Nippon Book

Very interesting place. Its uniqueness makes you want to return and continue exploring. Highly Recommend to all of my friends.

pros… cool little bookstore, mostly sells japanese language books, but they do have a small selection of english books. but of course a very large selection of japanese animation books or animé. they also have other items besides books, mostly related to study aides and my personal favorite the soroban, or japanese abacus.
cons…no free parking in the area, park in a lot or get luck/​unlucky and pay for street metered parking. book pricing is subject to change, depends on the current exchange rate, which they will usually have a matrix on a wall or something.

As a recovering animé Otaku and Japanophile, I remember this place as being one of my favorite places in Los Angeles
In the dark days before Cartoon network, animé DVDs at Best Buy and Manga in Borders, this is pretty the only way you can find some animé in LA (of course, there is Little Tokyo, but I was young, no car and no idea where is Little Tokyo). There, you get subtitled and dubbed animes (few and far between for the latter), laser discs, and books, magazines and manga from Japan. With toy models here and there, it’s a wonderful place for any animé fan to be in.
Of course, since then you have more Japanese book stores, plus animé everywhere (at least where people don’t think of animé as hentai). That being said, it’s a nice place to stop by, if only for nostalgia sake.