Dakimakura Review – Charlotte Dunois from Infinite Stratos (NSFW)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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43 Responses to Dakimakura Review – Charlotte Dunois from Infinite Stratos (NSFW)

  1. Nightmare says:

    While the thought has crossed my mind on more than one occasion to get at least one dakimakura cover I haven’t found the space or time to do so. In recent years though, quality has ramped up in these covers which applies to the Charlotte one as well.

    It’s indeed odd that we’ve seen so few products spawn from this series considering how well it sold in Japan. Still, I can’t get over how lazy that Charlotte effort from Alter is. I mean, most of them have this awesome looking mecha armor and it’s being ignored for a puff and tracksuit instead. I’m positive they could still make them attractive enough in their battle gear. If I’m not mistaken AmiAmi are doing just that, though their Houki prototype isn’t looking that impressive sadly.

    I still encourage you to watch Bakemonogatari whenever you find the time to do so. Considering the traits you found likable in Laura, I’d say the Hitagi arc would please you equally if not more.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, I was sorta disappointed in that figure. I may still wind up getting it, but I was really hoping they’d do one of the characters in their IS units, or at least their piloting suits. The swappable head doesn’t really do much for me, either. Come to think of it, the face doesn’t seem that great, either.

      Hmm, that sounds promising, I guess maybe I should look into that, particularly with the sequel airing soon. Though I should probably finish up watching this Madoka show first. Really wish the heads weren’t so melon-shaped in that show.

      • Shashin says:

        So you finally gave in and started Madoka? I thought it was good, though definitely not as good as all the hype suggests. Still, short of the first episode which was a bit slow, I enjoyed the rest thoroughly. And I love Kyouko.

  2. Shashin says:

    I finally got around to watching Infinite Stratos a few weeks ago myself. I liked this Evening Call cover before I watched the show, and had seriously considered purchasing it, but other covers took priority. Now that I have watched it, I regret not getting this one along with the Ankokoubou Laura/Charlotte. In terms of aesthetics, she isn’t my favorite character, since I really don’t care for blondes or big boobs, but her personality more than made up for any shortcomings. Laura is still definitely my favorite, though. I ordered her BWStore cover and have this adorable cover waiting for me at SMJ.

    The lack of franchise material has been most curious. I’m disappointed that there hasn’t been a good Laura (if any) figure as of yet. I really hope Alter gets around to doing one sooner or later, but she seems to be lacking merchandise more than any of the other girls, at least based off my quick searches on AmiAmi and Hobby Search.

    Evening Call is crazy, and I think they may quickly be becoming my favorite circle. I find it hard to believe that it was just last August I put in a D-Stage order that included their No. 4 cover and now they’re quickly approaching No. 100. We’ve already spoken a bit on Twitter about which covers we’re going to order, but they also just did a poll to resell a few covers. Will be interesting to see what gets selected because I know I would have considered about 7-8 of the options. It should be pretty cool because it looks like some will be sold at the 9800 range for the standard material while others may be sold at 13000ish for A&J 2WT. Surprisingly, with as many covers as I have I can’t say for certain that I currently own an A&J cover, but it’s generally regarded as the best material from what I’ve seen.

    Dizzy is popping up on YJA now, by the way. SMJ received my order yesterday and before that I had seen one at a 15000 buyout which is likely to be as cheap as it will come, I’d imagine. Did you end up not putting in your preorder?

    • Tier says:

      That’s a very cute pillowcase indeed. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to her pillowcases when they were coming out earlier this year, since I didn’t care much for the series, but I kinda wish that I had now. The bandaid placement reminds me I need to photograph the other Renai Saimin pillowcase I’ve got, too.

      Hopefully Infinite Stratos will get more figures, the character designs are probably the best part of the show. I’m really hoping it doesn’t turn out like something like Kampfer; I mean, Kampfer was basically meant for commercial exploitation, particularly with each character having two appearances, but for some reason there aren’t any Kampfer figures out there.

      Yeah, I think they’re my favorite circle as well; any circle that makes a Dizzy dakimakura cover is going to win my support irrespective of anything else that they do. I saw that poll and I thought it was sorta funny the Panty & Stocking pillowcase was on there; I really hope they fix the foot problem if that one does see a reissue.

      I put in my preorder but I ordered it from Toranoana, and Yokatta sometimes doesn’t send out notification e-mails when they get stuff. I’ve got some other stuff I want to order though so I’ll ask them to ship it all together, ideally before the Christmas postal rush.

      • Shashin says:

        Yeah, I hadn’t watched Infinite Stratos yet when I saw the case and I still had to have it. Before watching the series I had a fondness for Laura, at least aesthetically; both the Private Garden and the BWStore case were ordered before I really knew anything about the show. Charlotte probably became my favorite character personality wise, and I really like Rin too, but I’d still say Laura is my overall favorite.

        Yeah, I thought that was curious too. I think Kampfer was seriously botched, at least in the initial run; I can’t speak for the OVA (is it even out yet?) The series was watchable enough, though certainly not good, and it absolutely fell apart at the end. I also found the DVD releases somewhat hilarious. There were a few scenes in the TV release that had the stupid caution tape used strictly to boost DVD sales…. and then in the DVDs they removed the tape but failed to add nipples or anything.

        But yeah, hopefully we see some more official Infinite Stratos goods. I don’t particularly care for the Alter Charlotte figure, though I’m sure the quality will be outstanding. The new Rin figure is about the only one I like, but I don’t like it enough to buy it.

        On a slightly unrelated mech note: I’ve been in a bit of a Gundam kick lately. SD Gundam Online finally got a US server, and it’s a decent way to spend some time. Made me want to pick up a few models for old time’s sake and see if I can’t try some of the more difficult ones. And then going off on another tangent, I’ve been thinking about trying Lineage II now that it’s f2p.

        Yeah, I know we’ve had this discussion before, but we really need more Dizzy. I just really like the style of the artists who do most of the covers for the circle, and I haven’t really been disappointed with the guest (I’m assuming?) artists they’ve had do covers. That and for as high as their quality generally is, they release a ton of covers. It’s still one I’d like to pick up, corrected foot or not. Mandarake has actually had 3-4 in stock in the last few weeks, but not a single one had made it to the English site. Hopefully they choose to resell it, and as you said, hopefully they fix the foot.

        Ah, yeah. I finally gave up on holding my Kan’u and Asuka cover for the IG stuff. I’m still hoping that IG pulls through, even if it’s months from now, but I didn’t see the point in holding up my other stuff any longer. I should get it in the next 2-3 days, so since it’s been so long maybe I’ll take some shots of those covers and some of the other ones I’ve received since my last big set.

        • Tier says:

          Well, that’s unfortunate to hear about Kampfer, since I’d been putting off finishing it since the fansubs I’ve seen are of the censored TV broadcast and I’ve been planning on buying the DVDs. I probably still will, I guess, since I enjoyed the show, mostly in the same manner that I enjoyed Infinite Stratos.

          I wouldn’t say that I’m a huge mecha fan, even though I remember watching Tranzor Z as a kid and Robotech is the show that got me into anime, but even so, I’ve never seen a Gundam show and even I think that’s a bit strange. I haven’t played any of the games, either; I think the last mecha games I played were Phantom Crash and MechWarrior 3.

          I downloaded the L2 client to give it a try. The first thing I was disappointed in was that all new players are clustered together into a single town, apparently, so I was running around with a couple dozen other players rather than starting in the dark elf city (which may not exist, I guess; it’s been years since I last played the game). The other thing that disappointed me was that they made the dark elf armor more modest, which is a strange thing to do for a game that’s already quite mature.

          I absolutely agree. I’m even thinking about buying that Orchid Seed chibi figure just because it’s Dizzy. I have to admit that even the possibility that I might buy that sort of figure has me reevaluating how strong my beliefs are.

          I completely forgot about the IG pillowcase in the last few weeks. I guess they’ll ship it out whenever they do; since I’ve already got it, I’m not accounting for it when I tally up orders for shipment requests. I figure when Yokatta gets the books I want from Amazon JP, I’ll have them ship it out with the Dizzy case and the doll accessory I ordered.

          • Shashin says:

            Yeah, I’m basing that one one specific scene that I remember seeing, so it’s possible that it does improve. I just remember it pissing me off, because if you’re going to use such a blatant marketing tactic, you better do more than half ass it.

            On another note, I’m happy to see that quite a few shows are getting local releases these days. I’ve been surprised to see shows pop up that I never would have expected to get an official English release (be it sub or dub), and the turn around time seems to be pretty decent, too. If only the hentai market were the same way.

            I’m not a diehard mecha fan, but I do enjoy it; Gundam Wing was probably the first real exposure to anime I had so it kinda stuck with me. The shows can get pretty ridiculous, but they’re still usually entertaining enough to watch. I’ve only played one or two of the games and did do a bit of the snap modeling in the past. I’d say I’m a fan of the series, but not to crazy levels.

            That is fairly disappointing, especially about the skimpiness of the outfits; I remember seeing screenshots in the past and I always had to wonder if it was a mod or the actual clothing in the game. I did screw around with various patches in WoW previously, but I was always too terrified to keep them installed for too long for fear of a banning. Maybe a similar option would be available in L2?

            Heh, I never thought I’d see the day. I’ve actually preordered a figma or two myself. Not sure if I’ll do anything with them, but I especially couldn’t resist the Kenshin; hopefully the release of Rance Quest will bring us even more goods.

            I don’t really factor it in anymore, either. Though I imagine the Nymph I haven’t paid for yet will come in at the worst possible time for me financially, but other than that I don’t think too much about it.

            I’m just trying to tally up all the stuff I want to order in my head, and it is not a pretty sight. I have a hard time being selective when everything is quality, so I have an idea of what I want to order from Evening Call and Boncool (mainly their Kobato from the circle that did their Sena/Yozora), and some other circles I like will have C81 offerings that may or may not have a web reception period.

  3. Takatin says:

    Bandai is making Cecilia in her IS unit. I’m not sure about the quality through, I’ve never brought a Bandai’s figure. http://myfigurecollection.net/item/91507_is_infinite_stratos_cecilia_alcott_agp_bandai#tab/official/1

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, I saw that one on Amiami; I don’t really count action figures, since they’re so small most of the time, but it’s good to see somebody’s giving it a shot, anyway. I’m not too sure about Bandai’s quality, either; I think they’re one of the biggest toy manufacturers in Japan but I don’t think I own any of their products, unless you count Tekken, Soul Calibur, and Tales of Vesperia. I do remember not being too impressed by their Macross VF-1 toys compared to Yamato’s, though.

  4. Cantan says:

    Quite a cute cover – I do visit Evening Call’s website fairly often – mainly to window shop for things I can’t afford (my order book is fairly small – about 6 items – at the moment though I did find room for Selvaria!) – and there are quite a few I would be vaguely interested in / really wish I could afford.

    After much deliberation I have ordered my first cover from them – they always seem extortionately expensive particularly on the resale market. Have been very tempted by the recently re-released Asuka and the Kurisu Makise covers… then there was the Rin cover which, whilst fairly good could be better – very tempted by some of them though.

    Finally went for the Rei cover… which wasn’t even on Toranoana… from D-Stage and the extra commission costs that entails. Overall cost is about 17,500yen… about 4k more than the cover price and before postage.

    Cute? Yes. Ridiculously expensive? Definitely!

    Anyone found a cheaper alternative to get legitimate EC covers? Mandarake is often just as pricey from what I’ve seen.

    • Shashin says:

      I’m curious as to why you decided to order through D-Stage. Ordering directly from Evening Call seems to be the cheapest option. Though I’ll admit I haven’t checked D-Stage in some time, it’s 12000 + 500 shipping through Evening Call (and they usually have free shipping if you order within a week or two of it being posted, versus the 13650 when ordering from D-Stage. As far as I’m aware, you have to use a proxy for both and they’d likely have the same commission rates.

      Anyhow, unfortunately buying directly from Evening Call when they have the covers available seems to be the cheapest option. I’ve noticed the same trend, especially on YJA where they can often go for 20000+. It has been a bit better recently, but the markup is still fairly high. Mandarake lists most of their Evening Call covers for 18000, which is a 50% markup generally speaking. I’ve seen a few for lower but not many.

      Think the high price may have something to do with Mandarake’s purchasing system, if it’s still accurate; I read somewhere that they give a flat 50% of what they’ll be selling it for to the person trading it in. Don’t know if they still do this, but it would certainly explain why they mark up certain sought after items so much.

      • Cantan says:

        Must have missed the option to order directly from them – always seems to be a comment box at the bottom – didn’t realise there there was an order option too

        • Shashin says:

          That would explain it. It’s right under the detail shots. I can’t give an exact translation but the first purple box says “Circle something”, I’d guess something along the lines of “Circle Reception”. The link with the two red arrows pointing at it is the order page. If you use Chrome and translate it becomes “book page”. The next purple box is all the consignment shops.

          Similarly, if you’re looking at their product page at the very bottom of each entry is a little box. If you see two kanji symbols it means that the item is still available for preorder/is in stock; whereas if you see four symbols that means it currently isn’t available. Once again, if you translate it, it becomes “Order” and “Order No”.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, I like the Rei pillowcase a lot, too. I’d get it for certain if she were wearing her plugsuit rather than her school outfit on the front side. I wish the Rin pillowcase had a front and backside illustration rather than two front illustrations, but it’s all good; for some reason, Rin doesn’t get much merchandise compared to Saber. Having played through Fate/extra recently, I wouldn’t mind seeing a figure or dakimakura cover based on her appearance in that game. Either of her appearances, actually.

  5. Devastator001 says:

    I wish Alter would release them in their armor similar to the Triggerheart Exelica fig they released a few years back @_@! (of course not with her price range hopefully :D)

    • Tier says:

      That’s what I’m hoping for, too. I figure Alter could easily pull it off and they’d do a great job of it. Though I’m not expecting any such figure being cheap in the least, especially since the exchange rate is so much less favorable than it was when Exelica came out.

  6. Chag says:

    Eh, when you put it that way, my burning hatred for the series seems kinda silly. I guess I just couldn’t (and still can’t) comprehend why the series became so successful. I mean, the fanservice isn’t THAT great, is it? Anyhow, that’s beside the point. I’m glad that you agree that the Chuckster is the best out of the bunch. All dem other bitches are crazy. Laura is crazy too, but in an amusing way, unlike the rest of the ilk.

    This cover is definitely one of the best you’ve shared. The liquid trail hanging off her bikini bottom is a great touch. I wish more covers had little details like this in greater quantities. I find that a lot of these covers are too neat — the characters are too clean and the backgrounds too tidy. When I see a girl on a pillow cover, I see someone who’s about to receive/just received a hard dicking. Hard dickings are seldom a clean affair — there’s gotta be sweat, stains, and a general erotic mess. That’s how I see it — what do you think?

    • Tier says:

      I guess it has its moments, but for the most part, it’s fairly forgettable. I should also disclose that I skipped to episode 5 since I didn’t care to watch the tsundere girls shift to the latter half of the word.

      I agree, I like seeing those details. In the illustration, not on the physical pillowcase – people sometimes ask me what I do with my dakimakura covers and I tell them I either store them in a drawer or I put them on a pillow and leave it alone. I’m happy to see this Tsugumi pillowcase has some fluids but I’m not sure if I want it because I’ve yet to decide if I like the character or not. Guilty Crown’s the sort of show I could write a whole post on.

      • Shashin says:

        Just chiming in here, but fluids are definitely something I like a lot when it comes to dakimakura covers. Not considering things like material and art style, but actual content of the cover, I’d say it easily is one of the things I look for most in my covers. Not to say I won’t buy a cover without fluids, but if it has them there’s a good chance I will; don’t really care if it’s juice, milk, drool, or whatever else the artist may dream up, but for some reason it’s just a massive draw for me.

  7. Tier says:

    >> Shashin
    Yeah, I’m happy that shows like Kyokai Senjou no Horizon and Sora Kake Girl have gotten English licenses. I need to pick up some DVDs from Rightstuf. Or Blu-rays; I’m thinking about picking up a BD drive for my computer since that’s what I use for watching movies, but the lack of built-in software support is sort of annoying. I don’t really want to have to install another movie viewer when I already use Windows Media Player and Media Player Classic and VLC for various things.

    I was rather surprised by that clothing change as well. I’m not sure if it’s just that one newbie outfit or if they changed a lot of the female dark elf outfits. I’m guessing maybe there’s a patch to revert it but as I doubt L2 has a huge playerbase, I’m not too sure about that, and I can’t say I care enough to find out. I’m not really feeling too inclined to play a new MMO at this point in my life.

    I’m going to have to tally up all the stuff I want from C81, which will include the stuff from C80 I didn’t buy (which is just about everything that came out at that convention that I wanted, since I didn’t put in an order during the summer). I’m also hoping that the proxy service I used for doujinshi buyer gets some of his problems he’s having with various transaction processing services fixed up, since I really don’t want to pay for a doujinshi order with a postal money order.

  8. Break says:

    ive got only one akimakura, tenshi from angel beats (and a very small sanya from strike witches, but i figure this might not count), ans i dotn plan on gettign more due to space issues.

    uhm some company is also developing Cecilia with her IS, btu it doens tlook too goood.. ill probably order laura if they make her though.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, the mecha design lends itself well to action figures, at least conceptually, but personally, I’d rather see static scale-sized figures of the IS characters. I tend not to play too much with my poseable toys; even my Figmas and dolls tend to just lay around most of the time. Hopefully Alter will make more IS figures (and hopefully they’ll be substantially more ambitious than their Charlotte figure).

      • Break says:

        same here, i recently got my aigis heavy armed figma delivered (shes liited to only 2000 pieces; i guess thats pretty rare for a figma, not?) and i played aroudn with her abit in the beginning, but then i found a pose i really liked nd put here into my dispaly cabinet.. (the pose she’ll do after winning a battle, where she slightly twists her hips,smiels and puts her hand on her chest, youll know which pose i mean when you played the game.) and now ill prolly wont touch ehr much anymore to not destroy the pose after puttig some work into getting it perfectly..

        but i gues tahts the main point of figmas and action figures compared to scale figures, that you can freely choose the pose in which you wanna display her.

        • Tier says:

          They’re also pretty nice for people creative enough to tell stories with them through a series of photographs. I’m nowhere near clever (or patient) enough to do that; my few attempts to take pictures of Figmas have always left me feeling very frustrated and I suck at posing them, so I tend not to buy many of them.

          • Break says:

            same here, especially with my black rock shooter figma. her rock cannon is just too heavy for her, if not supported by the extra stand an dpylon provided, her hand will fall off and her arm wont uspport the pose, which severely limits the possibilities on posing her… well at least the figma came, surprisingly, with a DVD of the BRS OVA. (my PS2 plays it only in black and white; im not sure if thats due to the region-code or if the thing is supposed ot be black and white so you buy the atcual OVA to get the colored version though..) but im liking my aigis-figma very much now.

  9. Shashin says:

    Twitter has been surprisingly useful, certainly more than I would have ever imagined possible. But it still sucks when you need to write a bit more, since spamming multiple entries just doesn’t seem right. So I’ll just drop off my reply here.

    I actually haven’t figured it out yet, and I’m not sure if it’s possible at the moment. I tried registering for the site, and was able to make my way through information process fairly easily, but upon hitting submit I was greeted with a popup box that I didn’t have the slightest clue about. My best guess is that it was an error since my address/postal code probably didn’t conform with what they were expecting, but I suppose it could have just as easily been a problem with my phone number not being in the proper format… I’d wager on the first two, but I was lost.

    Actually, the first thing I checked when they updated their site was their terms/ordering page. At the very bottom, they used to have a part that translated to “We don’t ship overseas. We ship within Japan only.”, or something along those lines. When I checked, it was still there, which is what caused me to tweet. I’ll admit I was kinda hoping they’d respond when I did it, but I didn’t expect it given the perceived language barrier and since I didn’t use the proper formatting to alert them to my message. It was more of me commenting on the changes to their site for our discussion than it was to get their attention.

    But after I received the message from them, I double checked the rules (that I had just checked 10 minutes ago) and the part about shipping only in Japan had changed. It nows translates to something along the lines of “Overseas shipment is possible. We only accept bank transfer within Japan until the introduction of PayPal.” So my guess is that we aren’t quite able to order yet, but they plan on introducing PayPal as a payment option in the very new future.

    • Tier says:

      People seem to have stopped responding to my trolling on Twitter 🙁 Maybe I need to up my game; it’s been a while since I busted out some tasteless rape jokes.

      Ah, okay, it sounds like they haven’t implemented support for overseas customers yet. Hopefully they’ll provide an international version of their page, like BonCool does. It’d be nice if they did it before the order deadline for Rin Tohsaka, but nonetheless, it’s a very encouraging development, particularly so since Evening Call makes a lot of pillowcases that I want to buy.

  10. Shashin says:

    Aww. 🙁

    Hopefully we’ll hear something in the next few days. As much as I like it, I decided against getting the Rin cover, so preorders for covers I am going to buy are open until February. If we haven’t heard something about Paypal by then, I’ll probably ask them about it on Twitter.

    With the items they have in stock and the stuff I want to preorder, my shopping cart total is sitting at about 60k yen; I’m pretty much just waiting for Paypal integration (and money, but that’s secondary >_>). We discussed it before, and I’d say that this development would put them at the top of my “favorite circles” list.

    • Tier says:

      Sounds like a good plan. I think I’d agree with your assessment, though HOP was providing some good competition there … except they appear to have disappeared completely. I thought maybe they were just moving webhosts but I don’t remember seeing them at all on the dakimakura blog in a while. I’ve got one of their pillowcases on order (Briest’s Nanoha) and I’m wondering if they’ll be able to fulfill that order.

  11. Shashin says:

    I’ve liked HOP cases, mostly because they usually tend to have some great ass shots, but I haven’t really purchased too many. I was thinking about the Yukiko case, and there were a few others I’d still consider. I don’t know what the deal is with the website, but at the moment, I think that’s the only problem. They actually did have a new cover posted on the dakimakura blog a few days ago, but it linked directly to Toranoana versus their site. They also participated in an event just a day or two ago, so that’s a plus. Maybe a new site will pop up soon, but it’s still fairly weird I admit.

    • Tier says:

      Yeah, that’s one of the things I like a lot about them. And also, they put a lot of big, uncropped, uncensored pictures on their website. I wish more circles would do that.

      Ah, okay, I must not have been paying attention to that. I’ve got their Toranoana page bookmarked, actually, so I guess I’ll just look at that from now on. Strange that they do not seem to have gotten a new website running yet, though.

  12. Shashin says:

    Large, uncensored sample images are definitely the best type. There have been a couple of times I’ve been let down because the censoring suggested something better than what was underneath (the Syrup cover that used caution tape as censoring and then had smooth nether regions comes to mind immediately.) Or worse, when you can’t find a sample image at all, and have to buy entirely based off what’s visible from the packaging/your awareness of the circle.

    For instance, I had my eye on the new Ankokoubou Miku cover they sold at C81. No sample image was posted, and being Miku, it sold for ridiculously high prices. Bid on a few, but ultimately didn’t win one from the C81 batch, but there were just two events the other day, and they sold it at both events. A different version, based off the face shot, but there’s no way of telling how much they truly differ other than that. Still, being an Ankokoubou fan (and a Miku fan I guess – not a rabid fanboy, but I do like her aesthetically) I just couldn’t resist bidding on at least one from the new crop.

    Did eventually win one, but I’m a bit upset with myself because I could have paid a lot less. All of my limit was tied up on invoices/preorders; I had meant to run to the bank the day before the event and pay off some invoices, in anticipation of more of the Miku cover showing up. Sure enough, one was posted with an absolutely reasonable buyout (in comparison.) I was futilely typing up a request to Yokatta when it sold, less than 10 minutes after the auction began. Then another popped up, after I had cleared some limit, but it didn’t have a picture so I was wary. Decided to buy it about 20 minutes after it popped up, and it sold right as I was plugging the link into SMJ.

    Either way, it’s going to be a surprise for me. I don’t expect it to disappoint, but I’ve been disappointed in a few covers that I had a full scale sample image for… and any expensive cover is likely to induce some buyer’s remorse unless it’s absolutely outstanding. Here’s shots of the two versions, if you’re interested:

    http://img379.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/users/2/6/1/9/blackdebosuzume-img600x568-132664010233myhg78124.jpg
    http://img375.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/users/5/2/1/4/macrae100-img450x600-1326619895lwnxxq52137.jpg

    On another unrelated subject, I got some doujinshi from Mandarake today. Not necessarily C81 stuff, but just a few items one store had added in the last few weeks. Was mainly ordering it all for a Blueberry case that the store had at a great price, but they ended up not having it in stock, unfortunately. Anyhow, of the 20 or so doujinshi I ordered, I’d say about 10-15 of them have bondage and/or tentacles. It made me pretty happy.

    Going back to HOP, the last post or two hasn’t linked to the circle’s website, like they usually do in the circle’s name. But it was interspersed with a few posts that did link to the site. So I have no idea what the deal is. If I see anything pop up on it, I’ll be sure to let you know.

    • Tier says:

      That looks like it’s going to be a nice cover, particularly so since the second image suggests there might be a rear view. I got an invoice from SMJ for the HOP Nanoha pillowcase I ordered months ago, so that’s a good thing. I’m also waiting for Yokatta to get the Android C and Horizon pillowcases I ordered; I think both of those come out next month. Not sure what else I’ll order past that … I’ll probably get Evening Call’s Rin Tohsaka if they open up international orders by the cutoff date, and I’m thinking hard about ordering the one off Toranaona that I linked to you a couple of weeks ago. I don’t have a big thing for Japanese school swimsuits but I do have a thing for swimsuits and thighhigh socks together.

      That sounds like a great batch of books. I need to put together an order list; there’s a lot of stuff from Toranoana I want. One of those things is Udon-ya’s Monster Hunter compilation; I’ve got all the individual books but I want the compilation anyway.

      • Shashin says:

        I’ve been telling myself (and everyone I talk to) that I need to cut back on dakimakura spending in general, and take a month or two to recover from the Mandarake orders piling up on my credit card. But I just lack absolutely any self control, so I’ve kept adding to it. Along with my auctions, I have a couple web orders dropping in the next month or two: a couple from Evening Call, one from Marks, one from Ankokoubou, and one from Gephalsa. Then I definitely want to order some of Evening Call’s C81 covers that are now available, and their Mimi cover.

        Yeah, I really like the swimsuit chick, too. I like the artist more than anything though, and that’s why I’m definitely ordering the Evening Call cover he did. Just yesterday morning Mandarake had an update with a bunch of good covers; I had a hard time deciding what to include in the order since I wanted to show a bit of restraint. I passed up on a good deal on one of IG’s rare (and absurdly expensive on YJA) cushion covers of Himeka, and instead picked up Kyounetsu’s (flat chested) Sora, a Taiga cushion (with a wonderful pose), a semen covered tsundere (just going entirely from facial expression), and some swimsuit clad chick (that may or may not be pregnant based off the variations done of the cover) from Yasuomi-Craft. The only thing I’m a little worried about is the translation says there was a bit of “pain” on the Yasuomi-Craft and Sora cover, but I’m hoping it’s minor. Mandarake has been fairly good in the past, and if something is bad, I didn’t pay too much for it.

        I was very pleased with the results; even those that didn’t have tentacles/bondage were on the pleasing side. One did have a fair amount of censoring, even on the cover, which was disappointing but it was a great haul overall.

        I managed to pick up some doujinshi on YJA from C81, but almost immediately regretted the decision to do so, as it all popped up on the English Mandarake site at one point. I bought the Udon-ya book but unfortunately not the tapestry; real shame that it retailed for 4500 yen and is consistently selling at 30000+. As well as some other promising stuff. I bought this goods set that has an amazing Sena posted included with it. Unfortunately I bought it about 15 minutes before the morning Mandarake update, and they had it for 1700 yen cheaper. >_>

  13. Tier says:

    I really like the Mitsuki and Sora ones there. Especially the Sora one; I’ve been kinda looking around for a Sora pillowcase. I didn’t like her character all that much at first but I think that any anime girl who gives good head can’t be all that bad. I think Sphere made a bunch of official Sora pillowcases and I tend to get them all confused with the doujin-made ones.

    A lot of the pillowcases I’ve been looking at recently have kinda been on the softcore side of things. I saw this one over on the dakimakura blog and I like it a lot; I might order it, even though it’s not all that explicit.

  14. Shashin says:

    They’re probably my favorite two from the bunch, as well. Even better was that I got them for 5000 yen a piece; the translation read that there was “slight pain” on both of them. Honestly, they’re both in fairly fantastic condition and I was really worried that for the price they’d have a huge gash in them. As far a I could tell, the Mitsuki had a loose thread or two up near the zipper and the Sora had a small dirt stain near the bottom; I’m really hoping it will wash out without too much effort, but even if it doesn’t it was still well worth it.

    Disregarding her personality (which I don’t mind), I really like Sora. She caters to quite a few of my different preferred traits, so it’s really hard not to like her. I’ve had the same issue with the Sphere cases; I believe there are at least three, and they all look fairly similar. If you’re still looking for a Sora, I’d definitely recommend the Big Love one; it’s definitely worth the $80 or whatever it will work out to.

    The funny thing about the Kyounetsu Sora is that I had the chance to preorder it when it first came out (I’m fairly certain we’ve discussed it at one point.) I just thought her chest looked a bit too flat for even my liking, which is strange considering I generally prefer a smaller bust. I’m really glad I was given the chance to pick it up; the sample definitely didn’t do the end result justice.

    I’ve recently made more of an effort to keep up to date on the artists I like versus just the circles, and it led to a fairly surprising and pleasing result. The artist that did the Sora, as well as a few other covers for Kyounetsu (Azusa, the Angel Beats chick, etc.) And she’s actually responsible for some of my other favorite covers, namely the Mio released by Muranomina. Was a pleasant surprise to see that my tastes were more for the artist than random covers. Kyounetsu is selling their C81 goods, so I’ll almost certainly pick up the cushion cover done by her.

    That’s actually one I’ve been considering myself; I’m really happy it’s getting a web reception. There is a review with some more detailed shots floating around somewhere, so it might be worth looking for. I know I saw it myself but not sure where off the top of my head.

    • willowywicca says:

      That was one I linked you Shashin 😉 http://blog.livedoor.jp/nemyii/archives/5672211.html for the review. I have her myself now too, she’s a real cutie Tier (and currently occupying my only actual pillow), I would gladly recommend it to anyone.

      • Shashin says:

        Yeah, I knew it was you that linked it but I couldn’t find it off the top of my head and I was too lazy to find the thread on Fakku. I figured you’d either make an appearance, or Tier could find it easily enough Googling the Japanese name. ^^

    • Tier says:

      That’s one of the things I liked about HOP, is that they made a lot of pillowcases from a lot of artists that I like, such as Jun Tsukasa, Tatsuya Yashima, and Cyclone (technically a two-person circle, I think, but I think there’s only one artist). I did see one of their pillowcases show up on the dakimakura blog the other day, though they were selling it through Dakimakura Honpo rather than Toranoana.

      I’m still searching for the right Fate dakimakura cover for me. I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.

      • Shashin says:

        I’m not a big Fate person myself, but there have been quite a few recently that I’ve been fairly taken with. My favorite would probably be this one.

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