Field notes
Japan news, weekly finds, one deep dive at a time.
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Item Spotlight: Cover Charge
A 1999 Wanimagazine box with two Range Murata telephone cards inside, and why the man behind Last Exile has an adult magazine for a publisher.
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Fowl Play
Six new listings: a second Fowl Side Donald Duck tee, two French editions of Bondage Fairies 2, a Sugihara Anri QUO card, a HUF x Sorayama tee, and one normal...
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Won, Not Sold: The 2001 Sega Asuka and Unit-02 Prize Plush Set
Five 2001 Sega UFO Catcher prize plushes, four Asuka Langley outfits plus Unit-02, on one page before the last of them ships. Three already sold.
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Thirteen Years for One Night
Madoka Magica finally releases the movie fans waited thirteen years for and it opens at number one. Plus JJK season 4, the Chiikawa box office empire, and Gachiakuta.
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Item Spotlight: Big Brother on Blotter Paper
A Ben Frost print on perforated blotter paper, signed, 35 of 175. What blotter art actually is, why editions drop on April 19, and why the perforations matter.
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Luck of the Drawn
A hand-drawn Lady Death 1 of 1 out of a random bundle, a sealed Kurapika wafer card, more 90s Evangelion, and seven other finds now in the shop.
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The Show You Can Only Own
A show you can hold but not stream, the goblin's Chainsmoker Cat verdict, One Piece breaking a 26 year movie habit, Gintama reanimated, and Your Name turning ten.
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Item Spotlight: The Devil Man Who Put the Pilot Inside
A 1998 phone card sold at one building, for a few weeks, at a retrospective for the man who invented the piloted giant robot. Here is what Go Nagai actually...
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What Happened at Kyoto Animation
I only found out about this while researching anime, years after it happened. Thirty-six people killed at a studio that was doing right by its animators. Here is what happened...
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Plugsuits on a 1997 Phone Card
Eight cards this week. All the telephone cards came from one regional Japan seller, which explains why they sit together the way they do.
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Comiket Turns 50 and Still Pulls 260,000
Comiket closes its 50th anniversary with 260,000 through the door, Takopi gets a theatrical cut, Oshi no Ko sets its ending, and Hong Kong bans a cartoon cat for smoking.
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The Mask Behind the Collabs
Rockin' Jelly Bean's decades of collabs, Chainsmoker Cat's ongoing ban saga, a WIT Studio remake of THE ONE PIECE, and the rest of the week from Japan, curated.
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