Thursday 24 December 2020

The Pandemic Upturn Shopping Spree 2020 Edition: The Roundup

Come on, I gotta use the PUSS abbreviation to end the year just because haha did I even bother to do Christmas special posts anyways lol this might be a first

Hey, everyone. 'Tis be the season of giving, but throughout this year, I've been buying a lot of stuff from Japan through the power of the Internet and further powered by the situation around the world right now, so though this be the season of giving, we shall talk about giving... myself. ON THE TWELVE DAYS OF 2020 MY WALLET GAVE TO ME!!! *laughs* (Wait, is it really twelve days worth...? *looks at list * Okay I don't think so haha)

Talking about PUSS!!! Haha okay me. This has been quite a year, isn't it? Cooped at home, too much money to spend on the Internet, and after a year of photobook reviews... I thought I should give back my support to those... idols I like, and so I did. From pamphlets which for price cost more than photobooks for a quarter of content worth, to bromide photos bought legally or otherwise, to stuff I should have never clicked on.... They be all in my room now so I guess I should round them up after writing so many blog posts about them already. Yes, it's not as crazy or long as the ones from last year, but I probably spent way more this year in Japan than I have ever, so I should talk about my crazy budget, I guess. *laughs*

[Yes, the thumbnail was not another review you missed, will explain below]




WHAT THEY ARE
This post shall only consider those packages that are from my birthday after those legendary 10 photobooks I did full reviews on (because they will NEVER be another of these reviews of purchases... haha), and sadly they will not include the next package I'm expecting to at least appear by the end of this year, so I'll exclude that for... well we'll probably be doing this again for next year anyways so *laughs* So, from February to November 2020 and summarised, they are:
So without further ado, let's talk about the ones that totally stood out amongst the rest, though again, I would argue that all of them are great or else I wouldn't spend money on them, but this is a competitive industry AND SO WE SHALL LET THEM COMPETE okay me
(*All prices mentioned will be in yen to create benchmark, unless not applicable)


LEAST WORTH ITEM BASED ON ITEM VALUE
Must be Touyama Nao's 10th Anniversary goods, right? I got the same damn things in 2x gacha rolls (compared to Asakura Momo's), this was an order to ship differently from the usual line of forwarding because I can't use my card on the Japanese store, and... to be honest the book is mostly just interviews which I rather have more photos of, but hey, it is Naobou's rare chance of doing this considering she doesn't release a photobook every other year or something, so I'm not complaining. But based on value, I spend waaay too much on this alone, that may not justify on the actual PUSS itself. Talking about that...


LEAST WORTH ITEM BASED ON SHIPPING
Yes, it's PUSS 2020. The first time we ever spent that much money (ugh I hate to admit) on just the same amount of bromides I could have gotten, by the way, through the TWO OTHER TIMES I bought it directly from the store itself. *sigh* It's a shame to admit, and hopefully I never have to do that again. Specifically, shipping for every single item is so expensive, I'm just paying left and right for shipping fees, we have already determined we spent as much money on all the items as on the amount of money required to ship them. It's such a waste of money I can't even

(Time to flip this around and talk about what are the BEST to buy on this list)


MOST WORTH ITEM BASED ON ITEM VALUE
This one, I really took some time to think. It wasn't something that hit me immediately, because it's literally asking me to do accounting (which I won't) and determine which was worth buying... Well, it's already kind of cheap to consolidate them before bringing them from Japan to me, but still. Let's see... if it's purely based on item price and not just the contents inside, and for value of money? It has to be Kitou Akari's live tour goods, because I paid the same amount pretty much, compared to Toyota Moe on the same package, and you can tell from my review which one was better in my opinion at least haha. But hey, I could be wrong. (I'm not) (haha)

A close second might actually be that Seiyuu Grand Prix magazine I bought in physical (which I promise you I will never anymore) and then also actually, bought the next issue in digital via Amazon Kindle because the cover girl was Nan-chan!!! And I also had spared Amazon credits but yeah, that was the thumbnail btw haha. In this specific one in physical I bought it because of the FOUR bromides that came with it, a very record-breaking amount even for the serialisation itself, and featured all voices from Anime "KanoKari", which probably took over the voice actor magazine industry by storm because every other magazine was covering them to some extent to be honest. This 100-odd pages book had so much content for the price, I'll sign up for a subscription for the magazine if I don't have to pay for the international shipping lol


MOST WORTH ITEM BASED ON SHIPPING
Since it has a base flat rate of 1050yen which I can totally swallow, and it only takes a fifth of the total package in total, obviously this has to go to the two direct Suruga-ya bromide runs (it's so good I have to do it twice haha) (ugh) which in shipping probably combined together is still cheaper than... other than the actual PUSS, probably most of the other packages to be honest. That's how cheap it was. Kudos to Suruga-ya to be able to keep prices this low at this time of year, because man, if you haven't seen how much I'm paying for international shipping at one point, I just want to cry and that's not even talking about actual PUSS haha *sob*


BOLDEST ATTEMPT
Yes, it's that calendar. Really, not even that collaboration catalog book from Futon-chan can comapre to Itou Mayuki 2021 Calendar, because besides her being an adult video actress (don't look her up) (please), I also cannot hang it up on my wall because GODDAMN IT HAS NUDES!! Come on, it's totally just nudes though!!! *laughs* So yeah, Minase Inori became my fallback, but even that might be a regret as I realised how much of a price I have to pay to get it and also, from recent weeks, what alternatives I might have gotten. (We'll talk about those next year)


WORTHY MENTIONS
They are not in this list because I didn't write about them, and I'm sorry for VELTPUNCH because after I learnt to not donate to these guys instead I exercised my support to more... independent artists so donations to Scenarioart and UNLIMITS lives with the latter hardly coming up with new songs for 4 years already, and I hope I will see them again with new songs soon, Scenarioart too because they be having a tour for each season next year, so we will have some new songs right? I hope so. Both were 1000yen donations, because their lives were on YouTube for the public, and I don't want to donate in my native currency here because exchange rates of banks be bad and I have a better alternative haha you're welcome guys


BEST ITEMS BY TYPE
Last, but not least, let's talk about what is best around here! Not much to differentiate between them, and I hoped calendars can be a discussion topic here but... yeah haha so not them:
  • Bromides (not including sets of used bought in bulk)
    • Uesaka Sumire (2018, 2016)
    • Columbia Fes
    • Minase Inori
    • Taketatsu Ayana (2019)
    • Kitou Akari
    • Toyota Moe (Postcard sized, can't fit on my photo frame)
    • Tachibana Haru (Postcard sized, signed)
  • Clear Folders
    • Minase Inori
    • TrySail (Bought just to pad package)
    • Douki-chan
  • Pamphlets
    • Asakura Momo
    • Kitou Akari
    • Toyota Moe
    • Touyama Nao (Lack of gravure content)
  • Books
    • Seiyuu Grand Prix
    • Douki-chan Vol.1
    • Douki-chan Vol.2
    • Tachibana Haru (Has an age gate lol)
  • Gacha (2 attempts each)
    • Asakura Momo
    • TrySail (has keychain which isn't bad but)
    • Touyama Nao (same item x2)




And there you go, just a short write-up to what a year I had with Japan considering we didn't even touch each other and I still had so much fun working from home (for a while) and in the office, and still trying to make this year better. Hey, gotta go forward every little bit, right? Yeah, it sounds like real fake considering it's just using nothing but money (I mean, I could exercise more haha), but hey, at least I was happy throughout the year lol stop consoling yourself me. But hey, happy holidays people, because what better way to give gifts than to... give them to yourself if no one is giving them to you haha I feel sad now lol. Cya guys next time or probably for next year then since you know the next package is up soon maybe next month, and until next time:
Merry Christmas 2020!!
The world is on fire now so we can at least celebrate its end and hope for a better year ahead. I know I will I have a subscription to Minase Inori fanclub haha bye

P.S. Buying the latest bromides feels better than buying used ones haha but you know, I can't buy everything since some are from specific events so
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