> >
> > Mr. Spillman
> > >I just went to Nikkaku Animart (you can link to them and
> > >Sasuga from the Anime Web Turnpike (http://www.anipike.com)
> > Ya know.  They do have a good online store, but it was
> > really weird.  Back when I was in Monterey, which is
> > south of San Jose for those of ya who don't know,
> > I went there a couple of times.  I was expecting a
> > good selection in store, but I was rather wrong.  I mean
> > they had an ok selection, as well as some Japanese stuff,
> > but it was only in a small corner of the store.  I was
> > rather dissapointed don'cha know.
> >
>
> Yeah, I had heard that the brick and mortar was rather small; They've
> been around for quite awhile (my first contact with them was in early
> 1991, when, after I had placed a freebie ad in Mangajin magazine
> (it appeared in I think issues 3-7), asking for any manga from
> Takahashi Rumiko for purchase (at the time, I had been
> exposed to the Viz UY reprints (first series), and references to
> Ranma in the first year of Viz-Ins, as well as the first 3 eps of Ranma
> in a Ranma Project fansub (and the Sundays, of course), and wanted to get
> more) I had gotten several letters of response, including a postcard
> suggesting
> I get hold of Nikaku Animart's catalog, with an address. Big 10+pager,
> including all the UY widebans, which at the time, sold for 8.95 a copy,
> and
> the Ranmas, which were selling for 4.95 a pop, and the older format MIs,
> 5.95 a pop. Still have all of them (very good shape, too, considering I
> still
> pull them out and re-read from time to time). But if one wants to get a
> good
> selection form them, the catalog would definitely be the way to go.
>
> As usual, this is The Relic, from the outer fringes of the Reality
> that is the Ranma ML....(and feeling a little older, having hit 39
> today (and gotten the appropriate greeting from my Seaman....)
>

They may not have much of a collection, but when Bubblegum Crisis (the
original OVAs mind you) were popular, I was fortunate to purchase almost the
entire OVA Soundtrack collection from them w/c at the time was very hard to
do (and impossible to do now).  I even bought the Ranma 1/2 Screensaver from
them for my old 486DX2-66 and THEN traveled up to San Fran to purchase the
cd-rom and SoundBlaster 16 Value for the incredible low price of $200 (back
then).

It was the first store that I was able to travel to (from San Luis Obispo at
the time) to purchase anime-related merchandise.  Granted their selection
was (and still is) not as extravagant as say AX2k but during the early to
mid 1990s was acceptable.

Rankor
--Lurkdom Gatekeeper since 1994