I’ve got a backlog of figures to photograph, but I ran out of plaster cloth, so figure reviews are going to have to wait for a bit. In the meantime, let’s look at this pillowcase. Featured here is Ikkitousen’s it-girl Kanu Uncho on what is, to my knowledge, her fourth dakimakura. This one comes from Ensky, whom I’ve never heard of, and seems to have been exclusive to Hobby Search.
There are two versions of this dakimakura, a more expensive version that seems to be made of presumably-stretchy tricot material, and a cheaper version that is not. I’ve got the cheap one here and the material is indeed not all that stretchy; getting the pillow into the pillowcase took a bit of time, as is usual for these things.
I’ve not seen the original illustrations anywhere other than on Hobby Search’s site. I wonder if larger images will show up somewhere.
Thematically, this dakimakura has some similarities to this older pillowcase. That dakimakura shows Kanu looking a bit peeved, while this one presents her as rather shy.
I’m not sure what material this dakimakura is made of; Hobby Search’s item listing just says “smooth knit,” and true to their word, it does feel quite smooth and soft. I’m not sure if that’s due to the material itself or its thinness; it feels a bit wispier than my other pillowcases. One other thing I noticed is that this pillowcase doesn’t have the creases that my other pillowcases had.
Of course, the main attraction for any dakimakura are the images. On one side Kanu is shown in her midriff-baring Seito school uniform, while the other side has Kanu basically unclad.
The print quality is pretty good; it’s quite sharp, the colors look nice although it looks to me like they turned the contrast control up a bit too much. It could just be me, though.
I’ve got the feeling that this side will be much more popular than the reverse.
I guess there’s not a lot more to say about this dakimakura; it’s Kanu, it’s a pillowcase, everyone knows who Kanu is and everyone knows what a pillowcase feels like. Not much more to it than that.
(Edit: it seems that the following pillow listed on RightStuf is in fact a different item than a regular dakimakura case, as it is listed as being 13.5 x 42 inches in size, which is slightly smaller than a typical dakimakura. I’m going to leave my following comments here so that my cluelessness can be viewed for posterity.)
I did notice a bit of an odd thing while looking through the RightStuf catalog: they’ve got this Yoko dakimakura listed for $30. It’s the same one I reviewed, except I paid a hundred bucks to get mine from Hobby Search. How strange is that? I didn’t even know Great Eastern brought pillowcases over here.
I dream to obtain one of those pillowcases one day, but not with Kanu, although it wonderfully draw. Beside i prefer her drawn then the figure.
But it also seems to me strange that it’s that cheap on RightStuff website…. because Dakimakura are usually expensive.
I don’t mind being considered as a perverted mind :p I am !
I’ve always loved drawing from Ikku although i never watched it (yeah i know lol).
I don’t know if i would buy something like that one day but it’s very attractive.
I would use both side, uniform is as much attractive then nudity to me.
>> Lylibellule
They’re fun to own XD Very impractical though, especially if you don’t have a lot of room.
I dunno why the Yoko dakimakura is so cheap, but Great Eastern is an official distributor for a bunch of anime goods so I’m hoping that they bring over more pillowcases.
>> Katsura-chan
Indeed! There is nothing wrong with being a pervert. In fact, part of the mission statement for this blog is to express perversion.
I like the uniform side too; Kanu sure does fill out a sailor suit nicely.
Meh Kanu…Gimme Mou-chan or Sonsaku and Im happy ^^
Im still waiting for my replacement Dakimakura body >.<
That sucks >.< i'm thinking about putting Itsuki back on mine. Ikkitousen's kinda like Queen's Blade in that it almost needs a spin-off series just to highlight some of the secondary characters. I want to see more merchandising love for Bashoku and Roshuku and Kakouen Myousai (incidentally, Kanu and Myousai would make a great pairing. Forget that clueless bespectacled bibliophile, Kanu and Myousai together would be pure electricity.)
I want a Kanu dakimakura!! yea! but …im afraid..i will have to clean it every day,… my dream+kanu+the sexy side = Fluids hahahjak =) you know……. jakjakjakjak
Saludos
Atte.
Marcucho
HAha, yeah, I’m not sure how safe it is to run a dakimakura through the washing machine. I move it onto a chair when I go to sleep so that it doesn’t get drool on it or something.
saw the yoko pillow on rightstuf like you said and was wondering if you knew whether it came with a pillow or just the case. When I asked rightstuf they said it was for the pillow itself…so does that mean its like a prestuffed pillow that you can’t take the case off of?
Hmm … I went to Great Eastern’s website and took the item number and punched it into Google and got an Amazon listing. This retailer lists its size as 13.5 x 42 inches, which is smaller than a standard dakimakura (which usually is around 20 x 60 inches). That is most curious, since I don’t recall ever seeing such a product on Hobby Search or Amiami. It seems like this is a different product so it might very well just be a pillow without a removable case.
I guess I’ll have to edit my post since I don’t want to mislead anyone. Sorry about that.
it’s ok yeah I just got an email back from rightstuf
Hello Chris,
Yes, the design is on the pillow itself, it does not have a cover or pillowcase.
Sincerely,
Lisa B.
so yeah apparently it’s just a pillow with the same design on it