Wanted: Cheap Manga

Merry Chrickmas!

In the spirit of the season (and in celebration of my own shopping done) I’m posting some gift ideas for your crazed loved ones. Your family probably won’t appreciate these as much as you readers will. Most are manga-related, but I’ll throw a few non-manga toys in here too. But anyways, here are some cool things to salivate over.

When looking for info on the great Man Gataro, I found this great cell-phone strap site. If you’ve seen the live-action movie Battlefield Baseball, that was developed from Man Gataro’s manga Jigoku Koshien. They’ve got a collection of Man Gataro cell-phone straps that are just beautiful:

They also have some straps from Death Note, KinnikuMan, Worst, and Gegege no Kitarou (among others). Also, check out the Bondaged Kewpie doll! The site also has super-cheap shipping (starting at $5.00 airmail), and incredible product descriptions, like this: Wow, Kewpie is tied up with a cell phone strap string! It’s strange that Kewpie still smiles… He / She likes to be bondaged?? Anyways, welcome to Strapya World.

Kazuo Umezu is a big favorite in Japan these days, so it’s not too hard to find some great nostalgic toys. Makoto-chan was one of Umezz’s biggest hits, even being made into an anime. First, you could get your newborn a hard plastic toy his/her own size and price:

Diet Coke not included.

Or you could learn the lyrics to Bicchiguso Rock! with the Makoto-chan soundtrack:

And it just don’t stop. How about some slightly pornographic movie posters from the anime:

Next, we have some great mini-toys from Umezu’s various series:

Finally, we have some cutesy wind-up toys from his series 14-sai and Nekome Kozou:

Next is a collection of Gachapon figures from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure:

I found two great Hideshi Hino toys at Toy Tokyo (a great toy shop in NY).

Even Junko Mizuno has some toys at Toy Tokyo:

 

Toy Tokyo also has some retro looking figures from Gegege no Kitaro (Nezumiotoko & Kitaro)and Kinnikuman.

Take advantage of some import action and grab the hippest, edgiest manga anthology in Japan, Ax (or Akkusu) from Last Gasp:

And there’s more issues on their site, just search for “Akkusu.”

Finally, some non-manga toys. Hard Gay is a hilarious comedian (formerly a comic duo) from Japan, and getting a Hard Gay toy for a loved one would really show that you care. Like this Hard Gay version of the famed Japanese toy Kurohige:

Anyways, happy shopping, and enjoy buying things for yourself while looking for others’ presents.