#bansanihon

[mysticdragon3md3]

Translated from Portuguese: "The scalping situation in Japan is out of control. Of the 500 best-selling manga on July 1st (Shoseki), 465 are from Shueisha, most bought by scalpers. The goal is to sell a special card that's coming with them.

Scalpers are buying the volumes and destroying them (or selling them dirt cheap to get rid of them since the aim is to find the cards). There are reports that several stores are being trashed in the hunt for these volumes. The manga market must fight against this commodification of art before it's too late."

[mysticdragon3md3]

Times like this, I wish I could find that NHK World episode of Kabuki Kool, explaining the trope of handsome villains. Pretty sure it was the episode about that play of a terrible husband who then gets haunted, after his wife dies. So many kabuki tropes made it into anime and modern Japanese pop culture media.

[mysticdragon3md3]

[mysticdragon3md3]

[mysticdragon3md3]

Why This School Play Had 25 Snow Whites (and No Dwarves) by Sam's POV

What a relief that regulation must have been for teachers.

[mysticdragon3md3]

The etymology of Otaku by Kyota Ko

Actually, I'd donate my blood more, if I got free character merch out of it.😅🩸

[mysticdragon3md3]

"In Japan, some desserts exist for three weeks.

Then they're gone.

Cherry blossom cream puffs in spring.

Yuzu cold pudding in early summer.

Roasted sweet potato mont blanc in autumn.

Strawberry daifuku in winter.

Not a permanent menu.

Not a global rollout.

Not "while supplies last" in small print.

Just a season.

Then silence.

People buy two.

Sometimes five.

Not to hoard.

Because they remember last year

when they waited too long

and the shelf was empty.

Not because Japanese people love sugar more.

Because the country learned to attach flavor to time.

You don't just eat the sweet.

You eat the week.

The weather.

The walk home from the station.

The feeling that this exact version

will never come back.

Think about the last time

food made you notice

a season ending.

In Japan, dessert isn't always dessert.

Sometimes it's a countdown

you share with strangers

in the same convenience store aisle."

[mysticdragon3md3]

I don't know why, but for the past several years, whenever I look up a figure I want at amiami, they just don't have it. They only have preorders, I want. But I used to be able to find obscure and after-market figures I wanted, at good prices, pretty easily at amiami. I don't know what changed. And after $20 shipping, Nendoroids are pretty much the same for me to buy figures at cons or GSC US. Only the selection was amiami's advantage, and that's changed now. 😞

That being said, I finally visited Japan 2 years ago and the prize figures that are usually $30+ in the US, were less than $10. Unfortunately, I'm not really into prize figures.