Dakimakuras anyone?

After watching Denpa...I wish I would have bought that Marks Erio myself. ( ;_;)

I have several sets of doubles - don't buy them too often though. The exceptions being: the Harthnir Milkpot covers, Evening Call C81 Touhou cover, Evening Call Rachel Alucard cover, and the Kirari Kira☆Kira cover.

Also, it looks like SMJ is running a promotion for the month of August: 50%-OFF service fees on all shop orders. You can see more on their front page or here: http://shoppingmalljapan.com/augustsale.html

Too bad it isn't 50%-off commission of all/any type. I probably won't even partake in this, but thought I'd share for those who have yet to see it or don't frequent SMJ often. ;)

First, it is nice covers coming out, and now, it is a SMJ promotion. Just wow... -_- Nice find, Kobun!

Well, bootleg or not, it doesn't feel like bootleg. The quality of the art is excellent and it's very high-quality--very easy to act as a hugging pillow with good support.

Now, I'm well aware that there's only a select few covers, anywhere, in the USA, that are available at decent prices. But there's only a few, and all the others are stuck international, making them exceptionally expensive and difficult to even get.

I have to say, I'm actually enjoying it a lot. It's easy to get comfortable and fall asleep with it. The art is very soothing, and the fabric is soft and thick. I think I caught that bug when they start to become personified; I didn't realize how quickly that would catch, especially because, well...I honestly know very little about anime and manga in general--it's not really a hobby for me. But it's not like I mind, especially because it appears to be helping me sleep more easily.

This requires further experimentation, and also analysis so I can find out why it has such a potent effect on me when I never expected it to.

That Medaka is nice... if only they did a Kikaijima. She's the star of the show. :P

I actually don't think your case if a bootleg myself. It looks like one of those cases that was licensed and possibly created for a US audience; there's no way the average fan outside of Japan would pay the type of money that they command in Japan. But at the same time, they really can't sell the same product outside of Japan for $50 while charging ~$140 in Japan (even though that's exactly what happens to a lesser extent with video games and anime.) So to bypass that problem, it would make sense to create some cheaper cases with the foreign market in mind. I was actually able to find your case at Right Stuf for $30, with a ton of other cases that I've never seen available in the Japanese market. All of it appears to be licensed by one company, and uses various promotional artwork from a variety of properties.

So unless the Amazon seller you purchased your case from was untrustworthy, your case isn't a bootleg. With that said, if you're pleased with your case and think you'd like to learn more/go deeper into the hobby, I'd highly recommend finding a good circle cover that you like. The overall quality of a good circle cover compared to the average Japanese company cover (obviously can't speak for American goods, but I'd imagine the average Japanese cover to be superior to an American one) is a fairly large leap in quality.

The downside is definitely price; for a good circle cover, you could probably expect to pay $130-180 if you manage to preorder it in time and don't have to buy it on the secondhand market. That's definitely a large jump from what you paid for yours, but it's probably a worthwhile investment if you find some art you really like, especially considering the way you described your night with Asuka. If you're interested, I'd be more than happy to help you find a cover that you like as well as explain the typical ordering process and such. While it absolutely requires a bit more work than ordering from Amazon, the process isn't that difficult at all.

(combined quotes are getting way too long, starting new one)

Yeah, sure, I'd welcome your advice. I mean, I don't make a ton of money every month with my current fresh-out-of-college job and its pitiful spending money after all my expenses take practically all of it, so I can't always indulge, but if one really catches my eye, I'd save up for it, no problem. It seems like it would be a genuinely practical investment, given the effect it has on how well I can wake up if I get an emergency call that I have to immediately get up and respond to at 6 AM--the nature of my job is basically emergency response work when it comes to business network infrastructures along with consulting work, so it's almost impossible for me to keep a consistent sleep schedule, considering my tendency toward restless sleep.

I can imagine myself adding this as what would be my most expensive but satisfying hobby, so, yeah, helpful tips would be sincerely appreciated.

I guess the most important thing to consider is how erotic/NSFW you're willing to go. The majority of circle covers (think like doujinshi circles, but for dakimakura covers) tend to be on the NSFW side, at varying levels of explicitness. Unfortunately, if you want a vanilla case without any nudity/fan service, there aren't many options. But if you don't mind that, or even prefer it, then you have thousands of options available to you.

Very few people in this thread have purchased a cover similar to the one you have; while it is an officially licensed cover and not a bootleg as was suggested, we pretty much focus on the Japanese scene entirely. So you can pretty much safely assume that whatever we're discussing in here is relevant to the Japanese industry.

There are three basic categories when it comes to covers in the industry:

1. Company covers - These are the types of covers that are officially licensed in Japan, featuring art from anime/video game properties. As they're officially licensed, unless the source material is an eroge or some such, you're usually going to get ecchi at best. The exception to this is "circles" like TakumiMakura that create original characters and thus can do whatever they like with the them. For the broad sake of definition, a "company" cover is any cover you can purchase on a site like AmiAmi or Hobby Search. They've improved over the last year or two (largely thanks to Takumi Makura and some of the Lilith/eroge covers), but in general you can expect the quality to be a bit less than that of a circle cover, which I'll cover next. As the art is official, it usually is done by the artists that actually worked on the series, so this is a big plus if you like your art to stay close to the characters in their property... but as you mentioned you're not really big into anime, I don't think this will necessarily be a sticking point for you. On one last note, they tend to be a bit cheaper than circle cover and you can usually order them without much hassle, as AmiAmi/Hobby Search both ship internationally.

2. Circle covers - I'd say the majority of what you'll see in this thread is regarding circle covers. If you've ever browsed the Fakku front page, you know what doujinshi are; basically fan art/stories. Dakimakura covers aren't really any different. Circles draw covers based on their favorite characters and sell them. Technically isn't legal, but it's accepted in Japan. The great thing about these covers is that there are probably hundreds of different circles, each with their own unique style. If you find a particular artist/circle you like, you can follow their works as they span across different characters/series. It obviously varies depending on the circle, but the artists usually put a lot of love into their creations and the quality is oftentimes much better than what you can expect from a mass produced company cover. There are a few fairly big downsides to circle covers, though: they're usually a bit more expensive, and on top of that, very few circles are willing to deal with international customers. That can be worked around with a proxy, which I can explain a bit later if you find something you like.

3. Bootlegs - This one should be fairly obvious. They basically just rip shit from company and circle covers alike and try to pass off the work as their own. The reason Zengar probably assumed your cover was a bootleg to begin with is because 99% of the stuff you'd find on English sites such as eBay are bootlegs. They're very prominent in the very small English based community and even then they're pretty common on Japanese sites, as well. If you really get into this hobby, you'll learn how to spot them pretty easily, but the easiest thing to look for is the material the item is made of; if the cover is made of a material called "peachskin" it's almost guaranteed to be a bootleg.

Now that you have a basic rundown of the different covers available, it's time to introduce you to the blog. It's basically a site that lists all of the upcoming covers, where they'll be sold, how much they'll cost, what material they're made of, and so on. It's an incredibly useful tool, either for searching for old covers/characters (via the search bar in the top right) or just browsing to see what's coming out. Unfortunately, it's in Japanese and can be a bit tough to navigate at first, but with a bit of practice and time, it honestly isn't hard to figure out. I'd highly recommend using Google Chrome for the autotranslate feature it has.

http://blog.xn--er-573a1isbf1441e2hs87j.jp/

I mentioned a proxy before for buying circle covers, but luckily some of the very best circles are willing to deal with international customers. If you want to check them out, you can view a post I made a few weeks ago on the subject (all sites are NSFW):

https://www.fakku.net/viewtopic.php?p=3248446#3248446

If there are any particular characters you have a fondness for, I'd be happy to look around for you and see what might be available. Or if you have any other questions feel free to either PM me or ask a question here.

This hobby is definitely expensive if you get into it; it's also incredibly addictive. But it's a whole lot of fun and I wouldn't have it any other way (well it would be nice if the covers were cheaper :3.)

You should post that reddit link of yours as well. I was talking to someone on figure.fm on my recent post, and I provided them that link since it is pretty damn thorough.

Oh yeah, and this is what I received in the mail today.


Akane from the VN, Houkago Eroge Bu, by Moonstone Cherry. The purchase also included a VERY hot visual art book as well, so I'm very happy customer!

Leave it to Shas for those long ass in-depth explanations.:)
Anyway, what's the cover like? The book looks good though.

Alright, cool, thank you. I love learning new stuff like this. I suppose the clear NSFW hentai covers might be more popular, but it's not much my taste. Ecchi is okay, and I'm not in it for sexual interest, but like I said before, just something that's cute and relatively simple. The Asuka one I posted is actually an excellent frame of reference for what I think my preference is. Nudity isn't necessary, just cuteness with good fabric quality. If that expands my options, great.

To tell you the truth, company covers sound like what I'd be looking for, unless the quality difference is really significant compared to circle covers. For instance, the Francesca Lucchini and Sanya Litvyak ones I've seen that are most common are very likely company covers I've seen. They look identical to their anime counterparts with some ecchi mixed in. That's cool, too, and the accuracy of the art to its source material is a significant factor. I'm going to have to research this on my own a little more.

It's getting really late, so I'll have to get back to you on your PM later. Thanks, again. I've still got my eye on that Francesca one at the moment, but I'm sure there's an ocean I haven't seen yet.

this nigga likes the soft covers lol i'm the complete opposite.. i collect exclusively ero/explicit covers =D but i guess the daki industry is big enough to cater to all types of collectors. i think it has grown in the past few years and the jp are making madd money overseas cuz many perverts 'round these parts. lol

Yeah, circle covers are mostly ero, but there are ecchi covers every now and again. It's worth keeping an eye out on circles anyway, because you never know when a tamer cover might pop up.

I would say that circle covers absolutely blow away any Cospa, Chara-Ani, and other big companies in terms of overall quality. Unfortunately for you, those are the covers that tend to use the tamer images. Some company covers, like Takumi Makura's products are usually borderline ecchi/ero; they'll have some exposed flesh, but never reveal the nether areas explicitly. Their quality is actually really good, but if you wanted to avoid NSFW images you're probably out luck. It really boils down to finding artists you like, I guess; if you can handle NSFW images, then I'd recommend buying a NSFW cover from an artist you like over a Cospa cover from an artist you don't. You'll just have to get a feel for things; browse AmiAmi and the blog, and you'll be able to get an idea for what you like in no time.



Going off topic, but as I never explicitly posted them here, here's two guides I wrote on Reddit a few months back:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Dakimakuras/comments/sox17/guide_to_finding_dakimakura_covers/

http://www.reddit.com/r/Dakimakuras/comments/swamb/a_guide_to_buying_dakimakura_covers/

It wasn't that long!

Well, to be honest with you, I haven't opened it yet. I'm anxious, but I'm still waiting for some of my SMJ stuff to be updated. There is one cover that is late July release but there hasn't been an update for it yet. I have four items that are currently stored in the US right now, just waiting for its other friends to come along.

Weird question, I guess, but after removing the cover from its original packaging, can you guys actually fold it back to the way it was?

After many years of practice (okay - a minute or two of paying attention as I carefully unfold them), yes I can fold them back to how they originally were. However, different companies tend to fold them in slightly different ways so it may be tough to fold it back if you don't check how it was done while initially unfolding it.

A&J ones are probably the easiest to refold, just turn the entire cover over so that the "front" side is facing down. Then look up near the top, there should be a fold there maybe an inch or two from the top, fold that (exact position varies depending on where the face is located on the front). If you want to put the cardboard back in too, tuck it in under that fold, and center it (based on where you see the creases from the side-folds). Then you basically find the big fold which should now be exactly midway between the (folded) top and bottom. (Note: sometimes the first fold at the top should be on top of this second fold, rather than under it). Fold on that, then you fold in the two sides so they meet roughly in the middle (sometimes they don't quite meet, or overlap, again depending on the face in front). Then you again fold along the midway from the top to bottom (if you have the card inside, this should be a fold along the bottom edge of it), flip it all over, done!

Most of you already saw it, but: Dakimakura Collection part 40

Also, @SATsurupettan on twitter is looking for a buyer for this cover if anyone is interested

Anko's new picture on Twitter is of Aoi Kimi from Horizon in the Middle of Nowehre. If that ends up being their cover at Comiket, I will buy that shit in a heartbeat no matter the cost.

And I still suck at the folding. :(

WORD!!!

If it's Kimi, I'm getting my usual 2 copies.

I use the most half fuck way of folding, basically I just keep folding them into halves and fold them into a square at the end. I dun have the time to fold over 500 covers nicely.

If I'm not folding back to the original form, I tend to just do lots (3) of horizontal folds in half.. I don't like how a big vertical crease down the middle looks when hanging dakimakura for display so I try to avoid any vertical folds. The horizontal ones aren't as noticeable (and I guess gravity helps with negating them slightly too). If you're using a pillow filling it shouldn't much matter though how you folded it as the pillow (if appropriately sized) should stretch out and hide any creases anyway.

Damn... I got three covers to carefully look at, as I unfold them. >.> Thanks for the explanation, Willow!

A lot of Kimi fans, I see. I like Tomo; bi-colored eyes ftw! The Tres Espana Queen, Juana, is pretty damn hot to!

Well, my list of favs from the show is pretty long. I also like Futayo, Heidi, Horizon and Tomo as well just to name a few.
England's Elizabeth and the new blond with a scar on her face as of recent got added to the list.

Folding covers back up to match their original folding/packaging pattern is a royal pain in the ass. I can do it for most, but some can feel like walking blind through a labyrinth of vaguely discernible creases. You'll get so close to having it fit, and you'll swear that is how it was originally folded before you pulled it out of the package, but nope...back to the starting line to try another method. Sometimes, if you're lucky it's the easy fold in 2/3 segments, flip each side in to meet on the back and fold it 1 or two more times. I'm sure that most of you know what I'm talking about. ;)

Damn, there have been quite a few covers pop up on the blog over the last...what, 12 hours?!
Curse you, C82-exclusives!!! ( -____-)