I think they do ship from Japan. At least that's what they make it seem like. I don't know what the stock status is. I got emails saying it'll take 3-10 days to locate the books and ship them out. Like you, I already paid, so all I can do is sit and wait ~_~

Yeah benippon ships from Japan as far as I know. I'm pretty sure if they were in the United States they would get slapped by the law for the method of how they have people pay and then ship. I've had the same experience where they charge you first and then round up the books. And they ALWAYS overcharge for shipping when you first pay and then end up giving you some $$ back when the books actually ship. >.< They have an awesome selection of books and it's easy to find stuff on their site but everything else about them leaves a lot to be desired. x_x

BeNippon is in Kanazawa Japan as mentioned at their website. It's the same with me when I ordered from them. If I remember correctly Nippon Exports does the same thing and it's been a long time since I've ordered from them. It makes me wonder how many online stores from Japan do business like that.

My lot for June (the first half anyway):


Since we've probably all seen what's in Megami and Saa-chan posted pics from Aurora Gem, I'll just post on the ones that haven't been covered.

Animage July 2009
Pretty full issue, and more posters that usual this month. The best one was the large side Code Geass/Kuroshitsuji insert poster. Darker than Black season 2 is featured. Also came with a deck of Gundam 00 cards. Pictures below!

SPOILER (click to view)

Newtype July 2009
It came with an Evangelion T-Shirt! Pictures below! DtB season two is featured in this one also :3

SPOILER (click to view)

Animedia July 2009
Not so great in comparison. Came with a Basara poster, and a data book on voice actors. Spreads were okay.

SPOILER (click to view)

G-Fantasy June 2009
I bought this solely for the Pandora Hearts double sided pencil board. It's your average comic magazine, thick and black and white. Just took pictures of the board!

SPOILER (click to view)

Gelatin Vol. 02
Full color comic magazine. This month featured redjuice (the reason I bought it), toi8, miggy, takamichi, bunbun, Yamamoto Yamato, and more.

SPOILER (click to view)

PASH July 2009
I just buy PASH for the posters, so here's what's in this issue!

SPOILER (click to view)

Yasu Illustrations Toradora Pictures!
Very thick and sturdy book. Lots more color images than I expected. It's not full Toradora, the end features "Our Dear Tamura-kun."

SPOILER (click to view)

Shimarisu no Hoobukuro
This is a little CLAMP book featuring the illustrations and articles they're written in Newtype magazine over the years. Not really an art book, but there is an illustration on every page (just about) and it's 102 pages long, so I'm happy with it :3

SPOILER (click to view)

Kannagi Nagi Portraits
Lots of original images in this one. Like the other portrait books that have come out, they managed to keep up with quality and content.

SPOILER (click to view)

*drools over the pretty spreads in the magazines* Maybe I should buy magazines again >..>;

My stash from this week.


O.o dunno what happened to the post... A portion of it disappeared. Here are some pics from the Sweet Girls.

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Random question: what anime is the guy in the long pink coat from (Animage and Newtype photos)?? It looks like Basara but I don't remember him from the few episodes I watched.

And *wow* at all the great images in so many of those books. @~1@ I have an order on the way too, but the one interesting book in my order was pulled because "we no longer carry it" It was an old book so I can't say I'm suprised but WTH, take it off your website then! Has anyone else ever run into that?

I ran into that problem with mandarake a few times when I made my order. First they didn't have my item in stock, then they didn't have the books I picked to replace those in stock. Process went back and forth 3 times or so before I finally picked something they had in stock ^^;;

Yeah, pink coat guy is Sengoku Basara. Spoilers maybe? >_< I don't keep up with the show, but it's apparently quite popular seeing as how it was featured in everything so I think I'll pick it up later :3

And yeah, that happens all the time on Mandarake. And it used to happen to me on JPQueen when I ordered from there. I think the strategy to avoid that is not buy used or almost out of print stuff (hard to avoid XD).

Saa-chan, what's the book under Aurora Gem and Miyama Zero? Magicu~ something? XD

Yeah, it's the second Magi-cu compilation book. I'm thinking about getting the first one too, but I haven't decided yet XD

Sengoku Basara has too many characters for that to be a spoiler. I should really finish that series up since it is short, but I have a hard time taking it seriously >_> It feels like a Jack Black movie or a really cheesy samurai kung-fu movie.

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Yay my Cafe Kichijouji book came! I'd have to say this is one of the few books where my high expectations were more then meet! :D Considering the poor little manga series only had 3 volumes plus some Drama CDs they had a TON of artwork to pack in that book.

I really like Bun Bun Illustrations too. The coloring style is so... I donno soft and life-filled but still kind of fantasy-ish. Although I liked the pics at the beginning of the book better. I don't know what series it is but all those ones in the middle with the older looking guy and the little girl got excessive. It was like "oh, another one... oh still those same characters ... -_- "

I got 7 artbooks in today :D

D:! So you gloat but don't provide any photo evidence? What is this?!?

Will take some when I get my batteries charged :D Yeah, real batteries... XD and my nap XD

Pic of my stash~ lol, I can't count XD I actually got 8 this week.


From Yuu Shiina's Angel Howling book~

SPOILER (click to view)

Pics from Girls Museum

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From Moe Side

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What's the book with the guy on the cover in the lower right corner? :3

That's... lemme go grab the book :3
It's a thin little book with 32 illustrations by Nori Kobari from the novel series (?) Sanzen Sekai Karasu wo Kuroshi.