Showing posts with label Anime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anime. Show all posts

Sunday, 14 June 2015

A Brief History of Daki




You may have never heard of dakimakura, or maybe a smutty smile has just crossed your face.

To be honest, 6 months ago I'd never heard of them.
 
They're long pillows designed for hugging and are usually adorned with either semi-naked anime girls or lissom anime boys. Sometimes they have other stuff on them but more of that later. Most have an image printed on either side (one usually being more undressed than the other).

They started out innocently enough and in their native Japan they still are used as comfort pillows:

 

 

However, in the mid 1990's Japanese companies identified a potential market for selling anime-themed covers for dakimakuras in order to tap the rapidly growing otaku market.

And so it began...


Here's a selection covering a range of tastes:






 
 
There are also some 'different' daki's as well:
 





 
 
Some people can get a bit carried away with their attachment to their daki. One guy in Korea married his (so it seems, but it may have been a publicity stunt): 
 

  




 
 
There are a huge range of designs, many of them way too pornographic to show here; just Google dakimakura and you'll see what I mean. And just in case you were wondering, no I don't own one!
 
 

 


Update 24 July 2015!

I've just seen this on Crunchyroll and had to add it to the post - it's a 23 foot long Monster Musume daki


More information can be found here:

http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-911419/23ft-long-dakimakura?pg=0

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2015-07-22/monster-musume-23-foot-long-miia-will-slither-into-a-bed-near-you/.90762

http://www.monmusu.jp/news/837/


Credits:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakimakura
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dakimakuras
http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/pure-factory/item/r007423/
http://www.cospa.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cospa
http://www.ebay.com/
https://warosu.org/jp/thread/12224381
http://xaxor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Japanese-Dakimakura-love-pillows1.jpg
http://forums.megatokyo.com/index.php?showtopic=1705225&view=all
http://i.imgur.com/tCKkzpf.jpg
http://ozandcerulli.tumblr.com/post/108236757648/i-got-my-daki-well-actually-its-for-oz-but-hes
http://fampar.livejournal.com/91279.html?thread=603279
http://imgbuddy.com/sebastian-michaelis-full-body-pillow.asp
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/10/01/three-reasons-to-sleep-with-a-huggy-pillow-that-have-nothing-to-do-with-an-anime-crush/
http://metro.co.uk/2010/03/09/man-marries-pillow-154906/
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1035238
https://poweredbysugar.wordpress.com/category/random-rambling/
http://www.himeuta.net/archive/index.php/t-775-p-28.html
http://animeyourway.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/your-level-of-anime-fandom.html
http://store.steampowered.com/news/posts/?feed=kotaku&enddate=1306901699
http://disown.dismagazine.com/products/emma-dakimakura
http://knowyourmeme.com/
http://www.aliexpress.com/
http://www.ebay.com/
 

tags:
#dakimakura
#daki
#hugging
#pillow
#otaku
#echi
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Sunday, 31 May 2015

How does it feel to not exist?

 

At the time I was writing my BJD post a while back I was watching the anime series 'Another'. The series features a creepy doll shop where one of the characters lives. The doll shop popped into my head again a few days ago and I wondered if there were any real ones like the one in Another.


I started by Googling doll shops in Tokyo but not surprisingly, they're far from creepy:


The Asakusabashi area of Tokyo is the place to go if you're looking for traditional Japanese dolls but these shops are mostly modern-styled:

 
(Japan Visitor Blog)
 
 
 
 
 
Not a doll shop, but worth a look is the Hakata Folk Museum featured on the twilightzone518.blogspot:
 
 
 
I'm sure that if a shop like the one in Another actually existed someone would have photographed it and posted it online. However, creepy doll shops do exist but they're not in Japan; they're in Italy. I've found two, one in Rome and the other in Naples:
 
Rome:
l’Ospedale delle Bambole
http://www.raoul-kieffer.net/Ospedale-delle-Bambole
 
 


Check this excellent website for more photos:
 
 
Naples:
l’Ospedale delle Bambole
www.ospedaledellebambole.it
 

 
While I was searching for material I came across a few other noteworthy (if not that creepy) shops from around the world:
 
Storefront of an old doll shop, Galerie Véro Dodat, Paris:
 
 
Doll shop in Sapa, Vietnam:
 
 
Little Faces Doll Shop Gadsden, Alabama (closing in June this year):
 
 
 
In a similar vein you can find info on haunted dolls at this site:


Well. I didn't find the shop from Another but I did find plenty of weird stuff. Have you ever visited a real-life creepy doll shop or know where one exists? If you have, please leave a comment below!


Catch you later!
 





http://www.pa-works.jp/


tags:
#another
#doll
#dolls
#dollshop
#doll shop
#creepy
#spooky
#gothic
#bjd
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Tuesday, 10 March 2015

No matter how I look at it, it's you guys fault I have Selective Mutism


As you may have noticed from previous posts I'm partial to a bit of anime. If you're not into anime you may want to stop reading now; however if you suffer from inexplicable bouts of social anxiety you may wish to continue...

I'm a bit picky about which anime I watch so when I was reading Neo magazine a while back I glossed over Watamote as yet another school anime that I'd have absolutely no interest in. However, Neo featured it again recently so I thought I'd watch one episode online just to see if it was worth it. I'm glad I did as it's very different to anything I've watched before.

If you haven't seen it, it's about Tomoko Kuroki, a 15 year old schoolgirl who, when she enters high school really wants to be popular and live an idealised school life with plenty of friends and hot boys.


Unfortunately she doesn't have the social skills to do this and becomes increasingly bitter, blaming the kids around her for her sorry state. She's virtually unable to initiate a conversation with anyone and even has trouble communicating with her middle school friend (her only friend). Her reality starts to become warped and her life goes from one humiliating disaster to another.


   
Reading the above makes it sound like it's a depressing descent into madness written by the likes of Dostoevsky but its actually a tragi-comedy. The funny bits are actually properly funny not just anime slapstick, but the sad bits will make you want to give Tomoko a hug and try to find a way out for her.

But enough of the preamble and onto the point of this post. When I was home ill recently I listened to BBC Radio 4's programme entitled 'Finding Your Voice' about a medical condition I had never heard of - Selective Mutism.

WIki describes it as follows:

'Selective mutism (SM) is an anxiety disorder in which a person who is normally capable of speech does not speak in specific situations or to specific people. Selective mutism usually co-exists with shyness or social anxiety. Children with selective mutism stay silent even when the consequences of their silence include shame, social ostracism or even punishment'.

Children and adults are affected alike, and with the same symptoms; they fail to speak when expected to in school or work but have no problems at home. There are numerous configurations and levels of severity leading right up to the point where they don't speak to anyone in any situation.

The condition is closely associated with Social Anxiety Disorder. In excess of 97% of children diagnosed with Selective Mutism also suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder. Whilst watching Watamote it's pretty obvious that Tomoko is suffering from SAD and SM.


From various forums I've read, the writer of Watamote was drawing on their own past to create the character. Tomoko has no problem talking to her mother and brother but when talking to her teacher, the kids at school or anyone in public she clams up and can, at best, only utter a few barely audible words. She often doesn't know what to say and her panicking mind grabs at the first thing it can find which inevitably leaves her cripplingly embarrassed.


 
Her social development has suffered as a consequence; she spends most of her time at home playing dating games and develops a warped sense of reality of how to deal with the opposite sex which is only made worse by her raging hormones. Her fantasies begin to encroach on her perceptions of how the world works.




 












OK, so not the most cheerful of posts but I wrote it in case the above describes you and you're trying to find the escape route to the real life you should be enjoying.

SAD and SM are treatable and sufferers are not destined to spiral into hell if they seek help. It's not normal or healthy to be like Tomoko. I'm not dissing people with psychological disorders, I'm just saying that there's a better life out there for some, maybe most people who suffer from anxiety hell. I've been there - I know.



Here are some useful links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_mutism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_anxiety_disorder

Help in the UK:
http://www.smira.org.uk
http://www.ispeak.org.uk
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/selective-mutism/Pages/Introduction.aspx
http://www.anxietyuk.org.uk
https://www.anxietyuk.org.uk/page/selective-mutism

Help in Europe:
http://www.selective-mutism.eu/

Help in the USA:
http://www.selectivemutismfoundation.org
http://www.selectivemutismcenter.org

Help in Australia:
http://www.selectivemutism.com.au/
https://www.facebook.com/SelectiveMutismAustralia

Sorry - I'm afraid I couldn't find any links for South America, Eastern Europe or Asia.


Media links:
http://watamote.jp/
http://watamote.com/
http://watamote.com/english-forum/
http://dubbedanime.net/anime/watamote-english-dubbed
http://www.mangahere.co/manga/its_not_my_fault_that_im_not_popular/
http://www.neomag.co.uk/



 Catch You Later!
 
 

Credits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WataMote
http://www.square-enix.com/
http://alphamoxley95.deviantart.com/
http://hqwallbase.com
https://animeladies.wordpress.com/
http://www.superamiches.com
http://www.bleachasylum.com/archive/index.php/t-1588-p-3.html
http://sand-rae.deviantart.com/




Tags:
#No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys' Fault I’m Not Popular!
#私がモテないのはどう考えてもお前らが悪い!
#Watashi ga Motenai no wa dō Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!?
#watamote
#ワタモテ?
#tomoko kuroki
#selective mutism
#sm
#social anxiety disorder
#sad
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