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[tman]

I've been wondering for awhile ... where exactly can you buy light novels online?

I'm itching to have a look at Zero no Tsukaima and Fate Zero, not to mention getting a crack at Gundam Unicorn.

[NeoSam]

You mean english translated light novels? or the original Japanese light novels?

[tman]

Original untranslated.

I figure I can go through them with my Japanese teacher in the name of expanding my kanji vocabulary.

[NeoSam]

Then there are two options:
1) Amazon Japan
2) YesAsia

I don't know how good your japanese is, so I would recommend YesAsia, since you can pick in what language to view the site to be able to order. no hassles of the site turning from english to japanese, like what happens with Amazon Japan if you click on Proceed to Checkout 

If you want the first issue of Zero no Tsukaima light novel, you can search by author or by title, I searched by author: yamaguchi noboru (the author of Zero no Tsukaima light novels) and I got the following results:

http://us.yesasia.com/en/artIdxDept.aspx/section-books/code-j/version-all/aid-907396/

That way you can get all the light novels that he authored, first Zero no Tsukaima light novel is here:
http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/aid-907396/section-books/code-j/version-all/pid-1003585889/

One thing to be aware of is that YesAsia has two different sites: US site and the Global site. if you are a resident of US or Canada then you should buy using the US site, if you are from some other country then use the Global site to order.

To know in what site you are, just look at the address of the site, if it starts with us.yesasia.com then its the site for the US and Canada, if its the global site, then it should start with global.yesasia.com.

For US and Canada order here: (first Zero no Tsukaima light novel)
http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/aid-907396/section-books/code-j/version-all/pid-1003585889/

For other countries order here: (first Zero no Tsukaima light novel, I changed us to global)
http://global.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/aid-907396/section-books/code-j/version-all/pid-1003585889/

I would also recommend you to read this before choosing between Amazon Japan and YesAsia:
http://www.justhungry.com/tips-shopping-japanese-books-and-magazines

Btw Zero no Tsukaima has been licensed recently, so it will be out translated to english.

Hope that helped.

[tman]

Thanks a lot.

Would Amazon Japan ship international? I have a niggling feeling that I wouldn't be able to get Gundam Unicorn via YesAsia.

[NeoSam]

Ahh yeah, of course

Here's a guide to help you to buy from Amazon Japan: Amazon Japan Guide.

Gundam Unicorn ? you mean this one mentioned here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Suit_Gundam_Unicorn

Its a very new novel, it started serialization from the February 2007 issue of Gundam Ace magazine. Not even one volume of this novel has been released yet (It hasn't been collected in a volume yet).

But YeaAsia seems to mention lots of new japanese novels, unless its an adult or BL novel (which they don't mention).

[tman]

Yes, that one.
It's a new one, the first volume is coming out in a few months, late September if I remember right, with both volume 1 and 2 going on sale the same day. I'm guessing it may be an adult one, since I had a look at the site and checked out the prologue - not a furigana in sight. But considering it's serialised in Gundam Ace (I think, not sure), which has its manga in furigana, I'm not sure.

[NeoSam]

Gundam Ace is a shounen magazine, so it should have furigana in it. but by adult novels I meant novels that have sexual material, if you want to buy that type of stuff you won't find it in YeaAsia, but you'll find it in Amazon Japan.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn is not an adult novel so when it gets released in volume it will be mentioned by YesAsia.

I just checked the publisher's site (Kadokawa Shoten), and whats getting released in late September (on 26/9) are both Gundam Unicorn manga volumes:

Mobile Suit Gundam UC (1)
Mobile Suit Gundam UC (2)

The Gundam Unicorn novel hasn't been scheduled to be released yet. The publisher isn't mentioning the novel yet.

[tman]

Manga volumes?
Interesting - I always thought Unicorn was a novel, considering it was being written by a novelist, and there have been no scans that were released. I'll have to look into this a bit more.

[NeoSam]

It could be that its a mistake from Kadokawa Shoten, and those are the novel volumes, but I highly doubt it, I have never seen any mistake from them before.

[Eclipse]

Hmm regarding the where to buy thing, I also like to use JPQueen...though they don't have many light novels.

[NeoSam]

Mobile Suit Gundam UC (1)
Mobile Suit Gundam UC (2)

The above are the light novels after all. The publisher is mentioning them as manga, but after checking a few reliable sites, it seems that the publisher is wrong >.< those are the light novels.

[Bunko_Otaku]

This is just a suggestion, but I have had pretty good results from a site called Sasuga Bookstore. They are able to take special orders straight from a site called 'e-hon' which is a site that is directly in Japan. There, you can find anything from books,etc. However, if you do order items from the Japanese site, it takes up to 2-3 weeks for the order to be processed and shipped from Japan to Sasuga. Just a thought. ^_^

[Farina]

Oh Guys you have to help me...
I watched the anime "Black Blood Brothers" today and I really liked it...
But now I feel so depressed because I want more...
Does anyone know where I can buy the Light Novel?