As I currently live in Canada, there aren’t all that many options when it comes to buying manga. Even less so when it comes to buying untranslated manga. As of right now, there are really only 4 options for my to buy manga from, and I want to introduce you to them from my most to least favourite.
Surugaya
My absolute favourite place to buy untranslated manga is from a used bookstore called “Surugaya”. Not just used manga, this store sells anime merch, kpop goods, and even DVDs! If you can think of it, Surugaya probably sells it.
Surugaya has two online websites, one Japanese, and one English. If you’re living in Canada like me, you’ll want to shop on the English site – even if you speak Japanese.
Navigating the site
As Surugaya uses machine translations, sometimes it can be a little bit tricky to find the exact manga that you want. For example, “Nina the Starry Bride” may become “Niner of the star fall kingdom”. When searching for manga titles, you must search in English, otherwise nothing will pop up – so even if you type in the Japanese title correctly, you’re out of luck.
There is a trick though! If you know the correct Japanese spelling of a mangaka’s (manga authors) name, and put it in the search bar, all of their manga will appear! This trick has helped me more times than I can count.
Import and shipping fees?
To me, the only sensible time to order from Surugaya is when they’re doing a free shipping sale. They have these sales about once a week now, so you’ll never be waiting long to place an order.
The reason free shipping is so important, is because Surugaya uses a certain shipping company that will charge you import fees. For me, they’re usually 20$. I can justify paying an extra 20$ total to get my manga to me, however if I had to pay shipping on top of that, I would never have enough money to buy everything I want…
What if I really want to use the Japanese website?
The English website sadly does charge quite a bit more than its Japanese counterpart, so I can see the reasoning behind wanting to use the Japanese website. While a manga may be 650 yen on the English site, it may be as cheap as 150 yen on the Japanese site! However, as of right now, the Japanese site only offers domestic shipping. Of course there are ways to navigate around this, but I prefer to just pay a little bit extra for convenience.
Indigo
Otherwise known as Chapters, or Coles, Indigo is the bookstore in my city. If I am going to buy English manga, Indigo is usually my first stop. While Indigo doesn’t have the best selection of books, I do prefer to buy in person when I can, so I don’t utilize their online store.
They also offer ship to store, but again, I like inspecting my books before I buy them! I’ve been trying to buy volume 2 of Blue Lock for a little while now, but have yet to find a non beat-up version…
If Indigo doesn’t have what I’m looking for, my next stop is…
Imaginaire
Imaginaire is a store that offers a much much bigger variety of manga than any Indigo I’ve ever seen! So, why did I list it lower than Indigo? Literally every time I have found a manga that I wanted to buy at Imaginaire, it’s been damaged. Literally every time. I’ve asked employees if maybe they could check in the back to see if there were any non-damaged copies, and they’ve never seemed to care. (I don’t mean to sound complainey, however if I’m spending ~20$ on a book, I want it to be in good condition).
While I really haven’t been able to buy anything here yet, I know that in a pinch I would most likely be able to find what I’m looking for here.
Amazon Canada
If I really need a manga and can’t find it anywhere else, then I will turn to Amazon.ca. I’m really not a fan of supporting Amazon, but sometimes there is not other option.
I’ll never buy from third party sellers on Amazon, and will only buy manga if it’s shipped through prime – I haven’t regretted doing this yet, though I really only buy manga from Amazon every once in a blue moon.
What about amazon Japan?
While I do like to buy most of my Japanese manga from Surugaya, it being a used book store means that I first need someone to sell their books to Surugaya before I can buy them! This means that the more sought after books, as well as longer series, are especially difficult to find (looking at you volume 12 of Colette Decides to Die).
The only other site I will comfortably buy Japanese manga on is Amazon Japan, however I need to be really desperate to buy from here. Why? Because the shipping fees are absolutely ridiculous. While one manga may only cost about 5$ CAD, the shipping can be up to 80$! I’m waiting until my cart fills up with volumes I absolutely cannot find from Surugaya before I make the plunge and buy anything from Amazon Japan.
And that’s my list! Shopping for manga is almost as enjoyable for me as reading manga is, as theres something about the hunt that I just love.
What about you?
If you’re looking to buy a physical manga, where would you first go to buy it?
Maddies Manga 
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