Dakimakura Review – Hinata Harigaya from the Art of Nakaba ReiMei (NSFW)

Hinata Harigaya Dakimakura

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.

Hinata Harigaya Dakimakura

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.

Hinata Harigaya Dakimakura

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.

Hinata Harigaya Dakimakura

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

Hinata Harigaya Dakimakura

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

Hinata Harigaya Dakimakura

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

Hinata Harigaya Dakimakura

The shoes are still rendered well.

Hinata Harigaya Dakimakura

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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87 Responses to Dakimakura Review – Hinata Harigaya from the Art of Nakaba ReiMei (NSFW)

  1. Shashin says:

    Hmm, I like this pillowcase quite a bit myself. The backside is certainly impressive, and since I don’t have a gym outfit fetish myself, I prefer it; I’m always a big fan of sticky messes, as you put it. I like the front side too, but scare me just the slightest.

    I’d order all three of those cases myself, though I’d purchase some others before them. I really like the bikini top positioning on the backside of Evening Call’s case for some reason. While I wait for Illust Guerrilla to ship Nymph, I purchased another of their cases I’ve had my eye on for awhile, but didn’t expect to find. It’s even on of their first: Konomi.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, the eyes do have sort of a very piercing, maybe homicidal kind of look to them. That’s a really nice pillowcase, as is all of IG’s stuff. I like the backside shot, that’s a pretty cool angle, one that you don’t see a lot on dakimakura covers. I see too many pillowcases where the reverse picture is basically the same picture as the front picture, except somewhat less dressed. Maybe I ought to put the twins back on the pillow body; I’ve had Chizuru Tendou on there for a while now and maybe it’s time for a change.

      I kinda think I ought to have a Fate Testarossa pillowcase. I’ve got Nanoha, I’ll have Vivio later, but I don’t have a Fate pillowcase. Although Fate pillowcases sort of have this bad connotation now, hmm.

      • Shashin says:

        Yeah, something like that. That was certainly the main draw with the case for me; of course I don’t pass up an opportunity to pick up an Illust Guerrilla case unless the price is absolutely ridiculous, but I really liked the backside angle. And that’s a definite trend with dakimakura covers… I guess it doesn’t require much work on their end, and people are going to buy it anyway, so why do something really cool on both sides? Not that I’m complaining when it goes from fully clothed to spread eagle, but that’s usually not the case. Considering how popular they are, I guess I should be happy that a good bit of my collection doesn’t follow that path. I need to buy more body pillows, I guess – I haven’t had a single cover on my pillow since I’ve moved.

        Hmm, I think I have 2-3 of them. >_> I’m pretty sure an あんこ工房 that I was relatively disappointed in, and I’m fairly positive I have at least one more, but I honestly can’t remember. And why are Fate cases bad now? 😮

        • Tier says:

          Yeah, I suppose I have no real reason to complain though, since it’s not like there’s a shortage of dakimakura covers that I’m interested in. Speaking of which, I was about to whine that Hobby Search seems to not have updated their dakimakura cover section lately, but I checked just now and they’ve updated it. I kinda like this one, though it’s not explicit in the least. At least it’s cheap. And I think JAST is localizing the game that the character comes from.

          There was this funny news story about some dude in Korea getting married to a Fate dakimakura cover. I never bothered to learn more about it but it’s a bizarre occurrence. I suppose I shouldn’t let it deter me, though.

          Hmm, was the あんこ工房 pillowcase one that had Nanoha on one side and Fate on the other? I noticed one of those on Mandarake earlier but I couldn’t find a larger picture of it.

          • Shashin says:

            Heh, yeah… I could probably make a list of about 100 that I want fairly easily… >_> After AmiAmi listed those C79 covers, I’ve been checking them more often than Hobby Search for dakimakura covers… it’s just a shame that their site navigation is so horrible. Still, I laughed when I saw 5-6 covers added to Hobby Search yesterday. It’s also pretty funny that we now consider 9500 yen cheap for a pillowcase.

            Ah, true – didn’t know it was Fate, just know that a dude in Korea married it. I still remember seeing pictures of a white dude in Europe (I think) traveling around with a Nia case from Gurren Lagann.

            Pretty sure it’s Fate on both sides. Was this one here I believe, though obviously it doesn’t show the whole thing. I think I remember researching it and seeing it was one of their older covers; I had come to expect fairly detailed anatomy from them, and was fairly disappointed with what I found… if I’m remembering the right case.

          • Tier says:

            Yeah, I was thinking the other day, “9,500 yen, that’s not too bad for a pillowcase,” before realizing that that’s over a hundred bucks and there’s a bunch of other things I want to buy that cost a hundred bucks. Like another external drive to backup my data, a joystick for fighting games, a PSP, and Cospa’s Fate Testarossa figure. I suppose I’ll probably hold off. I still need to decide if I want the Charlotte pillowcase or not. Or rather, I do, but I still have to preorder the Vivio pillowcase and the Hobby Japan Siggy figure and I’ve got to pay for both of those upfront.

            Yeah, it was a weird-ass story. Not one that puts a very positive or sympathetic light on this hobby too, though far be it from me to cast judgment on anybody else. The European dude was Austrian I think; he uses the handle Melonpan (not to be confused with meronpan, who has sadly abandoned his figure review site).

            Ah, okay, I think I saw that one on Mandarake a while back. I was kinda interested in it but I suppose I’d probably prefer one of her in her StrikerS rendition. There’s at least one such pillowcase I’m kinda looking for but I haven’t found it yet.

          • Shashin says:

            Pretty much. I’m in need of a new internal hard drive myself… I’m probably pretty close to failure. I should start backing up shit probably, but knowing myself I’ll deal with it when it comes. Only thing I really stand to lose are a ton of WoW screenshots I’ll probably never look at again, and plenty of save game files. I’ve been wanting to build a new PC anyway, so if I could set aside some money that isn’t spent on dakimakura covers, maybe I’ll have enough to build one when the time comes.

            The computer parts market has always been volatile, but it really amazes me how cheap parts have become over the past few years. My current PC was built in 2007 and cost me maybe $1500 or so in parts at the time. I could probably build a PC that just about blows it out of the water for maybe $800-1000 now.

            Exactly, if the dude was happy, then by all means let him be happy. Unfortunately it’s a hobby that will almost always be misunderstood and that’s why I try to keep my dakimakura obsession rather unknown to friends and family. I don’t particularly care if they find out, but they’d call me insane for the amount of money I’ve spent on the things at the very least. And I’d imagine that openly embracing the hobby would also kill most romantic prospects; though if I could find a cute and intelligent chick who had a thing for dakimakura covers too, I could die happily… but I guess the chances of that happening are slim.

            I have no idea what the difference is there, I’m still woefully ignorant to the Nanoha series. I actually think that may be one cover I haven’t taken any shots of at all yet, though I honestly don’t remember. Maybe I’ll dig it out one of these days and get some and also see if I have another Fate cover somewhere.

            Mandarake added the Stray Moon cover I’ve wanted for awhile (had told myself that it would be that last cover I’d buy a few months ago, but I lost the auction) so I took the opportunity to go through the store’s listings and see if there were any others I wanted. Figures that the cover I really wanted and planned on buying eventually had sold (and I couldn’t find it on YHJ), but I did decide to add one more to my basket that I had considered for awhile. I’m still debating adding one of the Carnelian covers to my order; they’re a good price and the art is always fantastic. I think I’ll wait and see if they add anything new with today’s update, and then make my decision then.

            There’s two interesting things to note on the gaming front for me. I’ve been playing two games the last few games, one of them eroge-ish, and I’ve been pleased with both.

            The first is Terraria, which seems to be called a 2D MineCraft. It’s absolutely addicting and I’ve already sunk in about 20 hours into it. Unfortunately the gameplay at this moment seems to clock in at around 30-40 hours, but for $10 it really can’t be beat.

            The other is Custom Maid 3D. Definite no story H-game, but it’s really good at what it does. I’ve tried the various “create your own girl” simulators before and haven’t never really been satisfied. This one has a great amount of content and even more with the mods I’ve picked up. It’s an amusing diversion at worst and I’ve found some deal of entertainment messing around with the character creator.

  2. Oh my! She’s so wet and sticky down there… Very awesome dakimakura ^^ A lot of details on the clothes as well. The eyes… Wonderful eyes!

    • Tier says:

      She is! There aren’t enough dakimakura covers that depict fluids. Though maybe they’d be easy to confuse with real fluids …

  3. The Endless General says:

    Her eyes are just a bit too psychotic……..

    • Tier says:

      Haha, yeah, she does have a really intense look, doesn’t she? Like she’s interested in you for more reasons than one.

      • The Endless General says:

        Kinda like she wants to do stuff to you like the girl in Audition lol.

        • Tier says:

          I looked up that title in Wikipedia. Wow, what a wacky movie that sounds like. I gotta admit it sounded kinda cool till I read about the feeding part, though I actually can’t watch horror movies … blood and gore in movies freak me out.

  4. Cantan says:

    Have to say I find some of H・O・P’s stuff a bit hit and miss. Afraid I’m not particularly drawn to this one and I particularly don’t like their Selvaria and Nami ones either… but then I spent 3 weeks or so hunting for this one.

    Typical… looks like she’s back in stock with Toranoana… wasn’t when I was looking – mind you she still is waiting in a warehouse in Japan until Seena arrives so I can ship them together.

    • Tier says:

      Ah, at least you got it then. Though yeah, it sucks when you go through a lot of trouble to find something and then a big store stocks it, or you find it cheaper somewhere else. That happens occasionally with some of the more oddball figures that I buy (got several of them in the review queue, and hopefully I’ll be able to get to them whenever I get around to shooting Saber Alter).

      • Cantan says:

        Have to say that I am more fond of the Evening Call designs. I picked up a knock off of their Saber for about 2,600yen off YJA a month back and I do like the look of Asuka Langley cover.

        However, covers are generally a secondary diversion for me. Guess the figures are my poison.

  5. ganescha says:

    she´s beautyfull; but she´s wearing two right shoes on the front… ;-D

    • Tier says:

      I think it might look like that because the bottom part of the pillowcase is crumpled up on the floor. In the original art, the little red thing on the toes of the shoes makes it look like she’s got the correct shoes on.

      • ganescha says:

        …whatever the red toethingy says… that´s two right shoes (on the original as well) look at the curving-in of the sole on, what should be, the left shoe … 😀

  6. drakanity says:

    She looks kind of freaky in the top picture haha. Seeing that at night would look like she is going to murder you. ^^;

    I wished that Selvaria looked a bit better. Hoping for one that looks more like her. She was my favorite character in the series. You really should get a chance to play it. It is very underrated. But then again, I guess it could be very repetitive. Valkyria 2 sure was which was somewhat of a grind fest, but enjoyable to me nonetheless.

    Off topic, but you’re a Lakers hater eh? I’m a big fan 🙁 It was so disappointing.

    Who is your favorite team? Are you still rooting for anyone assuming your team isn’t in the playoffs? I just hope Miami loses though. But they are probably going to win. Can barely touch their guys without a foul. Also the first Dallas and Thunder game combined for 78 or so FT lol. Pretty ridiculous.

    I think it is bad for the NBA to do what the Heat did. Assuming they win, it would pretty much say to have superstars wait (or opt out) during free agency to form a super team and that is the way to win. Also smaller markets would take a huge hit due to that. I guess we’ll see with how the CBA stuff goes.

    • Tier says:

      Man, everyone thinks she looks like an axe murderer. She’s a sweet girl! I mean, she works as a pizza deliveryperson. Who could think evil thoughts of a girl who brings pizza to your home?

      Yeah, I ought to play it, I actually own it, I just don’t have a PS3 yet. I’ve been meaning to buy a PS3 for quite some time but I haven’t played a ton of video games in the last year (though I’ve been playing a lot of Mortal Kombat recently, which is a very fun game).

      Yep, I am a gigantic Lakers hater! 😀 I don’t have a favorite NBA team so much as I have a most-hated team … my favorite team is the team that is facing the Lakers. I’ve been a big Boston fan the last few years for obvious reasons. I was a Kings fan in the early part of the decade, though that was before they developed a rivalry with LA (I started liking them when they changed to the black and purple uniforms back in the 90s, and I also liked Mitch Richmond). I’m cheering for Dallas right now, which is kinda hard for me to do since I also hate the Cowboys and I always associate Dallas (or all of Texas sports, actually) with the Cowboys.

      Yeah, I don’t like the Heat either. I mean, I’d cheer for them whenever they play the Lakers but the outcome I’d favor the most would be for an asteroid to flatten the arena whenever they play. I was ambivalent about LBJ when he was in Cleveland but he threw his legacy in the garbage by taking his talents down south. I’m hoping for a Chicago/Dallas Finals though. I like that Barea guy, I never even heard of the dude until a couple of weeks ago but he looks like Iverson out there sometimes.

      • drakanity says:

        Hmm, in the other perspective, a pizza delivery person has a perfect opportunity to easily get into someone’s house and…

        I just noticed Hobbysearch seems to be selling a couple explicit cases. Interesting. I thought they were no longer taking credit cards, yet they are also not taking paypal for those items.

        So you’re just a general basketball (or NBA) fan then? Sad to hear your perspective lol. I’m hoping for a Thunder vs Bulls finals though.

        Barea has always been a pretty solid player, but he was always second fiddle to Kidd. Kind of like Ty Lawson when he was behind Billups and Darren Collison when he was behind CP3. They were relatively unknown due to less playing time, but were quite good. Then they blossomed after they became starters.

        Although I would say it was the Lakers lack of D and slow rotations (and guards) that made Barea look better than he actually is. He wasn’t THAT good to be comparing to Iverson lol. But yea, in that series, he was and I understand the comparisons. Both were very small, but quick and can penetrate. Barea isn’t that great at scoring though in which Iverson was excellent at.

        • Shashin says:

          That’s been the case for awhile with Hobby Search. They still randomly leave out some semi-explicit items and the most explicit, but they’ve been steadily increasing what they’re willing to sell over the last six months or so. Long since they’ve stopped allowing credit card payments; they toss on a can’t be purchased with Paypal label, despite the fact that it’s the only payment method they accept.

        • Tier says:

          Yeah, every now and then they’ll toss up explicit items on their site. It’s sorta weird. I’m not really sure what the point of the “cannot be paid for by Paypal” note. To be honest, most of the time when I see that, I go buy it off Amiami instead.

          Yeah, I’d say that, though I jump cheering for teams when I feel like it. I started off as an Orlando fan when they drafted Shaq because I got interested in the NBA when I started collecting basketball cards, and Shaq’s rookie cards were the cards everyone wanted then. I followed Sacramento for about ten years till they fell apart and the Maloofs kept threatening to move the team to Vegas or Anaheim (which amazed me, since the Arco crowd was always incredible in the Webber days). I still love Doug Christie’s uppercut on Rick Fox. Now I like Boston since not only do the Lakers hate them, the Heat hate them too.

          I’m not saying that Barea’s skills are comparable to Iverson, but the way he drives in and doesn’t mind contact reminds me of Iverson.

  7. Tier says:

    >> Shashin
    I found an invoice for my first computer (that is, the first computer I owned, not the first computer I used), a 333 MHz Pentium II from Dell. It cost $3,000 altogether back in 1998. I remember back then if you wanted good gaming performance, you were probably looking at needing a 3dfx card (or two), a 19″ CRT, maybe a SCSI hard disk. I’m too young to remember what upgrade options existed for the Apple II+, but I remember all my dad ever bought for it was a second disk drive so we didn’t have to keep swapping disks while copying them. I’m sure they were even more expensive, relatively speaking.

    Apart from this website and a few close friends, I keep my hobbies to myself. I’ve always been a pretty private person though and my family hasn’t ever shown much interest in what I do, so I’d still be secretive even if my hobbies were fly fishing or acting in porn movies.

    Yeah, I try not to judge other people, since it’s not like I’m a paragon of normalcy myself. I don’t mind admitting my dislike of things but I try not to go after people who like those things. I admit that I fail at that quite a bit, though.

    Basically the difference between the two Fates is Fate Testarossa is the loli girl and Fate T. Harlaown is as she is when she is grown-up (and after changing her name). I don’t mind lolis though I don’t really have a special thing for them, and I prefer her adult version.

    There was a Carnelian pillowcase I was interested in, but then I came across this review and I’m not sure how much I want it. It appears to be censored but I’m not sure if the reviewer photoshopped out the genitalia; I know he’s done that on some of his other reviews. At any rate, I think the two pillowcases I mentioned in the post are going to take priority, and I don’t know if I want to allocate more funds to a pillowcase I may potentially not want.

    I haven’t tried Custom Maid 3D and I have only the most cursory knowledge of it, based entirely off of screencaps that I’ve come across on Gelbooru. It seems pretty cool though. Basically I’ve been playing Mortal Kombat recently, which is a lot of fun, though the 360 pad is atrocious for fighting games. I’m thinking about picking up a joystick soon. I also bought Demonbane and am playing through it; it seems like a decent VN though it isn’t seizing my attention yet.

    • Shashin says:

      Pure craziness, I tell you. Though I frequently see a picture of an ad apparently from the 70s (give or take) for a 2MB hard drive or something going for $4000 alone. I think my family had a Commodore 64 at one point, but that was before my time; the first PC I actually remember having for family use was in 95, and it lasted about 7-8 years before finally upgrading. Don’t know what it cost, though.

      Same here, I enjoy my privacy. I actually did briefly talk about dakimakura covers with someone in a class about a year back, but I haven’t seen them since, and they weren’t very informed at all just; they just knew they wanted one, so I offered some advice.

      There’s a few things that get on my nerves, but I try to let everyone live as they wish; as long as it’s not interfering with my life, I really don’t give a damn. Unfortunately, for a hobby such as ours, the courtesy isn’t necessarily returned, and sadly it offers all the more reason to keep it quiet.

      Ah, thanks for clearing that part up. I always just assumed the names were interchangeable and didn’t necessarily put them together in a timeline. I don’t mind loli myself, but I guess it kinda goes hand in hand with my smaller bust preference. Which leads to me immediately disliking (or liking less than I would otherwise) a lot of doujinshi or dakimakura covers, as a large portion tends to portray the characters with a larger bust than I normally enjoy. Then again, there’s plenty of non-loli characters out there too that fit in a zone I like, so I wouldn’t say I prefer loli.

      On the subject of loli, my doujinshi order a few weeks back led to one particularly cringe-worthy moment. In my stack of ~70 books/doujinshi, I decided to risk maybe 3-4 covers that looked to contain some loli at the very least. I liked the cover on all the works, and I figured they couldn’t be that bad. Two of the books contained maybe a scene or two of what could have been loli or not, one definitely had a scene or two of loli… and the last was I don’t even know how to describe it. It was all loli, which didn’t surprise me given I expected the majority of the content in all four books to be so. But the cover wasn’t the most graphic of the bunch (which falls to Omochatachi No Toiki) and you know, I’m not even going to bother describing it.. but on the back (which I couldn’t see before purchasing, obviously) the title (鬼畜兄妹凌辱記) is in English: Humiliation Diary of Devilish Brother and Sister. While nothing S&Mish, I still felt a bit uncomfortable flipping through the book.

      I’d say it’s probably censored. I do have one Carnelian case myself, and I don’t recall it being the most graphic/detailed, but I’m fairly certain there was something there. I’ve missed my chance on picking up either of the two cases, as I figured I would have if I waited too long. I didn’t really want either of them particularly (though one did have a very nice backside view) but the price was good. Dakimakura cases are my thing, so I don’t necessarily get a case I really want sooner than one I don’t particularly, but I can certainly understand holding off. And there was also a time where I really didn’t have any money to spend at all, but the two cases I had wanted forever popped up at the same time, so I picked them both up when I couldn’t afford it.

      Yeah, I’d definitely recommend it if you’re ever in the mood and looking for something up that alley. The character creator is actually pretty cool, and the “game” portion is certainly quality for the genre. I don’t know if we had this conversation when you mentioned MK before picking it up, but I’ve been suckered into buying a few 3D MK games and haven’t enjoyed a single one of them. Maybe I’ll rent it and see if I can’t gather some friends over or something; I’d imagine it’d be a pretty good party game, but for whatever reason it really doesn’t appeal to me playing solo, whereas something like MvC or Guilty Gear did.

      I put in an hour two into Demonbane and was enjoying the story, but then I became impatient and fairly tired, so I wanted to skip ahead a bit and sample the H-scenes. After about half an hour of skipping ahead, I encountered maybe 3-4 single images (all different scenes) and none of them were of the characters I would have liked. I guess maybe I should just download a CG pack, but that takes some of the fun out of it. I was enjoying the story and music well enough though, so I’m sure I’ll play through it more thoroughly when I’m in the mood.

      • Tier says:

        The first computer my family had was an Apple II, and after that broke, we didn’t get another computer for a few years until my dad bought a used 286 clone with a Hercules monochrome graphics adapter. I had to run a program called Softgraf to put it into CGA emulation mode to play games. It was a great machine, I played some of my favorite games – like F-19 Stealth Fighter and The Ancient Art of War at Sea – on that computer.

        That looks like a great book. I haven’t been too concerned with customs lately but I did have an unusual episode with Mandarake; I bought a doll from them and they asked me how much I wanted to declare as its value. I’ve never been assessed an import tax so I didn’t know what to ask for, so I just told them to list it at its full value. I figure the chance of the package getting lost is greater than the chance of getting hit with a duty tax.

        Yeah, I’m guessing it’s probably censored, too. I did see the original artwork and its got mosaicing so I’m thinking something ought to be there, but I’m guessing it’s not very graphic. It’s not a pillowcase I’m dying to have so I’ll probably skip it.

        I’m having fun playing Mortal Kombat solo; there’s an arcade mode where you fight your way to Shao Kahn and there’s also a story mode which re-tells the events of the first three games. It’s actually very well done, though some of the events are a bit cheesy and some of the fights are ridiculously difficult compared to most of the battles. The best part of the game is that it plays a lot like MK1 and 2 (and 3 I hear, though I stopped playing MK games at 2 so I wouldn’t know); a friend of mine played it and commented that it felt like playing the first Mortal Kombat games all over again.

        • Shashin says:

          I didn’t have a computer for my early childhood, but I grew up with a NES/Genesis and then a SNES, so I had a lot of fun there. Had a stack of 40 or so Genesis games to play on, and there was this one really fun RPGish game that was great for 2 players. There were four classes (mage, warrior, and two other I’m forgetting) and I think the closest game to it I could think of would be Gauntlet or something. Was called Arcus Odyssey I think.

          I really liked the cover of the first book I mentioned; there’s nothing like a really graphic cover every now and then. Don’t really remember what was inside, other than at least one scene with the cover girl. The other on the other hand, I really didn’t know what to expect other than some loli. Funny thing is, I don’t think I’d have any qualms about the story if the characters were a bit older. The first scene didn’t really bother me either, as it’s at least consensual… but the remaining 8-12 stories are nothing but the cover girl tricking her friends over and bring big brother in on things.

          You should be fine with Mandarake, I think. The only downside I’d guess is that EMS only covers up to 20000 yen shipping free; you may have to pay more than normal to have it insured at its full value, but insurance is generally pretty cheap. I don’t think I’ve heard many cases of duties being imposed on goods coming to America, for things in our niche anyway. I think I remember reading somewhere that toys are exempt, and it would probably be things like electronics or cars that are more likely to be taxed. Still, even in the off chance you do get charged, I’d rather have the ability to be able to file a full value insurance claim against damage, and there’s no chance it would be as expensive as some other countries charge on practically everything.

          Yeah, with the couple of times I’ve been screwed by absolutely no genitalia and the many times that the detailing has been minimal, I’ve come to expect the very least unless I have previous experience with a circle that says otherwise.

          I loved the first couple MK games, but I’m just not as big on fighting games as I once was. Glad to hear that it’s good though, maybe I’ll pick it up as a rental sometime and see if it doesn’t change my mind.

  8. Tier says:

    I don’t recall that game, though I also had a Genesis. I never did get an SNES though and I have a tough time getting into those games when playing remakes or ROMs. I’d at least like to play through Final Fantasy VI, since I am told it is a classic of the genre.

    Yeah, I got my package (excuse the frightful hair) today and I didn’t have to pay a duty fee or anything. I’m not even sure how to go about paying a duty fee. I’m guessing you’d have to bring in a box the size of a refrigerator for Customs to assess a charge.

    It’s a good game, you might enjoy it, though it’s more familiar than novel. I’m on a bit of a fighting game kick right now, and I’m planning on picking up BlazBlue and SSF4 Arcade Edition soon. I’m sure it’ll wear off soon, though. Looking ahead, there aren’t a lot of games I care to get; I’ll probably pick up Agarest War Zero just for collection purposes, and I might pick up Catherine, but that’s about it. Maybe I’ll be able to get back and whittle down the RPG queue a bit.

    • Shashin says:

      I don’t think I’ve talked to another person who’s heard of the game honestly, other than the friends I used to play it with. It wasn’t the best game by any means, but it was a good memory of my childhood. I feel you, even with games in the early 3D generation it can be hard to go back and get into. For me, graphics are a very low priority when it comes to choosing what I play, but sometimes it’s just too hard; especially if things happen to be really blurry and it’s hard to tell what’s going on.

      That’s a pretty cool doll, though I’d hate to know what it set you back. I was previously of the opinion that I’d only ever buy one myself if I had the money, but now I’m thinking that I probably wouldn’t even if I could afford it. I just know it would end up like the majority of my figures, tucked away in a box or something, and I couldn’t justify the extra expense for what would happen. I can still appreciate all the photoshoots and stuff people do of them, though.

      I’ll pick up Catherine eventually, though I’m not as gung ho about it as I was when the Japanese release hit; the game was a lot of fun to play despite not being able to understand the story (which makes up a large portion), but even so I’m not as excited as I once was. I’m looking for a new game to play right now, so we’ll see what I find. If I’m as bored as I am now then, I’ll probably pick it up sometime shortly after release (if nothing else better is available), but I’ll be starting school again shortly thereafter so I won’t have nearly as much free time as I do now.

      • Tier says:

        Yeah, I don’t place a big emphasis on graphics either, it’s mainly the gameplay systems I have a tough time going back to. This is particularly true with things like shooters and side-scrolling platform games or any game that relies on pattern memorization; I tend to get impatient and die a lot as a result. There’s also the fact that I have so many other games to play now that it’s kinda hard to justify the time; if I were to play FF6, I’d be wondering whether I ought to be playing Mass Effect 2 instead.

        She cost quite a pretty penny. Yeah, it’s hard to justify buying dolls, particularly when they’re this expensive. I’ve got a big collection of 1/6 scale ones and they’re all just lying in drawers now. Except for the president, that is. I enjoy dressing them up but I’m still much more of a figure collector.

        I ignored almost all of the hype for Catherine and I’m still not sure what it’s about or whether I’d like it or not. Pretty much the only thing I noticed was that it was very sexually suggestive, and while I certainly approve of such a marketing tactic, I tend to think the game must not be very good if that’s the tack they chose to sell units. The game I’m looking forward to the most right now might be Queen’s Gate Spiral Chaos, despite the fact that I don’t yet own a PSP and can’t read any Japanese.

        • Shashin says:

          I’ve never been good with memorization in games, myself. Whether it’s laziness or just ineptitude, I can’t say. But it’s almost certainly the reason I’ve always been terrible at fighting/side-scrolling shooters. Doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them any less; Ikaruga would be a prime example of that. I’ve never beaten the damn game, but I’ve probably pumped a good 40-50 hours into it. I could kinda see your second point, though – but it creates a bit of a weird scenario. One part of me would love to play games that I’d never tried that are supposed to be good, while the other appreciates going back to real time wasters such as Disgaea or Sim City or whatever else I’ve put countless hours into but eventually tired of for the time. So as a result, I usually end up spending countless time debating what I should play next, bored all the way, with very little gaming time spent.

          Dakimakura covers are still my favorite probably because of the perceived use they get. I consider each and every one a work of art (certainly some more than others) that I’d happily display if I didn’t have people around frequently. That and they also make a fairly comfortable pillowcase when it’s not 120 degrees out (great in the winter when they retain heat very well, not so much in the summer), yet the majority of them are sitting in a box, same as all my figures. Yet I pay more than an average figure (or two) for one, and I don’t regret it one bit. Objectively, I couldn’t really justify the expense, but I enjoy it a hell of a lot.

          I’d say the biggest problem with Catherine is the fact that the development team is coming off the success of Persona 4 and no one is going to want to play a puzzle game over Persona 5. From the crappy on the fly translation I’ve watched of the first act or so, the story/animation is great, as is the atmosphere and music. And I have first hand experience with the first couple stages of puzzle-platforming. I’m personally a fan of puzzle games, and I thought the gameplay was fun and sufficiently challenging, however, it’s not a genre that everyone can get behind.

  9. Tier says:

    Yeah, I’ve never been good at memorizing combos in fighting games, or even just the ordinary moves. I haven’t beaten Ikaruga either; I think I got to stage 3 on my best attempt. I’d like to attribute that to old age but I’ll admit I just suck at those sorts of games. It’s kinda funny though; I don’t do well in those sorts of games but I memorized most of the boss strategies in World of Warcraft. Then again, success in that game wasn’t so much memorization, it was finding 24 other people that didn’t completely suck.

    I’ve done the same thing, as far as allocating gaming time. I have a huge stack of unplayed games that I am told are excellent games, but I keep going back to things like Sengoku Rance or Command & Conquer 3 (at least, until I upgraded my computer and was forced to install a patch that broke the way I liked to play it). Despite not being very good at games that require memorization, some of my favorite games are all about repetitiveness.

    I think that’s another thing I’m holding against Catherine; I want Persona 5, not a puzzle game. Or even a console-based Shin Megami Tensei game rather than a portable version or a remake. We’ll leave aside the fact I haven’t yet beaten Persona 4 or started on the Digital Devil Saga games.

    • Shashin says:

      That’s about where I’ve been in Ikaruga, possibly up to stage 4, but definitely not 5 by myself. Yeah, most of the boss strategies were fairly easy in theory, with very little memorization past “don’t do this, or get the fuck out of the fire/spike/deathballthing” and it really was all about finding other people who weren’t retarded… or mass farming/grinding back in the vanilla days.

      Persona 5 would likely be my most wanted game right now, except for maybe Shenmue III, but realistically Persona 5 will actually happen so it’s the game I want most that will come within the next 5 years or so. But it doesn’t bother me as much because I enjoy puzzle games and it looks to be great in its own right; yes, I would have rather had Persona 5 but I’m not going to let that take away from the game itself. I will however bitch at the developers for not giving the fans what they want, though.

      • Shashin says:

        So hopefully we’ll see about that Carnelian cover you mentioned earlier. Mandarake added about 10 Carnelian covers this morning, one of them being the one you mentioned. I added it to my cart along with another two; will just have to see if I was quick enough to get everything first. All of the items that were added today that are currently listed as sold out were gone within 10-15 minutes of the update. I added two items to my cart and later submitted another order for the third, but by the time my first order was processed at 12:05 JST, about 5-6 of the daily additions were sold out.

        • Shashin says:

          I’ve said it before, but I really need an edit button so I don’t look like an idiot with all the times I hit Post Comment prematurely.

          After looking through the review blog you linked earlier and my previous experience with Carnelian, I’m almost positive that the censoring is done by the reviewer. I looked through about 90% of their reviews, and every single one that had something to censor, had some level of censorship. Most were a lot easier to spot, but quite a few of them were blended quite nicely. Their review of Illust Guerrilla’s Saki/Nodocchi is the most amusing, since I’m well aware of what it’s supposed to look like.

          On another note, it looks like Illust Guerrilla finally updated Nymph’s product page for a mid June/July release.

  10. Tier says:

    I don’t even know what my most anticipated game is right now. It might be Rance 8 I guess, or a fan translation of Daiteikoku. I’m assuming fan translations for both are likely. Or Queen’s Gate Spiral Chaos, as I’ve mentioned, though I wouldn’t be able to read the game’s text either.

    Ah, cool, I am interested in seeing what it looks like. I like Carnelian’s work a lot and it’d be nice to own a pillowcase with her artwork, but I wouldn’t be willing to buy one without knowing what level of detail is provided.

    I have no clue if WordPress allows commenters to edit their own comments or not; I can edit it manually if you want. I knew some of his reviews were censored, since I had seen the artwork for a few of them, but I was wondering just how extensive it was throughout all of his reviews. That’s a curious move; I ran some of his text through an auto-translator and it kinda seemed he was concerned with his photos being used by bootleg manufacturers. That seems a bit odd to me, but perhaps there’s also some sort of cultural difference going on; I certainly have no problem providing uncensored photos.

    Ah, cool, it’s good to know they are still in business. Funny that you mention that now, I got a Nymph figure today that looks nice, but also looks a bit strange.

    • Shashin says:

      Oh, I very much look forward to both of those too. Such a shame that it will likely be years before either is in a playable state, as far as comprehension goes.

      I’ve gotten really good at finding sample images for most covers, but there have still been a few I haven’t been able to find anything on, even if I knew the circle’s name. So it doesn’t really bother me too much, though I have been burned a few times when the sample image was creatively drawn up to hide detail so you don’t know what you’re getting exactly. With circles such as Carnelian, you can generally find a full size sample image of both sides (though she’s released so many similar covers that I often have to compare the product shot with the various sample images to make sure I’m looking at the right cover), but it’s almost always censored to some extent so you don’t get a completely clear view.

      Nah, I don’t really care about it too much, but it’s just funny because I don’t think there’s been more than a few posts where I’ve said everything I’ve wanted to say. I’ll either finish typing up a point to an end and then just hit post without thinking, or I’ll think I have everything summed up and think of something I wanted to mention a few minutes later.

      It doesn’t seem all that odd to me, I guess. Dakimakura covers likely have a fairly small following even in Japan, but certainly outside of it. Bootleg goods have a tendency to pop up for just about everything, and I’d imagine it’s why there’s almost always a sample watermark on sample images, usually covering up the important bits. If bootleggers can’t get the full image directly from the manufacturer, I could see them finding high quality review images. Then again, it could also have something to do with censorship laws too, I guess. It’s certainly unfortunate as it makes it so hard to truly know a product before you buy it, but I’ve never really considered it too strange.

      Yeah, it sucks that it took so long, but I’m just glad that they’re still in business as you say. I hope to see more out of them soon, and honestly though its been like six months, I don’t think I’ll have any hesitation in putting in another order if they release something I really like.

      • Tier says:

        That’s one reason I buy most of my pillowcases from White Canvas or Doujin-dou; they provide uncensored pictures so you can see what you’re getting. Of course that precludes getting a lot of pillowcases from specific events or from specific eroge or specialty circles, though I can usually just Google some keywords and find what I’m looking for. I did wind up preordering Charlotte and Vivio so I’m looking forward to those dakimakura covers.

        Yeah, I guess you’re right. It still seems a bit strange to me, though, since you’d have to do a ton of cleanup work to use the photo and it kinda seems they might be better off just tracing the original image and coloring it themselves, if they can’t find a better source. Though then again, that requires a certain level of technical and artistic skill and I’m sure they are all about keeping their costs low.

  11. Shashin says:

    Most of the covers I buy I miss on the first run, so that’s not really an option. But when I can, I usually will as it’s almost always cheaper than buying from YHJ. Though I have found quite the opposite with Doujin-dou; from experience I think the image they list is the one provided from the manufacturer. They don’t add any censoring, but you can usually find a larger image if you do a bit searching around. It’s not really worth the effort if you have a general idea of what the cover looks like, I guess, but I’ve found their images are too small to provide enough detail most of the time.

    Cool, I can’t wait to see them. Mandarake has been adding a good amount of stuff recently; they didn’t add any covers with their morning update but I just checked and they had added three new ones, so I picked one of the three up (other two were sold out already, of course.) I was going to order 1-2 of the new NoReal cover, but they changed the color scheme to a lighter color at last minute so I don’t like it quite as much. I’m still really tempted to order it, but with my recent Mandarake purchases I’m a lot less inclined.

    I know absolutely nothing about Photoshop or whatever programs they’d use to do such a thing, but I guess that could account for the strange differences you see between a real and legitimate product.

    • Tier says:

      I’ve been spending way too much money recently but I wound up bidding on another dakimakura cover on YJA. It’s actually one I saw off a site you linked a few months back; I had wanted to pick it up but I missed the preorder deadline by one day back in January, so I’m glad to be able to pick it up now, particularly since it was a couple thousand yen less than what it would have cost otherwise. It’ll be nice to get my stuff from SMJ, one of the manga I won has been sitting in their warehouse for 66 days now since I was waiting to combine it with other stuff before sending a shipment request.

      • Shashin says:

        Which one would that be?

        I’m in a fairly similar situation with SMJ; I’ve been waiting for my Nymph case to come in before collecting my other items, but it just hasn’t happened, so I have one item (the Twins) that’s listed at 67 days. With a shipping schedule of mid June-July, I may be able to barely scrape it in under the 90 day limit, but it’s not a sure thing. Though SMJ has sent a mix message in the past as far as US storage goes. I once asked them if I could hold stuff in their office for a few weeks while I waited for one item to come in and they said it wouldn’t be a problem and the limit was only really enforced strictly for Japanese storage. Then about a week later they said they needed to get everything they were holding out, immediately – they even shipped two items that weren’t paid for yet (one of them had already accrued one late charge because I couldn’t pay it off in time.)

        Ugh, I know I shouldn’t be spending, but it always seems to be the case that when I’m low on cash rare opportunities arise. A new あんこ工房 cover just hit, in a similar pose to their recent Nanoha cover except with a cute pink haired chick; already listings have flooded YHJ and one hit the Japanese only portion of Mandarake (and sold out within an hour.) They recently release a Gosick cover that I’d like, but only have one listing up on YHJ and I haven’t been able to find a full sample image, and then one of their older covers that I’ve wanted for a long time has been listed with a bid. I put in a fairly high bid on that last one, as I’ve only seen it pop up once or twice since I’ve known of the circle, and after the Nanoha cover I’m not entirely sure if there won’t be a better opportunity to pick up the others.

        • Tier says:

          It was the one of Takeda Shingen (the girl on the left). It’s not the sort of pillowcase I’d typically buy but I think she’s pretty cute.

          I guess when opportunity calls, it’s difficult to turn aside. I think I’m done with pillowcase purchases for a bit (though we know how quickly that can change) but I’m finding it difficult to resist picking up a few figures that I was waffling on. I’m kinda tempted to get Cospa’s Fate Testarossa, since I’m compelled to purchase every decent-quality Fate figure on the market, and I’m also kinda thinking about picking up Figma KOS-MOS. I’m not even sure why since all my Figmas are piled up in an unceremonious heap on one of my shelves.

      • Cantan says:

        SMJ is dangerous imo. I’m also not a big fan of the fact that YJA almost always have the auto extension options on the auctions – Ebay is a lot better simply because the auction ends at the set time – you are not tempted to get into a long bidding war!

        I have purposefully kept my deposit relatively low and, unless an item is a preorder, I will not pay the purchase price until they receive the goods. Hasn’t stopped me overspending… but having a 25k limit prevents me going totally overboard

        • Shashin says:

          Oh it’s beyond dangerous. I can have a bit of self control when I know I shouldn’t be spending money, for things I don’t really want anyway… but the second I see something I do, I bid like a financially irresponsible child. I don’t like the auto extension either, because it almost always tacks on some time to the auction unless there’s a buy it now, but I could have sworn eBay had a similar feature. The only plus to YHJ auctions is that it only auto extends if there’s a bid in the last 10 minutes, so if the auction ends at an awkward Japanese time (not too often, but it does happen) you could secure the win because you bid just outside of the timeframe and the auction is set to end at like 3-4 am JST.

          But with the difference between the rate they give you (120) and the actual rate, you can end up spending much more than you intend, especially with all the fees. And I have a rather high limit set, too. D:

          I should really lower the limit, but it is nice to pick up stuff and not worry. The two covers I really wanted popped up at the same time with < 1 day left to bid on them, one of them had bids on it and the other had a buyout; both covers were very rare to see on YHJ. If I had to choose and missed out, it would have torn me apart, but I was able to secure both due to my high limit… no way the limit increase would have come in time.

        • Tier says:

          Yeah, it’s really, really easy to get sucked in and then be like, “Oh crap, I really shouldn’t have bid that much.” Particularly when you get your invoice and it’s considerably higher than you expected it to be.

          My deposit’s pretty low as well; my limit’s actually under 20k yen. I’ve been tempted to switch to credit card authorization since the limit would go away and I’d get my deposit back, but I haven’t done so yet. I probably should since there’ve been a couple of big-ticket items that I wanted but couldn’t bid on since they ended well above what my deposit allowed.

          • Shashin says:

            Yeah, she’s really cute. It’s definitely a cover I’d consider buying if I come across it at a decent price. Be interesting to see what the heart’s covering up at the bottom on the backside shot, as the rest of the cover appears more suggestive than anything and the other is only slightly more exposed. I do love me a good backside shot, and it’s certainly promising.

            Yep, I pretty much went “fuck it” today and browsed through about 20-40 pages of YHJ auctions for dakimakura covers. Was actually 3-4 I’d probably buy, and a large handful that I’d seriously consider. But I’ve managed to restrain myself thus far; might lose that restraint if Mandarake doesn’t have a good dakimakura update before I pay my two current standing orders (with a 5 day payment option, I figured I’d wait and see if I couldn’t add a few more items to the orders) or if I lose my high bid auction on YHJ.

            There’s actually one case in particular that I really like, but I’ve run into a strange wall. I’ve managed to find the website of the artist’s, but as far as I can tell he doesn’t have a circle name and his artist name doesn’t bring up many hits on YHJ. So the only hit I’m getting is for the one cover I’d like (it’s selling for about 2.5-4 times the original retail price depending on bid/buyout, so I’m very reluctant to pick it up just yet.) It’s really strange because he has a lot of other covers on his website two, and I’ve found a total of two of them on YHJ. It’s because I’m searching by series and the two results shared the same series, but it’s really unfortunate I can’t work out a circle name or something that would bring up broader results from the same artist.

            I went with a credit card deposit; I started fairly low, but then I went crazy and sent in a huge order with D-Stage about a year back. The order was high enough as it was, but I also had a few dakimakura covers I’d yet to pay for on the books, so I had to increase it past that… and I haven’t lowered it since. I’ve driven myself up to the limit a few times, but I’ve been fairly good at keeping it somewhat low.

          • Cantan says:

            Yeah, my limit was at about 19k for a while, but I was seriously debating getting a Daiki Mina Majikina (the 1/4 ones) for a while and all the new ones were listed at around 20k. Bunged an extra $10 in to boost my limit, but never bought her.

            Am tempted to get it reduced down to a more sustainable 10k… but you never know. May was a particularly bad month for me as a lot of the items I had been waiting for arrived and there were a few impulsive buys as well:

            Max Factory Seena – swimsuit edition
            Yamato Rei – eye patch edition
            HOP Hibiki Ganaha – cute naked girl edition
            Volks Neige Hausen – freaky face but cool outfit edition
            Kotobukiya Maxima – not yet delivered edition
            GSC Hattori Junko – bent sword handle edition
            Orchidseed Super Sonico – bondage edition (also think she’s hiding something under all that hair – her forehead is unnaturally large)

            Aim is to get through June without buying anything (I haven’t already preordered – which might not actually be anything) or preordering anything new. That is risky as I still really want Daiki’s Ryomou but am holding off hoping for a discount (which might never come).

            Am almost tempted to get SMJ to use my deposit to pay for Gotou’s postage when she finally arrives.

            Oh and talking of great temptation… I’m trying desperately hard not to buy:
            http://www.amiami.jp/shop/?set=english&vgForm=ProductInfo&sku=FIG-MOE-2474&template=default/product/e_display.html

            Whilst I am indulging self-restraint, don’t let that stop you guys. Tier, think you should really review that one – real work of art 🙂

  12. Tier says:

    >> Shashin
    I’ve seen some pictures of the pillowcase on a couple of Japanese-language blogs and it doesn’t appear there’s anything explicit. I knew about that before I bid, though.

    That is a curious scenario. Hopefully you have better luck finding some information on the artist; I know I’ve had some difficulties trying to find information on a particular circle or artist before.

    >> Cantan
    I expected a ton of stuff to get delayed this month, but I was quite surprised to see that most of what I ordered is arriving on time. I’m trying to hold off the big-ticket impulse purchasing right now; money isn’t a huge problem right now but space definitely is. I just don’t have the free space for many new figures right now, and it seems silly for me to buy a figure and then just keep it in its box as I’m doing with Ms. Marvel and Haruka Morishima right now.

  13. Shashin says:

    Though I definitely like my dakimakura covers raunchy, I can appreciate the tamer variety as long as it isn’t done cheaply. Like a smooth void of space where something certainly should be, but carefully placed underwear that hints at something more, or something along those lines I have no problem with. In fact, that cover is so incredibly cute I’d probably prefer something along those lines.

    It’s definitely strange. Usually you’re golden once you find the circle’s website, except for maybe sample images for older/all covers (あんこ工房’s site for example.) That isn’t the case with this site, they have a ton of sampling of their other works. Oh well, they only have the one cover I really want, and I can just plug in the character name there and hope someone lists it at a more reasonable price in the future, and I might try plugging in some other character names too.

    So yeah, I guess we’re going to find out how much of a dakimakura nutjob I really am. Thus far my threshold for a purchase has been like 27000, but I’ve bid a tad over 30000 a couple of times only to have lost. This morning I lost the あんこ工房 cover that I had mentioned… with my losing bid of 33000 yen. That bid is disturbing enough, but probably even more disturbing is now I realize just how much I wanted that cover, and I’m seriously contemplating buying one of the two other covers listed on YJA. Fwisy has a listing with no picture of the product (generic sample images) for 40000 yen, but I’d have to go through a different service (was looking into Yokatta Web, and I think their commission might actually be cheaper than SMJ for such an expensive purchase) and I went through his feedback and he’s acquired 22 stormy clouds in a fairly short time… and there’s at least one mention of counterfeit goods which is more than enough to throw me off for such an expensive purchase. Or I could go with the guy listing it for 49000 yen bid with no picture. He has good feedback and says the extras (card/mousepad/and such) comes with it, but the extra 9000 yen would have my total clocking in probably near $700…

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, tasteful nudity doesn’t bother me, but heavy-handed censoring does. I felt the same way, I’ve seen the CGs for the game and while they are explicit, Shingen-chan is really cute and I kinda prefer her in a pose that is more suggestive than raunchy.

      49000 yen would be a hardcore bid indeed. I’ve bought a couple of figures at around that price but I don’t think I’d be brave enough to bid without some pictures of the item. On the other hand, I’ve convinced myself a few times that if I’m gonna drop 50,000 or 60,000 yen on an item that I think is going to be contested, going to 70,000 isn’t much of a stretch. If you go in on a big-ticket item and you’re sure you really want it, I think it’s best to go all in. (Of course, that’s easy for me to say, since I get paid every couple of weeks; it’d be far harder for me to justify if I were still in school).

      • Shashin says:

        Luckily, someone came to my rescue and posted a full scale sample image, but also listed one at a 30000 bid. He’s also has decent feedback rating and posted an image of the actual product. Also happens to be the seller of my Twins cover I’m waiting on, but that doesn’t do me any good since I don’t have it yet. I do agree with you though; I’m going to try and get by with a lower bid, but if I can’t be up when the bidding closes I’ll toss a higher one on and if I can be up I’ll certainly be watching it.

        • Tier says:

          A good plan, I’ve done that before, waking up early to make sure nobody beats you at the last moment. It’s not something I like doing much, so I’m kinda glad most of the stuff I bid on either have buyout prices or aren’t contested.

          • Shashin says:

            So, I blame all the errors in that message on posting it almost literally when I woke up. Time off from school is awesome as it allows me to sleep whenever the hell I want, but it certainly doesn’t improve coherence when posting at 1 am with sleep encrusted eyes.

            The addition of SMJ’s sniper bidding certainly makes things easier, though if anything I’d be worried that the bid wouldn’t go through; I’d feel much safer seeing that I had a bid placed on an item, even if it invited more competition.

            Unfortunately, I’m not so lucky. A good majority of the items I buy do have a buyout, and the rest either have an absurdly high buyout or none at all. I can think of two non-buyout covers off the top of my head that had very little/no competition. I won one cover at 9000 yen (good deal), and the other at 11500 (also a good deal), the rest that I can recall have all jumped up at least 3000-15000 yen from my initial bidding price. Though the ones at the later end were generally the auctions I lost because if someone was willing to bid 15000 more, they were willing to bid 25000 more.

            I don’t really think I draw a line myself, even though I’m certainly in a less comfortable financial position than Tier. Though strange and definitely a money pit, collecting dakimakura covers brings me a very odd and euphoric happiness. I don’t deny that the money could be spent elsewhere to greater effect, but I don’t see something that brings a great deal of joy a waste of money. So while I may be a bit hesitant, I don’t think I’d have many qualms dropping doll level figures on a dakimakura cover… as long as I could see what it looked like before hand, anyway.

            On that note, I’m dying with a burning curiosity as to what a certain Miku dakimakura looks like. Two of them, actually – one is fairly recent, appearing on YJA as soon as a month ago, but it’s going for a staggering 120000 yen for an SK cover and no full size sample image. Similarly, there’s another cover that’s been on Mandarake/YJA for at least a year in the 60000-90000 yen range. I’ve yet to find a sample image for that one, despite it being out for so long. I’d never buy either without seeing a sample image, but my desire to know what makes them so special is killing me.

            Space is a problem for me as well; the room I have dedicated to my collection is on the very small side, and I don’t really have any other place for it short of what little I’m willing to openly display. On the plus side, dakimakura covers don’t take up much space at all to store, and I could probably display 8-10 in the room, but it would hinder my access to other things.

  14. Cantan says:

    Ouch… I may have received goods costing close to 90k last month, but at least I got 8 items for that amount of money. Have to ask, at what point do you draw the line?

    Presumably the Sonico doll must have set you back 60k or so

    Mind you, if you can afford it, fair play to you I guess. I have difficulty justifying anymore purchases really – I can display 6 Dakimakuras at any one time in my bedroom and a dozen or so figures in my office and whilst it’s nice to have a bit of variety and swap some out every now and again, I guess I’d stop appreciating what I have if I just operated a full carousel system with every new purchase.

    I’m still getting a good few hits and misses though – Orchidseed’s latest offering is likely to always be “Super Conehead Sonico” to me now

    • Tier says:

      I don’t draw a line anywhere; if I want something enough, I’ll drop the money on it. It may sound silly to drop $700 on a doll, but I think it’s silly to drop large amounts of money on jewelry or vacations or home renovations. It’s all where your priorities are. I’d have a different outlook if I were strapped for cash, but I have enough money in the bank that if I needed to buy a new car or had to pay for a moderate medical emergency or suddenly decided to quit my job and go traveling for half a year, I could do that without suffering hardship.

      Yeah, I’m having a great deal of problem with space as well. Most of my recent purchases are still in their boxes; this is partly to protect them from dust while I get ready to photograph them, but it’s also because I simply have no place to put them at this time.

      • Cantan says:

        Guess that sort of makes sense… I am looking at spending $800 on a new fireplace and surround at the moment after all. Still, I can’t get away from a sense of unease when forking out large sums of money if I don’t have something large and tangible I can put my hands on… a 40 – 50 kilo marble unit gives reassurance… a 300g plastic figure ain’t quite the same.

        Mind you, I still felt like I was paying a seriously extortionate price when I shelled out $3,500 on a new boiler back in October/November, but it was already too bloody cold back in Autumn, my other quotes suggested it was market rate and after 8 weeks of ice cold showers I had had enough.

        Still if you saved up more of that money you could get a bigger place with more display room! Save a little now… display more later – not that catchy I grant you.

        • Tier says:

          A friend of mine had to replace his garage door, and I think he said it cost like $8,000 or something. I was thinking, man, if I had a home with a broken garage door, I’d just leave it. I’m cool with parking on the street if it’d save me eight large.

          Yeah, I wouldn’t stand for icewater baths though. I’d put medical emergencies in front of a new boiler but I’d put a new boiler in front of figures.

  15. Tier says:

    >> Shashin
    I figure money comes and goes. My finances are in decent shape so I can indulge myself a bit. One of the guys in my dorm back in freshman year bought himself a new Lexus right after he graduated college. Me, I’m going to drive my Civic until it breaks down; if I can get another five or seven years out of it, that’d be great, being it’s already a decade old.

    After I graduated from college – which was a very narrow thing, considering I got kicked out twice – I started up Indulgence Week, which was a week in which I consumed various unhealthy foods, blew my gift money on a bass and a laptop, and basically did whatever I wanted to do that would make me happy. That stretched into Indulgence Month and then what my roommate called Indulgence Lifestyle, which seemed like a pretty good way to live. The tagline up at the top under the site title sounds a bit trite but it’s basically the way I try to live.

    That is most strange, and I would guess their specialness comes not from the pillowcases but rather from the sellers. That is, I imagine the sellers are special needs individuals; my guess is that they are simply insane and are hoping that somebody gets drunk and bids on their stuff. For that amount of money, I think one could hire a professional artist to draw two custom images of whatever one might want that could then be printed onto a dakimakura cover by a textiles shop.

    • Shashin says:

      I’m lucky in that I don’t have many bills at the moment, while I’m in school. And I have a few ways to come up with a small amount of money, but since I don’t have to funnel it elsewhere, I can spend it on unnecessary things.

      Heh, it will be a few years at least before I’m out of college, and then I’ll probably continue on for a graduate education after that, but I’m already feeling that type of lifestyle a bit. I don’t eat anywhere near as healthy as I should, but food has to be one of my favorite things to indulge in. There’s just too many things that tantalize the taste buds, and if I were to refrain I know I’d be much unhappier.

      I do take back my earlier comment about being able to control myself when it comes to spending. With Mandarake’s update this morning, I pretty much just speed added everything to my cart and checked out as quickly as possible, since some items have a tendency to go rather quickly. It was only after I ordered that I actually went back and found sample images for everything; though I already had a general idea for some of the items. Quite a few of the items were cheap 1000-3000 yen covers that either come with a promotion or are packed in with a magazine. I figured for that price, I couldn’t really go wrong, and it’s exactly the type of stuff that sells quickly. I didn’t really want any of it particularly, but one of the items was taken from the recently released Sisters eroge. Then I picked up four more traditional dakimakura covers.

      Didn’t know the character of the first, but it was 3000 yen; I later found one copy on YJA for 9000 yen, so I suppose I got a good deal. Either way I couldn’t pass it up because of the price. Then the あんこ工房 To-Heart cover I had intended to pick up for some time; material wasn’t listed so I expect SK, but it adds to my あんこ工房 collection and it was still probably a fairly decent deal either way. The last two were the biggest impulse buys; both were 10000 yen, so certainly a bit expensive for not having much information, but more in line with average dakimakura prices. The first was an SK Card Captor case. I had actually seen some sample images previously on YJA where similar covers are going for 20000/30000, so it was an arguably good deal. But I don’t think I would have bought it if I had actually stopped to think a minute on it. The second I knew absolutely nothing about, other than it was apparently a Touhou character, the girl was fairly cute, and it was 2WT. I went searching for a sample image, and of course with only the Touhou tag to go on, I had like 98 pages to search through… finally ran into it on about page 90.

      So a whole bunch of no thought impulse buys, and not a single one of them is an item I’m particularly in love with. I think the あんこ工房 cover is the only one I would have purchased eventually, just for the sake of completing a collection. But I guess they’ll all add nicely to a collection, even if such a purchase when combined with the SMJ auctions I haven’t won yet, will pretty much wipe out all the money I’ve set aside in the last few weeks of hindered spending.

      Funnily enough, my haste almost made me lose out on the gem of the morning’s update. I’ve long since abandoned clicking the newest date to see the products added, and usually just type in the dakimakura tag and sort by new arrival, as soon as the clock hits 12 JST. It works out great for seeing the added dakimakura covers, without having to wade through a whole bunch of figures/doujinshi. Of course, the tag doesn’t catch certain Illust Guerrilla cushion covers, but luckily something made me check the entire daily update page, and I managed to add it to my cart before it had been sold. At least I hope; I’ll pretty much consider everything else in the spending a bonus as long as the cushion cover is added to my collection. With it I’d only be missing two cushion covers, and 4-5 dakimakura covers from a complete Illust Guerrilla collection. Though I don’t expect to have many chances at their older items.

      I couldn’t say, I definitely doubt that the circles sold them for that much originally. I know Marks covers (of which one is, apparently from C73… so why it’s just making a reappearance on YJA now, I have no idea) generally sell for 10000-15000 yen originally, but almost always make it over the 20000 yen mark, and sometimes into 30000 yen territory. Still, 90000-12000 yen is just insane, and I don’t see them selling anytime soon. The other is a curiosity though, as it does have a sold out listing on Mandarake for 84000. I guess the lesson to take from this is that Vocaloid fans are crazy.

  16. Shashin says:

    Well, I’ll be damned. I hereby apologize for making some incorrect assumptions; the review of the Carnelian cover you’re interested in is not censored. You can make the slightest indentation out on the case, but the review fairly accurately portrays what you’re getting. It’s slightly more noticeable than in the pictures, but not by more than a hair, and I guess it could have something to do on the photography end but I haven’t the slightest idea myself. It’s still a beautiful cover, but slightly disappointing to find that it wasn’t censored by the reviewer.

    Thinking back on it though, I never opened the one Carnelian cover I had. I thought I did, but it’s only because I do remember taking the time to open the towel that came with it, which I’m fairly sure had some slightly more detailed anatomy. Come to think of it, I remember getting another freebie too… I wonder if I had two Carnelian covers before this purchase. It’s blasphemy for me to say it, but you’d almost think that once you start losing track of things, you may have too many…

    • Tier says:

      Well, that’s unfortunate that the pillowcase is not detailed, and fortunate that I didn’t pick it up. I suppose I’ll refrain from going for any Carnelian dakimakura covers; sort of a sad thing, since I like her artwork.

      Yeah, I’ve had a problem with keeping track of things as well. There’ve been a few times when I’ve looked through the used racks at a Gamestop and I pick out a game to buy and then I stop and realize I have no idea if I own it already or not. A few weeks ago I wasn’t sure if I owned Xenosaga or not until I cleaned out my closet and found the case. I was putting some doujinshi into a short box a while back and found out that I’ve got at least three duplicate books.

      That sounds like a considerable haul. I picked up another figure recently and I’ll probably be kicking off Fate Testarossa Week here some time in the near future. I paid for the Takeda Shingen pillowcase and was annoyed to see SMJ use an exchange rate of 75 yen to the dollar. I look at xe.com daily and I haven’t seen the rate drop to 78 since March.

      Yeah, Vocaloid people can be singularly obsessed, it seems. I must admit that I don’t include myself in that category and both of my Vocaloid figures will be among the first I hock whenever I get around to offloading excess figures.

      • Shashin says:

        Yeah, I’ll probably refrain in the future myself. For cases that look like they should show something anyway; I’d still definitely consider picking up a case that doesn’t look like the nether region should be in view, but one of the other cases I picked up is of a character in a spread eagle position, and you can only barely make out a line.

        I had ordered three cases in that order, and I checked the status of the one mentioned in my post first, then posted, and went back to opening the others. I’ve run into a very strange problem. I don’t have any knock off dakimakura covers that I’m aware of, so I couldn’t compare the material normally used, but the cover I received doesn’t feel like any material I’ve had before. It’s stretchy likely 2WT, but doesn’t have the velvety smoothness that usually goes with it; instead it’s somewhat rough and abrasive. It also have some fold marks and wrinkles, which I know that 2WT is resistant to at the very least. And then there’s a fairly distinct smell that I’ve never noticed with any other cover I’ve purchased; it’s slightly fruity, I guess would be the best way to explain it. Print quality seems to be okay, but the best I could compare it with is a sample shot which doesn’t really help.

        I immediately thought it was a fake, so I decided to check the dakimakura blog to find the details of the case. I found a review, and strangely enough, it only increased my concern. Google Translate isn’t exactly the best tool to use, and I might be missing some context, but if you run it through yourself, you’ll see a somewhat unsettling phrase repeated quite a few times near the bottom (and a mention of a chemical smell near the top of the review.) Google Translate keeps bringing up this phrase near the bottom: “indicates there is no real cover.”

        I really wish I spoke Japanese, because from what I gather near the top, it was ordered from Carnelian’s personal website, so it would be a legitimate product. But I can’t make sense of the repeated phrase near the bottom. I guess I’d lean towards it being legitimate, as I don’t see the people at Mandarake getting duped, but I don’t know.

        I don’t think I’ve ever had the problem with physical games, but I know I’ve had it with doujinshi a couple of times, and possibly even a more obscure dakimakura once. Downloading eroge/hentai OVAs also leads to a lot of repeats; either because I forget I have something on my hard drive and it’s there for months untouched and I download it again, or I just don’t pay attention to the Japanese name and re-download something.

        Yeah, it is, though I can’t help but regret it just a bit. I’m also waiting a couple days to pay for an order from a different store; a Rin Tohsaka cover that I had wanted but passed on during its original release (it’s not very erotic, but I really like the art) and 夕月工房’s first cover as far as I can tell, showing a Bakemonogatari character. When did you order the case? Back in March they changed their rate, so that they now charge rate -5, which would probably work as its been hovering near 80-1 for some time now. If you ordered before they changed their system (in late March, I think – you can check on the forums), they’re supposed to give you the old rate. I know I’ll be checking what they charge me for the Nymph cover, since I ordered it back in December.

        Eh, I think Miku’s cute, but that’s about all. It’s fairly strange how she seems to match two of my biggest physical preferences. I’d say hair and smaller bust are at the top of the list; for hair, more specifically, I love long, oddly colored hair… and I do have a thing for twintails. But I definitely don’t fall into a craze over her, and could even do without. I do regret canceling the Tony figure, but I don’t consider it the biggest deal.

  17. Tier says:

    I ran the phrase “※実際のカバーに★印はありません。” through several auto-translators and I think the most accurate translation was “※ There is no ★ mark in an actual cover.” That seems like a likely disclaimer, since sometimes you don’t know whether a pillowcase is actually censored or not.

    I bid just a couple weeks ago, so I guess that would explain that. I must not have gotten the memo, and that’s pretty lame, since I’m guessing they want to protect themselves from earthquake-induced currency fluctations. The thing is, I don’t think 9.1 scale earthquakes are all that likely to occur in the near future.

    I can’t say I’m a big fan of Miku, and I’m pretty much ignoring anything that involves her, with the possible exception of Max Factory’s Miku Append figure. I don’t have a problem with her character design or her voice or the songs people make – actually, I’m pretty sure I’d love the software if I knew how to make music. I just have this tendency to dislike popular things.

  18. Shashin says:

    You know, that makes a whole lot more sense. I ran it through about five translators myself and must have come up with the same result myself once or twice, and yet it didn’t even occur to me. I guess that once you get something in your mind it’s almost impossible to change it. The rough feeling of the material and strange smell really cemented the idea that I didn’t have a legitimate cover.

    They never mailed it out, but posted it all over their forums and had a big banner on their front page for a couple weeks before they made the change. It sucks, considering it was only the first week or so that the yen was jumping around so much; I still wish we could go back to that 85 rate we had for a day or two. I

    I had heard about her a few years ago when she came out, and she was fairly popular then, but she really just surged in popularity with the last year or so. I don’t put any thought into things I like, I just like what I like. Sometimes that leads me to disliking popular things, sometimes it doesn’t. Though I guess the popularity of a product does tend to reinforce my emotions one way or the other. I never wanted an iPod because I thought it was ridiculous to pay that much for an MP3 player when I was just fine with a CD player or you could buy a similarly equipped player for less than half the price. But I managed to acquire two over the years at no cost to myself. I used both of them, and absolutely fucking hated iTunes; I thought it was an unwieldy, bloated, piece of shit that did nothing but complicate the experience of moving/playing music. At the time, there weren’t any alternatives, so I was stuck with it. Then both of my players died within a year of moderate use. Of course, they were practically the only player on the market that you couldn’t replace the batteries in yourself. So I’d take the $50 it would have taken to replace the batteries, and bought a good player. I just couldn’t understand why someone would pay such a high premium for a piece of hardware/software that made it more difficult to listen to music. And I’ve pretty much hated Apple since.

    Ugh, Rin Tohsaka is in stock. As much as I want her, I don’t know if I can afford it now. I won this and did go all out on the other cover. Wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it’s still pretty bad. Actually a pretty strange story to it though. Of course the bidding was stuck at 30000 (my bid) until the last 5 minutes. Then it quickly hit 40000 with two other bidders (which was my max bid at the time.) One guy pulled out at 41500. I decided I’d go to a maximum of 43500, unless I won the other auction (which had about 10 minutes left) uncontested for the start price. I did, and decided I’d jump to 50000 maximum; I didn’t know when I’d have another opportunity to actually get it from a seller I thought was legitimate. It hit 44000, and the last guy overtook me. I tossed in my maximum bid in, when I refreshed the page and saw that it was at 40000 and I was winning with 2 minutes left; which immediately jumped up to 15, and then back down to 5 in a very odd fashion. The dude had withdrawn his bid, and the guy who had pulled out early must have put in a bid just the same time as I did. The timer finally ended, and I had won at 42500.

    I guess the high bidder either got cold feet, or was secretly bidding for the seller in hopes of raising the maximum bid; he only had 12 feedback I think, so it’s definitely a possibility. And I’m sure it does happen. Either way, I’m just glad I didn’t get stuck paying the 50000 price.

    So with those two auctions, my unpaid Nymph set to come in, and two Mandarake orders… a figure on top of all of that seems excessive. :S

  19. Tier says:

    Yeah, I’ve had that happen, where I fixate on something and only later do I realize I was completely off.

    I bought an iRiver MP3 player simply because I didn’t want to buy an Apple product. I still have it and it still works, which is kinda amazing since it’s a hard disk-based product and I usually have bad luck with older hard drives. I continue to maintain my anti-Apple stance, though I won’t deny I would happily accept and use an iPad if someone gave me one.

    That is quite a pricey pillowcase indeed. It is good you got it at like 15% less than what you would’ve gone up to, though. Yeah, I guess Rin would be a bit much, though I am really, really looking forward to that figure. Curiously, there is a ton of angst and dissension within a small part of the figure community regarding that figure. I think she looks great, personally, and I’m really looking forward to her. Unfortunately I don’t have any great ideas for photographing her.

    • Shashin says:

      Yep, I’m sure we’ve all done it at one point or another. It’s funny too, because I just assumed the star was there, in the middle of the sentence, to draw attention to the note.

      I like Creative products myself. I have a little 4 GB clip that cost me $15, and hasn’t given me a single problem in two years. I have another in my car hooked up to my stereo system. Holds plenty of music for my purposes, and I have no problem whatsoever occasionally swapping out music; it’s drag and drop so it’s no where near the nightmare it was to move around music via iTunes.

      I’d take one too. Though them releasing a second version already certainly makes me dislike them even more, I’d say the iPad is something they’ve actually done right. It’s still a bit expensive for me, but I’d say it’s one of their first products that I actually think is more or less fairly priced.

      Well, I could have gone through Yokkata Web and bought the one that fwisy listed for 40000, but I think the extra bit of money is worth the piece of mind. I don’t know why I trust the 500 feedback seller over fwisy, especially considering I purchased a few items from him before, but I do. I’m still picking her up for sure; if I really can’t scrounge up the extra $100 I don’t have set aside and have to carry a small balance on my credit card over for a month, it will only cost me a few bucks more in interest, so it’s not a big deal… though I certainly don’t want to make a habit of it. It would just cost me more in the long run to pick her up later.

      That’s strange. I don’t pay any attention to the figure community, and I’m certainly less of a diehard than most, but I don’t see what there is to dislike about her. The second I saw her unpainted sculpt about a year back I knew I had to have the figure.

      • Tier says:

        I might look into a new device soon; I don’t like my iRiver player much since it’s slow to start up and you can’t create playlists; you have to import them from a computer. Pretty much the only thing going for it now is huge capacity, though that also works against it since I’ve got about 8,000 songs loaded on it and the interface is not that great by current standards, so it’s hard to access those songs. It was a great player seven or eight years ago, though.

        Yeah, for a big-ticket item, I’ll pay a little more for additional confidence. It’s sorta funny how a couple years ago, I was terrified of getting screwed by the proxy or the seller or bidding on the wrong thing due to not being able to read the listing. Nowadays, I don’t always even translate the whole listing before I send off a bid request.

        People seem to not like the glossy coloring of her tights and her shirt, and there is also a curious level of discontent regarding the little magic balls she’s got between her fingers. That last point is odd, since they’ve got to be like a millimeter in width; I mean, we’re talking about objects between her fingers. Nobody’s ever gonna notice that there’s a bit of paint creep unless you are using high-powered optics, and why would anyone care in that case? Regardless, I’m going to assess the figure and write the review as if I know nothing about this reaction (which is not universal, I should mention).

  20. Shashin says:

    Yeah, even with your tendency to run things into the ground before upgrading, 7-8 years for an MP3 player is a fairly impressive run; especially since they’re fairly cheap to pick up one with a decent capacity now.

    I’ll usually translate it, just to make sure the seller isn’t in China, and the material is listed. I’ve purchased covers without a material listing a couple of times in the last few months, and it’s always SK, so I try to avoid that where possible. I’ve been pretty lucky I guess. Before I really knew dakimakura covers well, I’d bid on a lot of things without really knowing the seller, or knowing what to check for. I guess it’s possible I have some fakes, but thinking about my collection, I think I only have one. Though unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that one cover is a fake. It’s a Miku cover that’s completely nude on one side, but in the official version she isn’t. I just thought it was a case of two official versions, but I remember reading somewhere that there was only the one.

    Ah, that’s funny though. I was just looking at the shots the other day and thought to myself that the tights were a bit glossier than I remembered. I could see why some dislike the tights, but I personally like the way they look… doesn’t really fit into character, but it reminds me of those kinky latex bodysuits. The shirt I could agree with a bit, I guess; I still think it looks good, but it does give the air of being more plastic than cloth. Guess it could still fit in the latex bodysuit theme, though…

    For the balls, I think that’s just people being bitchy. I’d personally be more upset with the fact that she has replaceable hands. For a figure like this, I’d much rather one have solid piece that doesn’t require any alteration.

    • Tier says:

      Admittedly, it’s not gotten a lot of use the last few years, though that’s in large part because it’s not very convenient to use. Growing up, I used to always carry a Discman to school (a lot of kids in the middle school I went to did; it was sort of fashionable at the time), so it feels kinda strange not to have a usable portable music player, given the sort of options available for not much money now.

      Yeah, I like the glossiness of her clothing as well, since I also have a thing for girls in tight shiny clothes. I guess part of that comes from growing up through the 80s. I kinda figure her shirt might be nylon or something … maybe that’s a stretch, but either way, I’m good with the shiny sheen. I ought to get started on building her backdrop.

  21. Shashin says:

    Well, that’s reassuring. Mandarake just added a handful of あんこ工房 covers on their site; which aren’t appearing on the English portion. Still don’t know how they choose what won’t be available to foreign customers, but they happened to add the cover I just paid 42500 for. It’s funny, I actually had a feeling that they would add it to Mandarake for a cheaper price sometime soon after I bought it. And they did, for 40000 if you don’t count the tax. But it’s for a Suede version where I got 2WT, so I certainly got the better deal.

    • Tier says:

      That’s a good sign. It’s never a good feeling when you put down big money and don’t actually know what you’re getting. I’m experiencing that right now with some stuff I bid on.

      • Shashin says:

        Oh, what did you bid on that you were unsure of? 😮

        I bought a sheet (I guess? it’s 150 x 150) that I couldn’t find a non-sample version of. It was only 4000 yen, so it’s not a big deal if it’s not what I’m expecting or horribly censored, but it has a lot of potential.

        I’ve only purchased two items since I won the expensive cover, so I suppose I could say I’m doing well… but it’s not for a lack of trying; Mandarake just hasn’t had anything good on their English site. >_>
        I keep telling myself that I’ll not buy anything unless it’s either an amazingly good deal, or a cover that I’ve genuinely been after for some time (or one that I’m just seeing, but can’t live without.) We’ll see how that holds up the first time they add some items I want a fair amount on their site.

        The second item I’ve ordered (the first being the sheet), it a special order I put in for one dakimakura cover. It’s a fairly interesting cover, because it plays to so many different fetishes, most of which I share and one of which I dislike completely. It’s got the twintails, the purple hair, the stockings, and massive chest flotation devices, which really don’t do it for me. But it has an absolutely glorious ass to match, so I just couldn’t resist.

        • Tier says:

          I bid on a pretty old figure that isn’t all that well known, so I couldn’t find a lot of pictures of it. The listing said the seller was a secondhand shop selling it on behalf of the original owner, and they didn’t know whether all the parts were provided, so I was looking around for some pictures to make sure all the important stuff was there. I think the figure was also slightly damaged but it didn’t look that serious and I think I can perform the touch-up fixes myself.

          That sheet does indeed look very nice. Though I’m not an animal ears person but other than that, it looks fantastic and that seems like a good price. Relatively, I mean. Anybody outside the hobby would be like, “Uhh, you paid $60 or $70 for a bedsheet?”

          Hmm, the picture is gone now, but I looked at it earlier. That ass was definitely glorious from what I remember.

          • Shashin says:

            Ah, well hopefully if you won it you won’t be disappointed with what you got. Best if there wasn’t any damage, but if there is, hopefully it won’t be beyond your abilities to fix it.

            Yeah, even with the animal ears (which I don’t mind myself) it has a whole lot else going for it. Three cute girls in different poses, fresh milk, and so on. Heh, you’re absolutely right about that. What’s possibly more depressing/amusing (depending on your outlook) is that it’s an absolute steal compared to average dakimakura prices. From what I can tell, it was a promotional item for an eroge that may have been given away for free (Google Translate + interpretation skills can leave a really blank picture sometimes), so I’m going in expecting the tail/bikini/whatever to creatively censor the really dirty bits. If I get anything out of it, I’ll be pleasantly surprised, and shouldn’t be disappointed… unless they decide to go the “smooth censor” (my new dubbing for that hideous censoring style) route. Though looking at the sample suggests creative censoring.

            Weird, the image still works for me. It’s up on the first page or two of the dakimakura blog if the image wasn’t working for you, though. Speaking of which, Evening Call is doing a Kanu cover that looks quite interesting.

  22. Man, those are some really well drawn sneakers. THOSE SNEAKERS. In fact, I like everything about the artwork…EXCEPT for the faces. Her face is just too plain and generic for my tastes. Though I do like that she looks overly excited in the first picture.

  23. Tier says:

    >> Shashin
    Ah, okay, I get a 404 error every time I try to load the picture but I see it on the dakimakura blog. Heh, yeah, those breasts are quite grand indeed. Gee, I guess Comiket 80 is rolling around pretty soon, I hope my favorite doujinshi buyer is still operating. It’s been kind of a rough year for him. I guess I’ll have to start looking around at circle webpages for stuff I want.

    • Shashin says:

      Bleh, don’t remind me. I don’t think I ended up buying much, if anything, last Comiket, but I know the temptation is certainly there. I guess there has been an increase in activity over the last few weeks on the dakimakura blog, but the only way I’d know for sure would be the count the recent additions versus a slower non-convention month.
      But I haven’t seen too many covers that have really caught my eye and that I have to have, so I guess it’s not too much of a risk to my finances. Doujinshi would certainly be another story though, if I were inclined to take a look at the offerings.

      • Tier says:

        I’ll probably be buying all the good Fate Testarossa doujinshi I see, as usual. Yeah, I haven’t seen a ton of pillowcases that appeal to me enough to order them, though I’m looking forward to the two I ordered previously. Evening Call’s Lenneth looks pretty good though, I like it a lot. And I like the product page for Kanu Unchou … it’s like, if they wanted to show a detail shot, they could’ve showed her face or her weapon or something, but no, they were like, “I know, let’s show everyone a close-up of her asshole.”

        • Shashin says:

          Haha, yeah. I really liked the detail shot, too. Short of circles that really try to push the limits when it comes to the graphic nature of a case, I can’t think of too many covers that have had detailed assholes. And my personal experience with Evening Call is that they tend to be on the tamer side. So it was a really surprising inclusion, and I’m almost digging it enough to order one for myself.

          • Tier says:

            I kinda like the one they’re doing of Nagisa too, who is a Phantasy Star character, if I remember right. She’s the girl with the red and blue eyes. I’m a big huge fan of the Genesis games – Phantasy Star II is actually my favorite game of all time – and so it’d be kinda cool to have a pillowcase of a character in the franchise, even though I don’t particularly care for the direction they’ve been taking the franchise.

  24. Shashin says:

    As a massive heads up, Illust Guerrilla is reselling five or their cases:

    http://illustguerrilla.web.infoseek.co.jp/ig-cart/catalog.html

    Definitely picking up another Twins and the Nanoha cover.

    • Tier says:

      That’s pretty neat; I’m thinking maybe I should get another pillowcase of the twins, just in case something bad happens to the one I’ve got. I studied engineering so that means I believe in redundancy and I’m pretty sure the twins pillowcase is the favorite one that I own.

      • Shashin says:

        It’s an absolutely spectacular case, and that’s pretty much the reason I’m picking up a second. I don’t think it’s my favorite, but it’s definitely in the top 5, and probably ranked 1 for explicitness.

        • Shashin says:

          As another heads up, especially for Cantan, if you read this: It’s looking like the Asuka cover is available for order from the Evening Call website. A few of their other covers have also apparently opened up for order again (left over stock or for Comiket 80, I guess.) There’s a news post on their front page for Comiket 80 with links to the ordering pages for the covers apparently available.

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