Magazine: Kirapichi August 2020

In which we get a Sanrio character poll, a ton of cool character coverage, enough dinosaurs to rend my wallet into shreds, and a couple of nifty furoku.

I’m back with another really sweet issue of a kid’s magazine, this time the August 2020 issue of Kirapichi. This magazine is aimed at older elementary school and young junior high girls, I’d say, and has that combination of great furoku and really cute content that ensures I’ll buy more issues in the future.

If you can manage to hold back from opening the furoku right away, the first thing you see when you open the magazine is this sheet of stickers, which I want to take the time to appreciate. This list is below:

It’s also notable that all these series have additional content in the magazine, so think of it as a kind of sticker summary.

Due to the focus on slightly older girls, there’s a lot of fashion material, which is cute, and ads for talent-type modeling and performing jobs, which is arguably less so, but still, it knows you’re here for a bunch of cute characters.

Of course there’s a lot of Sumikko, with the current pastel bliss of Tapioca Park:

On the left below, we have Jinbee-san flying in the sky with his new tiny penguin friends I am trying not to look too much at so a money-sucking bond cannot form. And on the right, I’m always extremely stoked to see Kokoroaraiguma — ah, that reminds me! If you read my last entry, you might remember me saying that the Japanese word for raccoon is araiguma, literally washing bear. That might help the idea behind this character make more sense, since he washes worn-out hearts (kokoro) clean.

I can manage to resist Rilakkuma even in a plushy dinosaur outfit if I really, really try, but you know how I am about tiny dinosaurs…look at the bottom right!

In case you were wondering if there’s anything more darling than Yeast Ken and his fellow bread dogs, this magazine provides the answer by showing freaking baby bread dogs.

And hey, it’s the Sanrio 2020 character ranking! Cinnamon is at the top, one of my favorites, Purin, is a close second, and Pochacco rounds out the all-good-boys top three! But Hello Kitty is doing fine at 5th (and yoshikitty at 6th). Right under yoshikitty on the left page below, it also lists international choices for the top spot: Hello Kitty (USA), Purin (Taiwan), Pekkle (sixteenth in Japan but number one in Hong Kong!) and Kuromi (Korea and England).

There are also nail tutorials, recipes for fun desserts, and a few light crafts. And in addition to those listed above, there’s character content from Kirby, Minions, Shirotan, Cheburaska, and probably others I forgot.

Finally it’s furoku time, and just the box alone already makes me excited for what’s to come…

First there’s a very nice holographic bag! There’s a string attached so it can be worn over the shoulder. With its sturdy construction and outdoorsy design, this might be really nice to take a few things out to the pool.

But that’s not all:

What a really cute magazine, right? Like I said, I’ll definitely buy another issue. I paid about eight dollars for this at my never-disappointing old favorite CD Japan, and it’s a highly recommended addition to any order.

And speaking of CD Japan orders, this isn’t the end of goodies from my latest haul, plus I just got word my next one will arrive in a few days. So, ah, look forward to more amazing books and magazines as I take advantage of DHL being better about small + heavy than about big + light packages!