Kinokuniya Bookstore - Los Angeles

Not a lot of anime merch but a whole ton of manga, books, art supplies, and cute trinkets. Loved the sassy warning signs too! Definitely will be back.

It’s a cute store and would have been a great experience wandering around in there if it weren’t for the racism. I picked up the 2nd volume of The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All by Sumiko Arai and wandered around debating if I should get a planner and/or pen. I noticed I was being watched/followed but thought nothing of it since some stores have people make rounds around the store and existing as a black person this is a common experience sadly. I decided to just get the volume and headed towards the cashier and made the purchase. My friend and I went to grab udon and that’s when I noticed the stamp on my bag. With them following me and the monkey/ape stamp I began to feel that it was targeted towards me for just daring to exist as a black person in their presence. Before jumping to conclusions I made my friend go in alone and make a purchase that she was debating on earlier. And guess what her stamp wasn’t an ape….and yes she’s white…so now I’m here reporting this disgusting place. If you’re black or support an environment and people where they can simply exist without harassment please don’t give your money to this business. Won’t be coming back, but I guess that’ll make them happy since they clearly don’t want people who aren’t Asian or white there.

Friendly and helpful staff. Even if they're busy with a task, they're always willing to help or refer to someone who can. The first few times I went I thought I was being followed until I realized they were worried if I needed any help or they were just completing some of their basic tasks such as inventory, moving items, restocking, etc. I saw a review on here claiming they were racist due to someone receiving a "monkey/ape" stamp and perceiving being followed around for being black. I am fully Mexican and my friend (half White/half Mexican) who has also shopped there have received this stamp numerous times. We noticed it is just standard procedure to indicate that the item has been paid for. It is not used to deliberately target someone. I noticed the stamps are pretty random since I've been shopping here since 2020. If the logic was "only certain people receive this stamp because they belong to a certain ethnicity" then it doesn't make sense because how come my friend and I received the same stamp but we are either fully Mexican or half White and half Mexican? I'm a little confused about the review saying "they clearly don't want people who aren't Asian or white there" because if that was the case, they wouldn't accept me (fully Mexican) shopping there in the first place. They have been nothing but kind in my experience and have helped me find manga in Japanese when I explained to them I was learning the language and was looking for a specific series that I liked but the English translation hadn't come out yet so I wanted to read ahead while sharpening my language skills. They never looked down on me or questioned if I could really understand Japanese. It never felt like I was excluded, rather the opposite. They helped me as much as they could and answered any of my questions with kindness and patience. It's just sad for the employees to be labeled like that by one experience when that's just not it. I hope the employees are able to read this and cheer up because you guys are some of the kindest busy bees I have ever met. お仕事を頑張ってください！

They’re at a temporary location at the Bloc right now but there’s still a lot of things to view and buy! Love this store.

I am a huge Kinokuniya fan, ever since I moved from Costa Mesa to Pasadena and started frequenting their Santa Anita Mall location (back in Costa Mesa, BookOff on Baker was the place to go, for sure). I have been to this Little Tokyo location about two or three times already, and although it is a bit more of an inconvenience to get to if you live in the SGV like me, I think it is worth the trip, since it is about twice as large with maybe 3 times as many things as their Santa Anita mall. Their comic book and manga selection is huge, both in English and in 日本語, they have stationery items, art books, video game guidebooks, toys, plush toys, etc. They even have a dedicated children's books section in Japanese and even a fantastic (but neglected and not as well-stocked as I'd like) Japanese language section in the back of the store (I am going to take the N4 this upcoming December, so I got a few prepbooks here). Everyone is courteous and friendly, the patrons themselves are great too. And I happened to have gone on Nissei week, which made it so that there was people in cosplay and whatnot. Interesting experience and interesting location. Will for sure be back if I am in the area again (had to park like 3 blocks away, on Omar and 3rd Street and walk over) and I am willing to put up with how much of a nightmare parking in the area is. 10/10 for the service, product selection and overall layout of the store!

Great bookstore and one of the only places in Socal (at least to my knowledge) where you can find not only a huge selection of Japanese language novels, learning material, and of course, manga and other merchandise, but also classic Japanese stationery like Campus notebooks and the likes.

Your head will start spinning and your eyes will tell you to start grabbing EVERYTHING in sight. It's overwhelming but not too much. There are so many things to see and touch. Set aside 45 minutes to go through the store, but that didn't include the book and magazine sections. From now on, everyone I know is getting a gift from here!