Stocktaking ~ MEGAMI visual collections

This Lyrical Nanoha visual collection is one of the many treasures my good bro Zyl brought back for me from his holy pilgrimage. Discontinued on HLJ and unstocked in our local Kinokuniya (who'd charge a 40% premium for bringing it in anyway), this mook is a fantastic find to return with from the land of 9 yr old mahou shoujos. Very carefully and gently flipping through the visual collection, I'm reminded once again why I'm such a hardened believer of Gakken's visual collections.

Gakken is the company that publishes MEGAMI magazines and occasionally, they'd compile an anime-centric visual collection featuring posters from past magazines while throwing in new artwork. I only have 3 (Fate/Stay night, DCSS and Nanoha) of their 11 droolicious visual collections (only 9 is listed. The Raimuiro Senkitan and Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito visual collection appeared to have never made the HLJ inventory). All 3 collections come with a standee which I have left untouched. They have been classified as family heirloom for passing on to my otaku descendants.

Indeed, once you possess one of these high-quality publishings, you could never stomach the bootlegged artbooks that plague a certain comic chain store in this sunny republic. In fact, the visual collection quality is even several notches higher than the already very outstanding MEGAMI Deluxes - another visual series from Gakken.

There are current 8 MEGAMI deluxes of which I have 5. Unlike Tsubaki who came to the exact opposite conclusion, I actually switched from collecting MEGAMI magazine to Deluxes since I'm in mainly for the posters and they'd last much longer in the Deluxe form. Of course the draw-back is Deluxes don't carry all the posters though obtaining Deluxes make sounder financial sense since a Deluxe costs only about 30% more than a single MEGAMI for the distilled-best of 6-8 magazines worth of poster artwork.

Finally, my small but hopefully growing visual collection. The bottom right book is actually not a Gakken publication but Mediaworks' D.C. II ~Spring Celebration Prefect visual book. Another great artbook with beautiful, vibrant illustrations. Now to get the sister publishing " Yoakemae yori Ruriiro na Perfect Visual Book" and my life would be complete... well almost.

Keeping fingers crossed for a Gakken's Kanon visual collection....

Related posts:

1. Fate/Stay Night Visual Collection
2. MEGAMI Treats ~ Shirakawa Kotori goodness
3. MEGAMI Treats: AIR goodness