My Anime Collection

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:04:05 GMT

It has been more than a decade since I declared myself a member of the anime fandom. Though I can never be at par with the hard core otakus who can boast of a myriad of collections, I can say I am proud to have somehow managed to squeeze in my 'then' allowance and 'now' salary, these paraphernalia.

It will always be my dream (as well as my sister's and friend ginapyon) to have a collection worthy of recognition -- shelves upon shelves of manga, mags, DVDs, action figures, etc (original, of course). And somehow, bit by bit, I am on the path to reach that goal.

DVDs. My video collection at present consists of merely bootlegs or burned (downloaded) fan-sub series. Except for thee Vision of Escaflowne DVD Collection which was on sale in Rightstuf last year. My uncle who's residing in US gladly made the purchase for me. Hopefully, in the near future I get to acquire more titles!

Manga. Liking anime has led me to reading manga. Before, I used to update myself with summaries and translations as our internet connection then was so slow (read: Dial-Up). My first ever manga is Fruits Basket (Natsuki Takaya) by Tokyopop which currently has 23 volumes plus one Special Volume. I am proud to say that I managed (and still managing) to keep up with the releases, though sometimes it is a pain having to follow-up with the manga shop where I always get my copy. I am now missing volumes 20 and 21. The thing is they only stock up to 2 copies, and they can' reserve one for me since I am not their valued client. Sometimes I have to go all the way to Megamall to buy a copy. Although now, it's nice that many bookstores are stocking up mangas which has made them more accessible. To add to our collection are: Candidate for Goddess (Y. Sugizaki) vol 1 and 2 which we bought from CCHQ during their clearance sale. It sad that they had to close down. The good part of it was that most of their products were 50% off, so we got the mangas for only Php300. We also acquired Chobits vol 2 (CLAMP; bilingual version) which was supposed to be for my sister's friend. Lately, my focus has been on buying mangas eg, Ouran Host Club (Hatori Bisco; vol 1, 3 5 and 7), xxxHolic, and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles (CLAMP). But for some reason, I stopped buying them.

Going to Singapore has introduced to me my favorite bookstore -- Kinokuniya. It is located at Ngee Ann City (Takashimaya) along Orchard Road. Since Singapore has its own local publisher for mangas (in Chinese and English) called Chuang Yi,I am able to buy their versions at a cheaper price. I find Chuang Yi versions better in terms of paper quality although they are slimmer than the US counterparts. As of date, I have the Blood+ series along with the Blood+ oneshot, City of Night Walkers. Becuase of my fascination with Natsuki Takaya, I also grabbed her other works such as the one shot Because You Smile When I Sing. Next is one of my favorite manga title to date is The Girl Who Leapt Through Time which chronicles the story of a girl named Makoto Konna who managed to go back in time and somehow face its consequence. It is a very funny and touching movie and story.

Action Figures. One of the best gift I have received ever for my birthday was Belldandy Action Figure (Ah! My Goddess) from my brother. He bought it for only Php250--call it a best buy!!! Belldandy was accompanied later by Sanji (One Piece) and Soujirou (Rurouni Kenshin). I got Kakashi and Gaara (Naruto) from toy vendo machine during the ToyCon last June 2007. I also received a gift from my cousin for Christmas -- a Edward Elrich action figure from Full Metal Alchemist! I added another - Riza Hawkeye with a small Black Hayate to boot! I also bought from Divisoria a set of Prince of Tennis chibi figures for only Php 300.00. It consists of 6 small figures including Tezuka, Fuji and of course, Echizen Ryoma.

Magazines. I used to buy NewType USA, but the it got too expensive that I had to stop or just settle with the back issues when they are on 'sale'. Booksale also sells Anime Insider back issues so whenever I visit the shop I try to scavenge every issue they have. Though, lately I can't seem to find any. One time I got Bleach TCG starter set as a freeby (Lucky!)

OSTs. I only have SonMay OSTs of the following: Lovers Only CD (Vision of Escaflowne), Vision of Escaflowne OST 1 cassette, Gensomaden Saiyuki Best Collection cassette, You're Under Arrest Best Collection CD. I am not really into music but I do appreciate OSTs hence the nature of my small collection. Nowadays, i just download anime theme songs from the net and load it to my cellphone or just save it in our laptop.

Misc. We have Mokona (white; Tsubasa), Poring (Ragnarok) and Mirmoplushies. Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist keychain sets don my bags. I also have Iruka-sensei (Naruto) keychain which binds all my keys. This was given by koolmarti-senpai! Though I had to say farewell to Kyon and Rukia which I lost during a trip in Singapore *cries*. Keychain is one of the things I like to buy maybe becuase they're cute and their inexpensive!!! Lastly, I have tons of posters which are mostly free from the magazines. I don't put them up in the walls of our room anymore so they just accumulate dust inside my closet. Many of them I have given to other otakus or to my brother if they feel like decorating their room w/ Slam Dunk and HunterxHunter!

Indeed, the stuffs I have accumulated through the years are still few. But there's still time! I just need to work hard and save A LOT!!! And hopefully I will be able to expand it before I get too old for anime. As for now, I just have to be content with what I have (and drool over the collections of others especially those featured in Shelf-Life!)

EDIT: Some pics uploaded... hopefully more to come...
EDIT 2: Some additional information added.

Ciao!

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 12:15:04 GMT

It's official, I am now a member of LJ -- not to share my thoughts to others but because of a 'more' selfish reason actually, hehehehe...

Since I have started with this, might as well continue, right? Might as well let other people have a peek in my chaotic, charred mind...

It's 28 July 2007, 8:09 PM here in my place marking the start.. I just don't know when I will be back.

Ciao!

Chaotic, charred mind

My Anime Collection

Ciao!