I recently moved and this meant getting the chance to go through all my piles of accumulated swag from years of fandom, convention attending and learning the wonders of credit card + internet (a dangerous combination at times!). Best part of this necessary clean-out evil is rediscovering some of my favorite things, the selective cream of the crop, so to speak, of my personal collection.
It got me curious, what’re other people’s favorite things? What do you display most proudly or feel the most giddy about when it crosses your mind? What’re your absolute best finds, purchases or discoveries in your collection? Or the goodies that have the most nostalgic value? I invite gloat-age and love on this pleasant summer Saturday!
To inspire, here’re some of my own under the cut. While like any other I could gush about how I love being surrounded by all my favorite stuff, in my manga collection there’re still a couple gems that stick out:
My full English floppy runs of Cardcaptor Sakura and Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon. Sure they’re flipped, but I adore the larger cut size and the full colour back and front covers. And the direct translation of Usagi’s name to Bunny I think is absolutely adorable. Also, as I love collecting replica memorabilia of anime/manga in-story items, my Clow Card books and Sailor Moon locket always make me smile too, along with my Naoko Takeuchi art books. Gotta love that added nostalgia factor, right?
I own Be Beautiful’s full catalogue of yaoi titles, including the elusive 1-4 volumes of Amano Yamane’s Finder series. Even when each one is often seen selling on eBay for $100+ a piece, I’ve never seriously considered selling. Collector’s pride I suppose!
I also recently received a lovely doujinshi as a gift. Not only was it a surprisingly high-quality release in both cut size and print quality, but it’s a new work by Nadoma Kodaka, one of my favourite manga-ka, and signed on top of that! Certainly a present that made my day when it appeared in my mailbox.
Ah, and let us not forget, the first manga volume I ever purchased. Viz’s original edition of Fushigi Yuugi, volume three. It was the start of something, that’s for sure.
So what about you? I invite my readers to share their favorites! It’s time to gloat, glee and share your favourite/most valuable/would-never-part-with goodies. What on your shelf puts a smile on your face?
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Awww, cute post (and idea)! I'm not sure what I've got to brag about myself, though. Hmm…
I do take pride in my whole, shoujo-tastic collection, and enjoy sharing favourite series with any friend who comes by. I think my full Kare Kano collection is pretty cool, just because it was one of the first series I started buying near the beginning and kept following until the very end a couple years ago! Rereading it still brings back memories of where I was and what I was thinking when I got each new volume. It was my favourite series for the longest time :D
Heh heh, I'm (unreasonably?) proud of the order I keep my books in, by author's last name (and in the order published in Japan, so I can see their growth as artists) rather than the usual sorting by series title seen in bookstores or libraries. It's fun to see multiple series by the same author—like the three series I treasure by my current favourite artist Banri Hidaka, or all the outrageously goofy works Tokyopop's published by Shizuru Seino, or the conglomeration of weird that is Ai Morinaga…
They're harder to display, but I've also got an (almost? looks like I never did get #8 or #11. boo!) full run of the Sailormoon floppies, in addition to most of the collected volumes. #10 was absolutely my first manga purchase—I'd just started watching the TV show and, while visiting the comic shop with my brothers (they were in search of Pokemon cards!) I recognized a familiar face :D Like your Fushigi Yuugi volume 3, it was definitely the start of something. I hunted down the first issues since I'd come in a little late and kept up regular visits to my local comic shop to stay up to date with the story. One issue I even bought in Toronto I believe, when my family was on vacation there for the week!
Finally, it's not manga or anime related (though it's related to my same love of visual art as manga), but my children's book collection takes up the book shelf right below part of my manga collection. Made up of books I read over and over as a child as well as new and "vintage" stories I discovered as an adult, it gives me great pleasure to see the variety of stories and art styles in picture books. Again, I just wish I had more people to share them with, since I think the best part of collecting is being able to share what you love with others!
I keep my series organized by artist and then by genre though if I had more negotiable shelf-space, I'd love to be able to alphabetize them too. I love that kind of organization work (though I fear how much more time I'd spend constantly reorganizing ;p ).
And we have that in common about first manga purchases; my very first manga purchase was a Sailor Moon floppy as well, volume #7 to be exact. I always remember how amazed I was to see it on the shelf :D Makes me happy to hear someone else experienced them as their first purchase as well. Fushigi Yuugi #3 was my first manga volume. Both milestones in the long life of lovely collecting and enjoying!
And I would absolutely love to see your collection of children's book someday; wish I could! Whenever you mention a title or artist on your LJ, I always leap to look them up because I know it's going to be something worth seeing.
Thanks for sharing, Lys :D
Aww, hehe! Thanks! Maybe I should write about children's books more often then :D I love browsing the kids' book section at the library too. There are just so many cool books out there!!
I really need to get more bookshelf space myself as well—from my estimates, about half my manga collection is in boxes right now! It's a little sad, because while what I have out on shelves might impress some people, it just makes me think of how much more I have that I can't display! I could see myself going through different organization-systems too—by American publisher, or Japanese publisher, by genre, by date released in Japan… (though that would take some serious researching!) Endless possibilities for an obsessive-compulsive organizer!
Aww, so you probably started collecting Sailormoon just a couple months before me! Haha, that's so awesome :D I tried to collect the Cardcaptor Sakura issues as well, but at the time my mum was suspicious of the magical elements and wouldn't let me *laughs* (so I got St. Tail instead). Ahh, the full colour covers for the floppy editions really were nice to have! It's easier to read manga in collected volumes, but I did enjoy poring over the full colour artwork, and that combined with reading the stories with their author notes and whatnot definitely gave me respect for the artists at work creating these great series I grew to love so much.
Thanks for sharing your favourite things and inspiring me (and hopefully others too!) to do the same! It's nice to take trips down manga-memory lane… :D
In a completely unshocking development, all of the manga-related things I love most have to do with Fruits Basket. I love that I have a complete set of the Japanese edition of the manga (which I can't read ^^;), and I'm particularly fond of my copy of the first book I ever worked on professionally (the Fruits Basket FanBook -Cat-).
In terms of swag (and still speaking of Furuba), I've somewhat obsessively collected everything I've ever come across that's related to Haru or Rin, so I have a really nice print of the only color picture of (just) the two of them, hard copies of the only five doujinshi I know of that focus on them, a reasonable collection of fan-made buttons (many of which were found for me by a friend who goes to many, many more cons than I do and keeps an eye out for me)…
I'm also very attached to my manga collection overall, but I can't really single out any other individual series for that degree of love. I take real pleasure in just looking at the bookcases, though, and seeing all the amazing stories I can sift through and reread any time I want. *^^*
(Good post! I look forward to seeing later comments.)
I would love to see your collection of Fruits Basket swag someday! And perhaps borrow some of the volumes? (How'd that sneaky request find its way in here?!) Now that the series is over, I'd really like to read it in its entirety :3
And total agreement on taking pleasure in looking at the bookcases. They're like concentrated walls of literary-visual love. I adore having that nostalgic sensation mixed with the knowledge that I can enjoy the stories whenever I wish. Makes my current situation where all my books are boxed up extra-hard to cope with though!
Here are my gems ^_^
-I am proud to own the very rare and hard-to-find Golgo 13 English-translated mangas that were published back in 1986 which are Galinpero, Into the Wolves' Lair, Ice Lake Hit, and Ivory Connection. The copies had dust jackets yet it was published in left to right format.
-I own several smutacular and rare yaoi doujinshis illustrated by Minami Ozaki, Azusa Kurokawa, and Toreno Akai. I also own the UGH doujinishis illustrated by Mika Sadahiro. Also I own several Toreno Akai mangas that are out of print as well.
-I own the Ningen Club (Human Club) series by Kazuko Teradate in Japanese.
-I own the out-of-print Chirality graphic novels published by CPM.
This one is my ultimate gem because its super rare yet its non-manga. Its a Spanish book called La Leyenda de los Cromos and it had a very limited print run (only 6000 copies worldwide). The book is a catalog of Mexico City's Museo Soumaya's collection of Mexican calendar art.
Sounds like a fabulous collection! The UGH doujinshis I'm sure must be pretty great (hard for them not to be!). Awesome that you own all of Chirality too. I have some of it in floppy format but never could find the whole thing. You've got me all nostalgic to find my few floppies of it though!
Thanks for sharing :D
I've moved around so often and over the years I've often given away or sold stuff that I later kicked myself for. But some things that I plan to hold onto are:
This awesome picture of Cloak and Dagger by Takeshi Miyazawa:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b257/SaiRong/Cl…
Not only do I love the artwork, but there's a whole story behind it involving me going to my very first con and doing my very first interview (you can read the interview here :http://www.animefringe.com/magazine/2005/10/feature/02.php). It's a nice reminder of how far I've come and how much farther I want to go.
I also have the whole run of Kare Kano on my bookshelf, and I know what you mean Lys about it bringing back memories. It came out just as I was going through high school, so I could really relate to the characters.
Other things that I hold near and dead include my copies of No. 5 volumes 1 and 2 (I dream of an alternative reality where this was a huge hit and Viz released the entire series) and my copies of the Scott Pilgrim volumes, especially the ones signed by the author.
Oh, and my small Batman statue. I always sleep better at night knowing that Batman is watching over me :).
That sketch is fantastic! Cloak and Dagger are cool enough, but by Takeshi Miyazawa? I'm jealous! Neat that it holds so many memories for you as well :)
And Batman, well that's just automatically cool. My roomie owns this fantastic Bruce Tim universe Batman bust and I adore it. It always sits next to my computer (poor guy's in storage now though! I miss him).
Yeah, it was fun doing the interview. I had actually brought some Cloak and Dagger comics to give to him (found them in a dollar bin) and he gave me the sketch in return. Now that I've taken a course in journalism ethics the whole thing seems a little shakey ethical (my prof frowned upon giving gifts to an interview subject and accepting them as well) but it was really cool at the time. actually, its still kind of cool now.
What a fun topic! I have lots of favorites but I would have to say my plethora of official Gakuen Heaven stuff (You Higuri only), and my rapidly expanding artbook collection (especially my Shiuko Kano and Makoto Tateno books.)
Ooooo, I adore art books :D They're something I really hope to be able to collect more of. How many art books do you have now, if you don't mind me asking? And where do you buy them from?
The favourite things in my manga collection? That's really not an easy thing to decide on once you've passed the 3000 volume mark ^^;
I'd say some nice titles that are OOP now, like the German "Dr. Slump" release, or "Kodomo no Omocha". The 4 volumes of "Kaito Kid" in German and Japanese. Offbeat stuff like "From Eroica with Love", "Othello", "Tokimeki Tonight", "Sommelier", "Chikyu Misaki", "Living Game" and "Usagi Drop". A complete set of Singaporean series "Celestial Zone" vol.1. Some OEL titles like "Delicious Seasons", "Spy Goddess", "Japan Ai" and "Sorcerers & Secretaries". I also love the new Ultimate Edition of "Dramacon" I finally got last week. My 3 bilingual volumes of "OL Revolution". All of "Yotsubato!" that's out in 3 languages (EN/JP/DE). Strange Tezuka series like "Don Dracula", "Midnight" or "Ludwig B".
Then some authors who are personal favourites and where I have everything that's out in DE/FR/EN: Mitsuru Adachi, Tsukasa Hojo, Wataru Yoshizumi, Iou Kuroda, Yayoi Ogawa, Q-ta Minami, Kei Toume, Natsuki Sumeragi, Tomoko Ninomiya, Yuki Yoshihara, Kazurou Inoue, Kaoru Mori and Yoshihiko Ochi.
Also some new French ed. discoveries like "École Bleue", "Une Sacreé Mamie", "Professeur Eiji" and "Pour Sanpei". "Chi's Sweet Home" and "Kimagure Orange Road" in Spanish. That's what I'd choose off the top of my head ^^;
@Shannon: I also like Takeshi Miyazawa and try to buy every comic he publishes. Don't have a sketch, though. Only a signed poster that came with his "Papercanvas" sketchbook, which is also of C&D as chance has it ;)
Let's see, favourite thing in my collection are the signed picture by Sanami Matoh and her artbook colour, which is hard to get (I payed sooo much), a signed Artbook by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (the Asuka he drew is a bit sloppy because he was tired XD), an autograoph by Katsura Hoshino and the full run of Naru Taru in German which is out of print. I'm also proud of the 20th century boys series in German, which is very hard to get. (Even though they haven't finished publishing the whole series yet.)
I love my copics, too. <3
@Athalus
Hey, our tastes are very much alike, I also love Qta Minami, Yuki Yoshida and Kaouru Mouri. I think it's great to have diversified interests. :D
I wanted to check out the same titles, especially une sacrée mamie and Professor Eiji.
@Lissa
I have at least 15 (I'd count but they're buried in boxes under my bed.) JPqueen was my first stop but with them going out of business I can't go there any more. I also purchase them through beNippon and Akadot.
I'm packing at the moment… some of my neater stuff is back home [like my Aunt May action figure, or my MixxZine No.1 :)]
But stuff I really like that I've been packing here are….
– Narbonic Vol.2 trade in gerbil covered envelope with a sketch of Helen, her mother, and her mother's box of wine by Shaenon Garrity :) [I also have vol.1+3 of DramaCon signed by Svetlana Chmakova]
– signed Sakura Wars OVA boxset [won from AnimeJump]
– my Aura Battler Dunbine dvd's- apparently vol.10-12 are now impossible to find
– Outlaw Star VHS boxset- I just love the artwork on it, likewise the CLAMP School vhses.
On a Naru Taru note, I found my Super Manga Blast's- I think I have a complete run between the stuff I have here and at home. I also have the 2 french volumes, from when Glenat thought it was a kids series and then decided to cancel it 10 years ago :) [though it looks like they're doing a new edition]
I also just spent some time packing away my comic books I've gotten in the past while, like the Marvel Star Wars comics I found at a used book store for 25 cents each.
Oops, I'm a slacker about following up on comments. *g* Hmm. I'm notoriously hesitant about letting manga out of the house 'cause it's so bloody fragile, but we might be able to work something out. ^^ (It's actually been at the point where I've seriously considered buying a second full set of Fruits Basket just to have a lending copy, because I keep telling people it's the Best Thing Ever. If/when the series boxset comes out, I may cave and pick one up for exactly this purpose.)
I swear, some days I just walk into my office and sigh happily when I'm confronted with my bookcases. Of course, I also do that when I look around the room and am newly thrilled by the purple walls… (They're a year and half old, so the novelty really should've worn off by now. But no. Purple walls!)
How did I miss this post?? I've been thinking about such similar things lately!
Anyway… hmmm… well, I haven't been collecting as long as the rest of you, but I love my Viz floppies of They Were Eleven, grabbed for a surprisingly low price on ebay. My Hikaru no Go art book is a real treasure as well. I love the art in that series so much.
Like Ysa, I am very attached to my manga collection as a collection, and I've become pickier and pickier about the series I buy and collect over the years. My favorite items, however, are probably my four hardcover Salty Dog artbooks by Kazuya Minekura that collect her color art from Saiyuki. Saiyuki was the first manga series I really fell in love with and it remains one of my all-time favorites.
Those art books are lovely aren't they? ^^ I only own one but I certainly plan to own the rest someday.
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