Collection Post - 3-9-2017
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| The B2 wall scroll that was a purchase bonus for the Zettai Karen Children Blu-ray Box on Amazon. |
This wall, above my bed, has a whole culmination of things. The corkboards hold smaller pieces,but the obvious eye-catchers are the posters and the scarf-like cloths of Andy and Hyoubu, all from The Unlimited. The poster with the key art for the series, on the far left, came bundled with The Unlimited Archive book. The Break Through poster was a purchase bonus for the first release of the CD, one of two.
The cleaner cloths, featuring Shiina-drawn art of The Children in their middle and high school uniforms, were prizes in a Shonen Sunday lottery, I believe. The clear file was, I believe, an event exclusive, though I can't be sure.
These pictures were bonuses that came with various first press volumes of Zettai Karen Children for purchase. I acquired these secondhand.
The second corkboard here has some postcards--the one of Minamoto and The Children is from a Shonen Sunday bonus around the time of the anime's airing; it came with two others and some iron-on decals. The postcard of The Children and Karen Guys came with the special edition of volume 26.
The PANDRA and BABEL cards came with the special editions of volumes 28 and 29, and are meant to be dioramas for the Colorful Collection straps of Kyosuke and Kaoru. I'm not sure of the origin of the bromide of The Children in their winter uniforms. The bookmark in the lower left is from Volume 30, and the two bookmarks of The Children and the Karen Guys are from separate issues of Shonen Sunday.
The straps of the Karen Guys are from the special edition of volume 33. The Children are from 32. The strap of Andy and Kyosuke is a doujinshi good; I'm not sure who made it, however.
My closet door has more goods from The Unlimited; two cleaner cloths that were for standard sale and a mini tapestry that was a purchase bonus when you bought all of the volumes of The Unlimited from animate. The framed postcard of Minamoto is also an animate exclusive; it was distributed in a Shonen Sunday promotion for White Day, 2014.
On the wall opposite my bed, there isn't much display space, but I do have these--the buttons from the Takashi Shiina exhibition, and the button of The Children from the Shonen Sunday cafe in Akihabara this past summer. I also have a bonus postcard of Kaoru from Volume 29, the New Years lottery postcards from this past year, and Sakaki's coaster from his first character CD.
Beneath that is a very tiny tapestry of some of my favorite art! I believe this was an event item as well.
Various other framed goods; these include a magnet sheet that came as a volume bonus, another postcard from the Shonen Sunday iron-on set, a clear file that was the bonus for volume 31, and two animate exclusive postcards of Andy and Hyoubu for The Unlimited's blu-ray box set.
In the back are three cards that Takashi Shiina drew of The Children for a Sengoku-based card game; they're depicting the three daughters of Oichi and Nagamasa Azai.
A couple more of the more unusual goods I have; at the top is a charm set that I believe was a pre-order bonus for the Nintendo DS game. At the bottom is a BABEL pass case made by Movic; I can't find any more information on it than that.
My CD collection; I have all of the character CDs for The Unlimited, the opening, ending, OST, and "Break Through" and "Ambitious" CDs. I have two of the Ambitious CD--the first copy I bought didn't have the slip case or the bromide cards, so I had to buy another.
I also have all eight of the original character song CDs from Zettai Karen Children. I have all of the ending CDs, including four copies of Break+Your+Destiny (for the same reason as Ambitious; I wanted that bonus!). I have the OSTs, and one of the drama CDs, but none of the openings yet. The Starring Collection is also here.
I have the Nintendo DS game, but I haven't played it yet. It looks cute, though!
Beneath that is the entire collection of my ZKC volumes.
In a display off to the side, I have my volumes of The Unlimited, as well as the Blu-ray box sets, the English release of The Unlmited, and the Unlimited Archive.
On the shelf with the Blu-Rays, I also keep my Limiter Pin and another Animate bonus for The Unlimited; it's a notebook that opens Kyosuke's gakuran and undershirt a little further with each page.
On the door of my cabinet are some clear files and clear bookmarks, all bonuses from various volumes.
Underneath the cabinet are the special edition bonuses for various volumes. 21 was a DVD that promoted the OVA; 26 and 34 are both audio dramas.
These are the various other items I keep around my desk. The three straps of The Children are meant to be able to clean your phone's screen from fingerprints. The Yuugiri PuniPuni pillow holds my spare buttons of her and Gilliam.
This mug, made by Cospa, is perfect for holding all of my pens and desk tools. I couldn't fathom drinking from it...
And last but not least, my most important items; a cushion and the two body pillowcases for Andy and Hyoubu. The Andy one was very difficult to find, but I'm happy that I found him!
That's my whole collection as of now; I've got more things coming, and I'm happy about that. It's a really good feeling, to be able to put so much of my love into one series, and to surround myself with it. Seeing all of this makes me happy, every single day, and I can only hope that I continue to be so lucky, to be able to find more and more of what I love!
Buying Zettai Karen Children Overseas
Some readers of the Zettai Translation Project scanlations have shown an interest in supporting the mangaka and purchasing the series in its multiple formats overseas, as it has not been published in English. I've put together this guide to enable the Western fans of the series to purchase the volumes on their own!
Note: This guide is written from a United States buyer perspective. I can not provide guidance with things like customs fees or any taxation that your country may offer.
So, without further ado, let's jump in!
ANIME:
The anime series, which ran for 52 episodes, a "special," and an OVA, was never dubbed in English, though it has been published in English, under the title Psychic Squad. This series, released only on DVD, was put into four "collections," purchasable on Amazon.com:
- Psychic Squad Collection 1
- Psychic Squad Collection 2
- Psychic Squad Collection 3
- Psychic Squad Collection 4
These DVDs, which contain English subtitles, do not include the OVA.
In the Japanese market, a Blu-Ray Box was released; Amazon Japan will allow overseas purchasers to buy it with a credit card, the same way as you would normally, with their special Global shipping. There are two options for purchasing this:
The Blu-ray Box on its own is wonderful, and contains all of the episodes plus the OVA. If you're willing to pay more, you can even get a lovely B2-sized wall scroll of the box's cover art. However, these higher definition episodes lack English subtitles.
In the case of The Unlimited - Hyoubu Kyosuke, the series was, again, not dubbed. However, the US market was given a blu-ray option this time as well:
Which contains English subtitles. There is also a DVD option, as seen in the listing.
The Blu-ray Box for this series is also wonderful, and contains a CD which has extra character songs that were only released initially with the special editions of the DVDs. There was a special edition released of this as well, however it was only purchasable through a proxy, as it was an Animate exclusive, and it is no longer available.
Buying the manga is a bit more difficult: there is no English equivalent. Some volumes can be purchased through third-party sellers on the US Amazon, but not all of them. The volumes can also be purchased from the Japanese Amazon, and they are covered under their global shipping as well!
*Note: Not all of the volumes seem to be in stock as of the writing of this list. Please keep checking back to find the ones you want!
I also highly recommend Kinokuniya, a Japanese-based bookseller with locations in the United States, to try and find some volumes as well, if Amazon Japan doesn't have what you need.
SPECIAL EDITIONS:
Many volumes of the manga also have "Special Editions," which are more expensive runs of the same volume that have extra bonuses, such as supplemental specials, straps, pins, postcards, and occasionally drama CDs. These special editions are easy to obtain if you pre-order them initially from Amazon Japan; however, if you are looking for older ones, you will have to search the aftermarket, which is a subject I will go further into in another post.
It's easy to tell which is the special edition of a volume: it will cost more!!
Next time, I'll talk about buying CDs, individual DVDs, and other media!
Bonus - Cell Phone Wallpapers
I made two cell phone wallpapers with recent colorings of mine. Feel free to use them or to ask for a different size.
The wallpapers are 1440 x 2560.
Coloring - Happy Birthday
Merch - The Unlimited Posters
Recently, after doing some shopping on the secondhand store Suruga-ya, I found some really good deals for items that seemed to be limited in availability. Namely, posters and a tapestry.
The first of these is an A3 sized tapestry featuring art of Sakaki, Minamoto, Hyoubu, and Hinomiya, from The Unlimited. As I understand it, this tapestry was given out as a purchase bonus to those who bought every single limited edition volume of the Blu-ray/DVD for The Unlimited through Animate. For some reason, the tapestry has two strings on it--I'm not sure why that is. Other tapestries I've purchased have only come with one.
This poster, B2 in size, was a promotional bonus for the character album Break Through, released for The Unlimited. It is one of two posters that could be obtained; I'm not sure if one could willingly choose which poster they got or if they were random.
(Also pictured: Animate store bonus postcards for The Unlimited Blu-Ray Box Set and a magnet sheet that came with the limited edition volume 36)
This is the second of the two posters for Break Through, featuring art by Shiina this time. This one is also B2 in size.
This poster wasn't one in my last package, but one I've had a while; it was included as a purchase bonus with The Unlimited Archive. I'm not sure about the size, exactly: it's smaller than the B2 posters but bigger than the A3 tapestry.
