A blog dedicated to cataloging all K project official info, and keeping track of the latest news, info, merchandise, and official art for K project. Our indexes are meant for new and old fans. Please read the FAQ.
Hello! secretsoftheslate is a blog dedicated to cataloging and keeping track of the latest news, information, merchandise, and official art for K project. We hope our blog and masterposts are useful to new and old fans.
- mods: Crimson, Ivory, and Sapphire
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Update: 14 May 2021
Due to decreased activity in the fandom, this blog will also limit its activity. We’ll continune posting major news but otherwise as there has only been one active translator in the fandom in the last few year, please refer to their blog for translations https://itsuki-minamy.tumblr.com/
See this post for details
https://secretsoftheslate.tumblr.com/post/651163575250042880
- mod: Ivory
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Index links
Updated to May 2021
K Novels and Animations
K Manga
K Radio Dramas
GoRA Tweets 2018 onwards
K Short Stories
K Fan Clan - Official K Fan Group
No longer maintained / Not a priority
GORA tweets (pre-2018) - tweets from the writers of K about the characters and upcoming stuff
Visuals - index of images from the K official website
Misc K stuff - includes many links of interest (such as glossaries, song lyrics, event reports, timelines, primers, and snippets from the various novels) that don't fit into the above indexs!
Character ranking meme - take a short quiz to find out who your favorites are! This is our update of the previous ranking meme
GoRA works (January 2014) - an official list of who wrote what from the 2014 Spoon 2Di Article
Welcome to the [K] Project Resurrection Fest!!!!!!!
what the heck is this?
an event to encourage creation and sharing of fan-content for the series [K] or K project (consisting of anime, manga, novels, misc. other materials)
when will this run?
OCTOBER 5 - OCTOBER 15, 2024 given that October 5th is the 12th anniversary of the anime release. late posts are welcome and the tag will be tracked for up to a week after.
why and why now???
it's BEEN A MINUTE and sometimes it's nice to know you're not alone in contemplating and creating content for what feels like a dead fandom :)
WHY NOT!!!!!
what are the rules/any other details?
there are NO SET PROMPTS (we die like half the cast ✨️) so follow your heart and let your imaginations run wild
the tracked tag will be #kfest2k24
all kinds of fan-made content is welcome (art, fic, meta, fanmixes, graphics, etc.)
please tag appropriately and provide warnings where applicable
please play nice & do not repost others' work
image descriptions/alt text encouraged [info on how-to here]
please send an ask if you have any additional questions
I got several asks about this so rather than do each individually, I’ve decided to just make one big How to Buy K Merch in the Year 2024 post. I’m going to skip over the more obvious western sites like eBay and focus more on Japanese sites here. Because there hasn’t been much new K merch in some time keep in mind that most of what you will be looking for is secondhand, which means availability will vary.
Shopping Services
For some of these sites you will need a shopping service, so we’ll start there. This is by no means a comprehensive list of available shopping services, just ones I’ve used and liked.
FromJapan - This one is very straightforward — copy and paste the url of the item you want into their search bar. For anything in certain sites like Rakuten this will pull up a page that will give you the item and its price in your currency and you can just click add to cart. For other sites you may need to request a price quote, there’s a small form to fill out and they’ll get back to you on if they can order it. Timing depends on when you make the request. The nice thing about FromJapan is they will hold items for you for 45 days, so you can collect multiple purchases from multiple sites over time and have them all shipped at once. The bad side is that after 45 days they will discard your items, so keep an eye on when your oldest item arrived (you can see how long it’s been at their warehouse on your account page, and they will email you as the deadline gets close too).
Treasure Japan - Treasure Japan is a much smaller service than the others on this list but also the one I’ve used the longest. Being a smaller service means they tend to be more able to purchase items that might have seller restrictions, particularly from places like Mercari. Some listings when pasted into other shopping service sites will have a ‘cannot purchase from this seller’ warning, because some sellers don’t want to deal with shopping services. I haven’t had much trouble with this merchandise-wise, but when I’ve run into it with j-fashion Treasure Japan has been able to order when the bigger services couldn’t. Their site is set up so you will input different sites in different sections, there’s one for auction, one for ‘flea market’ (this will be places like Mercari) and one for shopping sites.
Buyee/Tenso - Buyee is a shopping service, Tenso is a forwarding service. They’re owned by the same parent company but are separate sites and you’ll need a separate account for each. Buyee is directly integrated with some sites like Mercari and Yahoo Japan, you can put in the url into their search bar and get a listing that you can buy immediately. Like FromJapan, any sites outside of the ones they’re integrated into will require you to request a quote (I found this more difficult with Buyee than FromJapan, personally) and they will sometimes be unable to purchase items. They will hold your items for 30 days at no charge, and you can request to consolidate packages for shipping.
Tenso, as I said above, is a forwarding service and somewhat more complicated. Basically when you sign up they will give you a Japanese address (presumably one of their warehouses) and you can then buy directly from Japanese websites, inputting the address you were given in the address field and paying with your own credit card. The items will be shipped to Tenso and from there you can have them sent to you. Obviously this is more complicated than a shopping service. I’ve used it mainly for things that didn’t involve an item being shipped (this is how I signed up for Fan Clan back in the day, for example, though my lottery goods were sent via Tenso too) or sites that require you to sign up to purchase from. I wouldn’t recommend it for any marketplace type site unless you’re fluent in Japanese, since sellers on those sites may try to communicate with you.
Stores
AmiAmi (no shopping service needed) - AmiAmi is mainly for new goods but I’ll mention it here anyway, in case K ever gets more merch. AmiAmi usually sells out on preorders, you place your order and they will let you know when the item arrives. You pay at that time. They do sometimes get used merch though so you can keep an eye out there, sometimes there will be decent deals on items that only have small flaws like the box being damaged.
Amazon Japan (may or may not need a shopping service) - Did you know overseas people can buy from Amazon Japan? You do now! You will need to make a new account, even if you have an Amazon account in your country. Whether you need a shopping service or not depends on the item. Anything sold directly by the company will likely not need a shopping service — the majority of my K manga and the stage plays were all bought directly from here, and when I was supplying raws for Countdown and LSW I was buying the magazines from here as well (I’ve also used it for Pokémon plushies and sewing books). If the item is being sold by a third party seller though you will likely need a shopping service. The site will tell you when you try to check out.
Surugaya EN (no shopping service required)/ Surugaya JP (shopping service required) - This is a secondhand shop and a great place to find merch. The main difference between the English site and the Japanese one is that the Japanese site has a larger selection (particularly doujinshi, and even more particularly spicy doujinshi). The English site periodically has free shipping sales so keep an eye out. Surugaya also has physical stores and will sometimes share merch between the store and the site so keep that in mind too, I have had items canceled before because they sold out in store and the listing hadn’t been updated yet.
Mandarake (no shopping service needed) - Another secondhand shop similar to Surugaya. I have not actually purchased from them myself and am not fond of their interface but I know people who have bought things from here. Like Surugaya they share stock with physical stores so something you want can sell out even after you’ve purchased.
Lashinbang (shoppng service required) - More secondhand shops. Lashinbang is rather small though so they don't always have much stuff, at least not for K.
CDJapan (no shopping service needed) - This is also better for new merch than secondhand but still worth a mention. I’ve found their prices tend to be worse than a lot of other stores though, this is more of a last resort for me.
Otaku Republic/Goods Republic (no shopping service needed) - Otaku sells doujinshi, Goods sells merch. The main draw is that these two are easy to search if you’re uncomfortable dealing with Japanese sites. I haven’t used them in quite a while but when I was buying from them they would send me free gifts with every purchase (my S4 cup came from them, as well as a bunch of clear file folders that I didn’t take pictures of because they’re being used as sewing pattern storage right now). The main downside is that while shipping is free over $50 they massively mark up the base prices to make up for it. I eventually stopped using this site because the shopping service was cheaper even with shipping and fees, you are paying for convenience. A lot of their ‘inventory’ is just listings from other sites including Surugaya, so check there first.
GoraShop (shopping service required) - This is Gora’s direct bookshop! They only have the season novelizations and Idol K books right now, as well as some Ayaka stuff.
Kinkurido (shopping service required) - This is the King Amusement Creative shop. All Memories was sold through this shop but is currently sold out, if they ever restock Gora will likely announce it on their Twitter. They do have some other small K goods available, including some CDs and artbooks (and Sarumi body pillows).
Marketplaces
Mercari Japan (Shopping service needed) - If you’ve ever used the English version of Mercari, here it is again but Japanese edition. You can find a lot of good used pieces here but prices are set by the individual seller so be wary of overpaying the first thing you find. Be sure to use a translator to look at the description in case you're buying a damaged item. Sometimes shopping services can try to negotiate the prices if you ask.
Yahoo Japan Auctions (shopping service needed) - Similarly as above, if you’re familiar with eBay this is fundamentally the same thing. Some shopping services will allow you to place last minute ‘sniper’ bids, and most will let you set a maximum bid and keep bidding on your behalf until that max is reached.
Shopping tips and things to know
The good news about buying from Japan right now: the yen is weak, so you can get deals! In the US, anyway. This may depend on your country so if you’re unsure on the exchange rate you can google “[your country’s currency] to yen exchange rate” and it should give you an approximate.
The bad news: shipping is killer. Keep that in mind, especially if you’re buying heavy items like bags or shoes (yes, K has those, there are several SuperGroupies collabs. If you want a S4 purse or Yata Misaki shoes keep in mind you will probably be paying through the nose for shipping). For the European types, you may have additional taxes too so be aware of your country’s import laws. Ditto when it comes to customs. For my fellow Americans, I have never had a customs issue even when buying fairly pricey dresses so you’re probably okay on that end but I can’t speak for other countries.
Character tax is real. Basically, more popular characters will likely have more expensive merch because there’s more demand — for example, Fushimi and Yata merch tends to be more expensive than, say, Silvers merch. Keychains and pins are usually cheaper than larger items like figures and standees either way though.
Most of the Japanese sites will need to be searched in Japanese. For character names, I suggest going to the K wiki and grabbing your favorite character’s name in kanji and using that to search. For pairings, while marketplace sites like Mercari may have listings under the pairing name sites like Suruga will use the two individual character names so you’ll want to search under that. If your browser doesn’t have an add on to translate that’s very helpful to grab in order to make your experience easier. For K itself, in general this is really the downside of having a favorite series with a one letter title. However, using ‘Missing Kings,’ ‘Return of Kings’ or ‘Seven Stories’ can be helpful here but will likely mostly turn up merch made for that specific season/movie.
If you want to look up something specific like a plush but don't know the Japanese word for it, Jisho can be helpful. Look up the kanji for the word you want and then copy-paste into your search. The downside is sometimes there are multiple words for the same thing or a word may be in kanji but people use the hiragana more often and you won't know, but it should get you on the right path to start.
On buying spicier goods: most shopping services have it in their terms that they will not buy adult items. In practice, however, this depends. I've had FromJapan refuse to buy perfectly tame G-rated doujinshi. Treasure Japan has in their terms that they won't ship adult items but like 70% of my doujinshi collection was purchased through them, with an R18 Sarumi book purchased as recently as last year. I've heard Buyee also states that they won't ship adult items but it's hit or miss if they turn down your order, and if you buy directly using Tenso they likely won't even open your package. Keep your country's laws regarding importing in mind, especially if you think customs might be likely to poke around in your package. Don't get in legal trouble just for spicy drawings.
Buying secondhand is a marathon, not a sprint. Sometimes it takes a while for what you want to show up, so just keep looking! When I was collecting my nui set I literally bookmarked the search for “K ぬい” (nui) on Mercari and checked every day or so, which may be more obsessive than you want but it does get the job done (I was molded in the merch search mines of trying to find lolita dresses that haven’t been sold for 10 years, so I’m used to this kind of thing). If you keep looking you may even find things you didn't know you needed, like this Sarumi bedsheet I forgot to add into my collection post.
Wow, K Project is 10 years old already? I suppose I should say my thanks to it for introducing me to who became one of my favorite characters ❤️ Stay red, guys, and enjoy this compilation of old fanart pieces I made over the many years I was in the fandom
“Today marks 10 years since K first aired! At that time everyone in GoRA watched episode 1 together at karaoke! I never imagined we’d be doing this again 10 years down the track, but it’s thanks to everyone’s support we’ve been able to come this far! Here’s to the future!”
- GoRA, 1:41am 6th October 2022
“2012 Oct 5 (late night) was K’s season 1 anime air date, huh. 10 Years! The timestamp of this photo I just dug out is Oct 6 00:14. GoRA, angela and the producers gathered at a Pasela to watch the first episode and this was a surprise we got just beforehand”
- GoRA Yellow, Kabei Yukako
“It’s been exactly 10 years since K aired!!! Seeing the K decorated honey toast again brings up such nostalgia. We’ve built up so much of K’s history over the last 10 years…”
Happy 10 years of K, everyone! This series has been so important for me. Thanks to everyone who reads this blog and has come along for the ride with me, I appreciate every one of you (´∀｀)♡
"Red Case, Homra in Las Vegas": will be published on March 1 (Tuesday). This story of "Homra" members traveling to Las Vegas will be updated on the 1st of every month thereafter.
"Fragments of Ground Zero": will be published on March 10 (Thursday). This story, made by various writers on the brink of "Kagutsu Incident", which is the biggest incident in K history, will be updated on the 10th of every month.
"K - One Year Later": it will be published on March 20 (Sunday). This story, which describes the future a bit after K's main story ends, will be updated on the 20th of every month.
In addition, "SIDE: GOLD", the story of Daikaku Kokujoji who brought the Dresden slate to Japan after the war, and several "first kings".
You attended the Fan Clan streaming event, right? Do you have any news of what happened during the event and any new news of what we will see during this year?
I think most of the main info had already been reported by the time I woke up (I had to get up at 3am for the event XD) so I didn't bother making a post for it. The event was basically Gora sitting in chairs and talking, they had a whiteboard and Black (? I think it was Black) got up to write on it but only ended up writing a date of 3/1 -- that's the date that they'll apparently be making the 10th anniversary announcement and the new site where they'll be posting Ground Zero, Las Vegas, etc. They also announced a new serialization for the site too, Side Gold.
Novelizations are coming for Missing Kings in June and ROK in August (Orange made a comment on Twitter about 'writing the Christmas battle over Christmas'). There's also going to be a K All Memories event later this year, some more copies of the novel will be available but they didn't specify if the book will be available online or in person at the event. Ticketing is online but I got the impression they're hoping for an in-person event where you need book in hand. There was a little random chatter from Gora about the possibility of a second All Memories book with the Fan Clan stories eventually but nothing confirmed or anything. Also possibly we may get more audio dramas?
For the rest of the event, a lot of it was just Gora chatting. My listening Japanese is terrible so I could only follow so much, they talked about a lot of different K AUs that would be possible (like oni K or space colony K...and 'K-metsu no Yaiba' XD). Also the idea of other Slates elsewhere, like 'a Japanese Slate and an American Slate.' Then they played a little anniversary video, with the first tweet they'd ever made about K's production and little bits from Gora with everyone's voices pitched weird, I think it was supposed to be funny? If I understood more it probably would have been :P
It was reported that the previous event did a little audition thing with one of the voice actors and they did that again, this time it was Fukujun! We got to hear his audition for Yata. They also played a couple lines of him auditioning for Totsuka and several lines for Fushimi XD His Fushimi was interesting, the closest comparison I can think of is he used a voice similar to the one he uses for Lelouch, with the lower tone. The 'Mi-sa-ki' wasn't quite as memorable as Mamo's XD And he did the line from ep 5 where Saru yells at Kamamoto for interfering, that sounded just like plain ol' Yata.
