Sakura Media

They used to have good staff. The Christmas sale is a rip off if you buy the art books without checking the Amazon website. I walked out of the store buying two items and just wanted to exchange one item for another. Staff would not do the exchange moments after the transaction. I guess they don’t want to keep customers.

Just for some context: I’m a really big animé/​manga fan and a pretty serious figure collector.
Sakura Media is a great place to get licensed manga and animé. They have a lot of titles and series that you won’t find any many mainstream/​corporate stores and it’s nice to be able to buy those things from a local seller rather than amazon for a change! Their pricing is pretty typical on those items.
Their figures selection, however, I find to be lacklustre and over priced. They mostly carry gunpla (not something I have a lot of knowledge or experience with) and cheesecake-​y figures of animé ladies from B list series. Who ever is in charge of ordering over there is either has terrible taste or is a bit of a creep — maybe both. Also their prices as twice wise inflated — you’re paying for the cost of importing the figure as well as increasing profit margin.
If your looking for less pervy figures or figures from popular titles, you’re better off just ordering online from websites like amiami — you’re more likely to find what you’re looking for and it’ll be cheaper.
Their other merchandise is lacking as well — lame t-​shirts, stuffed toys and nick-​nacks that are overprices and low quality.
All and all, I’d recommend shopping here for manga and animé only anything else you can find online for a better quality and a better price.

They used to have several other locations but this seems to be the last standing one. The staff are rather dead and boring and not particularly friendly or helpful when you enter the store. They have a good selection of animé dvd’s but really over-​priced for my liking when HMV just around the corner has the same titles for way less. Not sure how this store stays open for business. A lot of their products ie. figurines are expensive so one would have to be a die-​hard fan to purchase them for a collection. Nice to look and browse at but would have second thoughts about buying the items.

I came here before and got better experiences, now these days i come here the guy is always on the computer, not doing that much when I asked for animé related to Shonen Jump the guy would say no and just go back to his computer like «Oh well go somewhere else.» At least Golden Age Collectables is better, however The employee that works there with the piercings is the helpful one here, i rather come here when i See him. :)

It had been over a year when I walked in again to thankfully see an updated selection. It seems that their store is still being kept a float by selling Magic, Vanguard, and various other tcg’s.
However, thankfully as a manga and animé store their animé related selection has vastly improve since last time. For the record, their manga section is still pitiful carrying little to no Sig Ikki titles, and the art books as lovely as they are, are cheaper at Oscars, other comic book stores or online. They have more figures now, some plushies, tee shirts, and mechs.
Yet, the biggest reason for the large 2 – 4 star jump for me was their animé section. Wow, not only do they have current titles but they have older classic ones.
Some of the titles I saw browsing
–Princess Knight
–Samurai Pizza Cats
–Garden of Words
–Rose of Versailles
and more.
Sadly, their selection though improved is still expensive so as much as I want Rose of Versailles, or Pizza Cats it’s hard to justify spending so much.
3.5 stars Sakura Media. In the meantime can someone buy me Samurai Pizza Cats?

An interesting store to check out (metrotown location)
However as an animé store, I was expecting to find more of a variety and selection of merchandise such as clothing, collectable figures, key chains, etc…
The most of the gundam kits cost about $ 5 – 10 more compared to some other stores that sell them near by. What is nice is that they sell more of a variety of the gundam paint pens singly.
As for the manga titles, most of them I don’t really recognize but they do carry some of the more popular titles like Naruto, Death Note, One Piece, etc…
The staff there are usually nice and friendly.
There is a set of tables in the back which I believe are for people who want to play trading card games.

I’m not particularly into animé except for the occasional Dragon Ball Z, Yu Gi Oh, Detective Conan, Shin Chan, and a few other things that originated OR is popular in Japan, but whenever I’m in the neighborhood and was in the mood, I might check this place out.
Their employees are usually pretty friendly whenever I go there, and I enjoy checking out what kind of stuffs they have and look through their Yugioh cards on occasions.
The only bad thing about this place is that their prices are kind of expensive, which basically makes me not want to buy anything from them.
Besides, with all the available ways to watch shows online or has the capability to download them, I generally don’t need to pay for the higher prices just to watch it on TV when I could just do it myself.

It was a cool store when it opened, but I am officially done going to Sakura Media to look at stuff after a regular named ERNEST TSUI (he told me his first and last name) kept getting in my way and blames me for blocking his path and then he proceeds to verbally abuse me with racial slurs and death threats as well as threatening to fight me «choreography style».
I have no idea why this guy is not banned from the store or the mall yet. I will come back if he is banned because he is the sole reason why I stopped going there.

A cute store, I remember Sakura when it used to have Japanese language manga. However, it’s really become an English language store and also has Magic: The Gathering games.
What I think is absolutely strange is what manga they do sell. I knew Japan had some odd kinks, but how many versions of High School random romance involving supernatural beings can you need?!? I think that made up one third of the selection!
Another third of the selection was stuff sealed strongly in plastic, which my friend said meant that usually in Japan, that stuff was reallllllly skeevy. Think M++ rating content, or potentially criminal in other countries. Apparently the one I found had images of humans half-​into the process of becoming zombie creatures with a graphic image of one eating a dog. Cute.
On the other hand, I found a picture book of Arietty that I bought for said friend’s newborn daughter here. How can I really decry this store? It just caters to the masses, is all.
Neat store, but… I think I’m going to hold off of the Japanese Twilight permutations. I suspect they’d make me find new appreciation in Stephanie Meyer’s run-​on sentences.

Best selection of animé hands down. Very impressed and I love the DVD’s. I have been into animé lately. What I am into which I didn’t find with good cause of course is Henti. Now if they had this and the regular stuff… it would get 5 stars.

Sakura Media is probably considered THE place to go for animé and manga in the Vancouver area. They have plenty of authentic DVDs and manga in stock, as well as posters, shirts, plushies and Gundam models. They’re a bit inconsistent in getting the newest stock, but they’re willing to order what you want, though it may take a few weeks for what you want to come in.
Just skip the CD section — its old stuff from Sakura Media’s shadier times in Crystal Mall and on Broadway — back when it was far too expensive to get legit Japanese stuff in.
The store also embraces geek culture by providing an area to play TCGs Pokemon, Yu-​Gi-​Oh and Magic, and the friendly staff are totally willing to play with you. Sometimes they hold cosplay and other events for the local animé community.

This is the place where ALL the ANIME GEEKS start. With one manga, and 1 DVD series.
This is dubbed the Animé of ALL Animé Stores in Vancouver. I can say that this place has created their own reputation within the scene of Geeks of Vancouver. Bad, or Good, it is still alive and still running.
The negativity about Sakura Media is that they barely have any of the books that are good. Most of the books that are out, they have them either late, or either they don’t have it. It is a disappointment to me and the geeks out there.
The other main thing I dislike and actually HATE about this store is the fake CDs, that they carry. No one will buy the CDs, just take them out of the store as they are fake and not authentic. I am sorry, it is just true. This store has created a brand of Authenticity, especially if you are dealing with the world of geeks. If a store of geeks is to hear that they are fake it is a disgrace.
I love this store as their products are mostly real and that they have a good customer service as their staff is happy and fun, but they don’t take chances, especially if they have a geek based store.