Okay so recently I got sucked into the world of mobile otome games. I love otome games but I never considered exploring the mobile genre for a long time, since I don't like to spend money on mobile games and I just figured they wouldn't be very good compared to their PC/Console counterparts.
Boy, I was wrong. I got curious and looked into a particular company "Voltage" and the otome they produce for mobile are actually very high quality, but I wasn't sold yet. I wasn't sold until I found a character who fits my tastes a little TOO well - Eisuke Ichinomiya.
Cold, arrogant, egotistical, a little sadistic, forward, confident... I was sold and I downloaded his source game. The rest is kind of history.
I just wanted to look at content for him online and I was surprised to find out he actually had merchandise. Now, I decided to look for this merchandise and.. it was sold out on all the retail sites and almost nothing was available on second-hand ones. The usual suspects like Surugaya, YAJ or even GoodsRepublic didn't even have anything.
You can see the few bits of merchandise he has here: ENTRY #111227
I'm not interested in the group stuff but I am in anything that just has him on it.
Anyone else ever deal with a situation like this? Maybe I need better search terms?
Boy, I was wrong. I got curious and looked into a particular company "Voltage" and the otome they produce for mobile are actually very high quality, but I wasn't sold yet. I wasn't sold until I found a character who fits my tastes a little TOO well - Eisuke Ichinomiya.
Cold, arrogant, egotistical, a little sadistic, forward, confident... I was sold and I downloaded his source game. The rest is kind of history.
I just wanted to look at content for him online and I was surprised to find out he actually had merchandise. Now, I decided to look for this merchandise and.. it was sold out on all the retail sites and almost nothing was available on second-hand ones. The usual suspects like Surugaya, YAJ or even GoodsRepublic didn't even have anything.
You can see the few bits of merchandise he has here: ENTRY #111227
I'm not interested in the group stuff but I am in anything that just has him on it.
Anyone else ever deal with a situation like this? Maybe I need better search terms?
Komentarze21
Especially when your favorite character is one of the "underdogs".
Even if it is something as big as Fate/Grand Order.
I want my Brynhildr merchandise.
One would think a company popular as Voltage would have a plethora of merch out. For some reason, mobile otome games in the past didn't have much merch. It's changing a bit now, sometimes I see merch for other companies like Cybird and Cheritz, so hopefully Voltage will make more as well.
Have you tried Otamart? They're a user-based secondhand market. I had some luck finding some out of print otome merch on there.Otamart has a partnership with FromJapan, which can help with the buying. (Someone also wrote a guide on how to order from sellers and use a forwarding service as well)
It has merch??? xD dang.
I liked the artist guy I forget names by now orz.
The merch probably had a really small production too, I have trouble finding stuff like that. The other person's suggestion of looking for social media fan-groups is a good idea. Never know what someone might post.
Q: Is there somewhere in Japan that I can get Voltage merchandise?
A: We are not selling Voltage merchandise in Japan.
And they definitely do sell Voltage merchandise in some online stores now considering I literally just preordered SLBP merch last night LOL. So perhaps there are some exceptions to the rule now.
I have seen some Japanese fans sell their fanmerch through Twitter and Booth. A lot of fans also make merch to trade/giveaway at events. But they're sold in very small quantities. Since the market for the official merchandise is so small and Japan tends to be more strict regarding fanmerch, I'm assuming this is done out of respect of Voltage's guidelines. When it comes to international fanmerch, I have seen some people selling prints and dolls, but again, in super small quantities.
This is my first time getting into something where the merch pool is so... small and elusive ahaha. Definitely going to be an experience for me but I'm prepared to hunt! Thanks for more info :D
I believe they still don't allow selling fanmerch in their TOS which is also stated on their Tumblr. However the FAQ is a bit outdated because, for example, one of their questions:
Q: Is there somewhere in Japan that I can get Voltage merchandise?
A: We are not selling Voltage merchandise in Japan.
And they definitely do sell Voltage merchandise in some online stores now considering I literally just preordered SLBP merch last night LOL. So perhaps there are some exceptions to the rule now.
I have seen some Japanese fans sell their fanmerch through Twitter and Booth. A lot of fans also make merch to trade/giveaway at events. But they're sold in very small quantities. Since the market for the official merchandise is so small and Japan tends to be more strict regarding fanmerch, I'm assuming this is done out of respect of Voltage's guidelines. When it comes to international fanmerch, I have seen some people selling prints and dolls stickers, but again, in super small quantities. Edit: My mistake, not dolls. Mixed that up with Ikemen Sengoku merchandise.