How I Adapted to Buying Manga due to COVID

Hello everybody! I am back from a break and I wanted to update you guys on how I have been buying manga since the pandemic struck. 

To clarify I am still buying new manga from Kinokuniya and if I have time and energy I might check out BookOff for used manga and Barnes and Nobles for anything they got in stock. I have so far have been to Kinokuniya once or twice a month at most since this started.

To hopefully limit my exposure I started purchasing manga volumes on the Kinokuniya website and paying with my card. However, I don't have it shipped to my apartment as I don't want boxes and packaging when I can pay a small public transit fee to pick it up. Shipping is an extra expense that I have currently limited to heavy and very large packages mostly from shops I can not travel to. In my case taking public transit is less than shipping, especially if I don't purchase enough for free shipping.

I do appreciate that the Kinokuniya website is easy to use and that they notify you when it is ready for pickup. I had to do to the register and say that I was picking up, gave my information, and received my manga! Very quick and easy especially when you get there before noon, which is when the line outside the door starts where I am at.

Love using my Kinokuniya tote to carry my manga

Let me know how manga shopping is going for you! Did you have to change up how you get your latest volumes? Until next time, stay hype!

Otaku USA Magazine Review - Covering Otaku News

Hello everybody! Time for the once and a lifetime review of a magazine!

I have had a few anime and manga magazines before such as Shonen Jump, Shojo Beat, Newtype, and Otaku USA. Sadly time has not been kind and many magazines overall have discontinued. There are online anime, manga, and overall hobby news sources but it really makes you miss the days when you can pick up a printed copy and not have advertisements thrown in your face 24/7.

I decided to get the December 2020 issue of Otaku USA since now I have more time to read and while I am staying at home having a magazine makes things feel more normal. I will try to get the full year subscription especially since 2021 is right around the corner and there is no official date to when I will have to return back to the office. It comes out every two months so I can really take my time with reading.

I really adore this magazine cause it helps me get into other anime and manga I might not have been recommended in the first place. The overviews don't spoil the story while also peeking your interests with some small facts about the environment and characters!

What is also a plus is that this magazine is available digitally on its own app. Now I don't have to worry about the magazine being crushed by packages of ink ad refills in my already small mailbox. Getting the magazine mailed to you would be great if you will use it to journal or even junk journal part of it later. I remember getting these physically, and I am happy they still kept the same layout but made it work for digital reading. When I zoom in on my iPhone the entire block of text fits nicely on my screen. Not sure if it is the same on other phones.

I adore the amount of info they give when covering the series especially referencing the manga while talking about the anime and if there are major changes in the storyline. Really helps the otakus make up their mind on starting the anime or reading the manga or even doing both.

Want to sample a manga? This magazine gives you that too! Even if it's only two samples I still appreciate the effort. There was a slight issue with the manga pages not being in order but I wonder if that is a bug with the app itself.

Love that the game reviews don't have a number rating system. I don't like it cause it depends on what you like in a game. It is very considerate with mentioning any previous title related to the game which is perfect for everybody that didn't play any of them and might want to jump into the franchise. 

Always appreciate the actual solid dedicated pages for cosplay shots during this time when I can't enjoy Anime NYC as I usually do. Especially if you are also like me where you follow many cosplayers but your Twitter and IG are so flooded that you need to scroll for hours to find their latest pictures.

The only problem that is honestly just me is that some interviews are so short. I love reading the responses of the artist, creator, or whoever they interviewed. One page goes by really fast almost leaving me to want more.

Overall I will continue to get Otaku USA and hope they continue to be a source of new and exciting anime and manga for many more years to come.m

Until next time, stay hyped!

Keeping Up with Manga Physically While Working from Home

Happy Monday everybody! Tsubaki here with a small post on how I been adapting while still being on lockdown.

I collect all my favorite manga physically and have just enough room for them on my bookshelf. However, before I started working from home, after work I should check at Kinokuniya, BookOff, and maybe Barnes and Nobles for the latest volumes. Now all of that had to change especially since I didn't want to keep ordering online when shipping rates are expensive and packages are severely delayed after Black Friday.

Now due to traveling less I only go to Kinokuniya to grab my manga since they also have the stationery refills I need too. I hope when things are more under control to go back to BookOff as well.

The first thing I do is to check the opening times of my favorite bookstore. Thankfully Kinokuniya is open here and their hours are normal (11AM-7PM) and they are open every day. This helps me because I work Monday to Friday (9AM-5PM) so if I buy anything it has to be on the weekend.

Next, I check when the manga will be released by using the Kinokuniya website, Amazon, and Barnes and Nobles. Any preorder dates and release dates help. If the dates vary I take the later date as the date it will come out.

After that, I check out the store a few days after the preorder date. That way you know the fresh copies will be in stock. Just make sure you get to the store early so you don't end up waiting in line due to all the stores restricting the number of people inside.

This has really helped me to control my spending plus help me not go outside as much. Instead of my usual bi-weekly look around it's down to like one visit every month.

If you are reading this please remember to try your best to support your local and favorite stores in your community. If you can't go outside try to save up a bit extra to either make the minimum for free shipping online or wait until the manga you want to buy makes that minimum. Lastly, if possible try to order from the stores directly! They need all the support they can get.

Please stay safe, keep up with your manga, and let me know in the comments what are you reading!

Until next time, stay hype!

Tips on How I have Narrowed Down my Physical Manga Collection

Manga. It’s nearly impossible to obtain one absolute favorite and not slowly start to over stack your already strained bookshelves with thousands more. Especially if you are like me and have a Japanese book store within a short transit distance, multiple online shops to buy from and even a shop downtown that sells used and new books, it gets too easy to just buy more Manga and comics in general.

However, due to a blend of having massive amounts of energy to declutter and forcing yourself to contain my collection, I realized I had to figure out how my bookshelves were going to get organized. 

All of these are personal tips that I used to narrow my collection down while I had the time to do so. Please remember that you don’t have to lessen your collection, especially if your collection isn’t putting you in hardship. 

1. Compile everything you have into one space.

You really need to take inventory of everything you have. For me I had manga in two different places because when I moved most of my books were placed in my toy box because it was the sturdiest thing to put them in and the rest that couldn't fit in a large black trash bag. Seeing all of your manga will help you take inventory of what you do have, don't have and might want to update. Make sure you have a large clear space with a mat to place everything on.

2. Break them down by series.

This will make your life easier when placing them back on your shelves in the order you like. Or in alphabetical order based on title or Author. Its all up to you. It really makes everything look put together when you see your collection sectioned by series and not thrown together at random. Besides that this step helps you see which series you didn't keep up with getting more volumes for and what you read but didn't feel like continuing at all. I had several standalone first volumes that I remember reading but just didn't want to continue buying. 

So far so good right?

3. Taking note of missing volumes.

Life gets in the way and you miss a few volumes. Don't worry! For the most part you can get those missing volumes of your favorite series as long as you took note of it and use the internet to find it new and or used. This is also be a big help in not obtaining a copy of a volume you already own.

4. Extra volumes go into the sell pile.

It happened to me twice. I don't know how but I had two of the same volume 6 but somehow I forgot I bought it before! Just saying if you got extra and its still new sell it for regular price if you can. If you don't want to sell it and its a volume 1 you could give it to a close friend. Who knows maybe someone else will like it as much as you do.

5. Keep your favorites, sell the rest and move digitally.

This is where I really had to make hard choices. The manga I was close to finishing and really wanted to keep stayed while I sold the shattered random volumes of other series. You need to remember that you don't need to have every single one of your favorite manga in your physical collection. If you found and or pay for a decent manga app you can have your favorites all on your phone/tablet! However please be mindful of your storage space on your devices. Sometimes it is worth getting a phone with removal storage, large cloud storage or even investing in a large online drive. If it has been difficult to find volumes in stores or ordering them online, it might be best to go digital as long as its updated on the manga site of your choice. 

6. Would you buy this series if a HARDCOVER or COLLECTOR EDITION came out?!

I wanted to bring this up because some older manga will be reprinted in a hardcover or collector edition, like FullMetal Alchemist and Soul Eater for examples. This is a pain because if you already have the full series physically or digitally you need to ask yourself are you willing to get rid of these to obtain the new editions or do you have the money to shell out and the space to hold EVERYTHING. However if you love the series but didn't collect the volumes yet, the hardcover or collector edition is a great opportunity to get them all! 

The FullMetal Alchemist is so pretty in hardcover!

Bonus. Placing rated M and adult manga in a separate space or hidden, especially if you have people visiting your home and you don't want them to see it. Depending on how your shelf space is you might be able to place manga behind the others you organized. My bookshelves are pretty deep with a closed back so once I line all the volumes up I placed the adult manga in the back. If people don't actually go looking at your manga you could get away with placing them within the rest.

Personal example!

The reason why I curated these tips is because I wanted to share my actual experience. It took me two years to really let go of a lot of stuff (clothes, stationery and small items) and I finally got comfortable to do this with my manga. I know there are many people like me that have been collecting for over a decade but couldn't find the heart to condense the collection. It is ok to keep collecting! You don't have to let go, but when you tell yourself everything has to fit in a certain space, which is exactly what I did, you need to make a choice and I hope these tips help you on your journey. 

Thank you for making it this far! Please remember to try and support the official release to keep our favorites going, and I will see you next time. <3

Decluttering the Hoard in 2019

Hello everybody, Tsubaki here with a helpful and informative post on how I have officially decluttered everything! Everything being over hundreds of items that were not being used or were bought as a temporary fix when I was living in a much smaller space that was being shared with other people. Just to put how much space my hoarded items were taking up, it was approximately 70% of a full room in a decent-sized New York City apartment.

Decluttering any amount of items really takes a mindset that will help you evaluate the value of items you have. An example would be selling or donating a sweater you bought and never used because it wasn’t your style but keeping a sweater you use every Fall and Winter because not only do you use it but you can make great outfits with it. However instead of sweaters, it is piles of stuff you ordered from personal shoppers in Japan, Kawaii crates you didn't sort and plushies you bought because you were buying something anyway and it happened to be in the store! I am honest when I say that I am super guilty of buying a lot of unnecessary items and now at the end of 2019, I can say for a fact that I have a clearer head with purchases. 

Obtaining this way of thinking is simple but not easy. The way I came to this realization is by looking and calculating how much all the stuff I bought has put me in debt. After digesting that number I came with the conclusion that in order to have my space and some money back, items need to go. All the items I bought were more towards figures, cute stationery and cute limited collab storage and keychains so I didn’t use Depop but I used the app called Mercari to sell most of those items. I knew I was taking a lost because most of the items were used and not in original packaging but getting something back financially and having space made it worth it. Personally I didn’t use EBay because I didn’t want my items to be auctioned. Also Mercari has an option for you to take the price of shipping out of the amount the buyer paid for the items and they email you a prepaid shipping label. It saved me so much headache plus anybody with a basic printer can ship almost anything! I will link my Mercari code here in case anybody is interested in selling and or buying on there! 

Remember to take you time really sorting your items for selling. Being picky about style, color and even which anime or manga character it is or is on it is completely valid. You want to keep your favorites that make you happy so that you can start a new point in your life with a fresh space.

Now onto how I saved money with packaging for those who want to sell stuff. Everybody that uses Amazon especially Amazon Prime knows that everything you order comes with a decent box depending on the item and packing material to secure the item. I have been using old Amazon boxes and packaging along with packaging from Etsy and smaller sellers to get around buying packing material. Everyone ends up using boxes that were used before to ship items, do this too so you don’t have to give money to a supply store or Postal Office. Just remember to use boxes and packing material that are still in relatively great condition. Which boils down to not using a box that has a clear noticeable hole in it and bubble wrap that has already been popped all the way. A side note is to always try to take off as much of the old label as possible before using the box to ship an item to sell. It makes the fact that you are using an already used box less noticeable. 

Some huge warnings for selling anything. People are always upset if somehow the item isn’t what they expected. Try to make sure your item description is VERY descriptive. So many people will try to get their money back and send it back but in the end you don’t need the items so you hope they are happy once the tracking says they have it. 

If you have sold has much as you possibly could and are still left with a few items that didn’t sell, remember that donating to a local charity is an option. I have actually donated eight bags to GoodWill in December to clear a corner of the room that I used for donation storage. I am very happy to see the floor of that corner again and that those items that are still in good condition will be given or bought by people that need them. 

I am still left with a few items I know will sell so I will still keep selling until I think there is nothing left. I will delete the app I am selling in as soon as I have nothing else to sell because it is a double edged sword. You will get tempted to buy stuff on the app you are selling on which might defeat the reason why you wanted to declutter in the first place. 

This is a current picture of what is left to sell after clearing almost the entire room! This room used to not have a desk and was packed with tons of totes and boxes of stuff that wasn’t being used and you couldn’t see the floor. I need to work I’m getting shelves to have a better place to store everything that is left which is all of our model kits and books. I plan to follow up on this journey with how I decided to track spending, what I have been using to track spending and the budgeting method that has been most beneficial for me. 

I hope we can all start 2020 in a better financial state, better mind set and an otaku on hype! 

September YumeTwins Review, LootAnime Review

Hello everybody! Hope everyone had an awesome September, since this will be posted on the first of October~ But this month we have an extra surprise since I have obtained a Loot Crate Anime box~  Anyway with that let us get started!

September's Yume Twins theme is Fantasy Land! 

The first thing that almost popped out the box is a super fluffy and adorable Mocchiizu plush cushion! There were four different designs but all of them are super cute and make the best cuddly buddy <3

Next is this so handy and always needed in my bag, Kawaii Foldable comb! There were five different designs, two of which were Rilakkuma, one Little Twin Stars and the other two were Sumikko Gurashi. I got the pink Rilakkuma one!

Next is an adorable pair of Totoro chopsticks. There were two different designs and I am happy I got this one even if both are evenly as cute. I love getting chopsticks cause then its like I never have to buy more, plus I have really cute ones to use.

The biggest item that they hyped this box on is this Sumikko Digital watch! Out of all the Yume Twins boxes I have had I never actually remembered getting a digital item so this is very very exciting. It is a random deign out of three but all three designs are super cute. One of the designs is yellow, another is pink and the last is blue. I got the yellow one and I use it everyday now!

Last is one out of five designs of a kawaii kinchaku pouch. Two designs were Sumikko Gurashi, one was Little Twin Stars, another was Cinnamoroll and the last is PomPomPurin. I was so happy to get the PomPomPurin one! I use it all the time for carrying my PS Vita <3 

Overall this is still the best random and mixed kawaii month subscription since they give so much that I actually use on the daily basis. I wonder if they will give more stuff like the digital watch, cause that would be super cool.

Now its time for Loot Crate Anime! Now I mostly don't have Loot Crates besides the Sanrio crate since most of the themes they feature or the Animes they say that will be in the crate, aren't any of my favorites. BUT, this one had some! This is the Work for It! Anime Loot Crate and it features Soul Eater, Gin Tama, Bungo Stray Dogs and Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid!

I love Soul Eater so I will start with that. The Soul Eater item is a volume 1 of the manga with an exclusive raised cover title and art, instead of it being flat like normal manga covers. I like this because I collect only manga series I really love and actually haven't started doing Soul Eater because when I wanted to start it, it was only at like volume 12 and I knew it was gonna keep going. Also it is pretty hard to kind the special covers unless you really search it up or kind it at exclusive events.

Next is a recent favorite of mine, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. It is a jounal with a lovely cover of Tohru's silhouette in a shiny print. This journal is so pretty I hope whatever I will use it for will be worth putting in here!

The Gin Tama item is really cool. It is Gintoki figure and it is very awesome in detail! it also comes with his sword and sheath as accessories to put in his hand.   

Last but not least is Bungo Stray Dogs. This is a pouch based on Kunikida's notebook which is pretty cool cause it might help you keep stuff organized in your bag. 

The awesome extra stuff they pack in here was a cute kitty coffee cup charm and that the back of the item info page is a lovely poster featuring coffee scene. Great of me since all I drink is coffee and tea!  

The only anime in this crate I haven't watched is Bungo Stray Dogs so I will hopefully watch it very soon. Besides that I will try to do more Loot Crate stuff. I just hope they will bring out more stuff that I am very solid about. 

Thank you all for enjoying this review! I also started streaming live reviews of crates over at my stream so please check it out! So until next time! 

It is COLD. Plus Kagerou Days

Hi guys!

I know I should keep updating but I barely have time to with the large work load I have. I am really tired but I am improving bit by bit. 

If you haven't heard, now you know cause Project Mirai is coming to America on 3DS. Gamestop will have it after my birthday which is in May so that will be my gift to myself for making it through another year. I really hope my make a Vicaloid game woth Gumi in it and bring it to the U.S. Feel like I will be waiting for decades for it. I mean I believe there is a Vocaloid game that is out only in Japan with Gumi in it. Once I remember the name I will let you know. 

Also I have really gotten into Kagerou Project and caught up with the scantranslations of Kagerou Daze (Days). Even decided to buy the Anniversary Fanbook which is so awesome. Really happy I got it before they sold out. If tou want to get it and you are in or around New York, search up Kinokuniya Bookstore. Kinokuniya has a lot of stuff even both Japanese and English manga and artbooks.

Hopefully Spring will offically come around here soon because it is very cold. I also want it to be warmer so I could go to Sakura Matsuri and take lots of pictures of the sakura trees and the lovely cosplays. Especially since SpringFestNY isn't happening this year so I got to go to other conventions and festivals. 

 More good news is that I am back on Gaia again! Hopefully this time I will stay on this time. I was on Gaia when I was in middle school but I am glad to be back.  

Also looking into getting a tablet cause my laptop is killing my shoulder. If anybody had suggestions please let ne know!

Until next time!!

Looking back at the summers

HEY THERE~~
Been a week or a few days since I last blogged, so yea. Hi people that read this.
Since another summer is passing by and I still feel like I did nothing at all, I have been thinking about the Summers that I can actually remember. They all have no thing in common. I never really had a full vacation!
Now when I mean vacation I mean going to The Bahamas or some place getting nothing but a tan and fancy dinners. My summers consist of doing extra school work and or working at camp or being in Summer camp and getting arts and crafts and exercise. I know there are probably people thinking that it is good to keep yourself busy, but not against your will. I mean if I didn't have to do something all summer I would have cleaned my whole apartment, learned ten songs in the guitar and still play at least a game a day on League. I would be able to get so much done.
Any who since I only have a few days to actually enjoy my little tiny of Summer I have been trying  to make the most of it. So today I went to Barnes and Nobles out of boredom and I need the walk anyway and took note of the anime magazines I must get and all the volumes I must buy plus the BandN card so I get percentages off and blah. If I had a job I still like the first thing I would get is a credit card and a Band N card cause I want manga. I mean come on, if I continue to study for the rest of my life I should at least get the freedom to buy books.

So much work, not enough freedom

True sadness

It is not just sadness but pure sadness. It is the sadness an otaku gets when they can't go to a convention because apparently I must study until I puke variables and equations.
It is very sad to realize all the conventions I missed this year due to lack of money and school. It is enough to make an otaku cry! T.T
Speaking of school my summer program is almost over, yay! But I still have tests to take....(Aw man~) Hopefully I will live to see another day and catch up on sleep so I wouldn't have to sleep on train rides. And yes I do sleep on the train, I mean what else are you going to do for more than an hour in ne spot. Obviously putting on your headphones and going to sleep is logical. Just make sure you are holding on to your stuff while doing so.
Now I notice that I talk about some pretty depressing things but lets face it everything is. Especially when Haganai volume 4 is out and you didn't start buying the mangas yet! I mean come on Haganai is awesome and funny, you got to love it. Maybe when the six volume comes out I will buy all of them at the same time, hoping that wherever I buy it has all volumes in stock.
I really need sleep. Feel like I might just crash on the floor. Well if I can sleep on the train I guess the floor mustn't be too bad.
UNTIL NEXT TIME~~