#I also did the acrylic stand for our merch!

[kamuyagi]

Preview of my 5-pg comic I did for @antilucizine~ Depicting everyone in the cursed universe of the (film) Cat In the Hat was .｡ﾟ+. chef's kiss ｡+.ﾟ

order?~ >>  https://antiluciferzine.bigcartel.com

[judesmoonbeauty]

Ikémen Series Expo 2024 - A “Villains” Original Short Story

This is a fan translation. 100% accuracy is not guaranteed. Cybird owns everything. This is exclusive content for IFC members that gained it via point accumulation during the event. Re-blogs are appreciated, but please do not share my translations. Thank you! ☾

This story features: Ellis, Liam, Harrison & Ring. The stories are dialogue only (Cybird's doing not mine.)

Ellis: Oh, it’s my acrylic stand.

Liam: It is, and this is my card.

Ring: There’s also buttons. 

Liam: I don’t know which one I want.

Ellis: For now, why not collect and organize your own merch?

Liam: Good idea, then….what should I get?

Ring: Isn’t this armor cool.

Ellis: It’s Mr. Nobunaga’s acrylic stand, his armor isn’t something found in the West.

Ring: Ah, it doesn’t exist in the UK or Germany. Are there other types of armor that exist.

Liam: It’s nice they each have their own colored armor, I wonder what our colors would be.

Ellis: I think you’d be pink Liam. Ring is…

Harrison: What are you excited about?

Liam: Ah, Harry!

Harrison: Your hands aren’t moving. Aren’t going to work hard so the robins can enjoy it.

Liam: Sorry, I got really excited.

Ellis: Harry, you’re all done?

Harrison: I organized the goods so they’re easy to grab.

Harrison: You guys only put your own merch up…..

Ellis: I want people to see and get my goods first…..

Liam: I put my merch upfront because I want them to see how well made it is…

Ring: ….I….for some reason

Harrison: Haaa. Come on, put it back. This won’t be done no matter how long it takes.

Liam: Okaaay.

Ellis: Yeah.

Ring: Sure.

Liam: Hey, doesn’t this Harry merch look good? 

Ellis: These Jude goods are so cute. 

Ring: Nica’s merch is nice too.

Harrison: Hey. 

Liam: Will’s card looks so stylish. 

Ellis: Roger’s acrylic stand looks just like him.

Ring: Dari’s too….

Harrison: ….Oi.

Liam: Oh, Lord Elbie is beautiful! His beauty doubles when merch is made of him.

Ellis: Victor’s hair looks so smooth seeing it like this. 

Ring: Alfons’ personality comes out in his goods too…..

Harrison: …..Set up!

Liam: Oh, sorry!

Ellis: Sorry.

Ring: I-I’m sorry.

Harrison: The space you guys touched is nothing but a mess.

Harrison: Who said they’d work hard to get set up.

Liam: Me…..

Ellis: Me…..

Ring: I did…

Harrison: ….Liam line up the larger goods. Ellis, clean the shelves, and Ring handle the smaller items.

Liam: On it! Ring, let’s do our best.

Ring: Oh, by the way, where should I put this?

Liam: Is that this one.

Ellis: I’ll dust the upper shelves.

Harrison: It’s finally getting it done…..

Harrison: Why am I in charge?

Ellis: Harry?

Harrison: Hm, something happen?

Ellis: I hope the robins will be happy.

Harrison: ….Oh, that’s right.

Ellis: I hope they’ll be the happiest when they see our merchandise stand.

Harrison: I’m not sure about the happiest, but they’ll be happy.

Ellis: Heh, I’m looking forward to it now.

Harrison: ….I see.

Liam: Harry, come here!

Harrison: Yeah, what is it now?

Liam: Do they look better placed this way, or that way?

Harrison: Either way is fine….

Liam: No it’s not, I have to arrange them in a way that’s easy for the robin to look at them.

Harrison: In that case, I think it’d be better to put the larger items on an upper shelf.

Harrison: Since they’re shorter than us, it might be harder for them to reach the items on top shelf.

Liam: That’s true, thanks Harry.

Harrison: No problem, you okay?

Harrison: Your fingers are shaking as you line up the merch?

Ring: I’ve never done a task like this before.

Harrison: You don’t have to fine tune it so much.

Ring: But, I want them to think that the display looks pretty when they see it.

Harrison: ….Want me to help too.

Ring: No, I’ll do each of these here…..ah.

Liam: Huh!

Ellis: Wah!

Harrison: ….Bad move.

Liam: All the goods you lined up fell like a trail of dominoes.

Ellis: The dust pile fell down, due to the impact,

Ring: There’s a lot of dust the fell on top of the merch…..

Harrison: Worst’s come to worst……

Ring: I-I’m sorry! It’s my fault, I’ll clean it up quickly! 

Liam: Wait! You’re going to bump into something,

Ring: [Gasp!]

Ellis: Ring’s arm bumped into a lower shelf, and now it’s all messed up.

Ring: S-sorry!

Liam: It’s okay, let’s start again, we’ve got dust in our heads.

Ring: Ah…..

Liam: Haha, we’re all matching.

Ring: ….Haha, it’s true.

Ellis: It’s kind of funny.

Liam: Harry’s the dustiest…..Harry?

Ellis: Harry？

Ring: What’s wrong？

Harrison: ……I, am NOT your guys’ babysitter!

Fin.

Quick, someone get Harry a double shot of extra extra super sweet strawberry milk, a cupcake, and a Sherlock Holmes novel STAT! ....Poor Ring lmao.

Dividers: @.adornedwithlight

Tags list: @sh0jun @theimaginativelyreticent @sapphire-323 @letter-from-afar @nateko @raeraeks

If you wish to be added to my translations tag list, please comment or DM me.

[sgdlr-asdfghjkl]

Link Click Musical update 180 🌟🌟🌟

(LC-mu postcard project🎉 + summary of BilibiliWorld videos: musical actors meeting VAs trio and Wang Minhui's vlog ✨)

Hello! This will be quite unusual update, since I want to report about our fan project. But also, to make up for my inactivity, I bring lots of tasty treats for you >:3

Links in replies: meeting of LC donghua voice actors trio and LC musical trio at BilibiliWorld event, Wang Minhui's vlog from there, 1h+ livestream from the entire LC musical segment + google drive link where you can download the postcard illustrations and print it for yourself 😘

OKAY 🏃‍♂️✨

LC-mu postcard project summary

A fellow lc musical enjoyer friend, Vale (@/_Setsuna_iro_ on twt & @/setsuna_cos on ig, follow her for great cosplays!) reached out, said she'll be visiting China and considers going to see the play. So OF COURSE I got hyped up about it 😤

I wanted to arrange a postcard for her to give away after the performance (like we did with Elara for 100th performance). To let the actors and Chinese audience know we appreciate the musical ^^ There was no better person to ask for help than a legend, an icon, a master of musical-inspired LC fanarts @wrathyforest 🙇‍♂️💖

🤲BEHOLD🤲

So Forest drew this amazing✨ illustration 🙇‍♂️ (and yes, you can download it and print it too!). I only suggested some details like adding XiaoJuan pig squishie and Zhang Jiahao eating a chicken leg (from 100th special encore).

As for my contribution I did the design on a back (based on the official lyrics book style) and the lil actor doodles. I collected the 42 names of countries from the international LC musical fans. And handled the communication and logistics between all of us ><

Props to Vale for translating the note to Chinese 🙏 the actors and audience got it in Chinese, but you can read it and print in in English ^^ And thanks to @elaraqwqfor all the practical advice about the theatre etiquette and navigation haha 🙏

When time agent Vale rests (and no longer struggles with Chinese firewall ><") I'll try to share more info from her about the musical itself. For now have photos our spy took >:3

That's the Shanghai Great World, an amusement centre building where the Time Theatre is located. We rarely think outside the 'microvawe oven' of lc musical set, so I think it's interesting to see ;>

A photo wall with the cast behind the scenes and guests (can you spot director Haolin? ehee). And a fascinating (to me at least) corner where the audience can leave all the fanmade freebies. Like merch celebrating actor's birthdays or performance milestones. The fans go out of their way and make all sorts of things to share, like badges, facemasks with prints, keychains, acrylic stands, prints, stickers, I even saw cookies with chibi actors printed on them ><

I personally find this part of fan culture around the Chinese musical theatre really heartwarming and inspiring ^^ Maybe bc culture around theatre in my country feels very posh and stuck up, snobbish even. So I have lots of love and respect to Chinese theatre fans for making their passion feel welcoming and simply fun 🌟

Again, huge thanks to all my lovely LC friends, Forest, Vale and Elara for making this project possible 😘💙💛

MOVING ON 🏃‍♂️✨

Link Click Musical panel on BilibiliWorld 2024 convention

For context, this convention is huge (esp when you remember Bilibili is like Chinese ver of youtube, twitch, netflix, crunchyroll and webtoon at once). Li Haolin had his panel there, as well as donghua VAs (that's how they managed to meet, VAs had their panel on same day musical actors came for rehearsal).

So there is an entire 1h+ video from the panel with LC-mu 'representative lineup' Deng Xianling, Cai Qi and Wang Minhui. I'll link it, you can watch it. It's all in Chinese ofc but it's still fun, bc they do lots of games focused on singing songs that you should be able to recognise by now ;>

A summary of the panel:

1st game: they each get the first lines their characters sing in the play and have to fill out the blank lyrics

then they do slightly extended ver of 'You can forget about it' ('sofa song')

2nd game: they get a line from a lc musical song to sing, each actor with different twist; dxl has to do a dialect version, cq does the singing to a different melody, and wmh does the 'translation accent' (not sure what it is, I'm guessing it's changing the accentuation on words?)

3rd game: is blindfold basketball with third person directing the one that's shooting, so a cooperation game ^^'

4th game: they listen to the music and when it stops they have to sing the next lines (this part was GREAT bc we get crumbs from main plot songs AND we get to hear actors sing a capella AND there is a banger part where wmh and cq sing in unison 😔👌)

5th game: doing 'Dive back in time' tutting at varied speed (it's funny & impressive how they switch from 2x speed to 0.5x without an issue)

and I lost a count (this video is long and in chinese, forgive me) but by the end, there is also a part where each actor has to say something in character, they chose from categories: A) Exclusive video for waking up - cq, B) Exclusive video to put you to sleep -wmh, C) 'Mood Tips' Video - dxl :> (Lu Guang got very in character, short line, don't get excited)

OKAY NEXT 🏃‍♂️✨✨

Voice Actors encounter (Li Shimeng, Su Shangqing, Yang Tianxiang) summary

All credit goes to my Chinese friend Yksim (@/treeshu3426 on twt) for translating and summarising the entire video to me 🙏🙇‍♂️💖

Video has 2 main parts: voice actors giving tips about delivering lines and musical actors teaching them to sing songs. Yang Tianxiang first suggest that musical actors teach vocal actors how to sing. He asks how to sing "我只能预测十二个小时" ('I can only predict 12 hours...', a part from M01 'Time Travel', the first song). Wmh and cq sing it but ytx finds it too hard to follow, gives up and says sth like 'aigh maybe we should start from voice acting' ><. So they first give wmh and cq some tips about how to say lines.

Wang Minhui shares that the producer of LC musical (I'm guessing it was Chen Xiaoyi 🙏) sent him a video compilation of canon Lu Guang calling cxs idiot, childish etc. (as learning material). And he asked ytx to say some for him XDD which the other delivers 👌

Li Shimeng gives Qiao Ling performance. She first acted how to scold cxs and then how to comfort him 🥺 Everyone compliments her, she's great orz

After that ytx seems to be answering wmh's question how to say lines. He said: 'We have to relax our throats. It is also like singing. You have to make yourself comfortable. You don't have to pursue to make your voice very like my voice. I think we are two different Lu Guangs. ' (meaning the range, because wmh's voice is very high pitch comparing to ytx's voice)

Yang Tianxiang asks Su Shangqing for his input and ssq says: 'You can make it natural and like in daily life. Actually voice acting allows you to express a variety of precise emotions within a very limited range of ups and downs. It will be harder than no limits. 其实会比你可以完全释放手脚难 (this sentence translates weirdly so have a transcript) After you get hold of the character's main characteristics, you can relax and do what you want to express.'

Then is time for a singing part. Cai Qi sings a bit from 'Words can't convey the love' for ssq. Which ssq says is too hard >< ytx says 'But this song fits you.'

Wang Minhui sings a crumb of main plot song called 'Broken time' (fully translated by Micha here 💙) It's a very hard and high pitch big song full of emotions that happens after a quarrel with cxs. Yang Tianxiang is impressed ><

VA's strongest soldier enters the ring after ytx says: 'I think Li Shimeng is the best singer among three of us.' So Cai Qi teaches lsm some QL's lines from the beginning of 'You can forget about it' (QL starts it in main plot ver). She repeats after him and sounds wonderful ✨💅

And finally, Deng Xianling arrives from the other musical's rehearsal (on weibo she 'cries' she had to buy wmh a drink as an apology for being late ><'). Her voice is beautiful nevertheless. She sings the same part that cq started teaching ;>

Then they take photos together and say goodbyes 🥰

WHICH IS A PERFECT SEGWAY 🏃‍♂️✨✨✨

This one I deciphered myself by google translating subtitles. But please watch it yourself! It's adorable even if you don't speak Chinese

Wang Minhui's vlog from BilibiliWorld

You may think he'd do sth short, similar to Cai Qi's vlog from the event, but no. Not the yapperton3000, Kamen Rider enjoyer, mister I-watch-more-anime-than-Niebo (I just adore this guy, ok? and you will too. Now.)

Nah, he will give us a tour 😎✨

It starts with him saying he's going on a rehearsal, then a short compilation from that day where they practiced and met VAs. As you can see he and ytx exchanged contact info :>

After teasing dxl for being late it's fast forward to next day, the day of their performance. He beelines straight to the artist/merch area 🙇‍♂️ He points at almost every alley and says stuff like:

'Take a look at the Honkai Star Railway theme area! Sorry but I don't play hehe' 'Jian Wang 3 theme area, I used to play. I remember when I got into the trap, brought in at my university, my college friends were playing.' *points at a fancy dress at some sort of haute couture cosplay booth* 'Guo Hongxu would look good in this' (ghx commented the vid with a photo of himself swinging an axe with 'Where are you? I brought you a gift 🙂')

Then he comes home 😌 The Link Click themed alley 💙💛

He looks at Lu Guang merch which is-😭💗 *clenches my heart* and talks how he's excited to wear lg's wig already.

⬆ Interesting thing about these shiguang cutouts, that cn friends Bō🐼 and Yksim pointed out, is that they are a signposts promoting a Chengguang/程光 ship specific event. Recently there was a separate exhibition/fan event focused on uh, you know, top!cxs x bottom!lg, (not necessarily explicit but very much about the romantic coupling) and they had a booth LC alley in BilibiliWorld too.

And no, it's impossible he's clueless about it. You'll see he knows his donghua&anime + they had huge signs with ship name and friends tell me he must've walked past all the doujins. And he goes there twice 🙇‍♂️ Like, do with this knowlegde whatever you want, I'm just describing what happened (personally I'd say: BASEDBASEDBASED-)

*performance time* he gets his makeup and hair done and goes on stage, it's a short compilation from backstage.

HE GOES BACK TO THE CUTOUTS orz... the stylist fixes his hair sprout when he's standing between lg and cxs ;w; while wmh praises his producer for agreeing to work overtime to help him film the vlog 🙏

it cuts to him riding to the different area, he says:

'Now I am going to this one from "Link Click", the booth of the original work. Although today in fact, strictly speaking, I'm not a cosplayer.' 'Because I think we should respect how everyone just generates electricity for love to this level of detail' (I think he means cosplayers, but not sure, it translates wack) 'I think I am still wearing a makeup look for a musical stage actor who (just) came here.' 'This experience is very unforgettable for me, so I hope to use the last bit of time, the moment before hitting the board, to go get one for myself. Including myself, Wang Minhui as a stage actor. I can take two sets of photos. I think it's also a good memory, so I set off!' (it may be confusing, but I think he's talking about using the opportunity of being on a convention in the stage makeup, to take some phots for himself, while humbly acknowledging it's not a cosplay)

(we're halfway in the video, save me, I love him but he talks so much ಥ_ಥ)

He enters the official LC venue (that earlier, was more fanmade stuff/merch alley) and talks about how exciting it is that he can blend in ;w; so he walks around, saying:

'I am so happy!' but then catches himself and says 'Ah, but I shouldn't laugh' (to stay in LG's character 😭) *points at Neo Aurora LG cutout (one with harness)* 'Can you make me a set of clothes like this next time at our theater?' (caption tags the Encore Musicals theatre) *points at a writing board and reads one of fan messages* 'Li Haolin, no more knives!' 💀 and 'No matter the past, don't question the future' motto *proudly high-fives himself* *points at Li twins cutouts* 'Last time I drew a blind box I got Li Tianchen, I have both (?or two idk) of them.' 'So happy. The kind of faint (faint feeling? or faintness? idk) It just came out of here *points at his chest* Happy but I don’t know why I’m so happy! (pls he's so sweet)

Then he points towards the Bilibili Comics venue and namedrops lots of shows he's watching/reading:

'There's a Bilibili comics app, the app that accompanies me on many nights, I recently finished reading Demon Slayer', he also mentions watching Blue Lock and Wind Breaker.

Moving on to individual anime series booths:

*points at Kaitou from Detective Conan* 'I especially liked that character as a kid, so cool/handsome' He sees Solo Leveling booth from a distance and is proud of himself for remembering the name of the show, so much so he takes a picture :'> ''Dungeon Meshi', I've been following for past 2 days (?). At first I thought it was a gourmet show, at that time I liked to order takeout. I feel like it still has quite a story to it.' *sees a mecha animatronic* 'Wow it's moving!' (everybody stfu, he's experiencing a childlike wonder) 'I usually open Bilibili when I have nothing to do', then he mentions watching Freiren, Kaiju no.8 and says that after reading all the Demon Slayer he wants to watch it now.

Post-credits scene: He looks on a stage, says 'Give me a mask and I'll sign up' and then the camera zooms out to show what I think is a group of men doing an otome-themed performance dance (like Tears of Themis/Love and Deepspace type of game idk which exactly ><) 🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️ that's all

To accompany you on this overwhelming wall of text, I give you Cai Qi overwhelmed by the wonders of BilibiliWorld 😇 he was going through it, but had the audacity to later say 'I was a little nervous, Wang Minhui is nearly drowning the mic (from sweating nervously)' under the video with VAs. Brat.

Housekeeping notes: I hope this update makes up for the long inactivity and I hope it lasts you for a while 🙏 I still struggle with my workload and it sucks, so I won't be coming back here any time soon (for 1,5 months at least) sorry ><

But I am still active on twt and discord and I check tumblr inbox regularly if you ever need help with research 💪

There is an increase of LC fans interested in the play (after the zhb and tcp almost-kiss ><') So I am currently gathering questions from newbies to later create the LC Musical FAQs 🌟 If you have ANY questions regarding LC musical, specific actors, the general Chinese musical fandom culture, navigating Chinese social media, anything I could help with, PLEASE reach out to me via inbox, DMs, curiouscat (I linked it on my twt @/niebo_sgdlr), twt DMs or discord. It will help tremendously to create a beginner friendly guide, bc at this point I'm too deep in the rabbit hole and too busy to explain everything to everyone individually🙏💖

Look at this historical event of Wang Minhui getting the postcard and telling Vale she looks better than Cai Qi 😇 Please give love to all the friends I mentioned in the post and have a lovely day, bye bye!

Niebo out 🏃‍♂️✨✨✨✨

[omentranslates]

Trigun Maximum Chugai Grace Cafe Collaboration - I Translated the Website :3

Hi I saw someone on twt wanting this to be translated and that's literally all it takes to get me moving anymore so!

Anyways I translated all the food and drinks, I found the references they chose really cute except for the evil one lmao and I also included the unbelievably small print drink ingredients if you wanna try mixing them yourself!! 🫶

Also also, if you know how to use a proxy, there is actually some stuff here that overseas fans can get our hands on!! Under the cut to keep the dash clean!! Hope it helps!!!!!

Edit my dumbass forgot the original announcement link sjshsk IT’S HERE!!!

So, the menu

Going from left to right we've got

"Battle Sausage Spaghetti"

"As Many Salmon Sandwiches You Want"

"Love&Peace Donuts"

"Banana Sundae"

and on the bottom row

"The Perfect Meal Plate: Vash's Handmade Fried Rice and Salad" ((´༎ຶོω༎ຶོ`) o k )

"Particularly Wonderful Udon"

"Mille-feuille with Ceylon Tea" (i believe the first part specifies gateau mille-feuille but I went to episode one and checked the subs for what they had her say officially and they left the gateau off so I did too)

"Latte with a random character art"

Character Drinks!!!

The Bride Soda, which comes with a double-sided postcard of the sworn friends (very common nickname for Vash and Wolfwood in JP fandom and ig official uses it too)

So the soda is their proprietary thing, it doesn't say what flavor it is or if it has one, but the shotglasses come with a little bit of smoked oak syrup and black ceylon tea and you're meant to fill the rest of the glass with soda and drink it that way. And then the rest of the text is just information and disclaimers for customers that plan on taking the bottle home (I guess it breaks really easily that’s So. lmao).

Vash's Drink <3

strawberry syrup

carbonated water and lemon juice

yellow candied cherries (drained cherries) and ice

Wolfwood's Drink

crushed coffee jelly and cafe ice (ice made and flavored with concentrated coffee and fruit juice)

brewed iced coffee and gum syrup

blue curaçao syrup and carbonated water

experimental ampules filled with blue soda

the cigarette is full of light brown sugar you're meant to mix in before drinking

Knives's Drink

apple juice and round sliced apples

mint and ice (it looks like mint leaves but full disclosure they have blurred that kanji to all hell I have no idea)

Legato's Drink

blue curaçao syrup

grapefruit juice

carbonated water and a mint cherry

a lemon and ice

Collab Merch

(Overseas pay attention here!!!!!! ChugaiOnline is opening these to online orders so we can get them with a proxy, I'll leave their link at the end of this section!!!!!!)

I've also listed all the prices in yen here so you can convert them to your currency, and all of these are the prices including the listed Japanese sales tax. If you want to see the price without it, it’s just the other number on the image!

So they've got

Two way acrylic figure stands (the main stand comes with a ball chain, you can reference these on Amiami for what this kind of product looks like I'm prettyyyyy sure like they're called different but it looks like they go together the same way). Anyways this is a set of 6 and 1650 yen each, it looks like you get to choose which one you want but they don't have a deal listed for getting all of them.

Next to it are the buttons (also called can badges idk which one is more common over here), set of 12 (6 are regular and 6 are glittery variety). They are 550 yen per button AT RANDOM, THEY WILL GIVE YOU A RANDOM ONE, or a box with one of each all 12 for 6600 yen.

Below that is the polaroid collection, it's also a 12 piece set and you can get A RANDOM ONE, THEY DO NOT LET YOU PICK for 330 yen each or a box with all of them for 3960 yen.

The same exact deal with the plastic (like a vinyl material) postcards underneath, they're double-sided and come one for 660 yen each at random or the whole set for 7920 yen.

The calendar is for 2025 and is 1980 yen probably obvious but y'know

I would be so shocked if a proxy actually let you ship the Kuroneko sama cookie discs lmao but hey wtf they're 1080 yen.

The Bride soda is listed here because this is the same merch that will be sold in the shop but they specify elsewhere that it's not available for online order even in Japan you have to go to the cafe ;-;

Also this is just personal experience but a lot of proxies will not let you get like blind or random stuff like the buttons they don't let you pick which one, some of them will only let you get it if you're getting the whole box.

Annnnnnd online order special gifts!!

For every 3000 yen spent in merch (including tax) you will get a random postcard from this set!! There are 15 to collect, they are NOT divided into halves of the event, you can get any of them at any time or all at once!! However, you can't combine orders made at different times/by different people to get more and if they run out that's it. Altho fwiw I have never seen an event run out of these lol

The online order period will be from Friday, May 24th at 11 am to Sunday, June 16th at 11:59 pm (both JST) and items will begin to arrive (within Japan, proxies will have to handle our own shipping ofc) from August 2024 on a first ordered first shipped basis.

CHUGAIONLINE STORE (JAPAN)

Ok, this last bit is relevant to the in-person cafe experience so it's just for if you're curious about other cool things going on or you have a hobby of watching JP mercari like a hawk and wanna know what to expect!

Guests who reserve places at the cafe online will get copies of some of Nightow sensei's most prized sketch pages, they'll get 3 random ones! Like with the special gift postcards, there are a limited amount and this event will end when they're all gone.

And these are the coasters, guests will get one with every item they order off the food or drink menu at random (while supplies last)! The variety you can get is split between the former and latter halves of the event so there's something new to come back for even if you've already been once! (The first 12 days is on top and the last 12 days is on bottom)

They're also doing a wallscroll campaign!

They'll have these decorating the venue, and when the event is over a raffle will be held where the winners get to pick out a scroll of their choice!

OK I THINK THAT'S EVERYTHING RELEVANT HAPPY TRIGUN MANGA CAFE EVENT!!!!!

[xxscarletxrosexx]

SpyxFamily x Ultrizon: Banquet Series -- Acrylic Stands (Part 1)

The limited edition Ultrizon collab was my first full-set purchase of the Spy x Family acrylic stands and acrylic keychains. I recall that I had paid 20 acrylic stands, 20 acrylic keychains, and 2 washi tape. The only thing I did not purchase were the buttons simply because I don't collect buttons. Also, the price quickly became expensive because of TWO international shipping (China > Thailand > US). The proxy seller I had purchased from ordered on my behalf.

If you'd like to try finding them yourself, I've provided some info below:

Title: Spy x Family x Ultrizon - Banquet Series Series/Model: Banquet Series Release Date: April 29, 2024 - May 7, 2024 (?) Company: Ultrizon Origin: China Price: $11.50 Shop: Chibishiba Shop

My understanding is that all collab merch should be treated as limited edition merch. However, what made the Ultrizon collab rare is that these acrylic stands must be pre-ordered at the time of the event, which took place between April 29, 2024 - May 7, 2024 (or maybe May 7 was the second round of orders? I can't remember). To my knowledge, two of my moots and I were the only ones who ordered them in our discord group at the time. To increase our chances of getting a full set, each of us purchased a few more acrylic stands. That way, if any of us got duplicates, we'd be able to provide what the other was missing. I, on the other hand, was paranoid as fuck that I was not taking any chances, so I bought 2 full sets (18 acrylic stands) and 2 more just to round up.

Hear me out: the seller didn't mention that there was an option for purchasing a complete set. I was only asked how many acrylic stands I wanted to buy (so obviously, I did the same with the acrylic keychains). And because this was also my first time purchasing a gacha (random) product, I was under the impression that it was really gonna come down to luck; so that added more fuel to my anxiety. that there was a possibility that I'll end up with multiple dupes rather than getting a complete set or two.

Fortunately, all three of us got the complete set. I also ended up getting 2 complete sets and 2 extra dupes of different characters. We were all so happy about this. This had to be the most stressful proxy purchase I've ever had so far.

Reflecting on this experience, I realize my decisions were actually quite wholesome despite being such a financially stupid decision--I admit that I did lose a lot of money for it (because I forgot to factor in shipping fees when selling it off to them at the time), but it made me feel happy that I had unawaringly provided a second chance for our moots to get them and deepened our bond and rapport. That being said, unfortunately, I had quickly sold out in a matter of days.

Loid Forger (Ver. 1)

Loid Forger (Ver. 2) -- Mercari

Yor Forger (Ver. 1) -- Mercari

Yor Forger (Ver. 2)

TwiYor

Anya Forger and Bond Forger (Ver. 1)

Anya Forger and Bond Forger (Ver. 2)

Yuri Briar -- Mercari

Damian Desmond -- Mercari

Franky Franklin

My favorite chaotic clown energies (also Loid but not pictured with them):

As of today, the Ultrizon acrylic stands are incredibly difficult to find. A moot of mine reported that she could not find them on Amiami or Buyee. One did pop up on j.mercari some time ago, but the price speaks for itself:

I went to look for the above image via Google image, but the link to the site is gone. Therefore, it can be concluded that these acrylic stands have been taken down due to being purchased.

Fortunately, there is a seller I know who is selling her dupes. I have provided links to her Mercari shop for those who are interested in getting them. Personally, I would not put these stands off simply because they are rare finds for collecting--and unfortunately, I am aware that once this post goes live and circulates on social media, it'll become a first come, first serve basis. Second, the price is the best deal. It's ideally the price the seller had paid after adding sales tax and the double shipping fees. But in the US market, I can tell you that this acrylic stand is probably worth $25 - $30 (without tax included). Scalpers will most likely take advantage of this and blow it up to $100+ because of their rarity as evidenced by the screenshot above.

In conclusion, I hope this post has been informative about the Ultrizon collab experience (at least from my pov, lol). Look out for part 2 with the acrylic keychains. I'll update this post once I've finished it and linked it here. You can also find it on the master post.

Best of luck to fellow SxF acrylic stand collectors! I hope you can get your hands on this rare limited edition merch! ^^

Edit:

Loid just sold! (It definitely wasn't my influence.. okay, yes it was. My moot saw it and I remembered she loves Loid, and now she took him xD)

---

XxScarletxRosexX's watermarked photos are protected by Pixsy. Please kindly credit the owner, XxScarletxRosexX, for these photos AND provide the source (this post's link) when sharing the image.

[runawaycarouselhorse]

Getting back to this, here's the non-figure but related to the main girls' merch: that sweet Alolan Vulpix terrarium I mentioned with Lillie's hat... and also a plushie explicitly meant to be Lillie's Snowy (with lovely official art on the tag, it's designed ot be carried [hugged with legs dangling, fff] the way Snowy often is on the show.)

Here's the new acrylic stands Iris got! PM19/JN mostly got stuck with acrylic stands, they're the cheaper alternative to figures... they're all poor Sakuragi Koharu (Chloe Cerise) and even Gou (Goh) got too, which you could blame on PM19's very troubled production and the pandemic, but oof...

And, of course, the kinda ugly cute Pokemon Kids chibi...

There is also the same little 2D stock art as tiny stands in a a very cool Moncolle World dollhouse based on Sakuragi Labs.

I know there were acrylic swing key chains of the stock art for Gou, Satoshi, and Koharu, but can't seem to find Koharu's anymore!! I did, however, find very cute chibi heads (if inaccurate in terms of skintone—both our boys look so washed out, oh, dear) for Satoshi and Gou, which were so cute, I thought they might be fan-made like a lot of 3D merch for these later characters, but apparently, they were toys in chocolate eggs (so similar to Kinder Surprise toys you had to piece together.)

No Koharu either... ^^;;;

At least Iris and Koharu have stickers and cards...

They both fortunately got plenty of (super cute) posters, given how often PM19/JN was advertised in Animedia (and Episode N was advertised in Pash!)... but yeah, the lack of full-sized figures remains...

(They don't like the full posters shared. ^^;; It might be fine now, since the magazines have long been released, but...)

Iris has no offiicial full-sized figures compared to past heroines and I think that's sad

I lost my old thread a long time ago, so taking a moment to show you how anime Iris only got two chibi pieces of merch, unlike all the main girls before and after (not including Koharu, who was more of a rarely appearing supporting cast member for much of her run), one a cheap Pokemon Kids toy and one a very nicely made (still chibi) collectors’ keychain part of a set.

Update: Iris now has an acrylic stand! Those are 2D, so not. Proper figures, alas, it's the same stock artwork that makes up stickers, just propped up to stand. There are also pins! Sadly, still no proper official 3D figure, aside from the chibi keychain (which was one of the first things I bought online with my salary--chibi Iris and a cute little Deerling plushie ♡).

There was an amazing resin statue of Champion Iris and Haxorus and another beautiful a League Series Iris (also in her Champion dress), but EZM Studios and Trainer House Studios respectively do not appear to be officially sanctioned by the Pokemon Company? There's a lot of Chinese figures that are honestly amazing, but seem to be unofficial/fan-made? Gorgeous, though.)

No figures of Iris as she was shown in the BW! anime/in her younger self's BW outfit from the games, ;^;

Misty is a product of the 90’s and most of her figures were cheap children’s toys! But thers’s still a bunch of them (in addition to the cheap Pokemon Kids toy, assume one exists of every major character.) New merch includes the polished G.E.M. series figure & chibi plushie!

These are sitting plushies, not figures, but they're very new and cute (and her seiyuu/original voice actress owns one and often poses it for photographs on her twitter, fff.)

May is also an early character and primarily has cheap toys, but she also has this very sweet (very tiny) promotional movie figure of her with Manaphy... a recently made very polished G.E.M. series figure, and she has a figure with Torchic! Game May has her own polished figure.

Note: the G.E.M. series commemorates the anime and seemed to be going in order, until it skipped Dawn (despite her immense popularity?!) after May, then skipped Iris for Serena... then, they made the Sun & Moon girls and that seemed it.

Dawn has a LOT of merchandise, ranging from cheap action figures for kids to collectors’ figures for her anime & game counterparts. Also, plushies, more keychains...

That last one is likely her game counterpart, given the loooong scarf.

Some more cheap children’s toy Dawns, trainer pack sets...

Again, keep in mind, EVERY major Pokemon character gets the very homely-looking Pokemon Kids toys and for a long time, that was Iris’ only toy. So, despite not picturing them here, assume all the main girls have them (as do main boys!)

For the record, BW! Ash had character merch like collector’s figures and children’s toys/action figures too, it was only Iris who was excluded.*Cilan has a full figure (Banpresto Partners figure with Pansage, Banpresto Partners Ash is with Pikachu) too! N, the Subway Bosses too also existed...

Serena has a LOT of merchandise. There’s a music box figure of her performing with a key, there’s the new G.E.M. figure with Sylveon, her game counterpart with Fennekin, cheap kid’s toys (Takara Tomy action figure), a plushie of her short-haired look...

Serena’s game counterpart has figures, clearfiles, keychains, stickers, posters, etc. (Iris recently got a pin/badge along with the other Unova Gym Leaders, possibly stickers too)—slightly sidetracking, let’s get back to figures!

A very cute short-haired, chibi XY anime-styled Serena (note she also has the gifted blue ribbon and the second outfit!) for the Pita Poke toys!! I wish I had those, it looks very Polly Pocket and cute, but sadly discontinued.

Moving onto Lillie, she has the most merchandise across franchise, I think! She has two anime-based figures (with Snowy and the Poke Problem blackboard.)

Game Lillie has many figures, a music box like Serena’s that plays her theme (it’s the one of her on the sofa with her diary).

If we count ~related~ merchandise, there’s a cute Terrarium Collection one of Snowy on the shore, with fallen flowers floating on the water, with a paw reaching out to touch Lillie’s hat, lying in the sand. There’s Iris’ Axew stickers and cards, promotional stuff, but all 2D.

I may reblog with the others and anime-related merch that isn't figures... I hit the limit, PFFT.

[the-twewy-sequel]

NEO: The World Ends With You Japanese Limited Edition Photos!

So, being the TWEWY fan I am, I kinda couldn't resist importing the super expensive and much-cooler-than-what-the-West-got limited edition for NTWEWY (https://store.jp.square-enix.com/item/SE_E2694.html), and I've actually had this kind of huge box just sitting in my room for ages, so as mentioned, I finally opened it today and took some photos of my spoils.

The bag, which contained a box with almost all the other goodies, looks pretty cool imo, and has the "funny game master saying", but I don't think I'll actually be able to use it. Not quite my style, I guess. Maybe one day I can come up with an excuse to use it anyway though, haha.

At first, the box just has the game and the Mr. Mew plush, and the game is, of course, in Japanese. Obviously I already played it and beat it, opting for the English Switch version, so now I've got a copy for both systems and in both languages, haha.

However, opening the box further reveals that there are multiple goodies! Here's a poorly lit photo above, lol. (I'm sorry, unboxing this took a while and I only had so much energy/effort to spare into taking good photos rn ^^; haha)

This cassette-player like box contains a Rindo pin and a reaper pin (think that’s what it’s called) that... looks pretty cool, but unfortunately can't turn back time no matter how hard I squeeze it. Though I dunno, maybe I just don't know how to use it right. Don't think it came with instructions, but if it did, they were in Japanese and I didn't try to translate them XD

This is the artbook, but with the cover taken off. That's right, it says "TWEWY"! Thought this was really interesting given that the Japanese name is, of course, quite different, but it seems like the English name has kinda caught on to an extent even in Japan, which I think is pretty neat.

Also, I did look at the inside, and it's classic artbook stuff, but well, it's NTWEWY, so I enjoyed it! Had some art I hadn't seen before too. (And some spoilers I guess, but hopefully collectors know it's better not to open such limited-edition-artbooks before beating the game, haha.)

The game and Mr. Mew. Dunno if I'll actually ever play this version of the game, especially with the PS5 already being a thing, and uhh, honestly I'm not a plushie person, so Mr. Mew doesn't have much use either, but... that's ok, collecting stuff I don't use isn't so bad if it's for TWEWY, right? XP

Lastly from the collector's edition, a mini soundtrack! Inside is a list of the songs, as well as a little booklet or such that has lyrics for the songs. only listened to a couple songs so far but between this and the full soundtrack I showed earlier, I think I'm set for NTWEWY's music, haha. Also, I lowkey still own a CD player that doubles as an alarm (not sure what it's called anymore), and I put this mini soundtrack in it, so now I might end up waking up to NTWEWY music sometimes. :P

But wait, there's more! Actually, I got something from the TWEWY Animation merch line that Square Enix also had on their Japanese store. So this is separate from the NTWEWY collector's edition, but I had it shipped in the same box, and so here it is!

W-What are these? Acrylic stands! Each one was about about $15 or so, but when I realized they all form a mural or w/e when put together, I kind of couldn't help but get all of them...

The lighting in my room at night is kinda poor and the photo doesn't look good with a flash imo, but I think y'all get the idea—the 5 of them complete a set, and I'm happy to have them as a way of remembering/appreciating TWEWY.

---

Overall I'd say I'm very happy with the collector's edition and acrylic stands, even if I do realize it's kind of a waste of money—felt like I needed to live it up for the sequel of one of my all-time favorite games, you know?

But at the end of the day/as I basically just said, these are kind of just ways to help remember and convey my passion for the series, and I think the most important thing is our own experiences with the games and how we feel about them. Merch is just a bonus, haha. And I mean, I think with this I should be good on TWEWY merch for a good, long while now, ;).

[airisu7425]

March Shopping - Part 1 (merch/gacha)

Spring is here! And many more packages! XD 2 of them got caught by the customs, which meant a lot more money to be paid (10 EUR customs clearance fee plus 27% VAT - shipping cost included... *cries in money*)...

Anyway, nice haul again - had to put the figures in another post, coming up soon.

With Brexit, our main source for English manga, Bookdepository has raised prices... Yaaaay... 2 titles have arrived (Punch Up! v6 and Birds of Shangri-La v1), my long-awaited Twittering bird might have gotten lost, have not arrived in a month yet...

I got a very balanced merch income: some old favorites and some new ones. Bleach is back on the merch scene, I had to get a few things for all times sake (even though I’m still mad at Kubo and hate the ending of the manga): the Halloween GrimmIchi stands were a must, just like the cute Anizuki set of 7. These are new types of ballchain mascots - much lighter and not as squishy as the omanjuus. While the shipping costs have reduced with the weight of the filling material, so did the quality... BUT the coats/covers that come with the mascots are adorable.

As much as I liked the Taisou Zamurai series, these 3 keychains are all I got from this series. I got the first Moriarty merch as well - the HamuHamu clips. Those are adorable! New Shingeki no Kyojin ones were out as well - seems like it is a revival for this type of merch (I have the YOI, the KnB and the previous SnK set).

Although FKBU is long over, the earlier pre-ordered merch is just arriving: the ‘wedding’ acrylic stands look so nice! The boys look dashing all dolled up. ♥

Also long-time favorite: Natsume Yuujinchou, or to be more precise: Nyanko sensei mousepads! I could not decide which design was the cutest so I ended up buying 4... And not shown, but I also got a little towel.

Let’s switch to the new favorites. Jujutsu Kaisen. First lets talk about the Jujutsu Kaisen x Bakudan Bakeshop collab stands. Unfortunately, you could not buy a complete set of the 8 designs, only blind boxes of 5. I got 2 (so 10 sachets) to raise my chances to get all 8. And of course I could not get the one I wanted most (Megumi) but instead got 4 (FOUR!!!) Panda. Don’t get me wrong, I love animals... But really??? I also got a duplicate of Toge and at least I got the rest: Yuuji, Gojou, Sukuna and Maki (I did not mind not getting Nobara). *sigh*

With the cord mascots (so called hugcot) I went for the complete set: Tokyo Trio and Gojou. They are fitting on my phone cord perfectly!.

Another cord mascot set: Touken Ranbu boys of 5. These are also super cute.

Kimetsu no Yaiba is still mass-releasing merch/gacha. The ‘earth version’ of the Onemutan series Third Form was released, so I got them to have the complete collection. I love to spot the differences between the original set and this version

Last but not least: Hataraku Saibou BLACK rubber keychain complete set.

Next post: figures!

TBC

[lunawings]

Island Fiesta Event Report 9/7/2019

So I finally got to go to an Island Fiesta! The series I went for was King of Prism.

This post is going to be long (and includes a lot of sea animals) because I want to talk about the event experience in general for people who may be thinking of going in the future. If you just want to read about the dolphin show with Junta Terashima and Taku Yashiro skip to the end. 

So Attraction Fiesta, or Island Fiesta depending on where it takes place (https://atfes.com/), is a new sort of event that popped up a few years ago. Basically they will sell anime merch at some tourist attraction, causing a bunch of fans to buy tickets and hang out at said attraction/area and spend money for that day. They call it Island Fiesta when it takes place on Hakke Island in Yokohama. Or at least that’s the gist of what I have gathered?? Back when they first started doing it, I think it was only just merch? I usually try and talk myself out of going long distance to events just to buy things. But they have been adding more features, like collab food and riddle solving games. And then they started doing actual events with voice actors, including a dolphin prism show. 

DOLPHIN

PRISM 

SHOW

So that was basically that. I decided I NEEDED to make it out to one of these at some point. I’d been waiting a year or so for one of them to fall on a good weekend and one finally did. So off I went. 

I wasn’t sure how early I needed to get there in the morning for the merch line. At first I thought it may not be so bad, but then I realized.... King of Prism wasn’t the only thing that was gonna be featured. There were eleven other series to buy merch from that day... and we’d likely all be in the same line...................

I ended up getting there at 8:45 (it opened at 9:30), and got a ticket for merch that said 11:10. 

I thought this wasn’t so bad for coming “late”.

But I also mistakenly thought they would be letting small waves of people in every 10 or 20 minutes like other events I had been to. But no, they actually let in big groups of like 100 people an hour (the 11:10 block had numbers 1 to 100 or so and we were supposed to line up roughly in that order), so after lining up at 11:10 I did not get out until like.... 1:45-2ish.......... and most of that was standing outside in summer because September is still summer in Japan. (At least we were in the shade though.)

The event had a loose Halloween theme and the Kinpri boys were vampires. I only got one Shin, but it was the acrylic strap which was really good. TBH though I was actually a bit more excited about the Ace stuff I got. Because I’m not that big of a fan of the artwork they did for Shin this time, and this is my first Ace merch EVER. 

They actually had a trading area for merch, which is kinda rare. It’s much more common for events to forbid trading altogether. ( So usually we just have to make… sHaDy dEAliNgs… Which has never made sense to me. I’ll buy MORE if I think maybe I can trade it with people…) 

But when I went over to the officially sanctioned trading area it was kinda small and looked like the same people had been camping out there all day probably. Plus nobody had signs for what they wanted out and I am pretty self conscious about initiating trades out of the blue. I checked Twitter just in case but found only people who were looking FOR Shin (pulls collar) instead of wanting to spare him and quickly gave up.

(I th.. I think there may have been a shift in popularity since SSS but maybe I’ll discuss that later…)

So the atmosphere of this event was rather strange. 

The merch line/trading area was as crowded and hectic from very early morning onward as any big time anime event I have been to. 

But the rest of the park.... 

Was pretty empty. 

Well, okay, it got more full as the day went on. I took these photos around 9:30 - 10:30 am. (I happen to find empty amusement park photos more interesting than lively ones.) But still.

There was an interesting divide in the park patrons. On the one hand you had all the fangirls (+about 4 or 5 fanboys yes there were that few) wandering around with itabags, and then the regular families just enjoying an amusement park haha. Of the fangirls, there was also a divide between King of Prism and.... non. Because it was easily like 70% King of Prism. But I suppose a.) I notice Kinpri fans a lot easier (sometimes I’m not sure what someone is here for. then I notice a tacky flamingo on their bag and it’s like I GOT YOU) and b.) This day was the dolphin prism show so there was probably a significantly higher concentration of Kinpri fans this day than other days. But still. I’m not used to King of Prism being one of the big dogs. 

So, I couldn’t tell you what the second most popular series was since I didn’t really recognize any of the others. Although what I can tell you is that for whatever reason the Yumeiro Cast merch actually started selling out first. (The King of Prism stuff followed after.) 

They had some food collabs, but the Kinpri vampire pizza was already sold out by the time I got out of the merch line. (So I just got non-Kinpri pizza and thought about King of Prism while I ate it. My stomach didn’t know the difference.) None of the other collab food sold out I think. 

Now, about the attraction itself. 

The proper name for this place is Yokohama Hakkejima Sea Paradise. It’s a pretty interesting and quirky aquarium/theme park.

Coming up to this event I was a bit worried I’d have nothing to do all day since I was getting in early for merch but the dolphin show wasn’t until evening. I wasn’t planning on merch taking over two hours though, so I actually only barely had time to see most of the attractions and just breezed through the main aquarium. Still, it doesn’t take much time for me to look at a fish anyhow. (I just may have kinda wasted my all-access day pass is all.)

You can get up really close to dolphins and penguins and all sorts of animals and pet them because.... sure?? 

They also really like animals in tubes. Or you going through tubes to look at animals.

seal tube

(seal tube from above)

penguin tube (walk through a tube while penguins are over you)

penguin tube from above

dolphin tube (walk through a tube while dolphins swim over you)

view from manta ray escalator (you take an escalator while manta rays swim over you)

otter tube (the otters were able to cross over into the river exhibition next to them)

they didn’t really feel like ottering at the time though 

It’s not a Japanese aquarium without capybaras. 

(If you’ve ever been to a Japanese aquarium you’ll know that’s serious.)

They also had this section where you could like... catch fish or shellfish and then eat it right there??? Because.... Japan.

I didn’t do that part. 

But anyway. 

flamingos

and another fish tube 

So this was a pretty neat attraction with or without the King of Prism stuff. I kind of like it when my anime drags me to do neat things I would not have done otherwise. 

So after looking at fish and things, lining up for two hours for merch, and looking at fish and things some more, it was finally time for the 

dOlPHin priSM SHow

Much like for merch we lined up in accordance with the numbers on our tickets. There were no assigned seats but we all had to file into the stadium roughly in order.

My number was just about in the middle, meaning all of the good center seats were taken when I got in. So I decided to opt to sit a little off to the side in order to be closer. This was a good decision because I happened to choose the side they came out (and left from) which got a good scream out of me when I realized. 

Unfortunately I didn’t think to bring penlights. I didn’t see the Tweet saying they were allowed until I was already on the train the day before. But realizing I’d only need red and orange anyway, at least I was able to hit up the 100 yen store for some glowsticks. 

(It just didn’t occur to me that outdoor + daytime = penlights even though King of Prism. Being daylight it was hard to tell the difference between red and orange haha but oh well. It’s true doesn’t feel like a King of Prism event without them.)

Before the show began we were all given an introduction about manners for the show voiced by Kakeru and Shin, to which we all responded eagerly out loud as King of Prism fans always do. (Kakeru: Rule number one! Audience: ONE!!!!!!, Kakeru (something like): Don’t throw penlights, etc. Audience: OKAY!!!!!!!!! etc. I love this fandom.)

So this whole dolphin prism show thing started a year ago maybe? This is the third or fourth time they have done it. It’s always Junta Terashima and *insert other SePTENTRION member(s)* 

So this time it was him and Taku Yashiro, and it was Taku’s first time doing it. (So basically Vi Va Vacance! But the song they ended up playing for the dolphin show was Brilliant Oath. But they gotta promote the newest CD and all that.) 

You could tell Junta and Taku only rehearsed this like right before, if.... at all....? (Probably not at all.) And there were a lot of parts nobody quite thought through. Haha it was so candid. But that’s how I like to see them. 

They started off the event by doing a King of Prism quiz. The audience could help out but it was mostly the two of them answering the questions A or B. 

One of the questions was if the number of likes on the mock social media merch below referred to Edel Rose’s debut or the number of “King of Prism elite”. 

Realizing the number was greater than the population of the world, they guessed correctly that it was Edel Rose’s debt. 

At one point they each had to fill in the line for the other’s character of what their proposal was in SSS episode 12. And then they each read their’s in character. 

Taku couldn’t read one of the kanji characters in Kakeru’s ahahahh..... (neither could I). He also almost misspelled “showtime” when signing an autograph. 

Speaking of which, after the quiz they both autographed the big uchiwa fans with A and B written on them that they had used to answer. But clearly nobody had though this through either, because the floor was wet so they couldn’t put anything down. So they had to like awkwardly put their scripts between their legs and fumble with their microphones while they tried to sign them. Junta kept apologizing about their awkward fumbling AS IF it was even possible for them to be wasting our time. They probably gave us like an extra 3 minutes with them so I thought it was beautiful hahaha..... 

(Photo from Junta Terashima’s official Twitter.)

Junta “won” the quiz, and his prize was two dolphins.

“Oh a pink one!!” (said kind of excitedly) “And a… normal one…” (said with the tone of “it’s what I… always wanted??”)

I guess he unloaded the “normal one” on Taku after the show.

(And then they kissed.)

Then after the quiz the actual dolphin show started. But this was also something nobody thought through. (I think they were at the back stage for previous events, but this time they were at the front?) Because both of them had to RUN when they realized they were about to get completely soaked with the first big dolphin jump. (They were both kinda like OH SHII-- and barely got out of the way in time.)

The dolphin show was set to Brilliant Oath like I mentioned before. It wasn’t really all that choreographed to match the music, but I imagine with dolphins that couldn’t be an easy thing to do anyhow. There were two moments that definitely seemed like they were probably intentional though: The big jump at the end, and when one dolphin brought a hula hoop ring to the stage right at “suki da yoooooo”. The rest of the show was probably no different than their usual dolphin show. But let me tell you, they sure did a whole lot of crazy flips and jumps. The combination of prism show x dolphins all of a sudden made a lot of sense. 

After the show Junta and Taku went to the back stage where the trainers were (”THE DOLPHINS ARE SO CLOSE” - Junta) and were given the opportunity to give them a hand signal to jump. 

They discussed what to say while giving the hand signal, and Taku jokingly suggested “We found natural gas!” 

In the end of course it was “Ready sparking!” and the audience participated as well. 

After the dolphins and trainers left, Junta and Taku came to the front again to wrap up the show. Junta let us know it was almost over, to which the audience of course let out a “whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat” and he was like “I love hearing that thank you.” 

He also joked that the show we saw was so good we may have released the seal on Shine. AND then when they were laughing about together he voiced Shin being like “No! Stop!” or something like that. It was so random and came so quickly from nowhere I couldn’t help but laugh. This may sound out of character for me, but when Junta Terashima is voicing Shin in pain but he has this huge smile on his face it just cracks me up. If you don’t understand, maybe you haven’t seen his smile. It’s amazing.

I also had no idea it was cool for him to just mention Shine like that. But then again, if they have Shine curry at AmoCafe then I guess it’s not officially classified as a a spoiler anymore. 

The show ended up being about an hour. Which was way longer than I thought it would be and incredibly worth the trip. 

I might have briefly caught Junta Terashima’s eye when they were leaving and/or entering the stadium. It’s fairly reasonable to think that I may have since they were right in front of me and a.) I’m a white girl in a sea of Japanese people and b.) I had a Shin doll in my boobs. (Okay tucked in my sweatshirt, not that risque, but still.) 

I know the chances of him both seeing me AND remembering me are pretty slim, but I really hope he did. Because the last time I saw him in person was at one of the greeting shows for SSS Part 1. Between then and now, a lot has happened. Part 4 came out, and I read an interview where he said he felt bad for Shin fans multiple times over what happened. 

I just want him to know that I’m still here and I’m still supporting Shin. 

What a day. 

PS. do seals always swim upside down or is this one just bored

[ignis-scientia-estrogen-brigade]

~ISEB in Japan: A Photo Journal~

If you’ve been following me on Twitter lately, you’ll know that I’ve been traveling through parts of Japan the last couple of weeks with my Ignis Play Arts Kai figure in tow. I posted a few pictures over there during the duration of my trip, but those barely scratched the surface of everything I got to do while in Japan. So I thought I’d put together a blog post of my journey while it was still fresh in my mind, featuring everyone’s favorite strategist in what I’ve been dubbing my Great Final Fantasy XV Adventure of 2019!

[Image-heavy content + commentary under the cut]

A brief backstory: I’ve wanted to go to Japan my entire adult life. For years, I’ve watched friends make the trek while I’ve been stuck at home with a severe case of FOMO. The only thing that ever stopped me from going was money (or a lack thereof), so I made the decision last summer to buckle down and sock away every dime I made to make it happen. My only concern before hopping on the plane was that I had missed the wave of FFXV popularity by about a year, but I would quickly learn that—other than not getting to eat any of Ignis’ recipes at the Square Enix Cafe—I had little to worry about.

Literally the only reason I brought my Play Arts Kai figure was so I could take this picture of Ignis at the Citadel (a.k.a. the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building), which was the very first place I stopped at on my first full day in Tokyo. The building + the surrounding plaza, while not 100% accurate, is a fairly impressive facsimile of the one in the game. It’s located in Shinjuku, which also boasts a lot of similarities to Insomnia. Having finished Episode Ardyn mere hours before jetting off on my trip, it felt like I had stepped off the plane and right into the game!

There just so happened to be an Animate right near the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, so I popped in to get a feel for what kind of FFXV merch I’d be able to find two years after the game’s release and a year after its height of popularity. Turns out, there was quite a lot of swag to be found! Truth be told, I’ve never been one to chase down official merchandise (unfortunately my job doesn’t really afford that luxury), but I gave myself special permission while on vacation to buy anything I wanted. So I did! Including everything you see above. ^^;;

The next thing I did was take the train to Ginza to meet Lyle/@landscape-gonna  (@landscape_gonna on Twitter), and I simply cannot say enough nice things about her. If you don’t know who she is, there’s a 99.9% chance you’ve seen at least one of her Ignis costumes, and they are A. M. A. Z. I. N. G. We had chatted a bit previously on Twitter before I went full-on stan mode, asking her if she'd be willing to meet up with me (a total stranger) to have lunch and talk Ignis and Final Fantasy. Not only did she say yes, but she gifted me with copies of her incredible cosplay zines and was not the least embarrassed when I busted out my Play Kai Arts figure in the middle of a busy Japanese dessert restaurant haha.

See? Zero embarrassment here.

We even did Noct’s ultimate pose! In public!

I can’t begin to articulate how special meeting Lyle was for me—being brought together from opposite sides of the world to share in our love for Ignis/FFXV is a memory I will cherish my entire life. So Lyle, if you are reading this: どうもありがとうございます ! ٩( ᐛ )( ᐖ )۶

Lyle wasn't the only friend I had in Japan. Another friend of mine, Asuka (who happens to be well-versed in anime/video game culture), volunteered to be my guide through Ikebukuro/Otome Road the next day. Quick otaku lesson: Kbooks is a chain of stores that specializes in the resale of licensed merchandise. For example, if you missed out on some of the limited availability items from the Movic and the Square Enix Cafe collaborations, you might be able to find them at a Kbooks. Otome Road in particular has something like seven different Kbook shops in a 3-block radius, each one specializing in different products (sports anime, idols, cosplay, etc). I, of course, beelined for the video game shop...

...which is where I found this fucking thing:

I’m not gonna lie, I almost bought it. I just didn’t know what I would do with it besides scare the living daylights out of people when they least expected it lol.

Yoooo Adam I found ya boi in Ikebukuro

We popped into the cosplay Kbooks shop since it was right across the street and I found an Ignis costume for sale! Please enjoy this picture of me pretending to come up with a new recipeh (since this is likely the closest I’ll ever come to cosplaying as Ignis).

One of the things Asuka introduced me to was Hanami (picnic under the cherry blossoms, basically). I had timed my trip to coincide with the blooming of the sakura, and the experience of being in Japan during that time was indescribable. I took a bajillion pictures of the sakura while I was there and unfortunately none of my photos ever quite captured the beauty and magic of them in person, but here’s a lil’ pic of a tree in bloom at Yoyogi Park (with the Movic Ignis charm I bought at Kbooks earlier that day).

Another item on my Japan checklist was to stay at a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in Hakone, a town famous for its onsen/hot springs. Nothing in Hakone is cheap (at least, not during peak sakura season), and I had spent an absurd amount of money on a night at one particular ryokan with a private bath (shy husband haha). The private bath could only be reserved in 30-minute increments, and by the time we finally rolled into Hakone the bath we wanted only had one slot available for the rest of the night. So what did I do?

If you said, “Waste the first 15 minutes of your 30-minute, super-expensive onsen experience taking the perfect Ignis-in-a-hot-springs photo” then you would be absolutely correct lol.

I actually wasn’t planning on taking a bunch of photos of my Ignis figure on this trip, but after my husband tucked Ignis into my futon while I was in the bathroom, documenting my trip vicariously through Ignis ended up taking on a life of its own. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I popped back over to Tokyo after my stay in Hakone, which is when I finally got to make the Great Nerd Pilgrimage™ to the Square Enix Cafe! Had the FFXV collab been going on while I was there, I might’ve forked over the cash to eat at the cafe, but I opted to skip out on lunch so I could spend more money in their shop. They still had a small collection of FFXV merch...

...including this acrylic Ignis stand that I wanted but thought I would never own after failing to find it at Kbooks earlier in the week. Huzzah!

Also, I just feel the need to let everyone know that this is what the outside of the Square Enix Cafe in Tokyo looks like lmao.

Our next stop was Kyoto, which we arrived in on Gladio’s birthday (April 2nd). Unfortunately I didn’t have time to draw anything for his b-day, but we did stop for a Nissin Cup Noodle in honor of Gladio!

One of the most memorable moments of my trip was when this boating incident happened, and it requires a little bit of backstory. On my first full day in Kyoto, I attempted to field two of the most popular tourist destinations in Kyoto: the bamboo forest in Arashiyama, and the Fushimi Inari Shrine. Both places have their beauty and historical significance, and I suspect during the off-season are inspiring sites to behold. In my case, both places were absolutely swarming with tourists, which really put a damper on my enjoyment of them. Defeated, I followed a local canal back toward my hotel, which is where I spotted a miniature boat enthusiast controlling a boat that looked eerily similar to the Royal Vessel. I pulled my Ignis figure out with the intention of simply taking a photo of the boat in the background; when the man saw me holding my figure and fumbling with my phone, he flagged me over and gestured for me to put Ignis in the boat. I wish I had documented how it all went down a little better, but as I was literally wheezing with laughter, the above was the best I could capture.

One of the more off-the-cuff decision I made was to dress in kimono for a day while in Gion (Kyoto). As the cherry blossoms were at their height during my stay there, you couldn’t sneeze without hitting someone who was dressed traditionally for the numerous festivals that were taking place throughout the city. As a white foreigner, I initially had reservations about wearing a kimono (for fear of cultural appropriation), but I did everything I could to be as respectful and reverent whilst wearing the garb (and the rental shop was certainly happy for the patronage). It was an amazing experience and I would definitely do it again!

Speaking of being respectful, I made it a point not to take pictures of Ignis while visiting any shrines (because nothing screams ‘douchey American’ quite like whipping out an action figure on sacred grounds), hence why I don’t have pictures of any of the major shrines we visited in this post. I did, however, spot this miniature shrine arch in an alleyway, and thought it would be okay for my equally miniature strategist to pay his respects.

Literally, a tiny shrine in an alleyway. I suppose even alleys have their deities!

Osaka is about 20 minutes away from Kyoto by train, and since I had already traveled all the way out to Kyoto, I went the extra few miles to stop by the Square Enix Cafe in Osaka. They actually had a smaller selection of FFXV merch than the one in Tokyo and I didn’t end up buying anything, but I would’ve never stopped wondering if I had missed out on something if I hadn’t gone and seen it for myself!

My last day in Kyoto was a week into my trip, and I still had five days left to go. After walking ~10 miles every day (no joke, I have the GPS screenshots to prove it!), I was really starting to feel the grind. I’m sure Ignis was also desperate for an Ebony after being lugged around in the bottom of my purse for a week lol.

Back on the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo!

Weeeeeee (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

Said hi to Fuji-san!

Stopped for a delicious matcha parfait! (Shout-out to my husband who never once got annoyed with me whenever I busted out my figure in public spaces lol)

This was without a doubt the craziest and most unexpected find of any of my merch runs. I had gone to the video game Kbooks in Ikebukuro earlier in the week and had sifted through all their Ignis merch with a fine-toothed comb. This particular Movic charm was one I had been on the lookout for, but it was a rare pull even when they were readily available a year ago, and the only Ignis charm I came across in my first trip to Kbooks was the normal Ignis one (see my Hanami pic). I had no real reason to return to Ikebukuro after I got back from Kyoto, but on a whim I went one last time and BAM—this guy was hanging out there in his lil’ baggie, just waiting for me to get my grubby little hands on him. Jackpot!

All in all, I spent way too much money and I couldn’t be happier for it. The only thing I couldn’t find for the life of me was the Ignis cologne by Movic, but after searching through several Animates and Kbooks, I began to suspect it might be an online-exclusive item that wasn’t available in stores. (Which was probably a good thing for me cause I was already stretching my budget to the limit by this point haha.)

On my last night in Japan, I went back to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building—only this time I went at night when it was all lit up! I also went up to the observation deck on the 45th floor (something I didn’t know you could do the first time I was there) and enjoyed a fantastic view of nighttime Insomnia Tokyo. It was the perfect bookend to a perfect trip, and my heart is absolutely overflowing right now with love for both Japan and Final Fantasy XV!

[i7songszine]

Interest Check Results

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THOSE WHO HAVE PARTICIPATED IN THE INTEREST CHECK! The check is now ended and we have decided to go ahead with the project! (We get even more responses in this interest check than the first issue of the zine and we are so happy Idolish7 is so loved~~)

Here is a summary of the Interest Check Results. Responses to some comments/suggestions in the interest check form will come in the next post.

--------------------------------

1. Have you heard about us before? >>>  A Surprisingly 54+% of respondents have heard this zine for the first time OAO I hope this means we will have more new applicants and readers this time! 2. What position are you interested in? >>> While most of the respondents are interested in contributing as as artist, we did get quite a number of people who are interested in getting this zine! The number of people interested in buying is actually very important, because this helps to determine approximately how many artists we will be looking for as our goal is to sell enough to provide artists with free zine and merch :D We think we have enough interest to make a zine similar in scale as the first issue with the chance of breaking even after sending artists their copies.

3. Keychains or stands? >>> Since we had keychains in the first issue, we were thinking stands might be more popular, but it turned out 31% of respondents want keychains instead. However, there is 28% or respondents who want both, and 27% of respondents with no preference. As such, we will go for both keychains and stands (stands will probably be small size as we have an idea in mind to make this more awesome than the first issue~)

4. What other merch would you like to see? >>> Here’s the ranking of the results. The chosen merch may be used as bundle merch, preorder bonuses, donor bonuses or stretch goals. This has not been decided yet. No.1 - Stickers: Stickers defeat everything else by a landslide LOL Therefore we will be having stickers again. The current plan is to have all 16 characters and maybe the managers too~ No. 2 - mini print/postcards: This seems to be pretty popular amongst interest check results (even in the first issue) but it seems not all artists want to draw them (everyone fought for the acrylics...). Someone also suggests to make some of the zine pages into mini prints. I think this is a good idea so we will have prints. No. 3 - Washi tape/Lanyards: These two items tied. Based on previous discussion with my supplier, lanyards are not too worth it unless we make a lot, therefore washi tape is on the list! No. 4 - Enamel pin/button: These two items tied too. We will have either one of these but we will check prices and supplier first. The rest - magnets/pouches/hand fan/bookmark - these items are not too popular but they are suggested. If we have more room for merch we may decide to make some of these :)

5. Ranking of teams for bonuses: >>> When Kinako is as popular as the managers and Zool... Ousama Purin you need to work harder LOL We will probably put the idol members for preorder bonuses and the managers as donor bonuses or stretch goals.

[littlepurinsesu]

Mystic Messenger at CWT 2018

Mystic Messenger had an official booth at CWT 2018!

I actually wasn’t planning to go to CWT, but since my friends were and they invited me, I decided to tag along ;) It was held at my university anyway, so why not :P

The rest will be under a cut so I’m not spamming dashboards everywhere I go xD

Right before we entered, we saw a group of MM cosplayers outside. I didn’t take any pictures (I’ve never been to one of these events and I wasn’t really sure what was considered appropriate), but there was a 707, Ray, Yoosung, and Jaehee :)

The booth is bigger than the regular ones and separated into its own little section (because it’s an official booth set up by the company and not a fan one). As soon as you arrive, you’ll be given a piece of paper that lists all the available merch and prices, plus a free RFA fan!  

They sold the officially translated Traditional Chinese version of the RFA VIP Package, as well as other merchandise that is limited to Taiwan (for now). These include medium-sized cushions, acrylic stands (sold as a whole set or as one random character that you cannot choose), and a gacha machine that contained can badges (meaning, again, you can’t decide which one you get). The gacha machine was already empty by the time we came, and apparently the acrylic stands were pretty much sold out as well? All purchases from the booth will come with a large MM bag, and they also had postcards they gave out depending on the amount of money you spent.

Here’s the free MM fan we got! There’s the RFA on one side, and Elly on the other =^.^= I thought they’d run out by the time we arrived, but thankfully we still managed to get our hands on one each ^^

Here you can see a sample of the Taiwan-exclusive cushion, as well as the MM bag (the one the girl is carrying). So many people were walking around with these bags, which meant that there were lots of purchases made! :D

I didn’t buy anything (already spent my money buying the newly released Ray merch from Cheritz’s website xD), but I was happy just to see the booth for myself and take pictures hehe.

There were also two “official” cosplayers of 707 and Zen. I thought they were just regular cosplayers hanging around the booth, but turns out they were hired to stay there and take pictures/”interact” with visitors to enhance the experience haha.

You can see the official cosplayers in these two photos (and the very first one of this post). Zen has his back turned; I think he was fixing his makeup xD Apparently these two are the most popular characters in Taiwan, so it made sense to choose them~

MM also appeared every now and then in other fanartists’ booths, and there were heaps of MM cosplayers! I saw many 707s and quite a few Zens, and there was also another Yoosung in his party outfit, and even a dark!Saeran <3 When we left, we saw the same group of MM cosplayers outside, and this time they also had an Unknown and a... 707!Rika? (The picture Seven sends you of him cross-dressing as Rika in the white dress and hat.)

I managed to stop myself from spending money this time, but it was still pretty interesting to see how popular MM has become in Taiwan (more so than I thought!) ^^ The amount of MM cosplayers greatly exceeded my expectations, and almost everywhere I turned I saw someone carrying the huge MM bag :D All these events and promotions they’re doing really are working wonders!

...

Btw, I did miraculously end up getting my hands on a ticket for the official “Mystic Party” to be held next Thursday, so expect a post on that event, too! ^3^

Edit: Click here for a detailed post on Mystic Party!

All posts on Mystic Messenger events in Taiwan can be found under my #mmtaiwan tag!

Check out my Saeran x MC fic: Waiting for Spring And my Choi Brothers fic: Of Roses and Resets

*All photos belong to me. Please do not repost without my permission!

[genyatta-ss]

that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam

from @kaldurrr:

Hey @knisspel! I was so super stoked that you requested sentai au because I’ve been thinking about it p much everyday since it came out. Particularly this one scene that was always stuck in my mind where Zenyatta (a huge fan) after having met Genji (an officiated “marketing agent” for Kamen Dragon’s PR team, think a la Tiger & Bunny) is somehow forced to address the very large infatuation in the room and introduce his new, Totally Normal boyfriend to his huge collection of merch for a superhero whom he may also have a flirty rapport with for the past ten years.

Genji is, for obvious reasons, delighted by all this.

(Oh and in this they’re both in their 30s but that’s not super important, just that I like imagining Genji with greying hair and thinking of settling down with a cute guy.)

I really hope you like it!

—–

Zenyatta doesn’t actually think about what he and Genji might be walking into when they breach the door to his apartment. It’s actually sort of hard to think at all when a beautiful man has his mouth on yours and is kissing you like his life depends on it. From there they stumbled their way across his living room, ricocheting off of furniture, hands reaching to pet and paw at bruises and to feel skin they’ve both been aching for these past few months.

  Zenyatta isn’t thinking when they finally crash through his bedroom door in a flurry of giggles, not when they collapse in a heap on his bed, not when they collide semi-painfully with each other and kiss to make it all better.

  No, he doesn’t stop to think at all, not until Genji moves south along his body, mouthing against his clavicle, “I can’t believe this is happening,” and Zenyatta, feeling like he’s full of divine light, wraps his arms around this beautiful man’s shoulders and looks, looks up at his ceiling and sees–

  “Oh god!”

  Genji is off him in the instant, one arm twisting behind his back as if to reach for something, his face changing instantly from warm affection to steely fury as his eyes jump from Zenyatta below him to whatever’s above them.

  “What is–” Whatever Genji is about to say falls silent. How else would a suitor respond when gazing up at 24 x 36 inch glossy-print of pissfig’s infamous Kamen Dragon “unsuited” design, illuminated sensuously by an official KD merchandise lamp.

  “Oh my god.”

  “Oh my god,” repeats Zenyatta as he curls up into a ball, using a Kamen Rider dakimura as a shield for what is currently happening in his bedroom.

  Actually, that’s a terrible idea. He tosses the body pillow to the floor, safe side up, where Genji can’t possibly see it.

  Genji is still gazing up at the poster with an odd look on his face. “Is that…m–” He stops himself, mouth opening and closing silently as he takes it all in.

  “Please stop looking at it.”

  “How can I not? It’s huge.” He finally does look away from it, intending to look Zenyatta in the eye for added effect but is then distracted by…. everything else in the room. “Oh my god.”

  Zenyatta decides then that he will live out his days under his bed covers and wait for his brother to come fetch the embarrassing, heartbroken shell of himself when he doesn’t show up for any of their biweekly lunches.

  From under the covers, he can feel Genji sliding off the bed and padding around the room. There’s a click just before the lights flicker on and Genji whistles.

  Zenyatta knows what he’s seeing. On the walls left and right of the bed, heavy-duty shelves have been installed from ceiling to floor in order to store the sheer volume of a decade’s worth of Kamen Dragon paraphernalia. He likes to order the left wall as the site of all merchandise, such as action figures, while the right side has the dedicated projects of all the artists he’s met over the years with all…. sorts…. of lovely takes on everyone’s favorite masked hero. The wall directly opposite his bed was papered in commemorative t-shirts and posters, the floor decoratively littered with plushies and throw pillows with the hero’s face stamped on them.

  “Zen, how old is this?”

  Zenyatta peeks out from under the covers and sees Genji pointing at a fan-made decorated stand where the artist had done an art nouveau inspired take on Kamen Dragon’s earliest armor, the chrome build on synthetic skin body armor with the green LED running lights.

  Zenyatta pulls the covers back over his head.

  “I found it at a fan event about a week after Kamen Dragon had first introduced himself to the public.”

  “…Your shit is ten years old?”

  The covers are flung off as Zenyatta launches himself across the room at Genji.

  “It is not shit, my collection is very important to me–”

  Genji’s hands are already flying up in a gesture of surrender and placation. “Wrong word. I actually think this incredibly impressive. Kinda overwhelming? But mostly impressive.” He smiles, the same warm, delighted smile he’s always given him since they had met all those months ago, like an old friend seeing their other after so long. “I think it’s really cool how much dedication you’ve put into this.”

  Zenyatta nearly collapses where he stands, his hands coming up to cover his eyes and cradle his face. “My brother would very kindly disagree with you.”

  Genji gently pries away his hands, forcing him to look him in the eye before he asks, “Is that why you didn’t ever want me over?”

  “It’s also because my brother only recently moved out, but yes. My brother has also told me in several different ways that if I ever wanted to be serious with you, I either had to tell you about my…. pre-occupation or throw out everything completely.”

  Genji falls over with laughter.

  “It’s not funny! Kamen Dragon’s marketing agent tracks me down after years of not living in Japan just for a documentary piece, whom I actually start to admire and like romantically and, and–”

  “And?” Genji’s smirk is devilish as he waits for whatever comes next.

  “Be honest,“ he dodges. "How would you feel if the person you wanted to date might also bring a camera crew to show the entire world how long I’ve been in love with–” Zenyatta shuts his mouth tight and Genji’s face goes slack.

  “Holy shit.”

  “No. No, no. Genji, I-I didn’t mean it like that.”

  Genji falls to the floor in tears and laughter. “Holy shit!”

  Zenyatta shoves him towards the door. “I can’t do this. Goodnight, Mr. Shimada.”

  “Wait, wait.” Genji twists in his arms and pushes back against any more shoves. “Just wait! I wanna know one thing and I swear I won’t laugh.”

  He, unfortunately, giggles at Zenyatta’s disbelieving look.

  “I swear–I just.” He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and when it’s over he looks as serious as he ever has. Or as serious as a half-dressed man standing in a room of fan merchandise can look.

  Genji cups Zenyatta’s face, stroking along his cheekbone. “If Kamen Dragon appeared before you right now, confessing his love, would you leave him for me?”

  “Out.”

  Genji howls with laughter, hanging onto the door frame as Zenyatta tries to shove him over the threshold.

  “I’m sorry, I had to!”

  “No, you didn’t,” Zenyatta says, stepping on Genji’s exposed toes with his heel. “And you know what? I’d consider it.”

  “Wait,” and now he sounds wounded, pulling back just far enough to get a good look at him. For a man in his thirties with hair going grey, he looks frustratingly adorable with a pout. “You’re just saying that because I’m being a dick.”

  “Yes, you are and no, I mean it. Kamen Dragon was probably my first love, as strange as that may sound. You said it yourself when we first met, who wouldn’t be charmed by a masked hero who saves them on almost a weekly basis?”

  “I–”

  “When I was living alone in Japan, there was a time I felt Kamen Dragon was my only friend. And as infrequent as our meetings and run-ins were, he was always charming and gentlemanly. He was adventurous and bold and kind and when we talked late into the night I sometimes felt I knew how deep his heart was.”

  Genji stares at him with an unreadable expression as he gestures at the risque poster above the bed. “I’ll admit it wasn’t an entirely pure feeling. Meeting a man with those shoulders and that voice at nineteen? I didn’t want to put that in your documentary.”

  Zenyatta walked over to the fan merch wall and plucked a keychain from a stand, something made with acrylic and glitter. “But I was also proud of him. For rousing together an entire city against a mob that had held it hostage for centuries and for protecting it even when outside forces tried to rush into the power vacuum. He did it with such style and grace–Genji, you’ve met him. You must know what it’s like.”

  Genji hardly seemed reactive but he responded eventually with, “What’s what like?”

  “Just–him,” Zenyatta gestures grandly as if the whole encompassment would explain everything that Kamen Dragon is.

  “If your first love, the person you’ve thought about for the past decade, came before you and said they’ve felt anything remotely similar to what you have held for them all these years, wouldn’t you stop to consider it as well?”

  Genji didn’t respond to that, staring at Zenyatta as if he’d never seen him before. Which made him feel terrible because this was not how he wanted Genji to find out just how far he’s come to admire his superpowered client.

  “That doesn’t mean,” Zenyatta tries to start, approaching Genji again. “That I would run off with him just like that. I would need more than rooftop chats from years ago and memories of running for my life when terrorist organizations tried to have him and anyone near him killed. I want–”

  He slips his hand into Genji’s and it lights his heart when the man automatically squeezes it tightly, intertwining their fingers together.

  “I want this. You. Every day or almost every day when you’re not busy. I want to text you when you’re not there or think about you when I can’t and yet be able to count on seeing you later. I want to talk about where we’re going and see your face and not wonder if–”

  Zenyatta has never been kissed so gently before.

  Genji takes his time with it, holding Zenyatta’s face like it’s something precious, mouth traveling from his and across his cheeks, around his eyes, and down the slope of his nose. He comes back to kiss him on the mouth, slow and deep and so, so gently before pulling away slightly.

  “Tekhartha Zenyatta…”

  There’s something I need to tell you.

[harocat]

Today our HUGE Amiami box came and it’s two months of backed up YOI stuff (plus stuff from other series but this post is focusing on just YOI), so here is an absolutely massive loot post. I  think this literally almost doubled our YOI collection.

First off is the Chara-Forme Yuri on Ice Acrylic Strap Collection Vol.3 by Empty! These are all Kiss and Cry themed and in my opinion this is one of the cutest sets they’ve released. Look even Georgi is adorable lol. 

This is the Yuri!!! on Ice Rubber Strap Collection Pair by Movic. There’s actually one non-pair in there as you can see lol. Yes they did remember the ring on the Victuuri one, by the way. Recent merch has been getting better about this, thankfully. I really like this set a lot (especially the bottom two. IDEAL). The only thing I’m not a fan of is how the ‘transparent strap’ style of them washes out the color in their faces a bit so you can’t see their blushes from the original art! 

The  Chara-Forme Yuri on Ice Acrylic Strap Collection Vol.2 by Empty! These are all based on the ED theme. The Yuuri in this set is blessed by angels. I don’t make the rules. It’s just true. 

Yuri!!! on Ice Clear Rubber Strap by Sol International. These are really cute and creative and all the straps have different colored sparkly backgrounds!! The top three are obviously themed to go together (both Yuuri and Victor are singing omg), and Yuuri is talking to a tiny Phichit on the bottom one of him. Also Victor and Yuuri as JOINT HASETSU AMBASSADORS is the best thing I never knew I needed. 

Yuri!!! on Ice Choko Kawa Rubber Strap by Sega. I really like the art in this set. It’s really soft and the thick lines are nice!! Also the skating Yurio has a sweet expression, which is rare but good. 

es Series nino Rubber Strap Collection by Kotobukiya. Chris’s pose is so extra. Haha I don’t have much to say here. They’re cute. 

Yuri!!! on Ice YuraYura Keychain by Bushiroad. For some reason my photos of all of these turned out really poorly, so you get these photos where the ones I’m selling are cut off, which I guess doesn’t really matter. I wonder why they put Yuuri in that promo outfit he never wears in so much stuff. I mean it’s a nice outfit but. Anyway, I ended up really LOVING these. The colors are super bright and the art is adorable!! Also no photos but they’re just as detailed on the back (for example Yurio’s hair is braided in the back on the keychain). 

Yuri!!! on Ice Tojikore Acrylic Keychain Vol.2 by TwinCre. So these are actually keychains, but they came with plastic stands, so you can display them as acrylic stands as well which is the BEST IDEA EVER. I love this so much and I dearly hope more keychain sets do it because it is so clever and handy. @abarero figured out a really, really awesome way to display our excessive amounts of keychains, but even then, this is always going to be better to me than hanging up yet another set of keychains. ANYWAY, every single keychain in this set is a gift; from banquet dancing to katsudon pirozhki to just... all of them. It’s so good. Absolutely one of my top three faves released for the series so far. 

Here’s keychains that came by themselves!

The History Maker Yuuri and the ending theme sparkler Yuuri were ACTUALLY amiami exclusive bonuses that came with the Kiss and Cry keychains and the Ending Theme keychains, but since they packed them separately I forgot to include them in those pictures. Whoops. 

Anyway, the big chibi keychains of Victor, Yuuri, Yurio, JJ, and Otabek are by Avex and they’re chibi versions of the Comiket exclusive release keychains. JJ, Otabek, and Yurio belong to @pantacular. 

Charappuccino Phichit is by Birthday. I actually did have Victor and Yuuri ordered too, but they were a couple of the items that got canceled, and they were out of stock. I actually did manage to find them on another site and have reordered them, but they’re not here yet. This keychain is so precious. 

The Tsumamare Victor and Yuuri are the little keychains hanging by their shirts. They’re by Cospa. They’re so cute and expressive. Especially the Yuuri! 

Bocchi-kun are by ACG and they’re the little tiny pouty keychains. They’re super cute, but I admit I’m a little disappointed by how tiny they are. Though I’m familiar with the line, I’ve never ordered a Bocchi-kun before, so I was unaware of their size. I don’t regret ordering them, and I’d still have gotten them (it’s not like they were pricey), but yeah, small. 

That single Yuuri is a Jelly Charm by ACG. And lastly is the Oshikura Victor by Orange Rouge. This actually came out in January, but I missed ordering it. Victor and Yurio are relatively easy to find, but Yuuri seems to be sold out everywhere, so Victor is having to wait. I did find Yuuri somewhere, but he’s a bit overpriced. It’s not TOO bad though, so I’ll probably go ahead and bite the bullet and get him instead of having to resort to bidding on auctions.  

NON KEYCHAIN LOOT.

In front, Love&Life and On Ice Victor and Yuuri cellphone stands from Atelier Magi because they’re great. Behind that, Cospa’s Vkusno! rice bowl. Next to that, Gyugyutto cushion straps of Victor and Yuuri by Bell House (Victor gets katsudon but poor Yuuri doesn’t lol). Behind them, Victor and Yuuri mugs by Gift. And inside the mugs, Victor and Yuuri Nitotan plush by Takara Tomy ARTs (which are super cute and nicely detailed). 

Here’s the inside of the rice bowl:

‘sup from Yuuri

Okay here we go. More non-keychain loot.

The Playful Mind (that’s the brand) collaboration stuff was cute as shit so I picked up some stuff from it. Good stuff, high quality, adorable art. 

There’s two (faux) leather trays, a coin purse, a phone case, and two cord holders. 

Above that is two pass cases of Victor and Yuuri being dapper in suits by A3! There were keychains released by Animega with this art, but they are near IMPOSSIBLE to get, and I’m resigned to the fact that it will never happen, so when I saw these pass cases, I decided to snag them instead. You can use them as keychains, so they essentially serve the same purpose.  

There’s Victor and Yuuri hair clips by Emu, which I’ll actually probably sell because they are big! I thought they’d be little ones judging by the price, but they’re big and I have short hair, so we’ll see about that. Above that is three sets of can badges, all by Movic. Then there’s the super cute 2016-2017 School Calendar, which I’m so pleased stands up on its own. 

Down below is three pens. Two of them are those kitschy ‘floaty’ ones where a figure floats down the pen, in this case it’s Victor and Yuuri ‘skating down’ a rink in the pen. They’re cute. The other one is a really cool, elegant pen themed after Yuuri’s FS outfit. 

Some closer up pics: 

OKAY LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

The softe things.

Usually I crop images to just the merchandise but like hell I was going to crop out my cat. Oxford now graces this post with his remarkable presence. 

Makkachin tissue box cover by Avex Pictures. Just as fluffy as all the rumors have foretold. 

Then! The Victor and Yuuri pillowcases by M's. Extremely soft fabric!! Would recommend for resting head upon. The picture is kind of a bad angle and frankly they BOTH look weird in this photo because of it but... I think, upon seeing it in person, the complaints about Victor’s face are very unwarranted. He actually looks really good and sweet and gentle in person and very much like Victor? The problem is parts of the rest of his body, where the anatomy is wonk (but this is just the pillow, so it’s only shoulders up and you don’t get that). And Yuuri looks great of course.  

ANYWAY, that’s end of this massive post. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I’ll have a sales post up pretty soon.  ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

[saucydollnana]

Part one of ANIME EXPO 2017 LOOT! So a few of these are actually freebies rather than loot but I want a shout out to @hissorihaka for coming along with me and inviting me to the Lupin the 3rd world premiere and for buying me the cutest PIN of 707 and the ehhhh okay of Jumin (I guess) LOL jkjk! All in all the experience with the girls @hissorihaka @lindsayforever and @bigbrothermatsuoka was a wonderful one that I will never forget! It was my first time meeting @lindsayforever and @bigbrothermatsuoka for the first time and I honestly was so nervous and was internally screaming but it all melted away the moment I saw them! (〃ω〃) Starting the day off at 3:00 AM with Dee and her room (not as full of creepy judging beady eyes) smelling of beautiful smelly smells!!! We had only had about 4-5 hours of sleep and we jetted out of there by 3:45 am making great time for our drive towards the City of Angels! So great actually, we only made 3 pit stops that didn't even last more than 10 minutes during each stop! By the time the sun was up we were more than half way to LA, and we even beat Lindsay there by a good hour (๑>◡<๑) Arriving at the Union Station, we even found some interesting bugs that well.. was in need of some desperate help. But hey, I'm not big on bugs so of course I just took a video of it while making my own screeching noises to dub over the little buddy's thoughts captioning it as "help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" ٩( ᐛ )و After finally meeting up with Lindsay (who is my twin by the way, it has definitely been confirmed after this meeting), we got to go eat outside on one of the little garden area of union station where we found some cute birds and a couple of unpleasant pigeons. I wish I had taken a picture of those teeny tiny birds! (⁎⁍̴̆Ɛ⁍̴̆⁎) they were the most adorable things with random feathers still fluffed! >> FAST FORWARD TO GETTING TO THE HOTEL>> We finally got to meet Ina, after getting to the hotel and her dad was so nice and hospitable and even took us straight to the convention center to get our badges! I don't think I have ever met anyone so funny and friendly lol it was a great drive and I was very blessed to have met Ina and her dad :) we went to target for some groceries and WOW TOOK AN UBER FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER GUYS! That was so convenient! I ended my day with having some late night KBBQ and 85c Bakery goodies with Ina and Dee! And of course, wrecking the wonderful hotel bed with my bunk mate, Lindsay lol! >> FAST FORWARD TO DAY TWO>> Day One was overwhelming and I can't even remember half the shit I did other than going to Little Tokyo and some old Japanese lady mumbling cause I was smoking a cigarette and she passed by >_> it was a blurrrrr of memories I'll tell you that but that's when I got that giant vinyl stickers of Haikyuu and a ton of little Touken Ranbu merch WHICH ARE ALL ONLY $3.50 LIKE HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE. I didn't even spend over 20 on that booth. I should have bought that Sugawara Pillow. I did get a bunch of freebies from Shall We Date like the giant bag of boys and 3 little buttons for completing their events and I got a bag from CYBIRD for downloading their Ikémen Sengoku which is now my new fave!!! Oh day two!!! Got there extra early with my girl to try to get my nendoroid of Mikazuki Munechika but IT WAS ALREADY OUT OF STOCK LIKE WHATTTTT!? Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑) So instead I stood in line for a good 45-60 minutes to get some goodies for my new samurai boyfriends. I got a pillow of Tokugawa Ieyasu, as well as his acrylic charm and Oda Nobunaga's charm too! It was the best feeling ever! Oh and I met new friends who one of them, Tiffany, gave me IEYASU's PIN! She's the best, if you are reading this, girl just know I owe you my soul! >> FAST FORWARD TO DAY THREE>> I ACTUALLY WOKE UP EARLY THIS DAY TO GET MORE MERCH AND FREEBIES FOR IKÉMEN SENGOKU! lol I ended up getting Toyotomi Hideyoshi's post card which is okay I guess since Ieyasu never had one (´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`) if you know me at all you would know the Tanuki (aka Archer of Tokai) is my favourite out of all the war lords during the unification of Japan, well that and I thought he was a brilliant strategist next to Takanaka Hanbei so it was only natural that I obsess over him too when it comes to otome games ε-(´∀｀; ) well! At least I got to get the Ikémen Sengoku pouch-pin set and I also got the last Ieyasu acrylic plate!!! I also ended up getting Hideyoshi's acrylic badge I mean come on, let's be real, I really cannot resist that cute and oh so charming little monkey face. After that, we went to the San x booth and I got some Jinbe-san stationery and then Lindsay and I met up with Dee for some good action packed comedy for the world premiere of Lupin the 3rd in Italian Game! It was a Dee and Aleli date and it was AMAZING! We got free shirts and we didn't have to stand in line in the heat! After the premiere we went back to the Exhibit hall for Dee to get her own sets of goodies from San X but they were all GONE .°(ಗдಗ。)°. I felt so bad! But don't worry guys! Our lovely Mama Dee got hers during Day 4 (spoilers)! We ended up meeting with Lindsay and Ina but by the time we got back to the Marriott for the Tokyo Ghoul World Premier... IT WAS OVER CAPPED (● ˃̶͈̀ロ˂̶͈́)੭ꠥ⁾⁾ So that was a bust! What's an even bigger bust for the night? NEON DISTRICT. Some girl with a power trip sent Lindsay to room 501 because her bag was "too big" and it was SO EXTRA that we were both too turned off by the staff to even bother going at all (ㅎㅊㅎ) soooooo we went back to our hotel, and we drank instead lol! I'll leave it here for now and post more about Day 4 in a few minutes... so stay tuned!

[souzoushin]

[Translation] IDOLiSH7: Rabbit Chat [Yaotome Gaku - Black Side]  Part 4

Title: About the Merch

Participants: Tsumugi, Gaku

Source: Unlocked in game from the Yaotome Gaku card released as part of the first Ichiban Kuji card set (May-June 2016), pictured here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

*** [Previous: Part 3 - The Outfits and Rehearsal] *** [Next: Part 5 - Preparing for the Awards]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Tsumugi)

Gaku-san, thank you for your hard work! Have you also received samples of the “First Lottery” merch?

(Gaku)

Good job, Tsumugi. We did. Those cushions sure are big, lol.

(Tsumugi)

They really are! In our case, it seems Mitsuki-san is in the process of decorating the dorm with them right now.

(Gaku)

Just how do you decorate with those huge things? Lol. Although the older Izumi does look like he’d love that stuff, lol.

(Tsumugi)

For the time being it would appear he’s lined them up on the sofa, though now it feels like we’re going to run out of places to sit instead! Lol.

(Gaku)

That’s the feeling I’m getting too. And you have seven pieces, right? Life’s tough for you.

Even with just our 3, the cardboard boxes were still out of this world.

(Tsumugi)

The agency was stacked full of cardboard boxes lol. The screams we heard were of happiness though...!

How about the merch that TRIGGER received?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> 1. Are they being safe-kept at the agency?

>>

(Tsumugi)

Are they being safe-kept at the agency?

(Gaku)

The agency has a room reserved just for this, so we just leave the big stuff there. We’re going to need a second room soon, though.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> 2. Did you take any of it home with you?

>>

(Tsumugi)

Did you take any of it home with you?

(Gaku)

I’m not really the type to get into stuff like that. Ryuu loves them though, so he took plenty home. And I don’t know about Tenn at all, that guy’s a mystery.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> 3. Did you put any of it on display?

>>

(Tsumugi)

Did you put any of it on display?

(Gaku)

We do have a few on display at the agency. Our manager put the acrylic stands in the showcase, I think.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Gaku)

Does your place have a room to store merch too, Tsumugi?

(Tsumugi)

No... We don’t have a room like that, so everyone’s pretty much just putting them on display around the dorms...!

(Gaku)

What do you do with the straps and stuff like that? You can’t put those on display, lol.

(Tsumugi)

We have a corkboard and it seems they’ve been pinning them to it and displaying them there! I did a bit of research into that, and there were many really cute ones with lovely decorations on them!

Speaking of the straps, Tamaki-san noticed that Yamato-san’s and yours, Gaku-san, are the only ones designed with you sitting down and it caught his attention lol. He’s right, I wonder why that is? Still, both of your capes are really big so you look very cool, kind of like kings!

(Gaku)

Nikaidou kind of looks full of himself, lol.

(Tsumugi)

It’s because he’s leaning on his elbow and has his legs crossed, isn’t it...! Lol.

(Gaku)

We’ll be working at the same location next. I’m gonna tease him a little about this, lol.

------------------------------------------------------------------------