix.com does dvd rental in general, including a lot of anime. Many blockbuster stores/other rental chains are starting to carry a lot of anime, or just ask your local anime geek. I myself have over 130 discs and do more loaning than any of the local stores (and I have been tempted to charge).

As an aside:

DOWNLOADING LICENSED ANIME ONLY HURTS THOSE WHO ARE ON YOUR SIDE.

Companies like A.D. Vision (biggest North American animation distributor second only to Disney) and Bandai Entertainmet are full of sane geeks like us who despise legislation like CARP, the DMCA, and the various Hollings crapscrolls, and avoid using any content control methods whenever possible. SUPPORT THEM.

Rent your anime online

[User 956]

Why not just rent your anime ovre the internet? DVDOvernight and Netflix both have a wide selection of anime titles, and with netflix, you can even get a free trial. You rent up to three movies at a time, they mail them to you, and you keep them as long as you want, and when you're finished, you mail them back in a pre-paid envelope they provide. Now you can watch something other than Buffy the Vampire Slayer reruns while sitting alone by yourself in your parents' basement.

Hentai

[Chasing Amy]

Well, I think it's clear that "Hentai" is a subgenre of "Anime," though some really snooty anime fans wouldn't admit it. I think it's especially true given the "acceptability" of Hentai anime in its home country, where jokes about it are sometimes found in less explicit anime, where less explicit anime is still often more explicit than U.S. custom would dictate, and where sexuality itself is viewed in a better light.

While I don't watch Hentai anime, I have to admit being a fan of the quality games in the Hentai subgenre as well. Most Hentai games are thin excuses for looking at dirty manga/anime, but several of them are worthy RPGs or interactive fiction in themselves, like *Divi Dead*, *Eve Burst Error* (sexually explicit scenes were cut for non-Japanese versions), *True Love*, *Season of the Sakura*, *3 Sisters' Story*, etc.

I just wish more of the Japanese greats in the Hentai game category would be translated into English, since unlike with anime you can't really keep up with what's going on, or even play the game passably, unless you can read the dialogue. Most of the Hentai games translated into English have been the low-quality ones, with a few exceptions like the ones I listed above. But unfortunately the market for such games in English is relatively small, meaning the greats in Japan would often be too expensive to license for American transklation and sales.

At any rate, any anime fans interested in the good Hentai video games out there could take a look at these links:

Reviews:

http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Divi+ De ad

http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=2218

http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=True+ Lo ve

Sales:

http://www.jastusa.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv

http://www.peachprincess.com/Merchant2/pp.mv

http://shop.himeya.com/products/adult_win_us/adu lt _win_us.html