This is probably the first ’serious’ merchandise search I’ve done since bemoaning my leaving Taipei, which had many high-quality anime/manga/game-dedicated stores.
Browsing several forums told me that there is a small concentration of stores in Mong Kok, Kowloon area that is pretty high up in the “best you can find in Hong Kong” listing.
It’s about two streets down Exit E2 of Mong Kok Station (zoom in); my plan was to stroll down Sai Yeung Choi St. (a mainly pedestrian road), have lunch, try CTMA Centre first, then swing back to Nathan Centre and Sino Centre on Nathan Rd.
(Most of the malls had a “no photos” policy going, so most of this is going to be in words.)
CTMA Centre: rather disappointing, for me at least, though I can see its appeal – Gundam, Kamen Rider, Macross, and many other nostalgic titles which I cannot name, not to mention some really great figures and models of Western comics and films (most memorably, an almost-1:1 Iron Man bust next to General Grievous’). There was the also a small amount of your generic Max Factory figma.
Nathan Centre: More of the same, minus the comic book characters, but way more Japan-related goods. But to be honest, still didn’t feel like the shadier kind of place where one would generally find this stuff – it was a mall’s mall, what else can I say?
Sino Centre: And finally, good news. First two floors were of the same mold (Chinese licensed manga, anime DVD’s, eroge/visual novels) but the third floor had a small store discreetly tucked into the corner that sold mainly doujinshi – pencilboards of Touhou and many other series, doujin anthologies and one-shots, soundtracks, and various trinkets (the Miko Miko Suika ema made me chuckle). What really got my attention was the two books at the top of the window display: the Fate/Zero Tribute Arts collection (~HK$350), and All Around Type-Moon 2’s concept art anthology (~HK$250).
I really wanted a pencilboard as they tend to be cheap and still look nice, and there was a difficult moment of indecision, but Remilia won out (HK$50), since I’ve apparently got a thing for vampire lolis. Anyway, moving on.
I decided to go up first, so I unwittingly saved the best for last, as the underground level was absolutely packed with stores selling magazines, figures, DVD sets, artbooks, soundtracks, posters and promotional material, and games. There was one particular shop selling (naturally, expensive) garage kits, with a decent Suigintou going for HK$2800 and an unpriced Chen. I didn’t bother asking.
One thing missing that I had really wanted to find were novels – anime/manga/light novels are quickly licensed for Chinese distribution in Hong Kong, so finding raws were difficult and in the end, unsuccessful. The only thing which caught my eye was a lone copy of Fate/Zero (well, there was Type-Moon Ace, which means Strange Fake).
In the end, my only real choices were artbooks and figures; Noizi Ito’s Shana collections which I really wanted to pick up back at the Taipei Comic Exhibition, groundworks of Nanoha StrikerS and Code Geass R2, Fate/Zero Material, figma of Yagami Hayate, Seto San, and Hatsune Miku, and I really had to hold myself down when I saw Alter’s Yagami Hayate PVC (ie. the big 1/7 one) for ~HK$500.
Since I had already had Fate, I went with Hayate, after I had already lost count of the number of hours I spent walking in circles.
Overall, if you’re more in-tune with the current generation of anime fans, the only real choice is Sino Centre. There were apparently a few malls I missed which I’ll be checking at a later time, plus some other neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, as my family is quick to remind me, “an MTR ticket to anywhere worth taking the underground costs as much as a decent meal”, so unless I actually find a job near the area, I won’t be going back anytime soon.
PS: There was one particular game store in Sino Centre’s underground level which I found very hilarious: the female storekeeper (of the moment) was very enthusiastically trying to sell me the Complete Edition of World in Conflict. “See, in the original, you play as the Americans fighting the Soviets, but then in the expansion, you play as the Soviets for revenge-ass-kicking!”
