Dakimakuras anyone?

So when we refer to smooth knit, those are also the "smooth" versions of what Cospa releases?

Yes, though there's still some variation between smooth knits from different manufacturers too. The only way to really know what a material is like is to already have a dakimakura from that manufacturer of that type before hand. Though if you have any smooth knit or any 2way tricot or whatever else, you'll have a good impression of what one with the same material type is likely to be similar to.

Well I have a 2 way from Hobby Heart and its a mess so now I'm scared of 2 ways :(

I'm sure they aren't all bad

Don'tbe afraid of a authentic 2 way tricot, Hobby heart produces bootlegs and their quality of their material will be bad in general .

Official 2 way tricots and roicots are of very high quality, they will not get stretched under normal circumstances unless you yourself pull very hard on it.

I can vouch for that because I own over 300 odd 2WT and 2WR covers and everything is fine.

SMooth knits have almost very little or no different variation between companies because it's a 100% polyester(It's not a blend mad eof other materials).

However to my knowledge( I own several of their smooth knits), cospa uses a different variant of smooth knit which feels completely different from other companies and it's surprinsgly extremely durable and resistive to accidental scratches.

I don't buy cospa Dakis as of late because how poor the print normally is.

Just repeating what everyone else has said already, but Smooth Knit isn't a bad material. I'd definitely prefer 2WT/R to it, but if a cover is only available in Smooth Knit, I wouldn't mind it. As mentioned, it's generally a bit thinner than 2W versions and not as smooth.

2WT/R are definitely the best materials available at the moment. All covers will wear with time, but I'd say that it was probably because it was a bootleg that yours deteriorated so quickly. 2W is definitely more susceptible to catching on things, but even then it's generally fairly durable.

I'd agree with Zengar on the Cospa point; my first dakimakura was a Cospa cover and then I received two circle covers shortly after. I continued to buy Cospa covers for awhile, but the quality of circle covers is superior. Kinda on this note, I found the very first pictures of my dakimakura covers that I uploaded; according to the date I uploaded them, I've been collecting dakimakura covers since about March/April of 2010.

http://www.imagefap.com/pictures/2233384/dakimakura?pgid=&gid=2233384&page=0&view=0

There's only one shot that directly compares the covers, and it's really poor quality. Cover on the left is a Cospa Smooth Knit, middle is by NoReal and it looks like they use P80 2WT just going by the texture of the cover, and the one on the right is by 紫源亭 and is 2WT (probably Seiren, but I'm not sure.)

It's interesting to note that the Mio done by 紫源亭 is one of my favorite covers, and the artist responsible also did the Sora I posted on the last page, and she's also responsible for the 3P cover that we're all waiting for.


Edit: Just looked it up and NoReal does use P80 and the material 紫源亭 used isn't listed.

Actually that's a Chara-hai cover not a cospa one Shashin. They actually have their smooth knit done by A&J, it feels a fair bit thicker than Cospa's smooth knit though not the same as 2WT ofc.

Ah, fair enough. That's what I get for not double checking. Either way, I was very disappointed with the quality of it for my first dakimakura cover. The proportions and such just seemed really off and the actual art/image used seemed pretty rough/undetailed. Had I not ordered the other two covers at around the same time (and received them a few days later), I probably wouldn't have continued dakimakura collecting.

I REALLLYYYY like that Mio cover! Is it still possible to find it? Assuming I would have to search the auction. Thanks for the images they help a lot.

It's definitely one of my favorite covers. I'll look around a bit for you and see if I can get the best price. In all likelihood, you'd have to buy it from auction, but who knows. My very first copy was from auction and I think I paid like 18k for it; then a few months later they resold it and I was able to get it for 14700 (the retail.) I'll update this post after I've looked around for it a bit.



Edit:

It appears to be in stock on D-Stage:
http://d-stage.com/shop/detail.php?seq=9864

I'd suggest using Yokatta, as they have a great commission rate for web orders.

Conversely, should it not be in stock, YJA has one listing for 19k buyout. But I'd recommend trying D-Stage first.

Oh man that is one expensive cover with the proxy service :(

It actually is a bit higher priced than normal covers, but standard circle covers seem to sell in the 12k-13k range, with a good amount falling below that in the 10-11k range and a few going above the 13k mark. I'd definitely say that it's worth the 14k price point, but as you're just getting into legit covers, I can definitely see how the price can be discouraging.

These days I don't even really think about buying a cover if it's less than 20k, but when I dug up that link I posted above, I also found a couple of posts I had made where I was very upset about paying 13k for that Little Busters cover.

Haha ya it's like going from paying my 70$ bootleg into wanting legit ones which cost up to 3 times as much. I definitely think that cover is amazing and well worth the price, was just hoping it would be around the 12k mark. Yen seems to become stronger and stronger :(

The yen rate is very painful; when I first started buying covers it was around 90, and SMJ only did -3 (they do -5 now.) So covers have gotten even more expensive in that sense. I'm definitely glad I've started preordering more covers, versus buying them on YJA (obviously doesn't apply to event exclusives) and compared to a year ago, us foreigners actually have quite a few options for buying directly from the circle without a proxy (BonCool, B&W Store, Evening Call soon I hope, Dakemakura.) It's still a really expensive hobby, and I guess the price is something that either numbs you in the end or forces you out of it.

Had someone told me a year and a half ago, back when I first started collecting covers, that I'd consistently pay $300+ for one cover, I would have said that was crazy. But here I am. >_>

Just a quick question, I'm getting a pillow made, and this site says "Remember the insert should be 2" bigger than the cover size so that it fills out the corners". So with 160x50cm covers, I should be trying for like roughly 165x55cm pillow? I don't want to seem dumb but I want to double confirm with you guys, seeing as I'm not sure as this applies to a dakimakura cover.

Honestly, I couldn't say; I have maybe 100-200 dakimakura covers but only a single pillow that doesn't even have a cover on it.

I'd think it would depend on the materials, though. If the cover is Smooth Knit or 2W, it has a decent amount of stretch to it, so it might be a bit more snug with a bigger pillow. BluRay has also measured a few of his covers and found that they were a bit longer than the official stats, so you might want to measure yours.

I actually have one dakimura that I won in a contest for ar tonelico 2 i think. I just used the cover as a wallpaper and the long pillow just kinda goes on the side of the bed in case i fall off LOL.

I'm using 3 160 x 50 pillows . And to be honest is gonna fit your covers snuggly.
Mark's has ridiculous 170 x 50 cm sizes daki as of late including My Sena. But my 160 x 50 pillow still has it fit in nicely without the corners bending .
If you want you could probably just go for a 162 x 52 pillow.


Mugi is 160 while Charlotte and Sena are 170(No idea why)


It's a decent fit, isn't it?

I'm new to collecting dakimakura and slowly trying to build my collection. I just took a bunch of photos and you can view them on Flickr. My favourite is Saeko, as not only is she my favourite character, but the detail is superb.

I have a Soniko on order and she'll be my 8th. Plan to get many more. :)

The Saeko is definitely a nice one. As she's your favorite character, you might be interested to know that there's currently a cover of her available for preorder on both Mandarake (Japan only, sadly) and Toranoana; you'd unfortunately have to use a proxy, but it might be worth it if you like the art. He's personally one of my favorite artists when it comes to dakimakura covers, so I'll probably pick it up myself.

The artist's site is here:

http://cakemoon.blog74.fc2.com/

And here's the Mandarake page:

https://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/ja/item_s-820999.html

Too bad, there's so much blood stains that it's off putting for me.