Darren Oh that's awesome! I really need to get around to reading these comics. I really only know them for their significance in Pokémon history and the controversy surrounding the adult content in the original Japanese release. The art looks adorable though - I love the colorful covers pictured in your photos!! Congrats on winning all of those auctions and completing the collection.
My girlfriend (they/them) has zero idea that this forum exists so I will take this opportunity to gush about the Pokémon-related birthday presents I just bought them yesterday in preparation for their birthday on the 17th. For context: we are long distance, but we met in-person for the first time at the beginning of July this year, in which they stayed at my house for a couple weeks. While they were here, we played Pokémon Emerald together. They got into the Pokémon games much later than I did and as a result had never played a 2D-era Pokémon game before. I give this entire backstory because this was their first time ever using Absol in a playthrough, and through a series of various ridiculous gym/elite four fights, this Absol, named Osiris, became the most iconic Pokémon on their entire team, and a new favorite Pokémon species for them overall. I wanted to buy something Absol related for their birthday to commemorate this playthrough, and us meeting in-person for the first time.
The thing is, I didn't just want to buy a Sitting Cuties/Pokémon Fit plush and call it a day, not that those were in stock in the US Pokémon Center anyway. I wanted to buy something special. After asking around some collecting communities online, I was eventually informed of a Japanese-exclusive series of figures that I had no idea existed: the Starrium series by a Japanese company called RE-MENT. RE-MENT has numerous series of really nice and sometimes beautiful Pokémon figurines, terrariums, etc, dating back to December 2016, and I had no idea!
Luckily, the recent Starrium series released in March this year has a really beautiful Absol figurine. It even has a space/stars theme on account of the whole "Starrium" thing, which is nice because my girlfriend has a nickname for me that also has a star theme. I purchased the figurine immediately on Mercari Japan:
Importing stuff from Japan is expensive and it is usually worth the money to send over a package with multiple things at once, so I splurged a bit on a couple other things too. I justified it by saying "it's because this is my girlfriend's first birthday that I get to celebrate while we're together" even though my wallet is hurting a little bit hahaha. I purchased an Absol plush that was apparently won from a crane game; I have absolutely zero idea what brand plush it is or anything about it, but it looked cute and sizable in the photos so I went for it.
And lastly, I also grabbed a Pokémon Center birthday code card from someone reselling theirs. In Japanese Pokémon Centers, if you present ID and prove that it is your birthday, they will give you a code card to redeem a birthday Pokémon in whatever the current Pokémon game is, with a special ribbon attached. The Pokémon species rotates out every year and this year the Pokémon species is Tandemaus! I'm usually not a fan of people reselling free code cards, but these are exclusive to a country I don't live in and the reseller was giving it away for a respectable "just a few bucks", so I figured it was worth it. I will spread the birthday joy to someone who will actually enjoy it!
I've used product photos from the listings I bought from in this post because the items haven't actually arrived yet. I am cutting it pretty close and I am hoping that everything gets here on time but I might have to give these presents to my girlfriend late. Here's hoping, though!
