Guilty Crown is often compared to shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Code Geass, but regardless of their parallels in plot structure, characterization, and themes, it seems clear that it is not their equal when it comes to merchandising power. Evangelion’s popularity needs no commentary, and Code Geass just got this pretty awesome dakimakura cover from Movic, but while Guilty Crown came in riding a wave of hype and anticipation, it now seems to be the show that everyone wants to forget. I had thought that Good Smile Company or someone would show a few Guilty Crown figures at the recent Wonder Festival, but I don’t recall seeing any – not even Figmas (quite surprising, being that the bar to get a Figma is set pretty low). On the plus side, Azone’s big-ass Inori doll is looking pretty. Also on the plus side, lead girl Inori Yuzuriha and some of her castmates were popular subjects for dakimakura cover artists, as we see here.
I’ve already written a post on one dakimakura cover featuring Inori; this is the second one of her in my collection. I originally passed on this one but changed my mind when one of this site’s longtime readers said he had an extra one available. This pillowcase is from Evening Call, whose works have been spotlighted here quite a few times. While Evening Call sells pillowcases from a number of different artists, this one is done by TID, whom I believe is the founder of the circle. As a bit of trivia, I’m pretty sure he’s also Chinese, as is the artist of the other Inori pillowcase I own.
The front side of the pillowcase follows a couple of common conventions amongst dakimakura covers in that it shows Inori flashing an embarrassed look while dressed up in torn-up clothing. The expression seems a bit foreign on her, given that Inori doesn’t seem like the sort of person who embarrasses easily, but nonetheless, she still looks very cute. TID has a very distinctive style and he makes Inori look great.
Like most doujin pillowcases, this pillowcase is 160 centimeters long and 50 centimeters in width. Pretty much everything Evening Call makes is high quality and this dakimakura cover is no exception; the fabric is stretchy but still feels solid, unlike this one Horizon Ariadust pillowcase I’ve got from Cospa.
The reverse side is the more explicit side, and it also shows Inori’s rear view, which is the style of pillowcase that I like best. Inori is showing off a shy look again, but she has a better reason to do so on this side.
It’s too bad Guilty Crown didn’t play up the fanservice aspect more; at least it would’ve given it one redeeming aspect (unless you enjoyed the way it went into a death spiral during the second half of the show; I can’t say that I wasn’t entertained by that). There are a lot of really terrible shows out there that I nonetheless like just because their creators had the good sense to amp up the fanservice.
And here’s the part that everyone wants to see. This is a really nice pillowcase, one that I’m glad to own since I skipped it the first time around. Evening Call does great stuff and as mentioned here before, they are happy to take international orders, which makes them unusual amongst dakimakura circles. It looks like Guilty Crown’s merchandising run is winding down, as I don’t remember seeing any dakimakura covers featuring its characters going up for sale in recent times, but I’m looking forward to the Inori doll. That’s a few months in the future; in the near-term, this site turns four years old. Imagine that. That’ll be the next post, going up on Saturday.
I absolutely love this case myself, and am really happy I decided to pick her up. Regarding artist nationality, I’m pretty sure Denmoe is a Taiwan based circle and they have profiles for a few different artists there; pen, TID, and Paint Musume included. I actually enjoyed the beginning few episodes of Guilty Crown, and didn’t dislike watching the rest of it… but that’s not to say it was any good.
Regarding materials, I think I may have stumbled across something the other day that would explain a whole lot. Most 2WT/2WR materials fall into the 80-85%/15-20% Polyester/Polyurethane mix, which is basically spandex from my understanding. I ended up on the Wikipedia page for spandex the other day, and it clicked that both Roika and Lycra are just registered brand names for spandex (by two different companies, obviously.) I know you’ve linked the site that owns Roika in the past, but it didn’t click before that they were just specific brands of spandex. 2-Way Tricot also apparently refers to the type of knitting used.
So that could possibly explain how two variations of 2WT could be so different; the companies likely have a marginally different knitting process at the very least, but they could also use a different brand of spandex as well (I don’t know if the exact material composition would differ or not, but it would explain the range in materials used.) If this is the case, it would make a ton of sense because A&J’s material, for example, is 2WAYトリコット(ライクラ.) The Lycra in parentheses could mean they use Lycra brand spandex. Though there’s another example with AJ2wayトリコット (æ±ãƒ¬ãƒ©ã‚¤ã‚¯ãƒ©æ”¹) which I just found on the dakimakura blog by searching A&J. So it’s A&J’s knit using Toray Industries’ lycra. Or something… I just found it an interesting bit of information, whether I’m right or wrong, as materials have long been the most confusing bit of this hobby.
I actually pull up the review for the Twins the other day, and was reading through our comments back and forth; at that point, we hadn’t even really tried a typical 2WT material. So it’s pretty interesting to see how much things have changed in the 2+ years it has been since you reviewed the Twins.
Yeah, I think you’re right about that; I think all the BWStore-affiliated circles are Chinese (if I remember right, the Sena pillowcase I’ve got is made by a circle that’s named something like Great Taiwanese Empire or something … the amusing thing is that I think they write the name in Japanese). It is interesting how there’s a lot of really talented artists in China but most of the stuff they put out seems to be doujin stuff.
Yeah, I was under the impression that Roika was just a trade name for spandex fabric. I must admit that I haven’t given much thought to variations in material; I pretty much classify stuff into two categories: doujin, which uses material I like, and Cospa (and the other companies), who tend to use thinner, rougher polyester.
It’s funny to think that I really was interested in getting a dakimakura cover about six or seven years ago; there was this one Rei Ayanami one I wanted, and I seriously thought about getting that one limited Dead or Alive Xbox which was supposed to come with a Kasumi dakimakura (I later heard Tecmo chickened out and released it with a less-interesting image). It used to be a really obscure, almost arcane sort of hobby but now, getting dakimakura covers is pretty much a routine affair.
Yeah, that sounds right on the Sena cover; they’re also affiliated with Denmoe in some way, I believe. There are a few other circles that I believe are based in China/Taiwan, but I’m not sure on all of them. The blog also had a sidebar with 海外抱ã枕サイト and a bunch of circles underneath it; it appears to translate to Overseas circle, and it has Evening Call, Kyounetsu, B&W’s blog, and a few other sites included underneath it. It’s actually interesting to look at their other categories too, because you can see which websites are coterie style and those that are one artist shows.
It’s definitely something I’ve given a lot of though to, because there are a ton of variations. The way you break it up was the way to go about it for some time, but it’s not quite as true anymore as it was even a year back; companies are continuing to use better materials, while some circles don’t use the best. It’s true that Cospa still usually has the Twill/Smooth variety to keep costs low, but I’ve seen them use 2WT from time to time.
I put a lot of thought into it because even if two circles use a 2WT/2WR material, there can still be a big difference into them, depending on the manufacturer. Much like your two category classification, I’d split it up into the producers to buy from (A&J, P80, Seiren) and the producers not to buy from (all the rest, if it can be helped.) I was looking for a particular cover just yesterday, and found a cover done by a circle that uses a 2WT by an unknown manufacturer (usually an indication that it was produced in China, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I believe A&J, P80 and Seiren are all produced in Japan.) It wasn’t a bad material, as it has the softness that 2WT is known for. It was very thin, however; while I was holding it up to look it over, I could just barely see the design on the other side. The circle usually charges 9500 for their covers, so it’s understandable that they’d use a cheaper 2WT material, but it definitely didn’t compare to material the three companies I mentioned earlier put out.
Haha, yeah. Even in the 3 years I’ve been in the hobby things have changed pretty dramatically. I look forward to see where the hobby is in a few more years, and I really hope that circles continue to open up to the international community; having Evening Call ship internationally is a huge deal, and I hope other circles will continue the trend. I remember Xbox Kasumi dakimakura, though I think the image was pretty lame overall. Didn’t have much major detailing to it at all, but I guess dakimakura covers were still very new ten years ago, or however long it has been. I do know that Tecmo released a set for DoA 5, but they’re not something I’d buy. Overall, I don’t like the art direction they’ve taken the characters in, or maybe my tastes have changed. I remember when DoA 2 was out that Ayane was my first real character obsession, but looking at her DoA 5 appearance, I don’t find her attractive at all.
I’m hoping for the same; and while I’m at it, I’ll hope that Toranoana and Melonbooks open up to international orders as well. Yeah, I was mildly interested in the DOA5 pillowcases but didn’t give much more thought to them. I don’t dislike the revamped, realistic style but I don’t think I like it as much as the older, anime-esque style that DOA4 and the earlier games used. I’m not sure why they felt it was necessary to drop that style but it kinda seems like they forgot how to make games once Itagaki left or something.
Evening Call does international orders huh? That’s something I wanted to hear! 😀
May I ask how you handled the payment then? Like what payment methods are there? or how does the ordering process go in general?
They do! I paid by Paypal; after I placed my order, they sent me an invoice and I sent payment. The trickiest part about ordering from them is getting an account set up; their system isn’t really set up to support international customers, and there are some odd (and unmentioned) string length limits which sometimes cause unexpected errors when you try to sign up. They do speak English very well, though, so it’s pretty easy to communicate with them.
The ordering process is pretty much like using a proxy service to buy something; after you set up an account, you place an order, and you pay for it a few days later. Generally it seems that pillowcases are released a month or two after the preorder booking period closes; they then ship you your pillowcase via EMS (I didn’t get a shipping notice; I placed my order in early December and a few days after New Year’s, the postman showed up with my box, which surprised me because I had forgotten about the order and wasn’t expecting any shipments at that time).
I see I see thx for answering my question! EMS sounds expensive though..
I think EMS shipping is free, or rather, it’s built into the cost of the pillowcase. I have no idea if they’d give a discount for going with a slower shipping option.
The EMS is included in the price they bill you for through Paypal; assuming they handled your order the same way they handled mine, you can actually check to see the cost break down on the order’s comment page. They usually charge about 1600 for 1, and it gets cheaper the more you buy (to a point.)
I don’t know if they’d offer a slower shipping option, though. Paypal is notoriously bad when it comes to protecting sellers and if a tracking number is provided, they usually will always side with the buyer. I guess they could possibly do SAL Registered, but I don’t think the price difference is as great as it would be for standard SAL shipments.
Hot damn, this really is a beautiful pillowcase. She’s accurate, colourful, has relatively realistic proportions and it has a lot of nice little details like the sweat droplets. Not to mention it’s guiltless, because it’s not like I respect the character anyway.
And yeah, GC would’ve been better if it had been a stupid fanservice show, rather than the trainwreck it became. At least I’d have been distracted by that instead of boggling my mind over all the idiocy, and scenes where faux action girl Ayase gets thrown around and has her boobs jiggle all over the place would’ve been far less cringeworthy.
Indeed! I had expected the fanservice content to be pretty high, given Inori’s outfit and Ayase’s pneumatic breasts. I’ll be honest, though; when I first started watching the show I thought it was going to be a serious, intelligent drama, so when I saw Ayase’s breasts flop all over the place, I cringed a bit myself. Then after watching more of the show, I found out that both of my initial impressions were way wrong.
Nice pillow from Evening Call as usual. I really like Inori’s character design and the artist did a really good job of capturing it in this cover. I have to say that the back side is way better than the front side for me.
I like everything about it even though it contains one of the things I don’t like about rear sides of covers and that is the upper body is turned so that you get the side profile of one boob. I just think it is overdone and it bothers me that you have bare breasts on front and back but only usually have bare bottoms on the back, rarely the front. She has a nice rear though.
I think the front would be excellent, but it really bothers me that her left nipple is erect and it doesn’t look like it is influencing her wardrobe at all. I also don’t like how the battle damage looks like the suit is designed to have that. The ripping doesn’t look natural to me at all.
Overall great case though.
I’d guess the reason her body is turned is so her face is visible on both sides; that’s actually one of the things I’ve become more cognizant of from getting into photography, is that faces and eye contact are really powerful elements. That’s actually why you don’t really see a lot of photos here where the face isn’t visible. (Although from past experience, people really enjoy clicking on pictures where the backside is emphasized, regardless of whether the face is present or not.)
Yeah, it seems like the material ought to poking outwards a bit more; I have to admit that’s one of my fetishes as well so it would’ve been really nice had such an effect been included. (And this goes for every other instance where it ought to be included; I’m specifically thinking of those Total Eclipse figures that should be coming soon.)
That detailed face is beautiful and I like the wide choice of colors in this appealing illustration(s), the other Inori cover was a bit oversaturated in direct comparison. I like this one here much better, since it’s also features a backside and a very pretty shy Inori ^^
You can have nice effects, a good animation style, appealing characterdesigns, good music and a promising setting, but it doesn’t automatically mean that you can produce a hit with that alone. Guilty Crown failed in bringing everything together and messed up their characters, especially the male lead. Maybe Inori should have been the real main character XD
Still, it’s funny that the figure company’s ignoring the show like that, it was not like there was no material, the GSC boss might have hated this show. Or they have a feeling when something won’t sell. Atm I have the impression that the figure manufacturers can be quite ignorant to certain anime as well. I would love more Muv Luv, Horizon or any Oda Nobuna no Yabou girl.
It is too bad that Inori is so lacking in personality. She has a really pretty character design and there was a lot of potential there. It definitely would’ve been an improvement if she was the lead character; in fact, there are a crapload of shows which would be far more watchable by chopping out the male lead.
I wonder how GSC feels about Guilty Crown; they seemed pretty supportive of it, given that they rolled out the Inori figure, Figma, and Nendoroid all at about the same time. I’m surprised that they just stopped right after that; I figured Tsugumi at least would get a Nendoroid or something, since she seems to fit the profile for that product line pretty well. (Incidentally, I checked up Amazon.com to see when the American DVD/BD release would occur, and to my surprise, it doesn’t look like it has a release date at all. I remember it got picked up for localization pretty quickly during its TV run, so I wonder if they’ve cooled on bringing it over.)
For some weird reason, her face seems to be drawn with a different perspective than the rest of her body, makes her head look strangely flat.
C’mon Tier, bring on the Guilty Crown review. I know deep deep deep down inside, you want to do it.
It’ll be for the good of mankind.
…maybe.
So! Another pillowcase! This one’s very nice. Inori has such a wonderful design. Pity it was wasted on…well…Guilty Crown. The angle of her head does seem a little weird on the fully-clothed side. That’s my only gripe, though. Love the colors!
Ha! Yeah, it’s still on the slate … mainly the task of watching through 24 (or how ever many) episodes that it got is holding me back, being that there’s a lot of better shows that I have yet to watch. I’ve already thought of a lot of the things that I want to say, though – for all its faults, I can’t say that Guilty Crown is not memorable, at the least – so just watching it is going to be the hardest part.
Inori is still the type of girl I’d like to have as a GF/wife: a brainless and beautiful sex toy.
Existing companies do indeed make products that meet your requirements!
This is off-topic, but I didn’t know how else to contact you.
First off, I love all your dakimakura reviews! So much so that I’ve decided to purchase one for myself.
I saw this one on Yahoo Japan Auctions and was interested in buying it, but I can’t seem to find any other pics or info on it.
http://page16.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/u38860075
I figured I’d ask you about it since you appear to know a lot about the subject and probably have dakimakura connections heretofore unknown to newbies like myself.
Any info would be appreciated! Thanks!
Leaving a comment here is definitely the best way to contact me; I’m really bad about responding to e-mail in a timely fashion but I try to keep up with comments, at least every few days. Thanks for the kind words and good luck with your dakimakura cover search. The pillowcase you linked is made by a circle called Moe Jinja; there’s some low-quality pictures over at Doujindou, but at least it gives you an idea of what both sides look like. If you didn’t want to have to use a proxy, it looks like there’s one up on Mandarake, though it’s more expensive than the auction listing.
Thanks for the info and quick reply!
I’m actually a little disappointed by that case, now that I can see the whole thing. Glad I didn’t drop 10k+ yen on it…
The search continues. I might pick up the Inori cover, actually. I’ve never seen Guilty Crown and have no intention to (I heard it was pretty awful), but it’s a a spectacular looking cover. I’m also told Inori has about as much personality as an actual pillow cover, but that won’t affect my buying decision heh.
It really does pain me to see such fantastic artwork go to waste, though.
Came in too late to reply before Tier did, but I’ll add a comment anyway. 😀 It’s probably a good thing that the cover doesn’t interest you any longer, because I looked over the auction and it appears to use the cheaper of the two materials Moe Jinja uses. I haven’t personally encountered a Moe Jinja cover that used it (I’ve always purchased their 2WT variety), however, it has been my experience that 100% Polyester is not the way to go. On a personal note, I don’t really care for the YJA seller; he always has a ton of good stuff but is charging way too much money for most of it. Guess that’s no reason to dislike the guy, but I think I’ve had another negative experience that I can’t draw to mind right now, when buying from him.
The other thing I wanted to point out about that cover, is that the artist happens to be a personal favorite of mine, Ky. He has a circle that I refer to as “Cakemoon” because I have no idea what the actual kanji translates to. You can check out more of his work here.
And on one last note, dakimakura covers are my hobby and I absolutely love helping others discover the joys of them. If you ever have any questions, feel free to contact me: I’m available over at Reddit under the name DakimakuraGuy or Fakku/MFC under the name Shashin. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you ever have any specific questions or are looking for a cover of a specific character, and I’d be more than happy to help.
Sorry to hijack your post once again, Tier. Though while I’m typing this message up, I’m happy to share the new pillows I got.
sir can i am a super fan on gc and i wanna know where i can get those pillow cover, can you please and due to all respect please tell me where i can place order on those fluffy pillow cover 😉
She’s available on Mandarake.
Mandarake would definitely be your best option, I think; other options would probably entail proxy charges.
hai..i have a question..is cospa make good dakimakura?
Depends on your definition of good. If you can buy a Smooth Knit/2WT and it’s a character you really like, I’d say go for it. Otherwise, I personally wouldn’t recommend them.
They’re okay, I guess. They typically use a lesser-quality material than most doujin dakimakura covers, and their print quality tends to be rougher as well. However, the artwork is typically faithful to the original character designs, which may be an important quality. They’re also a lot cheaper and easier to acquire than most doujin pillowcases, which will almost certainly be important qualities.
thanks~
Mind seeing if this one is real or not cause i really want to get one
(link removed)
I removed the link in case this is a transparent attempt at spamming. No, it’s certainly not real.
Arg is says that pillow is sold out. Do you have any other sites that i can go to for another. cause i really like this one, and it’s my favorite as well hahah. if you can find out great!!