[Stripey] My fledgling but bank-breaking anime/2D tapestry collection

There are a few things in life I firmly believe one should never touch with a ten thousand foot pole - Drugs, loli-porn, Nia Teppelin's cooking and Kyuubey's contracts. After 2 years collecting anime/2D tapestries (taps), I'm adding that to the list.

If my 2D expenses (consisting of scaled figures, artbooks, anime blu-ray/DVD) were not already crushing enough, tapestry collecting would certainly push me over the financial abyss. My most expensive 2D tapestry to date is 20000 yen (a litte more than my Mai HiME blu ray boxset?!) and the median price of a tapestry is about 10k yen. Frankly, it makes little sense that these printed material should cost so much when a scaled figure which takes a great deal more craftmanship can be acquired for less. (A fact kindly brought to attention by my loving wife who has declared my next tapestry over 15k yen would be wrapped around my infant son's cute bottom).

In retrospect, my path to taps has been a curious but probably inevitable one. At the core of the obsession is my passion for the 2D bishoujo. It started with anime, mutated into lust after 2D artbooks/figures and is now manifesting in my unhealthy love for tapestry. Indeed the path of anime is a dark and slippery slope to financial ruin.

Anyhow, since the money has been sunk in, here's sharing my very small tapestry collection which I'm utterly torn about growing.

Advantage of size

Unlike Author, my laptop is still mostly fine. The main advantage of TV, thus, is size. Not quite as big as Stripey's (also a Sharp) but 32" is still a vast upscale from a laptop screen. Having to manually fiddle the aspect ratio for older anime is a tad annoying but not unexpected given the processing power of a laptop versus TV.

I guess size isn't everything.

Stripey in Akihabara (3) – WTB goth-loli yukata

One of my greatest regrets for this Tokyo trip was not getting this avante-garde goth-loli yukata for my beautiful wife. Having seen the actual outfit at the basement floor of Laforet (Harajuku), Wife-chan and I were immediately floored by seamless fusion of Japanese tradition with goth-lolita elements. I hate myself soo much for not insisting Wife-chan to try it on. In fact, I didn't even ask about the price. So much for wanting to acquire goth-lolita fashion for my better half.

Even 2 weeks after our return, my thoughts continue to linger on those gorgeous threads and a brief online search unwittingly unveiled the pedigree of the designer : H. Naoto of some international acclaim; renowned for his fusion of Goth, Punk and Lolita elements in his works. A deeper search yielded his online store which revealed the goth-loli yukata to be a Naoto-Summer-Special that has long since been sold out. I cried buckets that evening when the realisation of never seeing my wife in that lolicious outfit crashed upon me. She would have been so PERFECT for it. It would have been S$550 VERY WELL SPENT. *SOB*

Naoto sensei's work gives me hope that one day, we'd seen Tinkle's line of apparel. I have no doubt that he was inspired by 2D art. Who would have thought the outlandish/overdesigned 2D gothloli fashion with its excessive frills and lace to translate so well into 3D. Already my day in Harajuku has supplied ample evidence (mainly from occasional Ama-lolitas gracing the sideway) of how the Lolita fashion is not only for 2D bishoujos.

Keeping fingers crossed for a restock... Sigh. Oh BTW, I can absolutely picture Shiki ~Kara no Kyoukai in this.

*Pardon the misleading title. "Akihabara" was kept for consistency's sake.*

Only Stripey can save Japan now

[insert screencap (which I don't have so a text note will have to do) of light coming out of the pages of one of Suguru's ero-hon]

Via BBC News:

Japan's exports plunged 45.7% in January compared with a year ago to hit the lowest figure in 10 years, official figures have shown.

Obviously some one needs to buy MOAR loli pr0n and stuff - pronto.

Speaking of economic stimulus, clearly the ban does not apply to anime porn.