A Look Inside My Anime Office

A look inside my Anime Office

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For the past three or so years I’ve been working on turning the spare room in my partner and I’s apartment into what I’ve dubbed an ‘Anime Office’. Functionally its almost like a museum space for me to display my anime merch while also featuring a desk, chair and spare single bed. I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to things like this and so while it’s been about 95% complete for about 3 months now I’m only just now willing to share photos of it with the rest of the internet.

(Note: These photos were taken by the irlwaifu, while I provided lighting and direction. Also a couple of photos contain NSFW imagery but I’ll warn you before those photos appear.)

The first thing you see as you approach the room is the Japanese door curtain–or ‘noren’ as it is traditionally known. The curtain features Latifah and Sento from ‘Amagi Brilliant Park’, below it you can see a doormat featuring the main cast of ‘Is The Order A Rabbit?’ the latter of which was a particularly lucky find as it was the first time finding an anime themed doormat and it happened to be from one of my favourite CGDCT anime.

What wonders await beyond the curtain?!
Parting the curtain gives a sneak peak of the room, as well as the hideous carpet in our rental apartment…

One of the main focal points is the ‘Yuru Yuri’ bedsheet which I’ve re-purposed into a curtain or even flag of sorts, its made of a much higher quality material than the usual anime bed sheets (which are usually a rough cotton material) hence why the pride of place against the room’s actual curtain.

It’s a lot to take in all at once.

Immediately as you enter you see the bed which is currently occupied by four body pillows (dakimakura in Japanese) they feature–from front to back–Ruiko Saten and Kazari Uihara from ‘A Certain Scientific Railgun’, Amane Suou from ‘The Grisaia series’, Ginko Sora from ‘The Ryuo’s Work Is Never Done’ and Rize Tedeza from ‘Is The Order A Rabbit? series’. (If there’s enough requests I can do a separate post featuring more detailed pictures/descriptions/information of any of the merch shown through this post).

Not much room in this bed!

To the immediate left of the bed as you enter is a wall filled with anime tapestries (wall scrolls) which are (usually) made of suede, supported by PVC rods and hung with string.  I’ve actually got about 3 times as many wall scrolls as seen here but these are my favourites. Occasionally I’ll switch out some for others to give a change of scenery but these are the ones that most frequently feature.

Again, if close-ups of any of these are required please make a request and I’ll make a separate post.

Immediately above the bed hanging from the roof is a single bed-sheet of Yami from ‘The To Love-Ru series’. It makes for an impressive sight while lying in bed.

Oh what a feeling, Yami on the ceiling!

From the bed the rest of the room can be seen though there’s a lot more to it than can be captured by a single photo. Nevertheless, here is a single photo of the view from the bed.

A lot going on, but it’ll make sense in a minute (maybe).

Perhaps the most visually eye-catching (if only from a colour and size perspective) part of the room is the wall-mounted blanket of Hachiroku from the ‘Maitetsu series’. Long story short, while on my most recent (February 2019) trip to Japan I discovered an anime girl from a series I’d never even heard of and fell in love so naturally I needed something equally impressive to celebrate her with.

Hachiroku in all her glory (with some random prize figurines beneath).

 

Occupying (almost) an entire wall directly opposite the leftside tapestry wall are a series of bookshelves which contain all my manga (the first four shelves–looking from left-to-right) my anime blu-rays (the next two shelves) and non-anime blu-ray TV shows (the final three shelves). Atop them are some ‘Monster Musume’ postcards that have been mounted in frames and some ‘Fairy Tail’ funko pop toys.

The desk itself, which sits between the bed and the bookshelves in the corner of the room has itself another bookshelf (a slightly wider one with anime DVD’s and anime art books and then the desk itself which is unsurprisingly adorned with many mousepads. (Second image is NSFW, also contains random photo of irlwaifu dressed as Umaru on my desk).

If this photo looks lower quality it’s because I took it myself on a different phone to the others.
What? You don’t have four mousepads on your desk?!

But my favourite part of the room (at least from a collectors standpoint) are my bishojou figures, encased in a glass display case in what is almost the centre of the room. (I’m going to spend a bit more time on this section than previous ones, also some of the figures are NSFW so there’s your warning).

The four-tier glass display case.
Top self; back row: Nana and Lala figures from ‘To Love-Ru series’ made by Alter. Front row: The girls from ‘Yuru Yuri’ in miniature Banpresto figures.
Second shelf; back row: Ryuko posable figure from ‘Kill La Kill’. Front row: ‘Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya’ figures of Kuro, Illya and Miyu. The latter of which are my absolute favourite thing I’ve ever bought.
Third shelf; back row: Sena and Yozora from ‘Haganai series’. Front row: Sonico from ‘Super Sonico’ (yes I took her top off, so what?) Plus ‘Senran Kagura’ mini-figs from a Senran Kagura DS game I found for cheap in Japan.
Bottom shelf; Just a bunch of prize figures from the ‘Monogatari’ series.

And that’s it for my Anime Office tour! I probably missed a few little things, but if there’s anything you want to know more about just leave a comment below and I’ll hopefully be able to answer your questions! Thanks for reading!

Whole room panorama.

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New Game! – 20 Question Anime Review

A 20 Question Anime Review for New Game!

What’s the show? New Game!

Why are you shouting? I’m not, it’s just how they stylise the show’s title, with an exclamation mark, it’s a Japanese thing, they do it a lot.

Fair enough, what’s it about? It’s another in the informal genre of shows ‘cute girls doing cute things’.

What cute thing are these cute girls they doing then? Designing video games.

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Not usually the first thing I think of when ‘cute things’ comes to mind. Do they at least do it cutely? Absolutely! I mean just look at their faces! Kawaii!

And do they design video games in their spare time after school? No, it’s their job; they work for an all female video game company called ‘Eagle Jump’.

Wait, okay. How old are these girls supposed to be? Well, Suzukaze Aoba is the protagonist; she’s a new hire out of high school and is 18 years old. The oldest staff member whose age we know about is Yagimi Ko and she’s 25.

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Well I admit that’s a pleasant change from the usual anime trope of everyone being high school age but they certainly don’t look it! She get’s that a lot, poor Aoba.

Fine, that out of the way, what’s the show actually about; it’s not just watching cute girls designing a video game, is it? Well…

It is?! Okay, first of all, it’s a ‘slice of life’ anime; so don’t start judging it by normal narrative standards. It’s kind of like if ‘The Office’ was an anime, and everyone liked each other, and there was no real conflict except overcoming minor misunderstandings. Also did I mention cute girls?

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Fine, I’ll concede it’s a ‘slice of life’ so its structure is different to that of other anime. So why should I watch it? And don’t you dare say ‘cute girls’! Er, um… adorable females? Listen, ‘slice of life’ is a hard sell for those uninitiated with the genre. The characters are all splendid and likeable, even the shrill best friend character grows to be endearing by the end. And it goes into the inner workings of the art department on a JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game), and those parts seem accurate and well researched. Plus it gives an idea about how much work goes into even the smallest details of large video game projects.

A niche genre anime about making niche genre video games? It’s like a nerd turducken. A nerducken! Come on, you gotta admit that was good, high-five! What is this, the Big Bang Theory? Ugh. [Gives begrudging high five]

Who is ‘best girl’? Takimoto Hifumi, she’s so shy and reserved and she’s got a pet hedgehog and *SQUEE*!

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Did you seriously just ‘squee’? I can’t help it; I’ve got a seriously problem. And the only prescription? More cute girls!

Any additional seasons? New Game!!

Why are you shouting again? I’m not, that’s what the second season is called. See, the two exclamation marks differentiate it from the first season’s title.

A show can’t succeed on ‘cuteness’ alone, so say something negative about the show. There’s never the sense that things could go wrong, at least not catastrophically. The issues that crop up from time to time for the characters are very minor, but that is something that’s not unique to this show and runs along many ‘slice of life’ shows. But at the same time it’s not meant to be challenging or overwrought, it’s meant to be light and relaxing, the fact that it can be that and entertaining is a testament to the show’s writing and style. It’s a show about positivity and hard work and friendship and that’s something that this world needs a lot more of if you ask me.

Hmm, I thought you were supposed to say something negative about the show? You just complimented it more and made me kind of want to watch it. That’s the power of ‘slice of life’, that’s the power of ‘New Game!’ and that’s the power of…

Don’t say it! Cute girls!

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Final score? Highly recommended for anyone who wants to just relax and enjoy themselves with some thoroughly non-threatening soft comedy and endearingly adorable characters. This is a ‘game’ worth ‘playing’, 86 out of 100.

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