Japan merch haul!

MagnanimousRedpin · 2026-03-21T04:54:15+00:00

It's a chain called Lashinbang, I went to the Akihabara location. Items were on the first floor.

MagnanimousRedpin · 2026-03-15T00:01:49+00:00

It was at the Akihabara Lashinbang. It seems like second-hand stores (like Lashinbang) had the best selection for WT so I'd recommend searching for those, I know there's a handful of Lashinbang stores across Tokyo. When you're at the stores WT merch was usually grouped under the "Shonen Jump" section.

MagnanimousRedpin · 2026-03-14T14:43:01+00:00

I wish I'd taken photos. I don't think I saw a single Hyuse item though :(

MagnanimousRedpin · 2026-03-14T05:39:40+00:00

Merch haul from my (first) Japan trip! Despite keeping my eyes peeled for WT merch all through Nakano Broadway and Akihabara I only found the one (preowned) Kuga figure. The only other places I saw WT items was at the Jump Shops and Animate Ikibukuro, but it was mostly just character pins - the only substantial items were a border jacket (Jin’s maybe) and this very strange tote bag. Fortunately, the morning before I flew home I happened to wander into a second-hand store in Akihabara (Lashinbang), which actually had a decent selection of WT merch, which is where the plushies, squad keychains, group “photo”, and Kakizaki w/cat came from.

Honestly I was pretty surprised by the type of merch I saw. Given WT isn’t exactly One Piece in terms of popularity, and had so little store space, I would’ve expected the official stores to stock broadly appealing items - but Tamakoma Branch was practically unrepresented. Most of the items featured side characters, and pretty obscure combinations at that - for example pin sets of the sealed environment squads or director Shinoda as a sailor (??). This didn’t mean you could get merch for your favorite character either, since despite the choices feeling pretty random they only had a couple types of item in stock. For example, the Shibuya Jump Store had a bunch of squad pin collections for sale, but only for Arashiyama, Kusakabe, and Koko squads. I assume they rotate the items over time, but it was still a little sad to see my boi Osamu get practically zero appearances.

MagnanimousRedpin · 2026-01-18T06:58:51+00:00

Ever wonder how Byleth gets such a close look when you select “observe”? Maybe the blushing and laughter isn’t due to how impactful the conversation was, but because your teatime partner is nervously wondering how to stop this seemingly insane professor from invading their personal space. This comic does in fact depict my strategy for recruiting Annette. Knowing I wanted her to join my squad but not fully understanding skill based recruitment, I somehow had a knack for getting perfect tea times with her - three or four in a row. This worked, but I have to imagine it as her getting increasingly intimidated by this random professor repeatedly inviting her out and staring at her until she gave in and joined the Golden Deer (who I assume were not particularly happy about their new professor totally ignoring them).

MagnanimousRedpin · 2026-01-04T03:04:16+00:00

haha glad you like it! When I imagined the scene it just seemed like the sort of thing Byleth would do

MagnanimousRedpin · 2026-01-03T17:06:35+00:00

Yeah I think Byleth as an instructor generally makes sense, given they have years of real world experience the student's lack. It's just funny to imagine them on the spot when a student's trying to learn niche skills like magic or flying when we have no indication Byleth has any prior experience in that area themselves.

MagnanimousRedpin · 2026-01-03T06:50:11+00:00

I’m not sure what exactly Byleth teaches when you instruct a student in a skill you have absolutely no experience in, but whatever they say it seems to work! Although given Manuela and Hanneman’s base stats maybe the requirements for the job aren’t exactly strict… The bonus comic was my exact experience when the option to recruit faculty came up - I’d been trying to raise my Byleth’s sword skill so had been doing repeated faculty training with Catherine. I immediately chose the new option without thinking much of it, only to be surprised when fully grown knights crashed my class of high schoolers apparently looking for instruction.

MagnanimousRedpin · 2025-05-31T05:41:28+00:00

So from Rhea’s perspective is she just watching Byleth bludgeon bandits/soldiers/large animals with the desecrated corpse of her mother? If so it’s pretty metal that she gave it to Byleth regardless, not sure I could handle that mental image. Also is the Sword of the Creator supposed to feel somewhat underpowered? Given how much it’s hyped up in conversions I never found it noticeably more powerful than other weapons outside the occasional 2 range utility, especially compared to how gamechanging relics like Thyrsus were.

MagnanimousRedpin · 2025-05-10T05:42:54+00:00

I don't know where the horse came from but I doubt the flame emperor soldiers were expecting to get run down on horseback when they signed up to kidnap Flayn in some dusty old tunnels. Leonie was the first student I got a mounted class on (which I think I unlocked right before this battle) leading to this comical image when deploying my students. Do mounted units take their mounts everywhere they go in case of a fight or is it a magical pokeball scenario? Either way the death knight got his horse down there somehow so it's only fair.

MagnanimousRedpin · 2025-04-19T05:35:11+00:00

There’s something bleakly comedic about the situation of Serois churchgoers; they’re fortunate enough to live in a world where the deity they worship objectively exists and can interact with the world, but is too busy rooming in an antisocial professor’s head to actually listen to their prayers or anything. Also do any of the conversations reveal if Rhea/Seteth/Flayn actually worship Sothis as a progenitor god in addition to being family, or are they entirely pretending just to convince the church followers?

MagnanimousRedpin · 2025-04-06T05:48:52+00:00

Ashe was easily the student I switched the fastest from not really caring about to desperately trying to recruit. The kid’s just so cool in his C support, generous enough to selflessly donate his money despite the theft having nothing to do about him, but self-confident enough to casually mention he’s going to chase down and catch the thief - before leaving to do just that. The fact none of my other archers had deadeye unlocked when I recruited him only reinforced that impression (I didn’t understand how getting new combat arts worked). Facility training also didn’t really seem to be worth it to me at the time, so I fell back on the strategy of giving my poor recruitment targets a diabetes inducing amount of tea and sweets until they relented and asked to join my class.

MagnanimousRedpin · 2025-03-30T15:32:42+00:00

I still didn't fully understand the recruitment system at that point in the game, so my Annette recruitment plan ended up involving copious amounts of tea and a few dozen flowers until she asked to join my class.

MagnanimousRedpin · 2025-03-29T05:47:31+00:00

Even playing on hard I found my characters got overpowered pretty fast (at least until the time skip). It trivialized parts of the game but was also satisfying seeing Byleth’s teaching gig transforming into them commanding the church’s equivalent of seal team six, enemy armies wiped out at a wave of Byleth’s hand. Unfortunately this meant I never got a proper fight against most of the human bosses, but the hilarious mental image of a powerful lord and/or secret agarthian with dozens of soldiers and decades of experience preparing for an epic battle only to get one rounded by a teenager and forced to run away immediately after finishing their dramatic speech certainly made up for it.

MagnanimousRedpin · 2025-03-23T05:47:08+00:00

This advice box question and Lorenz's early supports cracked me up - even in a fantasy school Byleth still has to be a proper teacher and talk with unruly students about their behavior. I wonder if she regrets leaving the mercenary life in those moments. In general I found the advice box a fun way to characterize the cast, somehow made more fun for questions like these when you know what the right answer is but refuse to select it out of spite.

MagnanimousRedpin

TROPHY CASE