Guys – it’s Friday!!! Are you happy? I’m happy. Doubly happy cause there’s something special planned this week. Surprise!!!
A little while ago Sam over at a Nerdy Perspective put together a blog schedule which included Top 5s on Friday. That seemed like a natural fit for a collaboration. We threw out the idea a little while ago and Sam came up with this absolutely brilliant suggestion. A Top 5 anime merch post. We decided that we would each take pictures of our various collections and send them to each other. Then we would each create a post based on the other person’s pictures.
Sam got the short end of that stick on this one since I’m just the worst photographer that ever was. I should honestly let Buddy take the pictures from now on… On top of that, Montreal is a surprising wasteland when it comes to anime merch and very few online stores deliver here (at least without a ridiculous surcharge that makes me angry…), as a result I only started collecting merch roughly 8 months or so ago. I really can’t wait to see what Sam manages to do from the meager material I gave her. Good thing Sam can write!
Lucky for me, Sam provided me with some great pictures of her much more impressive collection. I’m very jealous! In somewhat random order we have:
5) ANIME
I sort of went by reverse order of popularity here…. I mean obviously anime fans collect anime but with streaming services so readily available, hard copies of shows are becoming more and more unusual to find, so it’s still pretty impressive that Sam has this many. I have a lot of random volume 1 of shows that I just picked up because they were cheap but this collection seems geared towards full serie of actually good shows. Even more impressive…
One thing I really want to point out here is that these seem to be in alphabetical order. My little OCD heart bursts with kinship.
Sam has a nice varied collection covering many genres. I wonder what M to Z has!
4) MANGA
Cough alphabetical, cough…
I notice that there are a lot of series Sam has in both anime and manga format. I tend to go the other way (except for my very favorites). It must be nice to be able to readily compare the two though. I have the same death note edition except vol 1 to 6 are in French and tiny! I’m not sure why the French versions take up so much less space!
There’s also a few art books thrown in there. I love anime art books. I don’t have this many. Going through art boos in physical version is a very different experience from seeing them online. As such, I really think these are especially worth getting your hands on. I wish I hadn’t missed out a few that you can’t find anymore.
3) FIGURES
Figures have got to be the biggest revelation for me. Without having anything against them, I never saw the appeal at all until I got my first one in a loot box. Now I can’t get enough. I’m pretty jealous of Sam’s collection.
Unlike the manga and anime, we finally see a clear trend towards the sexy lady type of figures with an apparent preference for Super Sonico. Although there are a few yummy boys in the mix, seems the ladies are dominating. Ain’t nuffin wrong with that!
Sidenote: I am a huge fan of nitroplus so seeing so much of their mascot warms my little heart. I particularly like the one seated with headphones on. She looks like she’s having fun and those are some nice details!
2) PINS
I happen to be lucky enough to have a whole home I can decorate in any way I like, yet I never know how to display pins. Somehow the thought of getting myself a corkboard and making a montage never even occurred to me… I know I know…not smart…
I really love how Sam’s collection looks in these pics. The Hyouka pins in particular look fantastic! Sam is pretty lucky we are long distance internet friends because there would be things missing from her place if I was ever invited over.
And then we have:
1) DOUJIN
Ok forget the pins this is what I would swipe. We all know I’m a fake fan right? Well I have never seen doujin in real life. This might in fact be the first time I even see physical Doujin (as opposed to digital). I can’t tell you what it is, but I’m completely fascinated. I wish Sam had send pics of the inner pages. This looks like a collection to be truly proud of.
I know that doujin occasionally seems to get lumped in with hentai. This is slightly unfair. Although there are certainly quite a number of racy and high quality doujin out there, they aren’t limited to the x-rated stuff. I have read truly lovely (occasionally heartbreaking) stories. Essentially, they’re often very high quality illustrated fanfiction. Who wouldn’t want to collect that? I want that!
You guys all know what doujin is. I’m not sure why I decided to go on a tangent there. I think my mind just short circuited at the sight of such loveliness.
***
I cheated a bit and talked to Sam about her collection. We were supposed to do this by ourselves. She says that some of her collection are local UK purchases, but a lot are directly from Japan, which probably explains the range and quality of this collection.
There’s something about physical representations of our favorite stories that makes us feel closer to them. That brings us a little bit of those wonderful universes to keep. I’m writing this on my lunch hour and I see Kouro Sensei and the fine lads from the Armed Detective Agency all staring back at me. It makes me happy. I think that Sam may feel that way too when she looks over her personal anime kingdom!
Do you guys have a treasured piece of merch? Maybe you have an unusual anime collection? Anime spoons???
If you want to see mine – head on over to A Nerdy Perspective. Mock my photography skills!
Sam’s pin organisation makes me want to collection pins more now. Everything both in your collections tells us so much about you pair. Argh, all awesome stuff !!!
I have huge Pin and Doujin envy here…
Wow, I’m really have to organize my pins! Looks so nice.
doesn’t it!
Really fun post, with some truly amazing pieced featured here. I also put my anime dvd in alphabetical order (in fact I also have a very large collection of those and I would go nuts if I did not have them in any alphabetical kind of order). I don’t have a huge manga collection, but out of all the anime stuff I collect, I have one series in particular that I collected a lot of stuff from and that’s Sword Art Online. My most priced possesion is a Sword Art Online original Japanese artbook…and that one is so cool! Have a great weekend Irina! 😊
My collection is thematically spread out…
I just have one huge problem…I’m running out of room to put stuff 😂😂
Alphabetical order is a definite necessity for large collections of books or DVD’s (I used to sort by colour my DVD collection of movies because I was more likely to remember what colour the case was then the title – the person I live with disagrees with that notion so alphabetised it is, though now I have clashing colours next to each other and it kind of bothers me). Anyway, this was a fantastic collection, thanks for sharing it.
My most treasured piece of merch would be the Natsume and Reiko figures I bought second hand when I was last in Japan.
I wanna see!!! Are they anywhere on your blog?
Unfortunately no, though I’d been thinking about doing a post on some of my collection for awhile (maybe a top 5) and reading this collaboration has kind of made me think about it a bit more seriously.
My last trip to Japan I went seriously Natsume crazy picking up the two figures and a Nyanko-Sensei charm for my phone. The charm hasn’t fared so well as it is now well and truly beaten up, but I still love it.
Do it. Post on it. Make it a top 10!
I’ll have to get to it at some point then.
Aww, it’s such fun looking at collections. I’m seeing a lot of shows among the DVDs that don’t come as a surprise, but then I spot “Battle Girls”. Is that Sengoku Otome: Momoiro Paradox? If so, that’s one anime I’ve never anyone talk about after it aired.
Heading over, I never cease to be amazed at how pretty the art for the Okami game is, and it looks even better as a framed print!
My own collection is puny in comparison to either. Dvds, is all, and not even that many. Games, if they count.
I adore the Okami print.
Sam has some impressive stuff too. I just got done looking at your stuff over at her place and, man your art prints are sooooooo good. Enjoyed this 🙂
Yeah _ can’t get enough prints. I’m about to go on another rampage for the few inches of wall space I still have available
O.o Man I want picks. They were so good looking 😀
….silly auto correct. I meant, I’d like to see some pictures when you get the new ones.
Thank you! 😁 I love Irina’s art prints too! I’m honestly still in awe at them! 😍
Of course 🙂 I know right? She says she is gonna get more even!
I know! I really need to step up my art print game after this collab!
Haha, I feel the same but don’t tempt me!
😂😂😂
This was so much fun 😁. I haven’t seen doujins in real life either and they look kind of interesting.
Right – Why do I want them so much?
I really enjoyed reading this 🙂 I’m quite frugal and I don’t buy merch but I think this is a great collection. I use a manga reader.
I know that feeling! Still it’s fun to see the pictures
Yes, definitely. I still enjoy collectibles, even if I don’t buy them 🙂
RE: “the one seated with headphones on”
Yes, on the “Curly” Howard scale, it rates a full 5 of 5 “nyaaaaah nyaaaaah nyaaaaah nyaaaaah nyaaaaah.”
https://giphy.com/gifs/friday-three-stooges-curly-howard-T8WwO8BBEOjle
I’m glad you approve sir – you obviously have taste
My anime is alphabetized, but it’s also mixed in with all my other DVDs, so that makes showing any of it off kind of a hassle. Also, for space, there are a lot of items that I compressed by swapping out the cases they came in for cases that could take more disks. Like, if I have six individual volumes of something, I’d put them all in an empty six-disk case, pick the paper sleeve I like the most, and slide it in for display.
I don’t really do it anymore, but I’ve been collecting for a long time.
I bet it’s impressive. I have a lot of old school anime taking up shelf space too. But that’s ok. My place is like 90% bookcases anyways
Cool post! Now I want to show off my collection. I’ve got doujin too, Irina! 😉
OMW
I’d love to see your collection sometime! Show us your doujin! 😂😉
Aww this was amazing to read your thoughts and opinions! I’m glad you enjoy the fact that alphabetically order things 😆 (my manga collection is normally also in alphabetical order but for the sake of pics I had to get creative with displaying them 😂)! I had such fun putting together my own post and reading yours made me smile so much! If we were friends IRL and not just on the Internet I would totally let you borrow stuff in my collection 😉 I loved this collaboration so much! 😁
This was so much fun. Great idea! You is a genius
It was! And aww haha thanks 😆
Can I…can I take your Hinata and Kageyama figures….can I!?!? Omg. Alex wants/needs Shrimpy and the King of the Court lol
umm. no.. You can come visit them…
Yeah let me just update my passport and go to Canada real quick haha
Holy crap, I literally just posted a post about my gunpla (kinda).
I’ve always wanted to do a blog about my entire collection of figures, but I do not wanna show people my ugly af shelving.
Also, although I’m a huge figure guy, I am very jealous of the pin collection, they look really nice on most things, such as bag straps and bulletin boards.
I agree. I want to steal a lot of these
I’d love to see your collection at some point and pins always look cool whenever you put them and I love that fact about them!