Manga and Anime has been inseparable part of my life, it's no wonder when I come to Japan, the need to buy official goods and merchandise came out. I rarely buy useless or decorative items, since I'm on limited budget, I often buy things with functional value. And books, yes, books, I mean, doujinshi, it's a must have since there's almost no way to get them unless you come to Japan and buy them in events like Comic Market (twice a year), Comic Spark, or Super Comic City. Buying anime goods in Japan is not hard, Animate is the best source. Below are two items I bought from Animate, actually only one. The necklace is a birthday present from my friend. The tote bag is very handy! We're always given a plastic bag whenever we buy something but I have too many plastic bag already so I usually tell the cashier I don't need plastic bag （袋大丈夫) and stuffs them into this tote.
They mostly sell new stuffs and you can find almost all of them; goods like umbrella, clear file, note book, food, comic books, artbook, cosplay tools, cd, and dvds, some animate even have doujinshi section. Animate has branch all over Japan, since I live in Tokyo, I usually visit animate in Shibuya and Ikebukuro. There're two animate in Ikebukuro, one for goods and merch while the other one is for cosplay items, each of them have 9 floors! Imagine all items you can find there.
Coming to Japan, I find myself fall in love all over again with Prince of Tennis/テニスの王子様 which was my major fandom about 4-5 years ago. I forgot what trigger it but maybe it's back on June when I stumbled upon Shounen Square and read them again. I didn't buy much, really, just stuff I can use and doujinshi. The keychains are from gachapon (@ 200 JPY). The yellow pouch is a pass-card case. When riding train, you can use manual ticket which means you have to purchase it before going. It's not very convenient so I use SUICA, a rechargeable fare card (called IC Card in Japan), just put this briefly over the scanner and we're ready to go, no last time ticket buying that cost us missing the train. Since IC Card is everyday staple and customary in Japan, pretty much like handphone, many IC Card holder are being sold in various designs. I bought this pouch in around mid-June from Amazon, it originally came with a strap but it's broken so I attach it using zipper. I wanted to buy the same item to replace this one, sadly, this item is no longer sold in Animate.
I currently have 5 kgs worth of doujinshi (bought online, at Mandarake and Comic Market/natsucomi).. Excuse me, but I've been wanting to have one since 8 years ago when I was in Middle School -.-" it's a long time crush, I just have to. The picture above only contain almost 1/3 of my collection. While general public views people who's active in doujin activity (esp girls) to be messy, ugly, and unfashionable, I beg to differ. When I went to Natsucomi, I was surprised to find how cute all of them are! They're very fashionable, beautiful, I noticed many of them are wearing clothes from Liz Lisa, Wonder Rocket, Earth Music & Ecology (I often visit their online shop to kill time so I remember their products lol), wear pretty make up; in general, they're so different from what general public view them as! For first timer, you might wonder if you're in the right place because these cute, adorable, and beautiful girls doesn't seem to fit the image of that kind of event.
Eh, so, the main reason why I write this entry is because yesterday was the release of Rikkai Team Collection DVD. Prince of Tennis, other than anime, has been adapted into musical stage with handsome and good looking boys as actors. In Japan, these kind of boys are known as ikemen/イケメン, some of you is probably familiar with this term. Anyways, Tenimyu has been around since 2003 and it's been 10 years ever since, it's running its '2nd season' right now, repeating the same story with new casts and some new songs (and more money-milking merchandise). Since I'm a devoted Rikkai fan (one of tennis team), I'm naturally attracted to their cast and for 2nd season cast, I'm irrevocably in love with Kubota Hidetoshi. Fans' general view of him is ikemen as in very very ikemen, many people are at loss of words when they meet him in flesh and can only think of word ikemen. He's explained as ikemen sugiru no ikemen (and ikemen who is too ikemen; aka; he's very very handsome that you cannot think of anything). I went to see his stage once and for 50 minutes of play, I could only think of the same thing; he's too perfect that I don't even know what word to describe him anymore.
Anyways, back to main topic, the DVD! I went to buy the DVD yesterday at Animate Shibuya, I came 30 minutes before Animate is opened lol. Once the store is opened, I immediately grab the DVD and pay. Then I waited for an hour in 109 for my friend, we ate sushi after that. I'll talk more specifically about my Shibuya day in other entry. The DVD content is very good, I'm highly amused with this DVD, the casts are hilarious, I just love this very much and I didn't regret spending my money on this. Since this DVD is in Japanese and has no subtitle whatsoever, it's also beneficial for my study (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
Sneak peak for the next post!
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