Found This Week: God's in His Heaven

Twenty-six Evangelion telephone cards went live Sunday night. Not a typo. movic, Newtype, Comptiq, GAINAX house cards, a good chunk of them stamped 1997, the year of Death and Rebirth and The End of Evangelion. Seven of the designs came in pairs, so a few of these exist twice on the store and you get a second chance if you sleep on one. (You will not sleep on one.) Three of the twenty-six get their own entry below, the rest are in the store, search Evangelion. Then a Demon City Shinjuku card, two Real Bout High School cards, a Magna Carta store premium, and four things held over from last week that outprice the whole lot. No story from the desk this week, the pile just showed up.

Evangelion Kaworu, Rei, Asuka, Shinji, silver foil, $45

The one that costs the most and the one that earns it. Silver foil group shot, all four kids in front of Unit-02 and Unit-00, movic mark down the right edge, 50-unit NTT card, unused. Foil telecas scratch if you look at them wrong and this one did not get looked at. (Kaworu in the group shot next to the other three. The card knows how it ends.) Here.

Evangelion UN NERV red, $35

No characters. Flat red, the fig leaf, the motto, a binary string along the bottom, Eva logo on the reverse. The card in the lot for the person who owns everything with a face on it already. (GOD'S IN HIS HEAVEN, ALL'S RIGHT WITH THE WORLD is Browning, 1841, and NERV put it on a phone card. Same energy as the whole show.) Unused, no punch holes. Here.

Evangelion Rei Ayanami "Arigato," 1997, Not For Sale, $35

Rei against a concrete wall with ありがと・・・ at the left and 1997 GAINAX NOT FOR SALE printed on it, which means it was a giveaway, never retailed. Not-for-sale cards are the ones that did not go through a shop, so they are the ones nobody kept properly. Light surface scratches on this one, stated in the listing, priced like the rest. (Rei saying thank you, on a card you were not allowed to buy. Fits.) Here.

Demon City Shinjuku OVA card, JHV, $40

Makai Toshi Shinjuku. Two characters over a shattered magenta city, credits printed right on the card: original story Hideyuki Kikuchi, directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, JHV logo lower left. Kawajiri is the Wicked City and Ninja Scroll guy and this is the 1988 one people forget. (The card is more legible than most VHS covers of it. Cool.) Unused, 50-unit. Here.

Real Bout High School, Comic Dragon, May 2000, two cards, $35 each

Two Comic Dragon cards from the same month, both Sora Inoue illustrations, both credited to Fujimi Shobo on the card. One is Ryoko Mitsurugi with the pink bow on pale blue, the other is the red checker card with the orange-haired character. Different cards, same series, same price, so pick by the one you like. (The anime came a year after these. The manga cards are the earlier artifact. Not sure that matters to anyone but it is true.) Both unused, no punch holes.

Magna Carta, Banpresto, WonderGOO premium, 2005, $35

Store premium from WonderGOO, the Japanese game chain, printed SOFTMAX and BANPRESTO 2005 and NOT FOR SALE. Softmax is the Korean studio, Banpresto handled it in Japan. Character group in the ornate costumes that series is known for, white ground. (A Korean RPG's Japanese store bonus card, found in California. The supply chain is longer than the game.) Unused. Here.

Rockin' Jelly Bean Erosty Pop mouse pad, 1998, $50

Held over from last week. Erosty Pop, 1998, same year as the tee and the hoodie that ran in September, on the one object nobody thought to keep. Used, surface condition in the photos, nine of them. (A mouse pad from 1998 that survived is rarer than the shirt. Nobody archives a mouse pad.) RJB explainer is in the August Japan post if the name means nothing to you. Here.

Bondage Fairies 2, Kondom, French edition, third copy, opened, $50

Yes, a third one. The sealed copy and the first opened copy ran September 7 and this is a separate book, opened, no shrinkwrap, ten photos. Kondom, BD Erogene, Réservé aux adultes printed on the cover, adults only, adult content, listed as such. (Three copies of a French adult manga in one month is not a pattern I can explain. It is a pattern I can list.) Here.

Iori Io, Asahi Geino Secret teleca, $50

Held over. Gravure card, Asahi Geino Secret, name printed 伊織いお, 50-unit NTT, unused, no punch holes, six photos. The rest of that September lot is described in the Second Call post and this is the one from it priced above the others. (Magazine, card, condition. That is the whole entry. That is the whole genre.) Here.

Range Murata PSE trading figure, Yamato, Solid Collection Ver.2, $40

Held over from last week. Painted 8cm bust on a black base, studded cap, choker, harness top, Yamato's Solid Collection line. Used, no box, three photos. (If you read the Murata spotlight and wanted something under $100 with his name on it, this is the one in the building.) Here.

Also live and not making the ten: the other twenty-three Eva cards, including the Girlfriend of Steel Mana Kirishima Comptiq card, a Kaworu and Shinji "Who are you?" card from movic, and the End of Evangelion film-strip trio of Rei, Asuka and Shinji, which exists twice. And a Made in Japan cat mug, $20, the handle is the cat, crazing but no chips. The pile behind this pile is bigger. The ACG is still on the bench. All's right with the world.