#reblog to people who follow any jp artist on twitter

[emyluwinter]

I want a feature to transfer all my subscriptions from twitter to blueskay.....

nobody prolly gaf here but a lot of jp twst artists r moving & deleting or they're privating their accounts on twitter cus of the new ai implementation thing that'll take place in the 15th!! if anyone wants to follow b4 they go priv, pls check out the #ツイステ絵描きさんと繋がりたい or #twst絵描きさんと繋がりたい tag

[taralen]

Information

𝕎𝕖𝕝𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝕥𝕠 𝕞𝕪 𝕓𝕝𝕠𝕘!

I am a fantasy artist and writer based in the USA. This blog is mostly for my art and for sharing others' art. Sometimes, I'll post writings, musings, or theories about a work of fiction that I think warrants some in-depth analysis. I don't have any separate blogs, as I don't see the point in making them. I struggle with a lot of mental health conditions, so I'm really unstable but congenial. Hope you don't mind! Trust me, I am no threat to the public at large! I love making others laugh and smile, so why not just laugh at me, with me? The subject of this blog is primarily art and writing. I do not repost memes if they have nothing to do with either of these two categories.

If you're looking for specific tags, please use this guide:

#my art - Use this tag to filter posts showing only stuff drawn by me

#my writing - Similar to the above but just for writing I've done.

#musings - Random thoughts, journal posts, or ramblings, aka actual "blog" posts.

#merch haul - Posts related to collectibles I've obtained that I want to share with others.

#not my art - Filter posts to only show art I've reblogged by other people.

You can find me in a few other locations, but I'm only going to list my active ones here.

DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/taralen For most of my completed pieces. The only sketches you'll find here are for clients who commissioned sketchy pieces.

Myfigurecollection: https://myfigurecollection.net/profile/Taralen For my figure and hobby-related stuff (doujin, merch, etc.) I sometimes build my own figures (aka Garage Kits.) I've been collecting valuables since I was a kid, so you can consider me an experienced collector. Have questions to avoid getting scammed? I'm the one to poke!

Pixiv: https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/3540237 [[JP Only. Also 18+ but censored.]]

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/taralen Uncensored 18+ options, Hi-res versions, process compilations, and original pieces (usually concept art) I don't upload publicly.

Discord: [[Private]] I love meeting new people, but I would rather speak to someone privately on here first before I share this. I'm extremely chatty, so be warned!

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/Taralen I'm the least active on here, but I might as well include it.

DNI IF YOU: Nothing offends me. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) JK I am a very curious and open-minded person. If you have views that don't align with mine, we might not have the best conversation, but it can certainly be an enlightening or interesting one! What are my views? Well, we learn these things from each other through polite conversation. Exposing myself to different lifestyles and opinions is enriching. Who knows? Even a hateful individual might change their mind when speaking to someone with kindness and understanding. I'm open to being followed, messaged, etc., by just about anyone, even people who I vehemently disagree with, UNLESS: ❎ You've committed or condoned acts of animal, child, elderly, or disabled person abuse/assault. We don't need slimes like that anywhere. Anyone that harms real innocents is a piece of human scum, regardless of whether or not they fit the categories I listed. ❎ You're just trying to sell some sex service to me. Sorry, but I am not interested. ❎ Condone or committed acts of necrophilia on deceased humans or animals. Seriously, what the $%^& is wrong with you? ❎ You are a stalker. Kind of obvious, but I had one in the past, so don't act like I forgot. 8^)

If you have similar interests, feel free to message me or ask me questions. I am lonely, so it's nice to talk to new people now and then. If you think my ideas, "headcanons," or interpretations are stupid, then that's fine. I don't expect everyone to like them. It is what it is.

Any and all reblogs are appreciated. If you repost my stuff like, say, on Reddit, please give credit and link back to the source, whether it be here or somewhere else. I always like seeing my work shared.

[wakasagayhime]

very long, very personal post

tldr, im still not drawing but here’s a detailed account of everything that’s happened in case anyone is confused or misinformed

alright. let me start out by saying i’m not going back to art just yet. it still hurts to do anything art related and i’m still trying to find a way to heal from all of this. i need some kind of professional help first, and i don’t know how long it’ll take afterwards for me to begin feeling like myself again. i don’t even know if i’ll be able to get any kind of professional help at the moment; my university’s counseling center told me, in short, that i’m so mentally ill that their services would not be enough for me and i’d have to look elsewhere (which is reasonable, tbh, they’re almost always completely booked so it’s difficult to actually even talk to someone there in the first place, i only got to talk to them to begin with because i nearly killed myself one night after having the most intense panic attack of my life where i felt like i was actually in the process of dying) and as if that weren’t enough, if you follow me on twitter you’d know that my mom finally left my stepdad, but this means that we no longer really have a home to call our own and are now living with some of my mom’s friends. on the bright side, miso is a lot freer and gets to explore the house as he pleases, but on the downside money is tight and my mom is trying her best to find a place to live while working two jobs and trying to help pay for my tuition. long story short, i want some kind of professional help badly, but all the bullshit that’s been happening in my life makes that difficult. 

anyway, i understand that i’ve worried a lot of people through all of this, and i’m sorry. i truly, genuinely am sorry for everything that’s been going on. i blame a lot of it on myself not being strong enough. if i were stronger, i wouldn’t care about some stupid internet trolls, or some random grown man in florida stalking all my social media. if i were stronger, i could take my life back. i wouldn’t feel the need to constantly contemplate suicide, or to torture my own body by starving because of my physical form feeling like the only thing i have left to be in control of. if i had only been stronger, like my old stupidly foolish overconfident 16 year old self who got into fucking STEVEN UNIVERSE DISCOURSE of all things, maybe i wouldn’t care. even when it first happened to me, after the initial shock and hiatus, i was pretty much back to normal almost instantly.  but this kind of trauma is sneaky and will gradually eat away at you more and more while you pretend to be ok, and then eventually you reach a breaking point and it’s taken over your life. that’s why i’m still obsessing over that day two years later. that’s why i can’t be left alone on december 13th this year, or else i know for a fact i will harm myself in some way. (don’t worry about that though, burger is going to hang out with me that day and i’ll be fine.) still, even though i keep telling myself my past self was stronger, i do know that she really wasn’t. she was still struggling with depression, anxiety, and self harm issues. maybe it just manifested differently for a while. maybe she felt unstoppable at some point in time because she finally found a girlfriend and got a cat. i got into so many fights that weren’t worth my time or energy at all, and part of me wishes i could be that confident again, but i also know that was my downfall to begin with.

i have followers who haven’t been around for longer than a year or maybe less than two, so i might as well give everyone a true, thorough rundown of what happened leading up to that day, the day of, and after. 

i’m sure a lot of you who are worried about me at the moment have seen the recent callout for colboh and his involvement in what happened. i’ll be honest--i don’t know the full extent of his involvement, and i want to believe his foolishness ends at not leaving artists who have blocked him alone and uploading their shit to booru sites when they explicitly state not to. so let’s just start there. i honestly don’t remember if it was before or after i first blocked him, but he uploaded one of my NSFW drawings to danbooru when i first shared my NSFW blog. (PROTIP: if you’re a minor, don’t share your NSFW art with anyone. don’t care if you’re 17, i was about to turn 17 myself. it will bite you in the ass. as such, some of this is my fault.) i quickly contacted danbooru asking them to delete it, and they did--but that artwork subsequently ended up on gelbooru as well, and i was unsuccessful in my efforts to remove my art from there.  

fast forward to december 13th, 2016. it was a normal morning. i was getting ready for school, but also being dumb and lazing around in bed browsing tumblr. i saw a post from a blog that shares Funny 4chan Screencaps. my art was in it. the art was of a very muscular yuugi, a drawing i was proud of, especially in how much gay energy i thought it radiated--but this drawing was being used in one of those typical “here’s a touhou, i wanna fuck her! am i right guys? let’s talk about how badly we want to fuck her” threads. seeing my art used for this was appalling. my first mistake was reblogging the post and saying how it was wrong, and how my art shouldn’t ever be used for such a purpose. my second mistake was making a text post AND tweets expressing my disgust at the situation, thinking no one who frequented /jp/ would ever see, sure that it would be a big waste of their time to concern themselves with some random dumb “”sjw”” artist. i also probably shouldn’t have specifically called them “gross neckbeards,” in doing so i absolutely struck a nerve with basement dwellers everywhere. i got to school and during my second period class, suddenly felt a strange urge to look at /jp/. why i did that, i still don’t really know. maybe i was expecting hate. maybe i was trying to see if they used my art for something gross again. i don’t know. either way, that moment changed everything forever. i saw the screencap of my tweets posted for everyone in their  circlejerk to see. even worse--i looked in the thread, and someone had also posted the NSFW art colboh had uploaded to danbooru, mocking it and calling me a hypocrite for drawing two girls having sex while also saying i don’t like my art being used for those kinds of threads. this is what truly ignited the amount of hate i saw directed towards me in the threads. i got called a bitch, a drama whore, got told to kill myself, and in one reply etched into my mind forever, someone said something along the lines of “we should all call her local gang and have them rape her, she just needs a good dicking.” there were multiple threads, too; i don’t know how many, but there was another one about me after the first one was deleted, in which someone edited a typical fat balding NTR hentai doujin style man into art i made of kagerou nosebleeding at wakasagihime. more disparaging comments were made. in both threads, people expressed their hatred and dislike of my art, some calling it garbage, some just saying it’s “bad,” etc. some people said the threads were unnecessary and rude, but they were a kind few in a cesspool of violence.

i don’t know who started these threads. i can’t assume anything about anyone, but whoever did this was definitely looking through all my social media out of bitterness and hatred, or perhaps even following me on both my tumblr and twitter considering the timing of the threads immediately after i complained. it eats at me that i most likely will never know who did this to me. i’ll never know who hated me so much that they decided to completely destroy my self esteem. if whoever it is who did all of this is reading this and feels any ounce of remorse, i’m begging them to reveal themselves and why they did it, but i know the chances of that happening are incredibly slim. someone, i can’t remember who, maybe it was queenly, told me they hope someday i reach a point where i don’t have to worry about that because i won’t care in general, but i still don’t know if i’ll ever reach a point where i stop caring about all of this.

like i mentioned earlier, after this all first happened, i was destroyed. the next day, my school’s GSA happened to have a vote for whose art would be on the club t-shirts, mine or someone else’s. mine lost. i broke down completely--anywhere i went, i wasn’t good enough, not for anyone. for days, there was a constant feeling of horror and fear  in my chest, something i’ve only ever felt so intensely when one of these threads resurfaces or i suddenly relive my trauma due to other things triggering me. i took a hiatus that lasted a few weeks, i believe i came back sometime before the new year. i thought i was ok, and i pretended like i could go back to being myself. but as time went on, and i continued living with the weight of that day on my back, i became weaker and weaker. i stopped drawing as frequently as i used to. my final year of high school started and i ended up falling into such a deep depression that i constantly skipped school and eventually attempted suicide in november 2017.  the suicide note i wrote cites that day as being one of the main things leading me to my decision, telling whoever did this to me that i hoped in my passing they’d have to live knowing what they did to me. my attempt only failed because i swore to take every pill left in the bottle and there were only four pills. had it been full, i’m not really sure what would have happened. i was sent to a mental institute afterwards for a week. being there was the absolute definition of hell. i was alone. i cried myself to sleep every night. they claimed to be a place where people were improved and got help, but i did not get any help at all. they basically imprisoned me for trying to kill myself. when i got out, i was only glad to be alive because i just wanted to be able to talk to my friends, my family, and my girlfriend again. it still shocks me that i was able to graduate from high school considering how much school i skipped before and after my suicide attempt.

sometime before that school year ended, i became extremely upset one afternoon and decided to run away from home. i had what happened to me and what was said about me that day running through my head. i tweeted that i hoped maybe in running away i’d end up being raped like they wanted, like how i deserved. someone who i considered a friend replied to this with, “fuck you.” after all of this was taken care of and i was safe at home, i responded that i was sorry, that i wasn’t thinking right when i made the tweet. she responded that i was, and blocked me. i tried to explain that i said what i did because of the threads about me on /jp/ and the one response threatening rape, but this was disregarded and, seemingly, ignored. a few days later, the former friend in question started sending me anon hate on tumblr, asking me why i want attention so badly, accusing me of making light of actual rape victims by saying such a thing. i explained myself, but to no avail. i blocked her on tumblr, and left it at that. but then, at the end of the school year, when i was proud of myself for finally getting through high school without killing myself or failing or anything, i stumbled upon the second thread. the date the thread was created lined up exactly with the time between me running away from home and me receiving anon hate. she can try to act like she didn’t make the thread all she wants, but i’m not an idiot. the replies were also eerily similar--people in the replies remembered me, a year and a half after the original thread. some replies mentioned me having attempted suicide months before. some mentioned my NSFW art again. i had a massive breakdown and nearly drowned myself in the pond down the road. it was a wet, rainy night, and i sat on a bench by the pond sobbing loudly, trying to find some way to want to keep living. but i couldn’t. i might have gone through with it if it hadn’t been for burger coming and talking to me and giving me a ride home.

entering college, i thought things would be easier. in a way, they are. i have more freedom with classes. this semester, i attended almost all of my classes, almost every day, just with the exception of me being sick some days and me accidentally oversleeping once, and then one day when i just didn’t feel like it. but things continued to get worse for me--i developed an eating disorder for many reasons, one being the time i spent a year prior depressed caused me to gain a significant amount of weight, and the other being i had sworn off self harm in the form of cutting. i found that i was able to get the same gratification from starving myself. at one point, it turned into a game of sorts, where i tried to see how long i could go without eating anything. my record was a little over 72 hours. being constantly hungry or in pain this way felt like something i deserved in a way, but also something to distract me from the pain of realizing i was losing my love for art. i was in denial about it for months. i tried to keep drawing, but everything i drew upset me, saddened me, and even angered me. i looked at anything i made and only felt disgust. it was the one thing i used to love doing more than anything, and now i only felt shame. 

in november, i acknowledged this and decided to quit for good. recently, i discovered colboh had uploaded more of my NSFW art to gelbooru, even though i specifically stated on my blog to never upload my NSFW art to image sharing sites, specifically right after he uploaded my art the first time. by the time i found this, i had already sworn off art for good, but looking at the comments on my art on gelbooru (and rule 34--i guess they’re connected upload-wise like danbooru?) filled me with so much sadness and shame, not because they criticized my art, but because they said horrible things about my depiction of kagerou. for those who don’t know, i headcanon kagerou as a trans woman, and one thing i do not regret about my time as an artist is how that depiction has helped numerous trans women feel good about themselves and their bodies. seeing so many disgusting comments deliberately misgendering her and making other transphobic remarks hurt me on a completely new level. my trans friends have been such a source of strength for me through all of this and seeing that made me feel disgusted, especially with myself. i felt like i had failed them. i had made so many trans women happy, only to see a man i blocked two years ago had uploaded my art to porn sites, tagging it with dehumanizing words like “f*ta” that i specifically tell people never to refer to my art with, displaying that art for the exact same crowds of people that ruined everything december 13th 2016 to continue to pick apart. one comment even told me to kill myself, effectively bringing back every memory of that day. 

speaking of that, another thing i want to touch on now that i’m up to speed with the details of everything that’s happened related to the original threads two years ago, is kagerou. i’m positive you all know that i really love kagerou imaizumi, and that she’s my favorite touhou character. it’s embarrassing to say, but she’s brought me so much comfort through all of this. sometimes if i’m sad, i’ll imagine her giving me a big hug, or i’ll look at cute pictures i have saved of her, or something along those lines. it’s pretty cringy for a fictional character to make me happy, i know, but i’ve grown so attached to her and she really means a lot to me. and another thing that made me want to swear off art is because she’s loved by so many others that i don’t think my depictions of her do her any good. i’m constantly compared to other artists, and it’s never good. even in the threads, i’m told i should be more like those other artists and these things wouldn’t happen to me. i am not allowed to love kagerou imaizumi. i draw her as a hairy trans lesbian, and that disgusts people. hell, the fact that i draw lesbians in general disgusts people, which sure fucking sucks because i constantly hate myself for not being attracted to men and being able to draw happy lesbians made me feel better about myself. but i’ve ruined kagerou for so many people, especially with my stupid kagewaka bullshit. maybe that’s why those artists unfollowed me. maybe it’s a combination of that and my constant breakdowns becoming far too annoying. i think all the popular artists who used to like me and then unfollowed/softblocked me are really glad to see that i’ve given up. and that’s something else that saddens me too--even as an artist, in my own community of touhou artists, i often feel like i’m lesser, and that i don’t belong. maybe it’s because i’m so foolishly outspoken about my opinions that they dislike me. maybe it’s because i’m a woman, and a lesbian at that. i don’t really know why they hate me so much. i wish i could belong somewhere.

and i think that’s what it all boils down to in the end. i’ve lost all sense of belonging. when i was 14 and people started noticing my art for the first time, i finally felt like i had something. like i belonged somewhere. after being bullied through middle school and having to deal with abusive friends and an abusive dad, it meant the world to me that i finally had something. but it didn’t last long at all. it all came crashing down, not just because of others, but because of me. i was the one who was cocky, getting into fights that weren’t worth it. i was the one who provoked people and made them hate me. i was the one who complained about /jp/ posting my art in their threads. i know people want to believe that i’m a saint, but i’m not. i have myself to blame too. i at least want everyone to understand this, above all else. there was so much i could have done differently to prevent this all from happening, but i didn’t. i was stupid and naive. i was a massive fucking idiot, and now look where i am. i lost everything. i thought i had friends, i lost them. i thought i loved art, i lost that. i thought other really talented nice people liked me, i even lost that. all i have now is an empty shell of my former self. i don’t know what to do with it. i don’t know how i’m going to rebuild myself. it’s so painful to have to keep living like this. i don’t know if there’s any fixing me at this point. i’ve lost so much, i feel permanently broken.

but despite all of that, despite everything i’ve been through, i still receive so much love and support from my followers and friends and it means so much to me. it means the world to me and has kept me going through all of this. knowing that people care about me and want to see me get better and improve makes me want to try to fix myself even if i am broken beyond repair. i just want to thank you all for being that source of strength for me. these past few years have been so hard for me and time and time again i still get love and encouragement from so many people. from the bottom of my heart, thank you. there is nothing more precious to me than those moments when i feel like i do truly belong, when i feel loved, when i feel like i’m not alone after all. for those moments, i’ll keep trying. even if these threads keep continuing and breaking me further, i’ll keep trying. even if every last artist in this fandom comes to hate me and my shitty art, i’ll keep trying. it’s still painful to draw right now and i have a long way to go before i can share art with anyone again, but for you all, i’m going to keep trying my best. at the end of the day, i know everyone’s encouragement and love is worth far more than hate threads urging me to kill myself. 

i’m sorry how long and personal and unnecessary this is, but i felt like i had to set things straight. if you read all of this, i applaud you. if you just kinda skimmed through to read the last paragraph, i also appreciate it. again, thank you. 

[velteris]

Hey! I follow you on twitter/tumblr because of your fics & that delicious bushiroad content, and I was wondering since I've seen a lot of sudden posts about unfollowing/blocking incest shipping in bandori from multiple people in the EN fandom, I still see people retweet art from JP and KR artists who also draw syhn... This is something that's worrying me, so I went on anon... but wouldn't it be better to just block and no longer support incest shippers from all parts of the fandom, not just EN?

you’re very valid and understandable! i know some people who Have done that, too, n i hope they’re living blissful lives right now!! and if you wanna do the same then all power to you, anon!

this was one of the things that worried me too when the whole thing started a couple days ago, and i consulted my Older and Wiser Friends, and what im about to write is basically lifted right from that convo: what is blocking jp/kr artists going to do? are they actually aware of who the english fandom is, do they interact with EN on a regular basis? because of not, apart from your own peace of mind, blocking them isn’t. gonna do anything. they don’t care, they never noticed you in the first place, unless you’re speaking jp/kr and actively engaging with them you’re not part of the JP/KR fandom. chances are your protests will never even register on their radar. 

EN fandom, though. we gotta take responsibility and actively ostracize fucking incest shippers. let them know no one’s gonna tolerate them. teach them the shame they obviously never learned. if the majority of the fandom openly says “we will not have you here”, that might make them think twice, and that might keep the fandom actually approachable and not just... cesspool of incest to anyone who was thinking maybe they like bandori, it seems pretty cool, so how about let’s look at some ao3 stories about sayo and oh jesus what the fuck

and its just really. fucking unfortunate. that so, so many artists ship it, so that if you went and blocked every single artist you might not be seeing any more art from that side.

also keep in mind that a lot of people only retweet/reblog art that’s in search tags or the blogs/twitters of people they follow, so they may not even know they’re sharing an incest shipper’s content.

if this were like... a published author. a commissioning artist. then fuck no im not giving them any of my money. but if im just hanging on the peripheral, then - death of the author and all that, i guess. i have a strong stomach so i’ll salvage what i like and bring it back to my friends so they don’t have to go rooting through the trash.

but if you’re following an exclusively sayohina artist? lmao stop pretending you’re not nasty

[nyerus]

A Beginner’s Guide to Anime Merchandise

Hey guys! So a few of my friends have asked me where I get all my YoI merch and I figured I’d make a post so anyone who’s kinda new to buying anime merch in general knows where to start.

This isn’t too comprehensive and meant to be a just quick-start guide of sorts, but if anyone has things they’d like to add to this, please feel free.

 The Basics

There are some great websites dedicated to procuring anime goods from Japan for folks outside of the country and work like any other online shop basically. Some are better than others in various aspects and I’ll cover the most well-known/used ones.

AmiAmi: This one is first because it has a wide range of goods available from basically every anime, and also because it often has steep discounts on most items. They’re pretty fast to add new things as well—usually within a day of it being announced. It’s easy to use and has the option of monthly shipments, in which every purchase you’ve made for a specific month is consolidated into one big package. This saves big on shipping, if you’re willing to be patient. This also means that you will receive an invoice for that month’s full order rather than paying per-item/order individually—which can be either good or bad depending on the $$$$, haha! Apart from flexibility in shipping methods, it has an easy-to-understand points system (100yen=1point). The main downside to AmiAmi is that sometimes it doesn’t have certain items, and there seems to be no real rhyme or rhythm to that. Thankfully it’s only a few items.

CDJapan: I mainly use this as an alternative to AmiAmi, especially in regards to wanting those aforementioned certain items. However, it’s quite similar to AmiAmi in terms of providing decent discounts (though often not as steep as AmiAmi) and also has a similar point system.

*NOTE: neither AmiAmi nor CDJapan ship certain goods out of Japan such as the Yuri!!! on Ice dvds/blu-rays and soundtracks. (You can blame Avex for that.)

Mandarake: This site is a geared more towards secondhand goods and doujinshi but you can also find some amazing deals on new items if you’re willing to be very patient and thoroughly look. Their search system (and UI in general) isn’t great and leaves much to be desired, but usually gets the job done when you know what you’re looking for. (It may help if you search in Japanese.) They have multiple shopfronts you can buy from so you may wish to check that all your items are coming from the same one to save on shipping. Mandarake’s packaging is excellent, however, and others should take notes!!! One minor warning would also be that they no longer seem to accept Debit Cards, even through paypal, so you may wish to arrange another method of payment.

AitaiKuji: This site is great for getting limited edition items that you usually can’t find in other stores, such as the Yuri!!! on Museum goods or collaboration goods. It has a nice UI and it’s easy to find the items you’re searching for. However, AitaiKuji’s customer service is notorious for being slow to respond and also their shipping rates tend to be somewhat exorbitant, especially for the lackluster quality of packing. Their markups aren’t too bad on most items, but the shipping rates are what’ll get ya. However, AitaiKuji is one of the only places to get individuals items that normally come in a set OR to get opened blind packs. I usually only use them as a last resort, when I can’t get certain goods elsewhere and I don’t feel like hunting in auctions.

YesAsia: While this site doesn’t have a wide range of items available, it DOES offer free international shipping on certain orders! Additionally, it does sell the dvd/blu-rays and soundtracks outside of Japan. (The site overall is quite good for buying music/movies/etc from Asia.) However it has heavy markups on certain items, so you may want to price-check with other sites.

Yamnillion: I’ve never used this tictail-based service before and it’s not a full-fledged company I don’t think, but if you’re really desperate for a certain individual item from a set and don’t mind paying a premium for it + shipping, this is an option. However they have a very limited range of items and they seem to run out of stock quite fast, so you’ll have to be quick!

 Using Proxies

Besides the English sites provided above, there is another option for people hunting for either very specific things/limited edition goods/out-of-print items OR hunting for the best deals: Japanese sites. Yahoo Japan Auctions, Otamart, and other such sites (including Amazon Japan and Rakuten!) can be a great place to snag merch you really want and can’t find elsewhere. However, to use these sites you run into the basic problem of a language barrier. Additionally, most of these places do not ship outside of Japan anyway. So there’s where a proxy service comes in. There are two different types of proxy services that exist (many current services function as both, though!):

ones that act as a mail-forwarding service

ones that actually buy the items for you

The first type of proxies still have the problem of you having to navigate a site in a foreign language and manage to buy the desired item and input the proxy’s address, etc. This is probably really overwhelming to people like me who have little understanding of Japanese! Hence why it would be more prudent to use the second type of proxy and let them act as your middleman. Using a proxy seems daunting at first, but it’s really not too bad once you jump into it.

*NOTE: Some proxies don’t deal with R-18+ goods so if you are looking for certain items, do your research!

Because I don’t have too much experience with proxies, I can’t really give any reviews on them (though I’m sure you can use a little google-fu for that), but here are the ones I know people have used before successfully:

ZenMarket: This is the only proxy site I’ve used thus far, and so far so good. Speedy customer service, easy-to-use interface, and also seems to have fairly low fees.

Buyee: Fees are a little higher, but has a more polished look and is a little faster than ZenMarket from what I hear.

WhiteRabbitExpress: Probably the most popular one I’ve heard of so far, however the fees are higher.

BuySmartJapan: This has a partnership with Toranoana, a famous Japanese doujinshi store where basically everyone and their mothers get their sweet, sweet doujin from. (Though you can use any proxy for that, really.) But it’s also great for buying general goods as well.

FromJapan: This has a partnership with Otamart, which is like a flea market for otakus. Again, you can use it for more than just this purpose.

Jpn-Depot: This proxy is simple to use and has low fees, but seems to work better as mail forwarding service. Their buying service seems to be sort of lacking from what friends have said.

*NOTE: When using these sites, if they offer an in-built search function, it’s better to search in Japanese rather than English. Additionally, keep in mind that some sellers (i.e. from Yahoo Japan Auctions and Otamart) may not wish to deal with proxies, for whatever reason.

 Special Mentions

MyFigureCollection is a great way to keep track of all the official merch you’ve bought. You can also search user listings for an item you’re looking for and with some luck, someone might have it for sale! Also they have a list of partnered sites that essentially serves as a list of alternate shops, though I would encourage price-checking from most of these places (like Play-Asia and GoodsRepublic to name a few), lest you heavily overpay.

I would avoid searching on eBay not only because things on there tend to be super overpriced, but mostly because you will run into many bootlegs/counterfeit items. And sometimes it can be hard to tell whether or not what you’re buying is a fake. A good bet is to buy from sellers not based in China. I’ve bought a few things from Japan and USA-based sellers which were genuine, but I almost bought a few fakes from China before I realized.

Buyfags.moe (a product of 4chan’s /jp/ board) is actually an amazing guide on buying anime goods. Their full guide covers everything from explaining various shipping methods to helping you recognize bootlegs. They have an extensive list of shops/proxies/etc to check out. If you have the time, I highly suggest taking a look!!! 

Fan Merch

Most of my YOI stuff is actually fan merch. Doujins, zines, prints, keychains, etc. However the problem with fan merch is that it is usually very limited and ephemeral. An artist will put up PO’s for an item and once that order is closed, it’s closed for good. You can get lucky and snag it during a second run or something, but many things are one-and-done. The main exception here are Japanese doujinshi—most of which get put on Mandarake and Toranoana (the latter of which will require a proxy to use) for a long sale period or until they run out of stock.

I haven’t been really reblogging much fan merch on here apart from the occasional zine I’ve been personally interested in. For those looking specifically for YOI doujins and zines, my friend @moonphantoma runs an incredibly organized and up-to-date blog here. (Be warned: dangerous to your wallet!)

The best way to know about other fan merch is to follow artists on tumblr/twitter. You can also peruse sites like tictail*, storenvy, etsy, and even kickstarter and see if you find something you’re interested in!

*As for tictail, make sure to use an artist’s storefront instead of going to their store via tictail’s “marketplace” because they will charge the artist a nasty fee for it. :( You can find guides on how to spot/avoid this, but I’ll make it easy by saying you should always buy from a URL that looks like “storename.tictail.com” and not “tictail.com/storename.” You’ll have to manually change the URL yourself, because tictail is tricky….

Good merch hunting, and sorry to anyone’s wallets that I might have hurt!