Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts

As usual, I find myself heading to the anime hub after my Japanese class. It’s now a reflex action.

What!Comics has moved out of KKnM, into its own store area just across the aisle. It has also expanded its PVC figurine repetoire extensively, focusing on 1/8, 1/6 PVC and cold cast figurines. There are also a lot of anime action figures, both Japanese and American issue. The pricing is much better than Latendo, so those looking for larger PVCs can head there.

An interesting point to note is KKnM’s now massive store area. I wonder what they intend to do with it. I really should’ve asked, but hopefully they’ll expand their range of merchandise. As of now, they are the probably the best suppliers of small anime goods like pencil boards, folders, badges and handphone straps. It’ll be great if they could have an upgraded CD/DVD section and even art books. Kinokuniya is way too expensive for these. Btw, I saw a decent Aria pencil board. And last week, I lost my Nobue badge. My wallet has the badges of the five Ichigo Mashimaro girls on it, which always attracts stares from both friends and strangers. What’s a guy doing with badges of little girls n’ strawberries on his wallet? But anyway, the Nobue one dropped off and went missing. Fuck.

The new stocks at Latendo aren’t anything to rave about. There was the new Mai Otome gashapon, and the new Negima 1/8 PVCs. Namely, Asuna and Konoka. The Asuna one is really bad. But Konoka’s has a diorama and it was very tempting. Al Azif was there too, but mine is already in a cargo plane. I got the chance to examine her though, and she has light green pantsu.

Decent, but gashapon isn’t my thing. Wait for the trading figures.

It’s a nice figurine and the hat is removable. The railing is metallic too. The more I write about this, the higher the chance I’ll end up buying it.


One legged poses = tilt after time, especially for an already leaning figurine. The legs tend to bend from the weight. The real figurine looks only half as good as this picture.

Hey, I saw this girl at Latendo, who seemed to be carrying a baby at first sight. But I noticed the “baby” had blond hair and a tiny head, so I went closer… it was a doll! She was holding her approx. 40 cm tall doll the proper way, as explained by Shinku from Rozen Maiden. Amazing, I was tempted to ask her if she brought her doll everywhere, but decided against it. I overhead the girl saying, “I can’t buy these figures, they’ll eat into my doll fund!” Girl you are cool. Keep it up.

Items obtained:

1. 20th Century Boys vol 20
2. Dear Boys Act II vol 21
3. Harlem Beat vol 12
4. Samurai Deeper Kyo vol 36 (why do I buy books I don’t read?)
5. School Rumble vol 11 (my second copy. I had a Japanese one already.)
6. Inuyasha vol 43

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