“Teens Power”
Hello everyone and welcome back once again to another subscription box review. As you may have guessed from the title above, today I am taking a look into what was included in the September edition of Nihon Box. Which ran with the theme of ‘Teens Power’, with items from such hit anime shows including Demon Slayer, Bleach, Tokyo Revengers and Kaguya Sama: Love is War. So let’s get the ball rolling with our usual Nihon Box infomercial.
Nihon Box is a Japanese monthly subscription service that handpicks at least 6 items each month that are almost exclusive to Japan and ships them straight to your door. Their items are a mixture of Otaku Anime related merchandise and figures, as well as traditional Japanese items, from sweets to tableware. All of this is available to subscribe to for what I find a very affordable price each month.
Like SoKawaii, the more months you pay upfront the cheaper the price for individual boxes will be. https://www.nihonbox.com/en
Monthly is €29.99 plus shipping costs
3 Months is a single payment of €86.97, making each box €28.99, plus shipping costs.
6 Months is a single payment of €170.94, making each box €28.49, plus shipping costs.
Due to the latest European VAT legislation, the overall cost after shipping has increased slightly. The folks behind Nihon Box have done all they can to make this transition as simple as possible, so they have taken the necessary steps & changes in order to include the VAT directly in the subscription’s price. This change will normally be effective starting from the next renewal of your subscription, with the addition of the VAT in the final price (19% for Germany). And from August, as a small gift of appreciation to their overseas customers they will be including a 1000yen gift card to their YattaJapan.com store. As an idea of how much the charge has gone up, prior to August I was paying €32.89 a month. The new price I pay now is €40.45 a month, which is a nice increase but I believe the value is still there within the box. Now once it arrived in Ireland, I have been charged customs through An Post. Totalling just under €9euro on top of the €40.45 I pay each month, making this a rather expensive box at the moment. However this is all due to inflation and the recent customs changes within the EU.
Here is a link to their FAQ page, just in case you’re wondering if they ship to your country: https://www.nihonbox.com/en/nihonbox/faq
So let’s begin with our first item this month, from one of the biggest anime from the early 2000’s – Bleach. The show focused around Ichigo Kurosaki, who became a substitute Soul Reaper in order to save his family. Many of you would be very well versed in the happenings of this show, and rightly so! It is also about to make a comeback in the not too distant future, as they will be adapting the final arc of the manga – the ‘Thousand Year Blood War’. So in order to help us all cope with the franchise about to reach its final anime conclusion, Nihon Box has included this tissue box cover with Ichigo and Rukia on the front.
Next up is this bamboo fibre cup, featuring the main characters from the latest hit anime – ‘Tokyo Revengers’. An anime that features the lead character travelling backwards in time in order to save his friends from their untimely deaths and thus change the future for the better. Kind of sounds like Steins: Gate, but with middle school kids and a street gang. I have yet to start this show, but let me know in the comments below if my description was even close to the truth. Anyway this cup could either be used as such or simply as a bit of decoration, you choose. They have even hinted in the leaflet this month that Tokyo Revengers may be making a return in future boxes.
Now we move on to the traditional Japanese item for this month, with a ‘Tanuki Okiagari-Koboshi’. The Okiagari-Koboshi (起き上がり小法師, getting-up little boy) is a Japanese traditional doll. The toy is made from papier-mâché and is a roly-poly toy, designed so that its weight causes it to return to an upright position if it is knocked over. This one is made to look like a Tanuki, the same creature you would have seen in Studio Ghibli’s Pom Poko and the anime series ‘The Eccentric Family’. This item was hand made in Japan and is absolutely adorable.
Next up is our food item, with this packet of ‘ochazuke’ featuring Tanjiro and Nezuko from Demon Slayer. ‘Ochazuke is a simple Japanese dish made by pouring green tea, dashi, or hot water over cooked rice. Ochazuke provides a good way to use leftover rice as a quick snack because this dish is easy to make.’ This packet is in collaboration with Demon Slayer with its nori seaweed flavor and one of 18 collectable stickers inside the packet.
Next up is our Himouto! Umaru-chan item, in this incredibly vacuum packed pillow. This item features our main girl Lazy Umaru -chan as a super soft pillow. Made of ‘mochi-mochi’ material, making her very huggable, so you can just laze around with her and watch some anime. This series is a massive hit with everyone in the Nihon Box office, as they have said themselves that they have been wanting to include this franchise for quite some time.
Our figure for this month comes from the ‘Kaguya-sama: Love is War’ series, featuring Shinomiya Kaguya herself in her school outfit. This figure is from the Coreful Figure line from Taito, and features Shinomiya in her school uniform while placing a cute flower barrette in her hair! This figure was probably quite popular in the arcade machines in Japan when it was first released, its a good quality figure, sturdy base and has a simple, but elegant pose. Definitely one to buy for fans of the show.
And lastly we have the 1000 Yen Yatta Japan gift card, that can be used on their online store. However I must point out that these gift cards all expire at the end of 2021 and you can only use one per order over on their website. Something I only learned recently when placing my very first order. Now I don’t know if they will continue to include the GiftCards in every box from now on, or is this simply until the new year? Either way, it’s worth checking it out and availing of their new venture with Yatta Japan – https://www.yattajapan.com/
So there we have it everyone, that was September’s Nihon Box. Did you like it? If so, comment down below or tag us on our social media to let us know what was your favourite item and if you have gotten your own subscription. Nihon Box always does their best to follow the latest anime trends as well as finding items from fan favorite shows in order to always appeal to their customer base. With items from Demon Slayer, Tokyo Revengers and the classic shónen series Bleach making a comeback. They not only source out some decent quality figures and plushies, but also to make sure that each month their box represents another unique aspect of Japan – from its food, to its culture, art, history and beliefs. It’s a well rounded box, for both anime and cultural fans. This box’s theme was “Teens Power”, and each pamphlet in every box also includes a detailed section called “Discover Japan”. This month’s topic was about the raccoon looking animal – tanuki. A native species to Japan, these animals have strong roots in Japanese mythology and even certain anime. Including the movie Pom Poko from Studio Ghibli. It’s details such as these that make this subscription box so unique and talked about.
For more information on how you can order your own box, look to the top of this review and head over to the link below so you can sign up today!
