I realize that all of the items on my list probably do exist. Despite people constantly telling me that anime really isn’t that big in Japan, I have the internet and I know just how much anime merchandise is available if I’m willing to pay 10x the price in shipping and wait 6 months…
This said, these are items that I haven’t personally found yet so they’re probably not that common and I would definitely get if I could…depending in shipping….
Here are 5 random pieces of anime merchandise I wish I could buy right now… easily… I’m a bit spoiled!
5. Cosplay street wear
I feel like this is going to take some explanation. I like clothes and I would love to bring my love of anime into my wardrobe but not necessarily by be coming a walking advertisement with printed T-Shirts or hoodies. Actually, there are a lot of anime characters that I think are pretty stylish and I wouldn’t mind dressing lie them.
Not exactly like them mind you. And not in super expensive, often stiff and uncomfortable cosplay outfits. If a character has a signature pair of jeans, t-shirt and hoodie, I would love for a store to sell normal jeans, t-shirts and hoodies that just happen to be in the same colours and styles as the ones seen on the show. For anyone that hasn’t seen a series they would look like perfectly normal clothes but I would know.
Extra points if they are categorized not only by item of clothing but also by anime, for easy browsing!
4. Anime cookbook
I know for a fact that there are a couple of cookbooks inspired by anime series. Ymeiro Patissiere I believe has a desert cookbook and I’m almost certain Food Wars has one as well. But that’s all I have found and the Patissiere one has been out of print for years.
Otherwise, I’ve only seen basic Japanese cookbooks that use unlicensed anime looking characters as illustrations but have no particular association with anime beyond that.
I’m constantly watching a series and thinking, boy that looks yummy. Sometimes I’m lucky and they say the name of the dish but frequently I have to guess and it doesn’t always work out. So what I’m actually saying is not so much I wish there were anime cookbooks as I wish there were more anime cookbooks…
3. Glasses case and cloth
I occasionally wear glasses. I’m just short sighted enough that I don’t actually need to wear them at all unless I’m going to have to read small subtitles from across the room or something but I also like glasses. So I have a lot of pairs lying around and a lot of them come with dull cases and boring old cloths.
I would love to have a nicely decorated anime themed case and matching cloth to throw in my bag. It seems like it would be fairly easy to manufacture as well. I’m surprised there aren’t tons of these.
2. Hairpins
I’ve been to a few cons in my day. It’s pins and key-chains as far as the eye can see. Occasionally you’ll get some jewellery as well but I rarely see hairpins. Yet hairpins are a super common character design element in anime. They’re fun and way easier to see than jewellery but most of the time, if you want a hairpin just like your favourite character, you got to get the entire cosplay outfit. What gives…
I did find this adorableness on AliExpress but why aren’t hairpins one of the standard pieces of merch? They should be. I would get a lot!
1. Chopsticks
You may know this already, I actually collect chopsticks. There are some real pieces of art out there. I have about a hundred right now ranging from cheap plastic ones to fancy mother of pearl laden ones and ones with intricately carved Chinese dragons. Those are my favourites. They are so beautiful.
Just because of how natural the fit and cross promotion between anime and chopsticks is, I feel like there’s probably tons out there. But I rarely see any when I go chopstick hunting and they’re almost exclusively Sailor Moon for some reason. Granted this is once again a case of I wish there were more but also I can’t understand why there aren’t more. Chopsticks are super easy to make and I bet you can mark those up very generously…
I just spent an hour on amazon looking at random anime merch. This was a dangerous post to write. Is there any piece of anime merchandise that you would buy if you could find it? Maybe you think there’s a missed opportunity out there…
The clothes thing would be so much fun. And now and then you’d see someone do a double take like “what is so familiar about that outfit”. Maybe they would even know the character and anime it was from. That would be fun. I can’t imagine there aren’t a billion eyeglass cases and cloths with anime themes. It does seem like a natural, along with the chopsticks. Seem like they could really make a thing of the chopsticks. like a cross promotion with popular food outlets/cafe/restaurant. I’m pretty spoiled because I love plushies and there are plenty of those – although many of them are out of my budget expensive. However, hubby mentioned that I should have a themed cereal bowl and mug for my Saturday morning cartoons, and when I went looking for that I couldn’t find a thing. Isn’t that a thing any more? Mugs, at least. I drink coffee and tea and chai and I’d love to have some anime themed coffee cups. The few I’ve seen (SAO) did not impress – especially for the price. Last but hardly least I really need a new backpack – but I use my backpack – like REALLY use it – groceries, library books, hospital overnight trips, taking the computer every where I go (LOL). I can find lots of anime bags and backpacks, but they are all small or mid-sized and i figure I’d rip them out in a week. Sigh. I’ll end up with another boring one. Maybe at least it won’t be solid black next time.
Oh anime backpack would be cool! I love backpacks as well
BIG YES for glasses case and cloth!! I also wear glasses so to have anime themed cloth and case (especially with shows I loveee) would make me a very happy person!! And ooh I’d love to see the cosplay street wear too! Often I found the characters styles sooo nice I would love to dress like them or at least have some of their clothes in my wardrobe.
Right!?! I’m sure we’ll make it happen some day
I totally agree with you. Mainly about clothes. I’d so love to wear “anime clothes” without being seen like weirdo everytime 🤣! On the other hand, I wonder how they would look on me… 🤭😖❤
I bet they would look great
Thank you! 🥰 probably better on you 💞
I definitely agree with the anime cook book! I’ve honestly just resorted to printing out my own and attaching them together ahahaa
I might need to do that someday
I always thought it would be awesome to have more pet merchandise like collars and stuff.
that would be adorable
I know for sure there are vendors selling the OPM “Oppai” hoodie and apparently there’s a brand in Japan called SuperGroupies which sells anime-character-themed clothing/items for daily use. I still remember gushing over how gorgeous their Boueibu shoes were, even though I first saw them about 4 years ago (so there’s my answer for the thing I’d get if I could). Of course, COVID-19 makes it difficult to get things from Japan at the moment, which doesn’t help matters…
Having been around the Boueibu fandom since basically its inception in late 2014 (it’s currently on life support due to a collaboration which got moved to 2021 due to COVID-19) and watching all the merch announcements roll out on Twitter, I can tell you there is also a glasses cloth for Manza, who does wear glasses…but this was exclusive to an event and if it’s still around, it’s probably going to have to be ordered off the Pony Canyon portal for Boueibu merch. It’s likely other series have Japan-exclusive glasses cloths in this vein, or glasses cases to go with their collab glasses (I know HypMic had a glasses collab with a glasses manufacturer called Megane Ichiba, or “Glasses Market”…which only makes sense for Jyuto).
I guess it’s sort of lucky Rokuhoudou – the manga moreso than the anime – is basically its own cookbook. The anime food collabs/collab food (there is a difference!) I hear of can get a bit weird – HypMic curry collab? HypMic lollies? Boueibu cookies? (If you like anime food/drink collabs, I recommend looking at the ones for Adores Cafe and the karaoke service Skit-net, the latter of which has apparently shut down as of the end of 2019.)
Basically, if I can use it in daily life, it’s durable and it’s got theming for an anime/manga I like, I want it. Maybe for a missed opportunity, anime-themed stationery…? There’s the occasional pen (I seem to remember Yuri on Ice pens which had little figures inside that would “skate” back and forth) and I have a Bungou Stray Dogs clip, but pencils, erasers etc. are far less common.
I do have a giant piggy 7 deadly sins eraser I really love.
There is plenty of the merch you have listed online but i don’t recommend using amazon as theres more 3rd party stuff then there is 1st party licensed stuff and especially with them as of late taking down manga and anime merch for reasons they refuse to say on.
Places like Tokyo Otaku Mode,Play Asia,Nin-Nin,Cdjapan,Cdmoya,Akiba Online and especially Mandarake,Amiami,Sofmap and Animate International as they also do international shipping anywhere and are also stores you could visit in Japan as well.
But yeah though its really a fun rabbithole finding and discovering all kinds of cool anime merch you could buy and keep in mind you may need to use things like White Rabbit express to help ship these products to wherever you live in.
-K.Anthony
I should mention that in Ontario there is very few places that really specialize in dealing exclusively in anime merch and media Neo Tokyo in London,Anime Xtreme in the downtown area and as far as my knowledge goes there is 2 places that really exclusively deal in imports X2.Akihabara and Sofmart (Not to be confused with Sofmap)
Also don’t visit J-Box Anime in Markham either because that place is more bootleg Japanese media than anything else.
Most of the anime merch you could really find would either be in gaming stores or comic book places but thats secondary stuff and most of them are those fads known as Funko Pop figures meant to supplement income.
Silly law 101 makes import tricky here.
You could grow all the fingers in the world and still lose count how many times the Pacific mall has been raided and the turnover stores still carrying bootleg merch.
I’m really lucky now that all of my imports that i have ordered online has arrived and express shipping could be really costly as well too. (I also actually beaten most of them at this point too and i’m saving a couple i just got in the mail for Xmas along with some other imported anime i found at value village recently.)
You would be surprised by how few of those sites agree to ship to my location
Ouch now that really has to suck.
Awesome ideas! Honestly I can’t think of much, myself. Even if I’m not wearing any merch people would probably be able to tell I’m an otaku from a mile away the amount I talk about anime…
I know what you mean
Those are such great ideas for anime merch.
Thank you
No problem. I really like the cosplay wear and cookbooks. You would think anime like Food Wars, Yakitate!! Japan, and Ristorante Paradiso would capitalize on the latter.
I love browsing through merchandise on Amazon….and yes that is a very dangerous way to spend time (as I often can’t resist ordering something lol😂). This was certainly a fun post, and actually I did some research for you on those anime glasses cases and you can find quite a few of them at aliexpress. Chopsticks though are definitely much harder to find. (Also I didn’t know you collected these, must have missed that 😔). I will keep my eyes open for them, and if I run across a few here in Holland, I will sent them to you😊
As for merchandise: I always love original Japanese art books, and there are certainly a few series where I would love to have books from😊
I have some beloved art books as well. Vampire Hunter D is stunning