Remilia Posts

The way SMJ's system works is you either send the money via Paypal with a note including the invoices you're paying (so if I had an invoice for $180 with the $0 invoice too, I could have included a note with $180 paying both of those invoices), but I didn't have any other invoices to pay at the time, so I couldn't have sent $0 obviously. Or I could have authorized a credit card payment by sending them an email, but I actually did have another invoice or two up that I wasn't ready to pay at the time (due to lack of funds) and I didn't want to put it on my credit card; usually they're pretty good about charging only what you want them to charge, but one time they charged two invoices when I only requested that they charge one, and this caused me to go over my credit limit. That's only happened once, but I've used Paypal 99% of the time since then.

Kobun's invoice will be a a lot easier to handle once they fix it. It looks like they just tacked on an extra zero ($120ish versus $1200ish), but it's still painful when you have a ton of orders that are all 12k yen. T_T

Man, so many covers coming out with so little money. D: I really like the pen Nanoha and Fate covers and Evening Call is offering 1500 experience if you order them during this short period (I expect like all other event covers that they'll do a longer order period, probably in January.) And there are a ton of other good things coming out... I'm just flat broke; monthly AmiAmi invoice just came in yesterday and I'm running behind on some SMJ invoices. :(

My best "slightly scary but mostly funny" moment with SMJ was when my account was suspended over a $0.00 invoice. Some of you may remember a few months back when they didn't include some bath posters I had ordered into a shipment and they said they had. They found them a few days later and shipped them to me for free, but I guess since their system is mostly automated, they also sent me an invoice for the $0.00. I didn't think it was a big deal and thought it was pretty amusing, so I just let it go (I didn't have any invoices due at this time so I didn't send them any money that probably would have taken care of this invoice too.) Every Saturday, which is when they send all of their account notices, I'd get the overdue invoice message. Finally, after the three 14 day windows that they give you to pay an invoice (with late fees each cycle), I got an email saying my account was suspended because my account was overdue by $0.00. I panicked a bit but shot them an email and it was fixed within the hour.

Here's some links for you:

http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=320757 (need account if you don't already have one)

http://blog.xn--er-573a1isbf1441e2hs87j.jp/?s=%E3%83%9A%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%83%88%E5%A8%98

https://twitter.com/paintmusume

It's worth noting that since it's censored in the link I provided, the anatomy on the link you provided could be a good bit different from what the bootlegger has; she's can be pretty explicit at times. That isn't necessarily the case, but I can't say since I don't own that particular cover of hers (as beautiful as the art is, I'm not a fan of short hair.) I think Zengar owns it though, so if he does I'm sure he'd be willing to provide pictures (if he hasn't already done so in this th read.)

Yeah, like I said man, bootlegs can compare to the legit products, but it's usually in the details. Without looking too hard, this can be seen if you compare the legit/bootleg of the cover you like; the bootlegs colors are very dull and the little accessories and such are lacking much detail at all (the potion bottles and feather on the legit have a very unique shine to them.) In the end, it's up to you if you're willing to spend that much on a cover, but I'm obviously of the opinion that if I'm going to drop $80+ I'd want the best product available.

Materials are very complicated. In general, these are the basics:

2-way tricot (2WT) - This is generally considered to be the best material, regardless of manufacturer. Very smooth, generally great color/print, stretches a good bit.

2-way roika (2WR) - Often almost exactly the same as 2WT, but can have some variations depending on the manufacturer.

Smooth Knit - Usually only smooth going in one direction, this material is pretty similar to 2WT/2WR in other respects, but pretty much considered a downgrade.

Peach Skin - Used (almost) exclusively by bootleggers. This is obviously the material you're most familiar with, so I won't go too far into the details on it. In my experience, the print/color quality on 2WT is much better. This is a material that a lot of people seem to be fine with, but I personally don't care for it much.

Then there are some different ones that you'll run into less often:

SK Suede - This is only made by the manufacturer P80. It shares many traits with peach skin (it's designed to be a budget material), but has excellent color/print at the cost of a little softness.

Polyester Twill/etc - I'm not familiar at all with these materials to be honest, but you'll see a lot of companies (Cospa) offer this as the low priced material option.

The other bootlegger materials - Rayon, Velvet, etc..


Then come the manufacturers: 2WT is generally pretty similar between manufacturers but they do have some differences so you could rate them differently. If I were to do a list based on my personal material preferences it would probably go like this:

P80 2WR
Seiren Pearl Roika
A&J 2WT
(P80 2WT is my favorite material in terms of comfort, but it has fairly poor image quality, so I'm not ranking it... regardless, it would probably be in the top 3.)
Other 2WT
Smooth Knit
SK Suede/Peach skin

I think most people usually rate A&J's 2WT as the best, but I could be wrong there.

Not to sound like a broken record here, but if you haven't ordered that cover yet, I'd highly recommend you'd look for a legit version of it. That cover was done by one of my absolute favorite artists (Paint Musume) and she has absolutely beautiful artwork; one of the very first covers I purchased was done by her. The sample you posted looks really dull in comparison to the sample image the circle has posted on their site. You can find that here: http://kyounetsu.blog110.fc2.com/blog-entry-118.html

If it's a cover you think you'll like more than others, it's definitely one I'd highly recommend trying a legit 2WT/2WR out with.

Ah, I see. Hobby Heart is generally considered a "reputable" bootlegger, as far as bootleggers go, I guess. Their quality seems to be pretty high as far as bootlegs go. I don't have any experience with the other site you mentioned as far as product quality goes, but I have a personal problem with their business practices. They spam promote their website on sites like Figure.fm, MFC, and Reddit. You're the first person I know who has actually ordered from them, but they have multiple accounts on the sites I mentioned to post fake reviews for them. It became a bit personal after I banned them from the Dakimakura subreddit for the spam promotion and then they took the username I use on Reddit and started promoting their site on Figure.fm with it. Hope it works out for you, but I can't help but be a little peeved whenever that site is mentioned. :P

That Nymph cover is from Dakemakura: http://www.dakemakura.com/456_shousai.html

I have a few other cushions done by the same circle and one or two others done by different circles, and they're all similar. It's just for whatever reason companies like to have massive logos and such, I guess.

The second link being the Pixiv link? It works, but you need to sign up for an account to view it. So I'll just rehost them both.

http://imgur.com/a/uJytL

The issue of materials can be very complicated. The general pecking order would be 2WT/2WR -> Smooth Knit -> Peach Skin. However, that isn't absolute. Some people really like the feel of peach skin or smooth knit and don't necessarily care for 2WT (I've only met one person that didn't like 2WT and maybe two or three that would rate a different material above it.)

Another very important thing to consider is the manufacturer. I'm assuming you ordered the peach skin, rayon, and 2WT from the same bootlegger. You might end up liking their peach skin more than the 2WT, but that isn't necessarily representative of all 2WT. Once again, generally speaking, 2WT -> peach skin but the same principle of ranking applies to manufacturers. In fact, I'd think even more so, which is why legit covers are usually worth the price. A quality 2WT material (A&J, Seiren, P80's 2WR) will be vastly superior to the quality of a bootlegger's 2WT.

Bootleg covers can have fairly good quality in terms of color and print, but from my experience in seeing a ton of sample comparisons for bootleg and legit products, it's usually in the details that they lose out. I actually just came across a pretty good example of the differences the other day:

Bootleg: http://auctions.c.yimg.jp/img313.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/users/8/7/0/1/fryfishsky-img444x600-13525012707p1kmn37916.jpg

Legit:
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=big&illust_id=26996588

Now, I personally think it's the red kimono that makes the cover but others might disagree. Even then, if you look hard enough you can see quite a few differences when it boils down to the details (shading, facial expression, boob shape, fluids, and so on.)

So depending on how you feel about the material, I'd say the $40 -> $80 jump is almost definitely worth it, but the $80 -> $150 jump is worth it to many as well (a lot of people in this thread actually started with bootlegs and moved to the legit goods with time.)

Which Nymph did you get and how much did it run you, if you don't mind me asking? :o

Yeah, that's probably some good advice on the stuffing, especially for those who can't find a body pillow in the right size for their covers (since almost all covers are 160x50 these days and the biggest pillow I've seen in a store was 130x50.)

The cushion link was a bit iffy for me too. If you right click the broken image and then copy/paste the link, that should work. I did it earlier when it wasn't showing up for me: the first time I got a forbidden message, but I hit enter again and it showed up without a problem. If you still can't see it let me know and I'll upload it elsewhere.

Yeah, it's just something they started early this year (January/February), and they've been great about it. They have a cool user system that rewards frequent shoppers (though you really have to spend a lot to benefit much from it) and their customer service is pretty exceptional. Registering for the website can be a bit of a pain, but I've written a guide for it a few times; whenever you're ready to order something just let me know and I'll dig it up.

Man, I really love pen's artwork, but I wish he'd vary his positions a bit. His art is absolutely fantastic, and I'd buy every single one of his covers if I had the money, but the front/front style of his is starting to wear on me. :(

I'd imagine it would largely depend on the quality of the pillow you use with your case. If you use an uncomfortable body pillow, the cover probably won't do much to aid in your sleep. A few people in thread swear by the higher end dakimakura pillows, made by A&J and some other companies, but they'll run you 7-9k yen plus a pretty hefty shipping charge. Despite my willingness to spend more on the cover, I'm personally too cheap to buy one of these pillows myself.

With that said, the cover definitely does aid in sleeping even without a super expensive pillow to go with it. It definitely depends on the material of the cover you go with; there are a lot to choose from and I always tell people who are just getting into the hobby that materials are probably the most complicated/confusing aspect of it. People will have different opinions of the different materials/manufacturers, but as a general observation is that people prefer 2WT/2WR over the other materials. If you have a quality 2WT cover, it feels great against the skin and I absolutely think it helps me fall asleep when I use a cover on my pillow.


Honestly, I have never purchased a cushion cover through AmiAmi, so I'm not really able to answer that question. The ones you find there are probably not going to be comparable to a 2WT dakimakura cover; the size of most of them seem to be 45x45, which is a bit smaller than the typical 50cm width of a dakimakura cover (most are 160x50 these days.) They probably have a few that are larger than that, and they may even have some that are 2WT (cotton won't compare to 2WT at all) but for the most part, the cushion covers AmiAmi stocks are going to be a world of difference from dakimakura covers.

Some circles do occasionally do cushion covers, though. I have a fairly small one that I think is 30x30 or so, and I probably wouldn't buy it again, honestly. It's 2WR and the art is fantastic, but it's much too small for me to do much of anything with. On the other hand, a few circles have experimented with much larger cushion sizes (90x90) and those are great. But they're usually similarly priced to a typical dakimakura cover, so for the purposes of your question, the point is moot.

I will say the thing I typically like most about dakimakura covers is the immersion; most of the space is taken up by the character while there might be a sheet in the background or something. Circle covers tend to make great use of this space, while company covers (what you'd buy at AmiAmi) can be hit or miss. My very first cover was from Hobby Search and the company that did it made terrible use of the space; the character looked so tiny on the cover, as she had a ton of background surrounding her. I received two circle covers shortly after that, and they made much better use of the space. This may seem off topic, but it's important because that appears to be the main difference with most cushion covers; a lot of them have stuff going on in the available space other than the character - a lot of the cushions I look at have massive logos and other things that detract from the character.

Since everything is better with pictures, here's a link to the first three covers I purchased (sorry for the shitty host - it was the only host I knew at the time that allowed adult images.) I'm sure you can guess which one is a company cover and which are circle covers:

http://www.imagefap.com/pictures/2233384/dakimakura

And then here's a shot of a 90x90 cushion that I own:





You definitely can't go wrong with Evening Call. I've been following them since they first started (about three years now) and their work has always been fantastic. It got even better because it was earlier this year that they started shipping internationally; before you had to use a proxy service (added cost) to order from them, and their covers were still absolutely worth it. I've actually talked to quite a few people who wanted to get into dakimakura covers but didn't know where to start. In the handful of people I've talked to, I'd say about 90% of them started with Evening Call. They just have a fantastic selection to choose from and their art is beautiful.

Nope, looks like the site doesn't allow hot linking. Might want to try hosting elsewhere, I guess.

That's absolutely understandable, to start out with. If you find one you like on AmiAmi, be wary of material types; most circles only use one material type (2WT) but a lot of producers on AmiAmi will offer several material options. I personally wouldn't recommend buying anything but 2-way tricot (2WT) or 2-way roika (2WR) if it's offered, though sometimes that won't be an option. Smooth Knit is an acceptable material, but 2WT/2WR is usually considered the superior choice. It's just something to keep in mind when browsing AmiAmi, because companies like Cospa often offer 2-3 material types and they may not even offer a 2WT/R option.

It's kind of unfortunate for people who like the tamer side of things. Most circle covers have at least some nudity, and I'd almost always consider a circle cover to be superior to a company cover, in terms of quality. Sorry if I'm confusing you with all this; the hobby can be pretty complicated to explain at a times. :P

It's still a hobby I keep fairly to myself because I know a lot of people would have a hard time understanding it, but I don't enjoy it any less because of the stigma. It's my personal opinion that people are free to do whatever it is that makes them happy, as long as it isn't intruding on the rights of other people. I hope I'd get the same respect as long as I'm not forcing my hobby onto others, but people will always be afraid of what they see as deviant.

No worries, man. I'm always happy to help. If you ever have any questions, feel free to shoot me a PM or post in the thread. :D If you do decide to buy one or find one you're interested in, also feel free to link it to me and I'd be happy to tell you what I know about the circle, material, artist, and so on. If you do decide to buy a cover, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy mine. ^^

Yeah, the anime subculture definitely has a whole range of subsets. It is fairly unfortunate that dakimakura covers are mostly looked down upon, even by fans of anime/hentai; there was a dakimakura thread in the Random section a few years back and a lot of the responses were very inflammatory and mean-spirited. But we've managed to carve a spot out here that's fairly accepting. As I mentioned, we get the occasional troll popping in to spout their nonsense, but for the most part we get people such as yourself popping in to ask questions about the hobby.

Dakimakura covers are a lot more complex than you'd think, and unfortunately, bootlegs are very prominent. Whenever someone is interested in starting the hobby, I always try to caution them to avoid bootlegs; generally speaking, the quality of bootlegs is far inferior to the quality of a legit cover. Unfortunately, the majority of the people who just search for dakimakura covers without any previous knowledge will likely run into bootlegs; most of the legit covers are available on sites that are only in Japanese whereas bootlegs are available with a simple Google search. The other barrier to entry is the price. Legit dakimakura covers are very expensive, and you can expect to pay between $150-200 for one. That deters a lot of people and may even drive some to try bootlegs (which are generally much cheaper), but I always try to tell people that it's money well invested if you really want to get a feel for the hobby.


With that said, there are a bunch of different sites I could recommend. It would probably be easier to get a feel for what you're interested in though; if you name a particular character or series, I'd be more than happy to let you know what's available. And what's your tolerance for nudity? There are some covers that are on the tamer/ecchi side, but there are also a very large number that are quite explicit. I don't want to suggest sites that offer the later if that would make you uncomfortable.

I'd be more than happy to look up specific characters if you have any in mind, but if you just want to browse a bit on your own, here are some sites I'd recommend (all are NSFW):

AmiAmi - Good selection of what we call "company" covers. These are products that are officially licensed by the IP holder. As such, unless the property is an eroge/hentai, they're likely to be ecchi at best. The quality of these can vary a lot depending on the company. I'd recommend Takumi Makura (original characters), Lilith, CranCrown/Black, and a few others. I generally try to avoid Cospa/Chara-Ani, but that's a personal preference.

The following are some circles that are willing to ship internationally. All but Dakemakura have limited preorder windows, so unfortunately some of the items listed may not be in stock at any given time. If you find a particular item on the sites below, let me know and I could tell you if it's still available or if not, search to see if it's available at another source (Mandarake, for example.)


Evening Call - A personal favorite of mine.

Black and White Store

Dakemakura - Massive selection.

Bon Cool- Be sure to enable the English option in the top right hand corner.

Nah, you're not rude at all, man. You come in not understanding something and genuinely want to learn about it; we get the occasional "troll" in this thread condemning our collection choices as if it represents who we are. You genuinely want to understand the appeal of dakimakura covers, and I respect that.

With that said, it's fairly hard to answer some of your questions. I was definitely similar to you before I started collecting them. I didn't think I'd ever buy one, much less own anywhere near the number I own now. I decided to try it out as a novelty, as money wasn't a problem at the time, and I was genuinely curious about the appeal of such things. I can't really explain what happened after that; my very first cover was a bit of a disappointment in terms of quality and I didn't really see anything special in it. But I had ordered a few others around the same time, because I really liked the artwork featured on all three and couldn't decide on just one (and like I said, money wasn't a problem at the time.)

Once I received the other two, my opinion changed entirely; I received them maybe a month later than my first one, because the first was ordered from Hobby Search while the other two were purchased through a proxy service, which required more processing/shipping time. The quality of the two new pieces just absolutely blew me away. To me, they were works of art and it just sparked something inside of me that led to me wanting to collect more. If I had only ordered the first one, I likely wouldn't have ordered any more after that. Part of me wonders where I'd be if I hadn't started collecting dakimakura covers hardcore, as one can't deny that they are absurdly expensive, but I don't really regret it; I have a unique hobby that I really enjoy. It may not be a hobby that I can talk about with many other people, but I do have other hobbies that have a more social element to them.

The motivations you hear for collecting them will definitely differ from person to person, but I definitely belong to the collecting aspect of it; I've always enjoyed collecting things, whether it was video games, trading cards, or even pogs way back in the day. The majority of my covers (99%) are opened up when I first received them but quickly packaged back up and stored in a place where I can access them easily but where they don't get dusty. The other 1% are those that I put on a pillow or use as a tapestry. While there are absolutely some people who use their cases for a "specific" purpose, I'm not one of them. I won't deny that sleeping with an erotically posed anime character can be arousing, but it's honestly more of a comfort thing; the materials a lot of these cases use are extremely soft and comforting, and it really can be a lot more comfortable than sleeping with a traditional cotton pillowcase.

There are some characters I like more than others, and if I like the art I'm more inclined to buy it if it's a character I know, but I don't really participate in the whole "waifu" culture myself. Most of the covers I buy these days are more to loyalty to the artists I like more than anything; I'm probably more likely to buy a cover of a character I don't know from my favorite circle than I am to buy a cover of a character I really like from a circle I don't know/like.


If you have any more specific questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them to the best of my ability, but it can be tough to pinpoint exactly why I enjoy this hobby as much as I do.

There are dakimakura covers for just about any character you can imagine. They aren't officially licensed, because obviously KyoAni (or whoever owns the K-On franchise) isn't going to put out some 18+ dakimakura covers. There have been a few licensed K-On covers, but they're far tamer in what they display. The majority of dakimakura covers discussed/posted in this thread are thanks to Japan's doujinshi scene; most of these dakimakura covers were done by fans and sold at comic events/online.

Yeah, it was a really random find but I'm really happy I came across it. They provide an excellent amount of detail in the photographs in an easily browsed manner; definitely hope they continue with the dakimakura reviews. Also, I can now point people to their NoReal posting when people ask about the differences betweeen P80 2WT and 2WR. It's really nice to have a bunch of detailed shots of both for the same cover. ^_^

Haven't posted here in a few days, but don't really have anything productive to add. So instead, here's a promising review site I just came across a bit ago: http://erogespace.com/tag/%E6%8A%B1%E3%81%8D%E6%9E%95/

We can get off topic a lot of the time, but if we see a question, we're usually more than happy to help. It has always been a few posters, though. Sometimes we'll get a random person coming in and asking a question/contributing, but these days there are maybe 6-7 active posters total and the thread has been moving slow pretty lately.

Well, you have to factor in that I really, really hate peach skin. Even to those that are deadset on buying a bootleg versus a legit cover, I never recommend peach skin. I wouldn't recommend Rayon, either. Generally speaking, the people who like peachskin are those that haven't tried a 2WT cover; there are a few people I talk to who don't mind it or even like it, but I don't think one of them would take it over 2WT. Of those that collect legit 2WT covers, I don't think you'd find many who would recommend peach skin.

Not sure how much of a response you'll get here from people who don't post in the dakimakura thread, so I'm not sure why you didn't ask it there. :o I guess we aren't too friendly when it comes to bootlegs, but I'm always happy to answer questions if I can.

The main reason I don't buy bootlegs is because I'm against bootleggers, but I do have some experience with them. Quality is definitely another reason, though. I don't care for peach skin myself, and that's probably the secondary reason I don't buy bootlegs; if I'm going to pay $80 for a bootleg 2WT cover, I'm willing to wait and pick it up for $130. But that's not answering your question.

Simply put, Rayon sucks. I purchased cover years ago from YJA and later found out the the material was Rayon (legit oddly enough - the cover was sold exclusively at an event by the circle, and in the Rayon material.) It's rough, doesn't stretch, has okay image quality. I'd probably rate it above peach skin, because I'm really not a fan of it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Ah yeah, that makes sense. I'm sure Ask wouldn't require (close one!) the buyers to pay until they were sure they were going to do a production run. I don't know if they've ever had a case where they didn't meet the 30 minimum, but I'd imagine it would be a pain in the ass if they had to refund the money to everyone that ordered it when they didn't meet the minimum order number.