Category Archives: General

Kawaii Box July 2015

What came in the July Kawaii box? This is my second to last box, since I have a 3 month subscription. I do so enjoy the messages on the cards, this one promises that the contents of the box “are as cute as you.” Well, we’ll see now, won’t we?

20150823_164931

These were the items I was most excited about, a toast coaster and a keychain with cute alpacas on it that matches the bag charm from last month.

kawaiiboxjune2015toastcoasteralpacakeychain

The toast coaster is one of those perfect things to get in a random subscription box, because I didn’t realize that toast coasters existed. I have also been meaning to bring in a coaster for my desk at work, so it will be practical too! Also, I just want to have the excuse to say to people, “Check out this toast coaster!” TOAST COASTER!

The alpaca keychain matches perfectly with the bag charm from last month, and who doesn’t sometimes need a new keychain? It is super cute.

Here are a couple things I was less excited about, candy and pencils.

candypencils

The candy was from the same company that was included in last month’s box, and the candy consisted of slightly chalky tasting links that were a bit harder in consistency than gummy candy, yet still somewhat gummy, if that makes sense. It was not that great.

Also cute pencils. I feel like I will have enough pencils to last for quite some time now.

There usually seems to be something absolutely surreal and ridiculous in these boxes, with the smiling pink poop pencil sharpener serving in that category last month, this month there is a doughnut pocket mirror. There was a pastel bracelet I will save for the next time I’m in the presence of tiny girl who likes bracelets. The sprinkles on the pocket mirror seem like they would wear off pretty easily if you actually threw it into a handbag.

Also, there is a plush mushroom with a somewhat tortured expression, which I find amusing. I enjoy erasers with weird shapes, so I did like the cupcake eraser.

doughnutmirrormushroom

I can really take or leave glitter glue, but this looks like a good set, if I did want to glue glitter to anything. I really enjoy the sticker set, which features cute pandas with bizarre facial expressions.

glitterstickers

I was also happy to see this Rilakkuma post-it set, it is a little book of post-its that unfolds accordion style with a bunch of different shaped post-its. Super handy!

rilakkumapostits

Overall, I still think that a yearly subscription would result in someone getting too much plastic stuff, but a three month subscription or just buying a random box now and then is a nice treat, especially if you live hundreds of miles away from a good Japanese import shop.

Kawaii Box June 2015 Review

I’ve been curious about subscription boxes, but I hadn’t found one that I thought I’d enjoy. I can’t subscribe to the boxes where one gets sent a random assortment of makeup and beauty products, because I tend to be overly sensitive to fragrance, and I figured those boxes are likely to have perfume samples and lotions that I would never be able to use. While I like the idea of yarn clubs, I have a crazy amount of yarn, and am also picky about the color of yarn I like to buy, so that also doesn’t seem like a good fit for me. When I realized that there was a box subscription that sent you random cute things from Japan and Korea, I thought that might be the box for me, simply because there are not a ton of store options to buy random cute things where I live. My sisters got me a 3 month subscription to Kawaii Box for my birthday!

So now, I will review the contents of the June box, exactly as a blogger does when they have no other blog content ideas than to post the contents of a subscription box.

20150722_184507

I like the way the card that came with the box listing every item says “Thank you for being so cute!”

Here’s what it looked like when I opened the box:

20150722_184522

This is what was in the box:

20150722_184552

A pink alpaca bag charm, tiny pillbox, and an eraser in the shape of smiling pink poop. I was particularly taken with the alpaca bag charm, and I put it on my knitting bag immediately. Many of the ladies in my knitting group have the same Sherpani tote bag for their knitting (because that is how we roll), and the bag charm will make it easy to pick out my bag in the crowd.

I use a larger version of the pink pillbox for knitting stitch markers and things, but I could see this mini one being handy for pills, or other teeny tiny supplies. The pink poop pencil sharpener is hilarious, I am not sure yet how well it sharpens anything.

20150722_184628

On the squishy side of things, there is a kawaii bean mini plush, and a squishy chocolate strawberry charm, both of which have a little strap you could use to attach them to a cell phone or whatever.

20150722_184648

There’s a mini sushi to plug into a headphone jack! Also a purple Hello Kitty mechanical pencil which is very nice.

20150722_184745

On the stationary side of things, there’s a blue pencil, pen, eraser, and sharpener set, some cute animal sticky notes, and some puffy stickers.

20150722_184705

There is also a “bling bling” Korean nail art set that I’m going to send to my little sister who enjoys nail art, and a Kracie Bubble Jelly Candy thing I will make with my kids.

Overall, I thought this was a good mix of items ranging from squishy things to cute office supplies. I could see how someone might have way too many bag charms if they got a yearly subscription, but I was quite happy with this random selection of cute stuff. My favorite item is probably the alpaca bag charm.

Some housekeeping notes

I’ve decided to shut MangaViews down. It didn’t get the type of support it needed to continue, and it was too much for me to try to keep up with the data entry on my own, although there were several people who helped. I really appreciate the efforts of everybody who pitched in to start it up. It didn’t seem like there was enough interest to keep it going. I probably am trying to maintain too many sites as it is, and with work and everything I’m not even able to update what I consider to be my core blogs as much as I’d like.

Amethyst Tumblr is still going strong! Starting that tumblr is helping me restore the images on all the Amethyst recaps on this blog (I accidentally overwrote the archived images when a wordpress update went horribly wrong). So far, there are images up for the first mini-series and about half of the second mini-series. Slowly but surely!

After being loyal to libarything for a long time, I’ve switched over to goodreads just because it seems like an easier tool to keep track of my current reading habits.

No More Malware

Apologies if you tried to visit this site and found it listed as an attack site. The malicious code was removed, and everything seems to be working fine now.

Tokyopop Manga Pilot Program Links

Here’s a little link round-up of some of the reactions to the Tokyopop Manga Pilot Program. A couple of these may make their way over to When Fangirls Attack, but since the internet seemed to break in half for a couple people the last time I posted multiple times in a row I’m probably not going to do another WFA manga post for a couple of days. So this is for future reference:


The Dual Nature of Tokyopop

“Manga Pilot Agreement”
Tokyopop’s Manga Pilot Pact
Zudacomics v. Tokyopop: Round 3!
Tokyopop Manga Pilots Backlash
Tokyopop May or May Not Possibly Eat Babies
TOKYOPOP Pilot Program Rips Off, Talks Down To Artists
Justice is Still Important
Warning: Tokyo Pop Really likes to Screw over Creators
What? You dun want to sell your soul to Tokyopop? What are you? French?
Tune in Tokyo… Pop

Tokyopop’s Manga Pilot Pact Signs Away Legal Rights
HURT COMICS: TokyoP0p: I’m buying Tom Spurgeon a Drink
May. 29th, 2008

Boys Over Flowers, Before and After

One of the things I like about following long-running manga series is seeing how the art evolves over time. I think one of the best examples of this is the shoujo classic Boys Over Flowers. Here are some scans from the first volume, where Tsukushi makes an impression on Tsukasa by kicking him in the face:

kick in the face

Continue reading