Time for more pillowcase talk. This one features Sena Kashiwazaki, the rich, insecure, somewhat bisexual eroge enthusiast from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. I like the manga and I’ve been a fan of Buriki’s art for a while – entirely because of this picture – and I was pleased that the anime adaptation was a lot of fun to watch. Despite not straying past the bounds of convention, the characters are likeably quirky, and it was refreshing to see a show with a male lead that wasn’t completely clueless, milquetoast, or pathetic. It’s one of the few harem-style shows where I didn’t dislike any of the characters, and I’m not sure which one is my favorite. I guess I’d call it a tie among Sena, Kobato, and Rika, but all the characters are cool. Grading strictly on appearance, I’d probably roll with Sena, though, which is why I have this dakimakura cover.

This dakimakura cover is made by Dai Taiwan Teikoku, presumably a Chinese circle, and not the only Chinese group that makes pillowcases – the guy who runs Evening Call is from Shanghai, I think. Rather than distribute their products through consignment shops like Toranoana or White Canvas, they instead sell their doujin goods through BON Cool.

I typically use these dakimakura cover reviews as filler posts for whenever I don’t feel like doing a figure review, but this one serves as a public announcement of sorts. It can be difficult for overseas collectors to purchase dakimakura covers; for a while, Mandarake was, as far as I know basically the sole option for buying doujin pillowcases directly. None of the big doujin stores ship internationally – well, White Canvas says they do, though when I e-mailed them a couple years ago they ignored me, but maybe they’ve changed their policies recently. I probably should ask them again. But anyway – the interesting thing about BON Cool is they are happy to sell to overseas customers, and they even have English and French versions of their website. They’ve opened up a second round of preorders for Sena as well as Yozora, with the order cutoff in a couple of weeks. So anybody who wants to buy a Sena or Yozora pillowcase without needing to go through a proxy can do so with a minimum of fuss.

This pillowcase is, like many doujin dakimakura covers, 160 centimeters long and 50 centimeters wide and made of stretchy spandex fabric. It’s a bit thin – you can probably see some bleed-through of the reverse side in these photos – but feels smooth and sturdy.

There’s a ton of Sena dakimakura covers out there – maybe the most of any recent character – but I went with this one because the art style looks pretty close to the actual character designs. The front side shows Sena looking a bit shy while wearing her school uniform.

The reverse side is the best side and shows her wearing a swimsuit. The art looks great; I really like the way her back is rendered. The ponytail held together with her butterfly clasp is also a very cute touch.

It’s also nice how her fingers form indentations in her skin.

I also like the way her feet are drawn; it’s uncommon to see feet rendered this well, particularly from an unusual viewing angle like this one.

Her face is also very pretty. And relatively accurately; she’s got the characteristic lips and upturned nose from her anime design.

Anyway, of all the Sena pillowcases out there, this one is my favorite. If you’re looking around for a pillowcase of Meat, this one is pretty good, and you can order it yourself without needing a middleman. Heck, if they re-open orders for Kobato, I might order that one; I do own one Kobato pillowcase already, but I wouldn’t mind buying another.

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Time for more pillowcase show-and-tell. This one comes from Carnelian, surely one of the most famous illustrators in the anime world. She’s a veteran artist, having been around as long as I’ve been on the internet, which goes back to the mid-90s, but although she’s quite well-known, she’s never had the sort of commercial stature of someone like Tony Taka or even newer artists like redjuice or Huke. She’s contributed character designs to just a couple of mainstream anime – Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito probably being the most prominent – though H-anime fans will also remember her work in Moonlight Lady. Instead, her work is much more visible in the doujin community, where she is very active. In particular, there are a number of dakimakura covers featuring her art; this particular one was released last summer during Comiket 80 and depicts an original character named Lucrezia.

This dakimakura cover is, like many doujin pillowcases, made of two-way tricot – a smooth and stretchy lycra fabric – and measures 160 centimeters in length and 50 centimeters in width. It features front and rear views of the character, which is the scheme I like most when it comes to dakimakura covers. This side shows Lucrezia with a calm, imperturbed expression, wearing an attractive black dress with one arm curiously cuffed to her thigh.

Close up of those cuffs and some other stuff.

I really like the shading on her stockings; it gives them a kind of satin-like appearance that goes well with the rest of her otfit.

The reverse side is quite a bit raunchier, with all her naughty parts out for admiration.

Very nice detail in the cuffs. The tradeoff is not a lot of detail in her anatomical parts, I suppose. Some circles delight in providing exquisite detail there, like Illust Guerrilla did, but this is a more tasteful treatment. As far as an explicit dakimakura cover can be considered tasteful, anyway.

I quite like this pillowcase – in fact, it might be one of my two or three favorite pillowcases in my collection. It’s got several themes that I like, and the artwork is very beautiful, as much of Carnelian’s art is.

Though she’s created a lot of doujin work sold at Comiket, she’s also done some commercial work recently, including artwork for the Muv-Luv Alternative spinoff Schwarzesmarken. That series appears to be a story set in divided Germany, featuring lead character Katja Waldheim and her CO Irisdina Bernhard. As of yet, few of her character designs have received figure adaptations, though given that the last figure based on her art doesn’t sound like it turned out all that great, maybe that’s for the best.

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It’s time for pillowcase show-and-tell, and today we’ve got one from Infinite Stratos, that sci-fi harem show whose most notable contribution to anime culture is the tremendous amount of quality porn it has inspired. While the show’s plot is nothing special, several of the characters are agreeable enough, with Charlotte Dunois perhaps being the most likeable. Leaving aside her initial assumption of a male identity named Charles, she’s the one sane girl in a school packed with psychotics and lunatics. Even-keeled, friendly, and cheerful, she stands out amongst the principal members of the cast, and so it’s not surprising she’s got a ton of doujin merchandise, including a bunch of pillowcases. This one is from Evening Call, a circle that specializes in making dakimakura covers.

Despite the mixed reception it has received from anime fans, I watched Infinite Stratos last month and liked it. It’s not the most cerebral show, and I don’t even remember what the characters’ mecha units are like, and the male lead is mostly a nonentity, and at least one of the female characters is not particularly sympathetic, but even so, it kept my attention thanks to several attractive characters. The anime is only twelve episodes long and with five girls in Ichika’s harem plus his older sister, it takes a flavor-of-the-week approach to developing their relationships, relegating the less interesting girls to the margins and spotlighting Charlotte and Laura, the last two girls to be introduced. The two latecomers are quirky and engaging and, along with Ichika’s older sister, shoulder most of the load in carrying the show along, elevating the show from a stale, trite, tsundere-driven harem show to a good and dumb comedy that, though offering no pretense of originality, is nonetheless fun to watch.

Like many doujin dakimakura covers, this one measures 50 centimeters wide by 160 centimeters long and is made of synthetic spandex. This particular pillowcase was illustrated by TID, a Chinese artist who I think founded Evening Call, possibly with TAMA. Over the last year, Evening Call’s product range has grown remarkably, and though TID still has drawn the bulk of the pillowcases they’ve made, they’ve also offered dakimakura covers illustrated by a variety of artists.

This Charlotte dakimakura cover was released during the summer. A curious mishap occurred after I ordered it; the proxy service I used apparently never received it from the store I asked them to order it from. Apparently Evening Call sent a replacement to my proxy service and I received it last month. Strange. Anyway, big ups to Yokatta for getting the situation straightened out; if you need to order something that can’t be shipped internationally, I highly recommend them.

This pillowcase features front and back views of Charlotte, the front showing her in her school uniform and the rear showing her in her swimsuit. Both sides are very attractive, with TID’s style readily identifiable in the way Charlotte’s face is drawn. Evening Call offered a pillowcase of British girl Cecilia Alcot drawn by Nagayori of Atelier G, and the difference in art style is quite noticeable. I thought about getting Cecilia’s dakimakura cover as well, but I hadn’t watched Infinite Stratos at the time so I figured one pillowcase was enough for me. That turned out reasonably well since I like Charlotte a lot, although Laura might be my favorite character in the show – she’s got an eyepatch, she’s got an attitude, and she’s skilled in combatives, including erotic wrestling.

Unfortunately Evening Call didn’t make a pillowcase of Laura, but this dakimakura cover of Charl looks great. The Chuckster has gotten many pillowcases from many doujin circles, but I think this one is my favorite of this character.

Oddly, for a franchise that seems to have been developed to sell merchandise, official products have been slow to trickle out. Alter has one figure of Charlotte in the works, and Wave has a bunch of Beach Queen figures, but I was hoping someone would make one of the girls in their piloting suits and IS units, similar to Alter’s Exelica figure.

Evening Call has a lot of great stuff in the works. I’m probably going to order their Rin Tohsaka and Horizon Ariadust dakimakura covers, and I’m thinking about getting their Inori pillowcase, too. And Dizzy should be getting released soon. Not too long ago, dakimakura covers were rather rare but the hobby has really taken off in the last year or so, and now it’s a great time to be a collector.

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Though Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has finished its television run – at least until they decide to animate ViVid and Force – its popularity continues to flourish thanks to a huge spectrum of goods featuring its characters. The list of official goods is impressive, comprising cups, notebooks, cell phone straps, video games with its own impressive selection of goods packed in, and so on … and of course, where licensed makers choose not to provide, doujin circles are there to step in. This is particularly true with pillowcases, and while the Nanoha series has some competition from Madoka for the throne of the magical girl genre, the new contender cannot contest Nanoha’s popularity when it comes to dakimakura covers.

This dakimakura cover is distributed by Hold On Pillow, one of the more prolific makers of pillowcases in this niche collecting hobby. I’ve got a couple more of their pillowcases, including Nakaba ReiMei’s Hinata and Cyclone’s Nanoha. They distribute pillowcases featuring art from a wide variety of artists, including some well-known doujinshi and professional illustrators like Jun Tsukasa and Inkey. This particular pillowcase is illustrated by Tatsuya Yashima. His doujin circle is named Briest and he’s done a number of Nanoha-themed books – though curiously, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them for sale on Mandarake or Toranoana. He seems to sell mostly at conventions or through Melonbooks, whom I’ve never purchased anything from.

Vivio is the subject of this pillowcase, and she’s obviously in her adult form here. Vivio’s got a little something for everyone – mismatched eyes, a mutable personality, and of course, both a sexy adult form and a petite child form for the loli-lovers out there. I like her grown-up form quite a bit more, and Alter’s Sankt Kaiser figure is one of my favorites. I must be in the minority there because that figure seems to have sold rather poorly, given how it’s languished in the bargain bin of just about every Japanese hobby retailer.

The illustration shows Vivio with an embarrassed look and a rather shy smile, with her clothing in a state of disarray. I usually see Vivio looking all angry and evil when she’s wearing her bodysuit, as in this illustration from a Cyclone doujinshi. Her bashful look is a nice change from what you usually see.

The reverse side has a back shot, with her just wearing her bodysuit.

A close-up of the main part that everyone cares about.

Like most doujin-produced dakimakura covers, this pillowcase measures 160 centimeters long by 50 centimeters wide, which is a bit longer than some officially licensed cases. I’ve noticed Hobby Search and Amiami are carrying more dakimakura covers of original characters from individual artists; a few years ago, it seems like the only dakimakura covers they sold were from Cospa or Matching World.

I really like this pillowcase – I prefer adult Vivio, I have this thing for anime girls in tight suits (which partially explains my fondness for Kyokai Senjou no Horizon, even though that show’s plot makes no sense), and the artwork is very appealing. I’ve preordered the artist’s upcoming dakimakura cover of Nanoha, though curiously, that will mean I’ll have two Nanoha pillowcases and zero Fate ones. I kinda wish I’d ordered his Fate pillowcase, since I think it’s the best one I’ve seen so far. I missed out on it so I’m still searching for the right Fate dakimakura cover.

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It’s pillowcase time and while this one is not nearly as salacious as the ones I usually buy, I’m a fan of Seikon no Qwaser and I particularly like Teresa Beria, the reserved and taciturn Maria. In anime and video games, I like quiet, duty-minded girls. I’m more of a Rei fan than an Asuka fan and more of a Yuki fan than a Haruhi fan. I like KOS-MOS a lot though that sentiment is tempered by how bloody awful Xenosaga is. Fate is my favorite Nanoha character, though admittedly I’ve only seen the movie and the first few episodes of StrikerS. I really liked Noir, and that’s mainly because the female characters weren’t whiny, tsundere, or clingy – they just went around doing their business. And that’s what Teresa is like; she’s a quiet tulip enthusiast who helps out series lead Sasha in his quest for revenge. She occasionally steps into the fight with a bow and arrows. And she occasionally gets sexually assaulted, but that’s par for the course for all the Qwaser characters – including Sasha – so it’s all good.

Teresa during one of the rare times she gets to throw down.

Seikon no Qwaser is, of course, famous for its bizarre plot mechanic, wherein combatants called Qwasers power up by consuming fresh breast milk from the tit of a woman called a Maria, typically during the middle of a melee. Each Qwaser has command of a particular element; series lead Alexander “Sasha” Nikolaevich Hell controls iron and Teresa is his Maria – initially, anyway. An ethnic Serb, Teresa lived a happy life in a convent until it was obliterated by the Qwaser of chlorine. Traumatized by the murder of her caretakers, she withdraws into a shell and rarely ever shows emotion.

The anime is based off of a manga, of which two volumes were localized in the United States before Tokyopop went tits-up. The manga is created and written by Hiroyuki Yoshino, who is also credited for the series composition of the upcoming anime Guilty Crown. Somehow, I have the impression that breastfeeding will not play an important role in that show – truly a shame if so, but that’s the way things go. I enjoyed the anime, though like the Witchblade anime adaptation, it does a poor job of transitioning from the monster-of-the-week scheme that comprises its first half to the emphasis on core plot development during its second half. Much of its coherence – if such a thing exists in a show like this – is lost and the show’s pacing becomes inconsistent. A lot of screentime is wasted on Tomo’s circumstances and a suffocating preponderence of religious-themed technobabble gets thrown around. Characters dip in and out and unfortunately, Teresa is one of them; she’s almost all but forgotten towards the end of the show.

But fortunately, she gets her own pillowcase, albeit after Mafuyu, Tomo, and Katja got theirs. I think Mafuyu and Katja actually got two dakimakura covers, now that I think about it. But anyway, I’m glad that Teresa got one since she’s my favorite character in the series. This particular pillowcase comes from GUN-ZO and was sold at Comiket 80. I was resigned to having to pass on it, since I didn’t feel like going through a proxy service to acquire it, but happily Amiami took orders for it, and it is still in stock there. It’s the standard 160 centimeters by 50 centimeters in size and is made of two-way tricot.

It goes without saying that I like the graphics, since the graphics are probably the major reason anybody purchases a dakimakura cover. Seikon no Qwaser is a service-heavy show but Teresa stays fully-clothed on both sides, though her tight dress still doesn’t leave much to the imagination. She’s got some visible panty lines on the back, which is kind of cute, though she’d be cuter if she wore a thong, which would also solve that problem.

Just about every female character in the show goes through stuff like this.

I don’t really keep up with anime very well, so I’ve only seen the first episode of the second season. I guess I should make some time for it, although I’m not sure if Teresa gets much screentime. She does show up in the ending sequence, and this pillowcase actually has the Seikon no Qwaser II logo on it, but I’ve got the feeling the show is mostly about Mafuyu, Katja, and Hana. Hana does seem quite a bit cuter in the second season, though, and Mafuyu gets a spiffy new outfit.

Here’s season 1 Hana, with her boyish, straight-across haircut.

And here she is in season 2, where she gets a cuter, spunkier hairstyle.

I doubt they’ll make any more pillowcases of the Seikon no Qwaser characters, at least not the ones from the first season, but if they do, I think it’d be nice if Eva-Q and Eva-R got pillowcases. They are the masochistic manipulators of mercury who go around looking for people who will torture them. They don’t get much more than an episode of screentime but they were still very fun to watch anyway. The girl on the left is voiced by Nanoha’s voice actress, which is pretty cool, too.

In fact, Seikon no Qwaser’s voice cast has a lot of recognizable names and the music is also very good, too. I particularly like the two ending themes; this one is the first theme, titled “Passionate Squall” and is performed by Ayumi Fujimura (Mafuyu), Aki Toyosaki (Tomo), Minori Chihara (Teresa), Aya Hirano (Katja), and Yoko Hikasa (Hana).

The second end theme is Wishes Hypocrites and is sung by the same voice actresses.

Anyway, I like this pillowcase a lot. I’m not holding out much hope that Seikon no Qwaser will ever get localized in the United States, and I’m thinking it’s unlikely that many figures are going to be made of the characters. Other than Katja, anyway, who has gotten a few figures and a Queen’s Gate book. I guess maybe that’s not an entirely bad thing, as Taki Corporation appears to have played a role in the production of the anime and I’d be quite happy if none of their successors made figures of the Qwaser characters.

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Time to give pillowcases a little bit of love. Lolis aren’t really my thing, but when the loli is named Takeda Shingen-chan, how can I say no?

The Sengoku period is a popular source among Japanese anime and video game makers for adaptation. Sengoku Rance is, of course, among the best-known of the bunch to figure collectors, and Sengoku Basara will probably be familiar to video game players, but there is also the card game Sengoku Taisen, the eroge Sengoku Hime – which gained a small measure of infamy due to its wildly inconsistent art quality – and the recent anime Sengoku Otome, which I probably should finish watching, since Ieyasu is really cute. And then there’s the game that this rendition of Takeda Shingen hails from, which is Ouka Sengoku: Nobunaga-chan no Koishite Yabou!? That translates to something like Ouka Sengoku: Nobunaga-chan’s Love Ambition. As one might guess, it’s an eroge, and it appears to be a harem game set approximately in modern times.

This particular pillowcase was sold by Apricot themselves at Comiket 79, and was available for mail order for a short period thereafter. The artwork is by Fugetsu Taku. It measures 160 centimeters long by 50 centimeters wide and is made of the typical two-way tricot material commonly used in dakimakura covers.

She seems to be a very excitable and exuberant person judging by the game art and her voice sample on her character profile page, but she looks much more anxious on this side. It’s pretty cute, especially the fang and the odd hairpin.

Then again, I suppose not all the CG art portrays her as happy.

Why is Shingen-chan wearing such an elaborate helmet?

To play baseball, of course. One should always wear a helmet while playing baseball. I don’t think that’s how you’re supposed to hold the bat, though.

There’s that happy look.

And here’s the reverse side of the pillowcase. This side is pretty cute too, I like it a lot for reasons that probably don’t need to be explained.

A close up shot, though there’s no real detail to be seen there.

Here’s Takeda Shingen in other media:

Perhaps the best-known version of him, as “he” appeared in Sengoku Rance.

A version of Takeda Shingen also appeared in Sengoku Otome, where she fought against Uesugi Kenshin in a series of indecisive battles.

She also appears in the eroge series Sengoku Hime. She has a deeper voice than I thought she would.

Just for kicks, here’s a few versions of Oda Nobunaga. This one is as she appears in Sengoku Otome. In the anime, she is a hearty, rambunctious, scantily-clad general who is intent on conquering Japan by assembling a special suit of armor.

And here is Nobunaga and her retainers as they appear in Sengoku Hime 3. This Nobunaga looks quite similar to the version in Sengoku Otome, though I think the Sengoku Hime series is older. This version of Nobunaga also appears to have a penchant for singing. The Sengoku Hime art seems to have gotten better, and I like how her little sister Noboyuki looks, too.

And least but not least, here she is as she appears in Ouka Sengoku. Depicting female Nobunaga as a redhead seems to be a popular design choice.

Anyway, this is a pretty cool pillowcase, and I got it for less than its list price, so I’m happy about that. Plus Shingen-chan is really cute, loli or no.

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You know what they say about the best-laid schemes of mice and men. I had hoped to have had Saber Alter’s backdrop ready by now but other events – including a prolonged period of exultation after watching the Lakers get crushed and ignobly ejected from the playoffs – have dictated otherwise, so let’s take a look at a pillowcase instead. If anybody wants to know my thoughts about Saber Alter, I think she’s one spiffy figure.

This dakimakura cover is made by Hold-On Pillow and features the artwork of Nakaba ReiMei. I believe the character is named Hinata Harigaya, though I’m using an auto-translator to translate the name and I have no clue if that’s correct. If anybody can tell me whether 針ヶ谷ひなた means something else, please feel free to do so. This is an original character created by the artist, I believe, and he’s done a few other pillowcases depicting this character, including an upcoming one featuring Hinata as a pizza delivery girl.

The pillowcase measures a standard 160 centimeters by 50 centimeters and is made of stretchy two-way tricot. This side of the dakimakura cover depicts Hinata dressed in a gym outfit and sporting a friendly smile. I’m a big fan of girls in tight athletic wear so this side really appeals to me. I also like the way her bloomers dig into her hips.

Incidentally, this pillowcase has been stored in a drawer for a while and I didn’t do a great job folding it up, so pardon the wrinkles.

The shoes are rendered really well. There aren’t enough anime girls out there who wear sneakers.

The opposite side shows Hinata in a peculiar state of distress.

What a mess. I do like the way the jump ropes indent her skin; that seems to be a theme here.

The shoes are still rendered well.

Anyway, I like this pillowcase a lot; a few of the other pillowcases featuring Hinata depict her with very large breasts – a bit too large for me, I think. Oddly, I like the smiling side better than the bondage side; it keeps the focus on the athletic wear.

I’m still saving one more pillowcase in case I need a quick post in the future but right now, I don’t have any other dakimakura covers on order. I’m thinking of preordering Evening Call’s rendition of the Chuckster, and I’m almost certainly going to preorder Vivio, since I like girls in tight bodysuits as much as I like tight gym clothes. I’m also thinking of ordering this Selvaria pillowcase though I still have yet to play Valkyria Chronicles. I probably ought to get a Playstation 3 one of these days since I already own the game.

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These days, it’s not difficult to find information regarding dakimakura covers. However, even with all the resources that are available online, sometimes it’s hard to find a full picture of a particular pillowcase. Such was the case with this one; I found an image of one side but didn’t know what was on the other side. As I’d seen a doujinshi depicting this character wearing this costume during a middle stage of pregnancy, I was hesitant to pick this one up since I didn’t want to drop ten thousand yen just to receive an unpleasant surprise, but then I was like screw it; I like Rie Kawai’s character design and I figured the reverse side wouldn’t be that bad. Plus she’s decked out in bondage stuff. I figured it’d still be worth it, even if I only liked one side.

Rie Kawai is one of the main characters of the well-known ero game Lovers. Developed by Jellyfish with art by Minashika Taki, its fame stems from its animated H scenes as well as Rie’s longevity; the game was originally released back in 2003 but the artist has released numerous doujinshi and artbooks featuring Rie and several other characters. The game has also been released on PSP, curiously, though it’s a UMD-PG game rather than an actual PSP release. Some additional artwork of Rie can be seen over on Danbooru.

This particular dakimakura cover was sold at Comiket 79 last December by Minashika Taki’s circle Makino Jimusho. I don’t remember ever seeing this pillowcase for sale at Doujin-dou, Toranoana, or any similar websites, so I’m guessing it was sold only at the convention. It depicts Rie dressed up in some fetching bondage wear, including a collar, cuffs, and panties with a convenient cutout. The lace and the ribbon on her panties are a nice touch.

Here’s the reverse side, where she is happily not pregnant. Her placid, inquisitive expression has been replaced by something more wanton.

Here’s her backside. Her anus is unfortunately hidden from view. Or it has mysteriously vanished. That’s sorta odd since her genitals are obviously present. Her backside also looks a bit saggy; Rie’s often drawn as being plumper than the typical anime girl so a little more curvature to her bottom would’ve been nice.

The fishnet pattern on her stockings is very two-dimensional, and I could swear that there’s a method in Photoshop to map images or patterns over curves and contours. I’m no artist though so I wouldn’t know.

I like her expression on this side a lot, as it matches what she’s wearing and gives the image a more urgent and erotic feel. I also like how the images provide a front and rear view of the character. Some pillowcases have a front view of a character on one side and another front view with the character wearing a different outfit on the reverse, and some even put a different character on the reverse side. I like this front and rear view arrangement the best.

I haven’t found a product page for this pillowcase so I don’t know what it’s made of, but it has the same stretchy feel that most of the pillowcases I’ve bought recently have. It appears to be shorter than my other dakimakura covers; I’ve misplaced my tape measure but I’d guess this pillowcase is 150 centimeters long.

Rie Kawai is a character I’ve seen online for a long time, and back when I became first interested in dakimakura covers, I had thought about picking up one of hers. I’ve liked her character design since I first saw the GIFs from the game so I’m glad to finally own a pillowcase with her picture.

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Nothing intimidates me like doing a review of a poseable figure, so instead we have here another dakimakura cover review. And it’s not explicit! Sort of. The Agarest War games have a saucy reputation though I am told that the level of suggestiveness veers more towards fanservice than full-blown hentai. This one has a little bit of both, I guess.

Eva is one of the lead girls from Compile Heart’s tactical RPG Agarest Senki 2. The first game in the series was localized in the United States as Record of Agarest War and in Europe as Agarest: Generations of War. Aksys Games has announced plans to bring over the prequel Record of Agarest War Zero, and presumably Agarest Senki 2 will make it over here at some point. If nobody picks it up, overseas people can still easily play it since it’s only on the Playstation 3 right now and region locks will thus not be an issue.

The Agarest War games are more noted for their suggestive graphics, attractive character designs, and the Soul Breeding mechanism, in which the lead protagonist mates with a female character and their progeny takes up the mantle of hero and party leader. You don’t hear much about how the games actually play, which I suppose doesn’t say anything great about them, but then again, that is not a particularly uncommon thing these days. Heck, I spent 120 hours playing Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball so I don’t mind shallow gameplay.

As English-language information on Agarest Senki 2 is somewhat hard to come by – the TV Tropes article seems to have spoilers for the whole game but I’m not going to read it now – I don’t know a great deal about Eva’s personality. From what I’ve seen of her she seems to be of the cool and mysterious archetype. I’m making this guess since she has a calm voice, doesn’t seem self-conscious and wields a gigantic scythe. I could be completely wrong about all that, and in fact she looks pretty happy and willing to reveal everything she’s got on this side. At least in this illustration, she appears to be a good-natured girl as she’s flashing a shaka sign. Maybe she enjoys surfing? She’s appropriately dressed for a day at the beach.

I’m not sure if you’d classify this as a belt or a skirt or something else. Anyway, she looks agreeable enough here, what about the other side?

Oh my, she seems displeased. I wonder why? Did somebody say the wrong thing to her? Did someone leave the toilet seat up?

I guess it could be because she is collared, chained, and has a bunch of disembodied hands clutching and scratching her and clawing at her crotch. That looks like an uncomfortable position to be in.

There’s a Youtube video showing the story sequence from which this image is presumably derived. Also, that video might have story spoilers for people fluent in Japanese. Just a fair warning since I don’t speak Japanese so I do not know for sure.

Here’s Eva’s midsection.

And her legs. Nice boots. Incidentally, I was unsure for a while as to how to spell Eva’s name, since an early promotional video for the game spelled her name as “Iva.” Her name is pronounced “Eva” rather than with a long I sound and that’s the way just about everyone else spells it, so that’s what I’m rolling with.

Here’s what this dakimakura cover looks like in comparison to the Ellis pillowcase included with Aksys’s Really Naughty Limited Edition of Record of Agarest War. As you can see, Eva’s pillowcase is quite a bit larger. Double-sided too, Ellis’s pillowcase is printed only on one side. I have to get around to playing Record of Agarest War sometime. Maybe I’ll start it up soon; I’ve got Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age (and the upcoming sequel), Fallout 3, Oblivion, Lost Odyssey, Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2, Ar Tonelico II (and the upcoming sequel), and Valkyria Chronicles all sitting here unplayed, but I feel like playing Agarest War instead.

Hmm, I haven’t said anything about the pillowcase itself. It’s 160 centimeters long by 50 centimeters wide, which seem to be standard dimensions for a dakimakura cover these days. It was sold through Red Entertainment’s and Compile Heart’s online store along with a dakimakura cover of Fiona, another heroine and prospective love interest in Agarest Senki 2. It’s made of stretchy two-way tricot, which feels smooth and durable.

Also, I should note that it looks kinda like there might be an illustration error regarding Eva’s left hand on this side. It appears to be pinioned behind her back here but her thumb ought to be on the top of that hand, and we don’t see it here. It doesn’t bother me too much here since the thumb could plausibly be folded over her palm and that could be her index finger on top in the picture. It’s also not particularly noticeable compared to, say, feet problems. What is more curious is given the angle of her left shoulder, it looks like her arm shouldn’t be bent that way. Unless it’s been broken, maybe by those evil hands. Just between you and me, I think that’s an incredibly kinky scenario.

I really like this pillowcase a lot. Eva has a beautiful design and she looks great on both sides. There’s a lot of personality on display here, particularly on the reverse. Assuming somebody brings over Record of Agarest War 2, I’m looking forward to macking on her. I mean, learning more about her character.

Incidentally, does anyone else think Fyuria from the first Agarest War game would make for a great figure? I think she would.

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Comiket 79 took place last December and I bought some of the doujinshi that premiered there through Toranoana. There were also a lot of dakimakura covers sold there and I didn’t buy any of them, since the releases were strictly limited edition and I didn’t feel like going through the hassle or expense of using my favorite proxy services. One of the pillowcases I wanted was this one, and after reconsideration I briefly contemplated picking it up off of Yahoo Japan Auctions. A couple weeks after C79, I loaded up Amiami’s webpage and was surprised to see this dakimakura cover listed on their site. I put my preorder in with the quickness, happy that I wasn’t going to have to pay a proxy markup. They’ve since added a couple more dakimakura covers that I thought were Comiket exclusives, which is gratifying indeed.

This dakimakura cover features Chizuru Tendou, one of the potential love interests from the ero-game Renai Saimin – Tsun na Kanojo ga Dereru Saimin. I am told that this translates to something like, “Love Hypnosis: Turn a Tsun Girl Dere through Hypnosis.” Err, yeah. The game seems to be more innocent than it sounds; the plot description via VNDB (via the now-defunct Erogeshop) suggests that this hypnotism is used to convince people to follow their hearts rather than to turn them into love slaves, which is how I’ve seen this sort of thing done in other hentai properties.

The game was developed by C: drive, which I am assuming was founded by fans of DOS, and released late last year. It seems to be a typical visual novel, in which you assume the role of a male character named Takumi Okawa and click through a lot of text and listen to a lot of speech while exercising your macking abilities on the cast’s various females.

Like many other dakimakura covers, this pillowcase measures 160 by 50 centimeters and is made of two-way tricot. It is quite stretchy and feels very smooth. It’s also fairly thick so that it feels strong; I don’t get the impression that it’s going to rip or something whenever I put it on a pillow. The colors are quite bright and the print quality is very nice.

The artwork was done by Shikibu Fusataka. She – I’m assuming that’s a female name – has a very beautiful style that, at least in this game, is very reminiscent of Tony Taka’s art, stylistically and thematically. The girls are tall, willowy, and elegant, with an eye shape quite similar to Tony’s work.

One interesting note about the game is that all of the girls wear distinctive underwear. Chizuru seems partial to skimpy string panties. She also has a very cute garter tied around her thigh.

And here’s the reverse side, where she’s shed her uniform and panties and put on an enchanting smile.

And also this band-aid. It’s a strange thing to see there but I think it looks quite cute; the bandaid maebari has a great tradition in anime art.

It’s really cool how she’s carrying around some nice anal beads but I wonder where she was keeping them.

Showing that Tony style here. It’s a bit odd how her bangs fade out; I wonder if that was an artist error or not. Being that it shows up on both sides, I’m guessing it was deliberate. It doesn’t bug me, it’s not too uncommon for anime hair to mysteriously become transparent over the eyes.

Incidentally, Chizuru’s hands and feet are rendered correctly, which is something that I am looking out for these days.

And here’s her legs, with those very pretty panties. The artist likes to incorporate flowers into her character designs. Let’s take a look at some of the other characters in the game. I probably should note that I’m running the character bios through an auto-translator so I could be wildly off on some of these.

Tsugumi Aisaka
She’s a childhood friend of Takumi and seems to like him, but cannot bring herself to express what she feels. She also seems to have a bit of a temper.

Chizuru Tendou
Chizuru is the student council president. She is composed, regal, and well-liked, but has a difficult time depending on other people.

Kotoko Nonoyama
Kotoko is a quiet girl that nobody takes notice of. She seems to have feelings for Takumi from a distance.

Fuuka Kudoriya
Fuuka seems to be the most immature person in the cast, though she looks just as tall and well-developed as the other girls. She tends to be a bit tactless and needy outside of her home and also seems to be something of an instigator. She likes to call Takumi “onii-chan.”

Setsu Mikagura
Setsu is a member of the student disciplinary committee. She seems to have a conniving, devilish personality. She is proud and sharp-tongued and seems to come from a wealthy family.

And here’s some pictures from the game.

This is a great pillowcase; I love the art, the quality is high, and it’s comfortable to the touch. Amiami still seems to have them in stock as of this writing so if you want one of your very own, you know where to get it.

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