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nishinoya: yesss!!! 

Hello there. Some of you may have seen these derpy images of a beautiful looking Oikawa-san doll on my Instagram before. Most of you probably have not, but if you’re willing to read this, I’m here to talk about what this Oikawa-san is and why you should get yourself one in this useful, comprehensive, opinionated and heartfelt article about Nitotans. In this essay I will share with you: 

What is Nitotan

Manufactured by Takara Tony Arts, Nitotan is the cutest series of anime plush doll in the market. TThe maker tends to collaborate with big and popular anime titles like Haikyuu, SNK, Kuroko’s Basketball, Touken Ranbu, YOI, and more.

The defining features of nitotans are their big head to small body ratio and their eyes, which look like big peas. Have a look at brand rep Mr. Sales-nitotan below for an idea: 

OP is not, by the way, Mr. Sales-nitotan 

Nitotans can be seen in the wild in the following three forms: 

Rubber Keychain, 

Small Plushie (~12 cm length), 

Big Plushie (~23 cm) length

This picture doesn’t even encompass all the Haikyuu nitotan species’ that has been released into the world  

Nitotan keychains are the smallest ones and have the most variety in design. It’s likely that many versions of the same character in different poses, outfits or expressions would be made available at different timings. That being said, buying the specific keychain design that you want is more difficult than it seems. 

How To Buy Nitotan (Keychains)

Generally speaking, pre-ordering is the best way to ensure that you will get the nitotan you want (at an inoffensive price) as opposed to waiting for physical or online stores and marketplaces to start selling them. 

For nitotan keychains, it is relatively easy to obtain their basic character design (AKA normal, ordinary clothing) versions from physical stores. You can purchase them individually, but you don’t get to choose, so the character you end up with is by random. You might be tempted like many others to “search” the packet to figure out which character is inside by feel and weight, but the practice is frowned upon and shops put up many signs to discourage it. They don’t want you to crush the packaging. Also, the manufacturer thwarts your attempts by wrapping the keychain with a layer of cardboard. If you would rather not play the game of chance, it’s possible instead to purchase the whole box and get one of each character. 

Midoriya Izuku Nitotan Keychains in basic character design, and alternate designs: winter clothing and suits

The alternate clothing designs are rarer and therefore much harder to obtain. The manufacturer actually encourages pre-ordering the alternate design ones by box. The ideal would be that you have a bunch of people to split the price of the box with, and all of you agree to take one character each. This is not impossible, just hard, because there are always unpopular characters/designs in a group. Then again, this is the whole idea of “trading” merchandise like these keychains - you’re supposed to interact with fellow fans in your community in order to get the specific nitotan you want. 

How To Buy Nitotan II (Small and Big Plushies)

Nitotan plushies are relatively difficult to spot in stores. There is a higher chance of encountering small nitotan plushies. Big nitotan plushies, if any, either have very few in quantity or never have the popular characters in stock. 

Nitotan plushies also occasionally come out with alternate versions, though at a much rarer rate than nitotan keychains. They are also usually event exclusive. You would think that that would mean all you had to do were to go to the event and buy your plushie, but it’s complicated by the fact that such events are only held in Japan for a one to two days, there are thousands of people attending, and you have to queue in advance for a spot in the queue on the event day in order to purchase said nitotans. If your spot in the queue is at the back, most things will be sold out by the time you get to the front. I’m describing Jump Fest from personal experience, which is an annual two-day convention organised by Shonen Jump, the magazine that has brought to us many beloved shonen and sports series’: 

Special edition of Haikyuu “Memories” Nitotans from the 2018 Jump Fest

Where possible, it’s best to pre-order your nitotan plushies. There is no guarantee that the manufacturer will re-release the specific nitotan species you want, unless they happened to be very popular. But selecting the nitotans you want to pre-order is a little more than it seems, because:

How To Select Nitotan

Usually, the only preview available for nitotan plushies at the pre-order stage are graphic 2D designs, which are their keychain designs. However, the actual three-dimensional plushies have significant differences to their flat graphics. One of the biggest thing is the look of their anime hair. The 2D graphics tend to feature many tufts and layers, but on the actual plushie, the hair is made of felt cloth. There are only two “layers” of hair: the fringe is one layer, it frames the face; the tufts that stick out from the side of the head is the other layer.

This means that nitotans of characters like Bokuto from Haikyuu end up with a compressed hairstyle, as his many tufts of black, white and grey hair is printed onto a single sheet of felt. 

Haikyuu’s Bokuto from 2D to 3D

Another feature that is hard to predict as it translates from graphic to actual plushie is the expression. With a physical body, the nitotans’ eyes might end up further apart than imagined, and the mouth smaller. Or bigger. With Big Plushies, you can expect there to be greater symmetry and proper alignment in regards to the doll’s facial features as well as hairdo, but on Small Plushies, these variations are unfortunately larger.  

Luckily for you, as the nitotan series has been doing well, there are plenty of pictures of nitotan plushies available online - on this very post, even - so it’s likely easier for you to gauge what your 3D nitotan plushie might look like before you commit to buying. 

Other Considerations While Buying Nitotan

My golden rule for buying anime character dolls is to always buy in pairs, because one would be too lonely. In other words, complete the ship. That said, I don’t do this for the keychains, because I enjoy buying individual random ones and seeing who I miraculously end up with. Other factors to consider prior to purchase includes:

The limited edition nature of each nitotan series’

How much you love the character

How good their hair might (or might not) look in the different forms

Size and storage

Uses (covered in the next section)

How To Use (And Care For) Nitotan

I would argue that the biggest nitotans make for pretty versatile toys. I put them in entertaining skits and funny photos all the time. Here are some of the ways you could engage your nitotan units, if you weren’t already aware of it:

Put them on your bed

Put them in scenarios with one another

Take off their jacket and shirt*,**

Bring them out and show them off simultaneously in your ita-bag (more details in next section

(*Only applies to big nitotan

**This will stretch the neck hole of the shirt - the more you do it, the looser it gets)

Take funny and/or pretty pictures of them 

With their fixed facial expressions and top-heavy weight distribution, it can be a challenge trying to take a good picture with them. A general rule is that those with smiles are photogenic, like how this big Oikawa here looks happy no matter what you make him do, while big Iwaizumi next to him looks perpetually mad:

They’re holding a ticket to the Haikyuu Anime Original Art Exhibition that was held in Jan 2017

Buy/make clothes for them, such as the ones seen here on this Twitter account:

— 梅宮 (@um38chan) May 19, 2018

How To Bring Nitotan Out

I would suggest you start by investing in a ita-bag (lit. painful bag), which are bags with transparent windows. The intended use was for otakus to bring show off their full badge collection when they attend anime events. This ita-bag recommended by yours truly is a bag series by WE-GO, a Japanese fashion brand, and it’s versatile and stylish enough even for ordinary use. Best of all, its just the size for one big nitotan/five small nitotans. 

Issa style

When you bring your nitotan out, it opens you up to a wide window of photo taking opportunities. I enjoy checking out new cafes with good looking food. Why not spice up the picture with a handsome nitotan about to eat said food? This is even funner in Japan, where nitotans hardly look out of place when you bring them to anime-themed cafes or anime-themed theme parks or just generally anime-themed whatever. 

How To Clean Nitotan

I have yet to dirty my nitotan’s body/facial parts, so I can only talk about the clothes in this section.

When you have nitotans in white outfits, like the Haikyuu Aoba Johsai ones, they do turn yellow over time. You could leave them in their plastic bags the entire time, but you might as well not play with them at all if that’s how you intend to treat them: as collectibles. They are collectibles, but they can be so much more.

Anyways, in the case of my Aoba Johsai nitotans, I have washed their jacket and shirt with ordinary clothes detergent. Instead of throwing it in the washing machine, I put some powder in a small bowl of water and washed them by hand. Then I clipped them on a laundry rack and let them dry naturally. 

The tough part is cleaning the pants, which is sewn onto the doll. I kept a finger between the pants material and the nitotan skin to avoid getting detergent water on the latter, because cotton stuffing. I rubbed detergent water with another finger over the pants material. Then I blow-dryed with a hairdryer. It’s tough, but it always hurts more when white coloured toys get dirty.

If you like me, you happen to own a pet, their felt anime hair attracts all of the fur you never vacuum. In this case, you can use toothpicks or sewing needles to lightly pick at the strand of fur until it comes out. 

Why You Should Buy Nitotan

If you’ve gotten this far in my article, thank you, and I’ll like to clarify once again  that this isn’t a sponsored ad for Takara Tony Arts. This is a sincere shitpost. I’m writing this because I genuienely love nitotans, and I think you could too.

And also for this reason: 

Look no further than official merchandise lines to see which are the top ships and side characters commercially approved by the industry

The KNB anime ended in 2012, even though promotions and merchandise lines for it are still alive and well. The nitotan series started roughly around 2016. In June of 2018, a dream of mine finally got realized when Takara Tony Arts finally dropped a KNB nitotan series in the form of keychains and small plushies. 

What I’m getting at is that continued interest in the nitotan toys will only naturally encourage the make to render more and more anime, new and old, into these damn cute things. At this point, I’ve got some predictions I’ll like to make for a number of high potential nitotan species’, attributed to the production of recent anime seasons or anime movies: 

Kuroko’s Basketball - (anime movie Last Game released in Mar 2017) Hopefully we’ll see Big Plushie Nitotans featuring either the 9 designs already released for the Small Plushies and Keychains, or else:

Kuroko’s Basketball Big Plushie Nitotans featuring the top school pairings: Kuroko-Kagami, Kise-Kasamatsu, Midorima-Takao, Murasakibara-Himuro, Aomine-Akashi*

*Many merchandise lines pair Aomine with Imayoshi for Touou, and Akashi with Reo for Rakuzan, but Imayoshi’s and Reo’s fanbases are not as popular compared to the others characters, so I believe there’s a small chance that they’ll get Big Plushies

Alternatively, they could produce Momoi-Riko instead Imayoshi and Reo, but then again, it’s rare to see brands sell female characters for series’ that feature predominantly male characters 

Free! - (currently airing third season Dive to the Future) Likely to get Big Plushie Nitotans, featuring at the very least the main eight from the first 2 seasons: Haru, Makoto, Rei, Nagisa, Rin, Sousuke, Nitori, Momotarou

They’ve previously done Small Plushies and Keychains for Free for the movie Starting Days, and those lines also had Ikuya, Asahi, Natsuya and Nao

Yuri!!! on ICE - (upcoming movie Ice Adolescence) We’ll possibly see Big Plushies of the three main characters Yuri, Yuri and Victor, and popular side character Otabek, in addition to Keychains or Small Plushies of movie-only characters tba 

They’ve already release multiple versions of YOI Keychain nitotans, as well as small nitotans of Yuri, Yuri and Victor 

My Hero Academia - (upcoming movie Two Heroes) featuring the movie versions of the characters in possibly Small Plushie or Keychain forms, like a young All Might and movie-only characters 

They’ve already released many lines of BNHA nitotans, from Keychains to Small Plushies to Big Plushies

More Vol 32 promo sketches by Furudate-sensei~ (Continuing with the series…)

Top: Promoting Haikyuu!! Vol 32 with two people with hardly any common ground!!

Ushijima: Haikyuu!! Volume 32 is currently on sale. Kita: Please do support it. Ojiro(?): Evacuate!! Evacuate!! It’s bad to get close to them!! You’ll totally feel like you’re a worthless human!!! If you don’t want to die, gather up all the shoes lying around!! Make sure to say “Thank you for the food” and “That was a delicious meal”!! Cherish your grandparents!!!

/*Warning*/ Fan Translation! 

I hope the video stays now that it’s finally small enough and short enough. Here’s the weblink to the full video: bilibili

Chinese interview with Kohtasu Allen for I-Chu Fan-meeting in China (Part 1):

A: Hello everyone, I’m Kohatsu Allen. Please look after me. 

Q: What were some things that left an impression on you in your role as Mitsurugi Akira?

A: Mitsurugi Akira is a character that has a lot of sex appeal, and he’s also very mature. In Fire Fenix, he pretty much takes on the role of their guardian. I’m also the eldest actor in the group. While the others play and mess around, he rounds them up and leads them like a caretaker. Everyone else is more of a free-moving type, so I realized that Akira-kun works really hard to look after the others.

Q: What sort of charm does acting hold for you?

A: As an actor, well, definitely the chance to have small interactions with audiences. Another charm of the job is that it lets me play all kinds of characters apart from myself. For example, I’m this person “Kohatsu Allen”, but if I weren’t “Kohatsu Allen”, I could be a number of many other things. If it’s an anime role, I could play Mitsurugi Akira or other characters or living things - I could even play a bird or a cat. That I get to be able to play many different things is one of the highlights of acting for me.

Q: What’s been the most challenging role you’ve had so far?

A: Honestly, among the most challenging characters I’ve played so far, Mitsurugi Akira counts as one of them. What’s tough about him is that he’s not one to display much emotions. Whereas other characters I’ve played are more hot-blooded and are types to to yell things like “Let’s go!!”, and really actively portray their emotions. So the cool and reserved Akira was a difficult character to play.

Q: What kind of character would you want to take on next in butai? 

A: Up to this point I’ve played many different types of characters but I’ll really like to challenge historical drama genre next. Like characters from Taiga dramas or from Chinese history, like “Records of the Three Kingdoms”. I’ll like to try playing roles like Cao Cao or Liu Bei.

Part 2 here. 

/*Warning*/ Fan Translation!

Here’s the weblink to the full video: bilibili

Chinese interview with Kohtasu Allen for I-Chu Fan-meeting in China (Part 2):

Q: We’ve heard that your hobbies are listening to music and watching movies. What kinds of genre do you enjoy?

A: Music and movie genres? If we’re talking about my favorite, then… I often listen to Classical music, so it’s probably a genre within Classical music. But it’s really hard to pick a single favorite musical genre, so if I really had to say one, I’ll go with Classical.

Q: Do you play I-Chu? How are you at it?

Haha right. Well, I-Chu’s a rhythm game, and I think there are parts that everyone gets stuck at. For me, if I can’t get past a certain song, I’ll play it over and over again until I clear it. Playing games this way really gives me a great sense of accomplishment. I think everyone should give these games a try too.

Q: If you could obtain any superpower, what would it be?

A: I’ve thought about this question a lot. For me it has to be… Since no matter what, you can’t reverse the flow of time, so if I could have one superpower I’ll pick time manipulation. That’ll be amazing. It’ll be like being a superhero, I feel like I’ll be able to do anything.

Q: What kind of food did you try here in China?

A: My favorite Chinese food is Xiaolongbao. I also love Mapo Tofu. Whenever I go to a Chinese restaurant I always order Mapo Tofu and Chinese dumplings. I love those.

Q: Lastly, any words for your Chinese fans?

A: To my Chinese fans: Hi, nice to meet you. I am (in Chinese) Kohatsu Allen. It’s my first time coming to Shanghai and I see many big tall buildings around here. I was also really touched by everybody’s warm passionate feelings. Everyone, my Shanghai fans, please come to Japan. Come and experience our culture. Even though technology is really advanced these days and you can easily watch videos of stage plays online, if you’re able to, do come and watch us live when we have our concert in July. All the other casts and myself would be really happy if you guys could come. Please come to Japan! (in Chinese) Thank you and bye!

Part 1 is here.

I finally delivered, thank you to those who saw me tease a translation-in-progress like two months ago and sorry for making you wait. I got fed up with hard-subbing and video splitting and file size reducing, and now have renewed respect to other great, dedicated fan-subbers who put so much personal time and effort into sharing things to the international fandom. Thank you to all those people for your all your hard work.

Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyuu - The Strongest Team

The fall production, which will end with the graduation of the current Karasuno cast, will tour from October 20th through December 16th, 2018 across 5 prefectures.  

They also announce a blu-ray and DVD for Start of the Giant, to be released on October 17th.   

It will feature both matches against Seijoh and Shiratorizawa, with all the cast members listed for both teams.

Get Well Kouki!!! Fan Letter Project

If you haven’t heard by now, Yoshimoto Kouki recently ended up with a foot injury and will be unable to star as Bokuto in the next Engeki play, The Start of the Giant.  Higashi Takumi (formerly Konoha) will be taking his place for the next play, and Kouki will be taking time to recuperate.  

This project is to send him words of support from overseas fans.  I will be in Japan this June and can spare some time to mail them out in one giant package with domestic shipping fees.  

Rules for Participation

Please message me (ask or DM) if you’d like to participate and I will send you an address to mail your letters.  I don’t feel comfortable just posting my address into the body of a Tumblr post.  

Letters only, please (I only have so much room in my luggage so I can’t really open it up for physical gifts as well).  Of course anything that fits into an envelope like postcards, prints, and fanart that you draw will work just fine, but please don’t mail me boxes.  If you’d like to send a physical present, please see this post (x) for the address where you can ship that on your own.

Please hand-write your letters! Typed letters come across as very very impersonal and rude in Japanese culture.  

I will translate all letters!  So please keep them to one page in length.  I will include a printed translation to go with your original hand-written letter.   I reserve the right to edit/filter your message as necessary so as not to include anything inappropriate that might have been written.

Please provide a second envelope I can seal the letter back up in.  DO NOT SEAL THE ENGLISH LETTER IN THIS ENVELOPE.  I will seal it after including the additional translation.

If you want confirmation that your letter has been received and worked on, include your tumblr/twitter username on a sticky note somewhere inside and I’ll let you know that I got it.

DEADLINE!!!

All letters should arrive to me by June 1st.  Meaning, post-mark them sooner!!!  If you are sending a letter to me from outside the USA, postmark them 2-3 weeks before.  If you’re within the USA, give yourself 10 days.