Category: Anime

Con Haul

August 26, 2025

Here are some of the items I got at the con. I’m not including the half dozen or so volumes of manga (mostly isekai trash) or the many stationary items (postcards and stickers) since I haven’t yet decided which will be gifts and you may even see a postcard in your mailbox one day.

The above is an English ‘special edition’ of the Weekly Young Magazine, a Japanese manga weekly from Kodansha. This is a hefty (1000+ pages) volume containing the first chapters of 14 series translated into English. Readers can vote on which ones they want to see serialized, but it’s unclear whether this format (an anthology magazine) will continue or if they’ll be serialized online.

This is a beautiful book, printed in Japan and with the same feel as the Japanese anthologies. I had to join a longish line to get one (for free) at the con, and the next day I saw a big pile just sitting around for the taking at Kinokuniya in the city!

This is a vinyl figure of a kaiju that I bought from the designer. The monster itself is from an old (1980s) Korean film which I’d never heard of, but the guy who designed this figure also designed two of the kaiju in the recent Godzilla x Kong film and had a few impressive 3D prints of his work on display. His was a somewhat out-of-place booth for an anime con but I’d been looking for a vinyl kaiju figure and this one wasn’t expensive and scratched the itch.

There were hundreds of anime figures available, almost all of the prize variety. I’ve got loads of these BiCute girls, and picked up the above two at the con. Prices were extremely good – possibly due to competition? – and had I more space I probably would have bought more.

Bandai had a display and shop for Gundam kits, as well as an area where you could sit and make a beginners version for free. I charmed the dude into letting me take one! I like that it’s on a single runner, and will certainly assemble it one day.

I got the above clear file at the Japan Tourist Board exhibit. I was just throwing all the free handouts into my bag and didn’t even notice it was a clear file until I got back to the hotel. It promotes a 2022 short anime that reimagines Japanese castles as transforming robots, which was partially funded by local tourism agencies.

Loads of exhibitors were selling TCG cards, mostly Pokemon and One Piece, but one booth seemed to specialize in Weiss. I’d been considering buying a Weiss box for a while, they had them for a decent price, so I bought this Nikke one. I’ll let it age a year or few before opening.

Speaking of TCGs there were also a few being launched at the con. They all had the whiff of scam about them – companies wanting to cash in on the current TCG mania – but I wasn’t going to decline a free promo card. Maybe I can sell it for a fortune and retire one day. Or maybe not 😉

I’ve put most of ‘the cute stuff’ together. This is what I bought specifically for Kristin, and all of it came from artist alley booths. The envelope with Korean text is a blind pack of animal stickers, and the frog pin was also a blind box item. The bottom left is a capybara coaster. Had KLS been with me we would have purchased much more like this!

Even though it wasn’t a con purchase, here’s a bonus pic: dollar-bin comics purchased at Midtown Comics. I have no interest in recent superhero comics, but always find the late 80s and early 90s stuff a fun read. I wonder which of these will be best and which worst?

It’s Dangerous To Go Alone

August 22, 2025

Today I went to AnimeNYC, a large anime convention held in the city. Apparently they’re expecting over 100,000 attendees this year, about 40,000 people a day for the three (full) day event.

It was held at the Javits Center, which I hadn’t been to since New York Comic Con back in 2015! I bought a one-day ticket for the con at the last minute, since I wanted to do something fun to end my summer break. I didn’t know what to expect since I’d never actually attended an anime-specific convention.

In short: it was amazing. I was immediately surprised by the size, the density and variety of exhibitors and artists, and the range of things being shown or sold. My original plan was to go to the two principle panels today (the new Panty & Stocking and Star Wars Visions III) and also visit every booth but I quickly realized that wasn’t going to be possible and in fact got so engrossed by seeing all the booths I forgot about the panels.

Most of the exhibitors were stores, and there were hundreds of them. The most common type was figure shops, and most of these specialized in prize figures at very reasonable prices.

These were very popular, and I’d suspect a large percentage of the attendees left with a figure or two (me included). Some of the stores also sold scale figures, including some very expensive ones (>$500). Shops selling model kits were common as well, although they tended to be extremely Gundam-focused.

Manga was common, in both publisher booths and bookstore booths. Amusingly – considering this is an anime convention – there was very little actual physical anime for sale, probably because most watchers stream it these days.

I was surprised by the cosplay weapon stores. Several companies were present, and you could buy an amazing variety of guns and swords and magic staves and other items to help with your cosplay. How many of the above guns do you recognize? I chuckled when I saw one of the shops was sold out of Frieren’s staff, since Frieren was one of the more popular cosplays I saw today:

There were many other shop types such as soundtracks (including vinyl), T-shirts and other clothes, dice, keyboards, plushies, pins, jewelery and even whatever this is:

Of course it wasn’t all shops. As soon as you entered the venue a massive Hololive ‘stage’ towered over the crowd, and it seemed for the entire convention the girls (and guys) of Hololive entertained and interacted with a large and boisterous crowd. I knew Hololive was popular, but this opened my eyes as to exactly how much. It was also interesting that this seemed to be the Japanese Hololive girls, at least every time I walked past.

Several anime companies and mobile games had big booths as well, and the most popular was for a new game called Brown Dust II, which drew a big crowd taking photos of their professional cosplayers:

There were several Japan travel booths – one of which I got a few tips from – but perhaps the most unexpected interaction I had today was when a guy from Heritage Auctions urged me to contact him with details about our anime cel collection since he may be interested in selling it on consignment!

And then there was artists alley, which is hundreds of small tables featuring amateurs selling their own art. This for me was the highlight of the show, since I was blown away by the talent. Almost all of them sell posters, but postcards, mini prints, acrylics, charms and all manner of other items were common as well.

Back in our NYCC days artists alley were tables with laser printed A4 posters, but now these ‘amateurs’ even sell woven blankets, acrylic stands and even resin statues! And the posters themselves now include effects like texturing and all sorts of foil effects! Such as on this gold foil embossed postcard I bought from one artist:

I bought more postcards than anything else – maybe 20 in total. I would have liked a poster or two, but I had no poster tube and the choice was so big and quality so high I would have had difficulty choosing.

It was very busy. Crowds were dense and the going was at times slow, made slower by the need to always keep an eye out for a cosplay weapon almost (accidentally) hitting you as the wonder walked by! Some booths were very popular and had lengthy lines, and in a couple of cases (Good Smile, Nikke) this prevented me from getting a good look. After about three hours I was tired and overburdened – I’d made the fools error of buying heavy books early – and found a quiet corner to eat my $29 lunch. It was better than I expected, and I enjoyed it while the girl in Miku cosplay sitting next to me detached her pigtails to brush the frizz out of them.

After lunch I made a brief trip to my hotel to empty my bags before immediately returning to the con. It was just after 1 pm by now, and the crowds had multiplied. But I was motivated and soldiered on, and around 4 pm – six hours after the door had opened – I had visited every booth.

And then I discovered the lower level!

I’d walked past these escalators many times, but I didn’t know there was a ‘gaming and community hall’ on the lower level. I went down for a look and quickly decided to pretend I’d never seen it and returned to the main hall. I think the gaming and community hall was mostly dedicated to fan booths related to video/computer/TRPG games as well as various anime or gaming clubs, but it was also quite large and I saw a few professional-looking booths so maybe there was something worth seeing? I’ll never know 🙂

I’ll also add I all but completely ignored the large autograph section, most of whom were either US voice actors or Japanese creators that required a lottery-won ticket to get an autograph from! I wandered close enough to read one price list, which was $70 for a simple autograph from a voice actress I’d never heard of before.

I then spent another couple of hours speedrunning a second pass of all the booths, including a few I’d missed the first time. I bought some more stuff, saw even more impressive cosplay, but eventually was so exhausted it was time to leave. I’d lasted about eight hours since the doors had opened, which I think means I got my moneys worth!

I had a great time – much more than I expected to be honest – and almost wish I could return tomorrow. It was a very full day, and this post only scrapes the surface of what I saw and did. For instance I didn’t mention this:

Or when a vtuber tried to interview me, or when the girl I bought a postcard from couldn’t speak English (she was Korean), or how I used my roguish charm to bag a couple of freebies. Or a dozen other events I’ve forgotten since I’m so tired right now.

I’ll probably follow up in a few days with my haul. I didn’t buy that much, but I think I got a few items you may like to see.

The World Of Bootleg Chinese Waifu Cards

August 5, 2025

I bought this a couple of weeks ago:

It’s a box of ‘Goddess Story’ cards. These are Chinese unlicensed ‘waifu’ cards featuring girls from anime and video games. Some refer to these as ‘Goddess Story TCG’ but they’re strictly for collecting only: there’s no game element.

Here’s a pack:

And here’s the five cards that were inside:

From the top left, we have characters from Love Live, Oreimo, Needy Streamer Overdose, Gundam and Demon Slayer. All the characters featured on the cards are from existing properties – 24 in total are represented in this box alone – and none of them are licensed. These cards therefore exploit the (lack of) Chinese copyright laws to use the artwork without credit or payment.

The cards are extremely high quality. They’re all glossy and well made, most of them have some type of foiling and the rarer ones are embossed and have very fancy foil effects. Even the most basic cards feel better in your hands than a Magic The Gathering card, and this quality belies the bootleg nature of this product, and is one of the reasons it’s become so popular.

There’s six levels of rarity in this box, shown above. Rare cards (the lowest rarity) are not foiled, but all the others are. The four levels about CR (SR, SSR, SER & SCR) are textured with embossing effects as well. Apparently SCR cards are very rare, and I was lucky to get even one in my box (which I haven’t finished opening). Can you identify the characters/series on the above six cards?

I first heard of these during the pandemic, and saw them available on places like Etsy about two years ago, although I felt they were overpriced at about $5 a pack. When I was in Australia earlier this year a shop at Charlestown Square was selling individual packs at A$14 each (!) which was eye-opening, so when I saw on Amazon a price of only $13 – for an entire box of 30 packs – it was time to buy in. I was so impressed I quickly purchased a few more:

Only one of these boxes cost more than $20, and it was only by a few dollars. Each of these are different sets, although the bootleg nature of the product makes it difficult to determine in what order these were released (there’s no dates and the set codes are inconsistent). Furthermore the box I have opened contains some cards not listed on the checklist at the back of the box.

At this point I’m sure some of you are shaking your heads (“He bought ten boxes?!?”) but these scratch the itch of opening trading card packs, are very cheap, and the cards are shiny and pretty! I’ll be opening these packs for years 🙂

I’ve been buying these on Amazon, and the vendors usually send bonuses with the orders. To my surprise this has included promo packs and the included cards are shown above. I like that two of these are tarot cards. Imagine the difficulty of assembling an entire deck!

And then there’s the above. It turns out other Chinese companies are releasing similar products, and I’ve bought a few of them as well to evaluate. These were a little more expensive than Goddess Story and seem to promote themselves as higher quality cards with fancier treatments (including heat-sensitivity, glow-in-the-dark and gems). As you can see I haven’t opened any of these yet; I’ll save them for a special occasion!

I’ve got over 300 packs of Goddess Story cards now. Want some? Let me know 🙂

Robot Claw