Day 8: Collaboration Goods

This morning, I thought about going out to Tachikawa to see the autumn flowers or maybe going to the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum, but really didn't feel like riding the train for over an hour in one direction today in particular. When I was looking up other things to do, I realized that the EVANGELION CROSSING EXPO was actually ending tomorrow so I should go check it out at the Roppongi Museum.

The expo is actually more of a museum exhibit and showcases over 4,000 pieces of Evangelion-themed merchandise from various projects. I'm not the world's biggest Eva fan, but I guess I'm also certainly not the smallest? Does tht even make sense? LOL

It was crazy seeing not only the amount of merch but also the wide variety of the types of merch as well. I'm almost certain you could live your entire life using only Evangelion themed-gear. Clothing, even shoes, are easy-mode. They've had golf bags, motorcycles, toolboxes, guitars, everything. They were even selling Eva themed soldering irons in the merch area at the end.

It was also cool seeing merch that I personally own or had contemplated buying previously. I've only personally been a fan for a couple years but the exhibit must have been really nostalgic for those guys out there that watched and waited over 20 years for the series to reach its true concluion.

Like I was in Japan for the Evangelion Kabukicho Impact event last year and even snagged some merch then

I thought it was kind of funny that it almost felt like the entire point of the museum was to show you cool merch and then show you even more that you could actually buy at the end. I considered getting the soldering iron, because I've been meaning to learn how to solder anyway, but decided not to. Instead, I just got a clear file and single small acrylic stand. I didn't want to have to carry a bunch of stuff all day.

Since I was already in the area, I decided to go to Tokyo Tower. I had been able to see it when I headed to the museum so I felt that it was actually really close, but I guess because of how tall it is, that was pretty deceptive and it ended up being like a 15 minute walk.

I'd already been up to the top last year, but thought I might as well check it out again. Unfortunately, I did something kind of silly. After paying my ¥1,500 to go up to the main deck and look around, I realized there was a collaboration stamp rally event going on for BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!. The stamp station specifically said that you were NOT allowed to grab a stamp unless you had paid to do the stamp rally. I considered pretending I didn't understand (even though it was also written in English), but I figured it would weigh on my conscience, even if only minutely. Plus I thought the poster looked cool.

Originally from https://colabtokyo.hp.peraichi.com/mygo/

So as you can probably guess, I paid for the collab merch which included a second ticket to go to the top of the tower, just so I could actually do the stamp rally. The stamps were all on different floors of the tower, but I hadn't know that at first so I was a little afraid of missing them since you can't go back to the top after you've come down (unless you've bought a second ticket like me!).

Fortunately, I was able to find them all since anime girls aren't very easy to miss.

I actually haven't seen MyGo yet, but I've been meaning to. I've heard (or maybe I've made this up) that it's bascially part of the big three in recent Girl Band Anime, along with Bocchi the Rock and Girls Band Cry. (Ok I definitely made that up but you should watch all 3). I actually even have a signature card of one of the main members of MyGo from the Weiss Schwarz card game. Anyway, I basically hedged my bets here because if I watch it later and then really like it, I'd probably be upset that I didn't actually get the collab merch.

This would be a 5.5 second fall!

The second time I went up, a tour bus had just arrived so I was glad that I had already been earlier. As I was about to leave Tokyo Tower, I noticed a pretty weird collab: Tokyo Tower x Monogatari x Steins;Gate. I'm a big fan of all of those, so decided to stop in. The collab appears to be a celebration of both series reaching their 15th anniversaries, and will include a collab cafe, the Tokyo Tower collab, and another event in November (my wallet!).

Ordering at this pop-up was a bit hard because you had to fill out order sheets rather than just grabbing what you wanted, but I managed alright. The other issue, and this is a problem for a lot of events, is that some of the items are blind boxes, so you aren't necessarily guaranteed to get the character/design you want unless you buy the whole set. And in my case, I don't need 32 acrylic anime coasters at ¥550 eaech.

Anyway, here is all of the merch I ended up getting today

Actually thinking about it, I may actually have that Asuka acrylic stand already. It's also a shame that my luck led to me getting a duplicate paper and acrylic coaster. I had been aiming for Senjougahara, so at least I got her for the paper coaster.

Oh I almost forgot this outrageous merch

The merch description just said something like collaboration drink so it was really a gamble to me. What does "collaboration drink" even mean? I think it must have said somewhere. Or like maybe normally you ask the staff what kind of drink it is. I ended up just getting it, no questions asked. It turns out that it's a lemonade drink, so that's good.

So many collabs today. Who knows when we will hit up more. The Tokyo Tower collabs will end while I'm still in town, should I go back to experience new ones in a few weeks?? Is it even worth doing anything if there is no anime tie-in event? Maybe the marketing is all working a little too well.