Magazine: Pucchigumi September 2020

In which I get a little bit of childhood bliss with my friends the Sumikko asking for the ride.

Does anyone else feel like time goes both really slowly and quickly with all the stupid stuff associated with 2020? I’m constantly behind on everything professionally and personally, but at the same time I just noticed the last time I wrote about Pucchigumi it was June 29.

That was my first blog entry about furoku — actually, it was only the ninth entry I ever wrote here, and honestly it seems it could have been a year ago. It’s….a bit unnerving, how time has been passing. But even with all that, we can have a bit of respite with another round of elementary-school fun and character cuteness with Pucchigumi September 2020!

If you liked the characters featured in the last issue, you’ll probably be pleased with this one too. There’s a lot of stuff for Police × Heroine Lovepatrina! too.

The bad guys on the lower left kind of crack me up, maybe because I feel sorry for any land suffering under an angry orange tyrant who wants to remove love from the Earth. Anyway, there’s also manga:

And a foldable Lovepat Shuffle, which is apparently how they transform.

I was literally just about to write that I don’t really see myself checking out any of these series, but the more I see the more they look kind of insane in a way I tend to like, so I might have to. Also, I just realized this is part of the same universe as Miracle Tunes, so there’s that.

There’s a multi-page poster, and other coverage, of Secret × Heroine Phantomirage.

As you might expect, there’s a lot of nice Sumikko Tapioca Park designs here too. On the lower left, I feel buyers’ remorse every time I look at that pen stand; I told myself I wouldn’t have a use for it when it went on pre-order, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought how convenient another would be for this or that since. The next cute Sumikko pen stand will be mine — I can tell you that much!

Below is an ad for a Sumikko Gurashi strawberry-themed toy with templates to sketch each character. Near the bottom right, we’ve got a stamp you can customize with initials and such. There is probably a sickeningly large chance I will be buying at least the stamp at some point; no point in deluding myself over that one.

I know we’ve seen tons of Rilakkuma dinosaur merchandise, but constantly showcasing it is my way of comforting myself for not preordering any of it. Also, the more you read about this collection, the more irresistible it becomes. On the upper left, for example, it lists what each dinosaur has in common with the series’s main characters:

• The purple tyrannosaurus has a visible zipper down his back, like Rilakkuma.
• The blue triceratops and Chairoguma both have soft white fur patches.
• The yellow brontosaurus and Kiirotori both have a little tuft on their heads.
• And like Korilakkuma, the pink stegosaurus has a button sewn on!

There are some very appealing Sanrio crafts, and some matsuri merchandise that I’m almost certainly going to have to spend some money on:

Pikachu and Eevee frolicking and looking adorable, as per usual:

Some well deserved attention for Merupan from Kiratto Pri★Chan:

Color Animal Crossing manga:

Me needing this Sylvanian Families theme park even more than the last time I wrote about it:

And though Licca-chan doesn’t tempt me as much as other toys, it’s still worth including here just because the ad/story/I’m not sure where one starts and the other one begins is still pretty cute.

There are also drawing lessons on faces, eyes, and hairstyles, a little booklet with some crafts that really do look nice, like cute edible slime, a decorative oil bottle, and so forth, and probably some other cool things I’m forgetting.

I also wanted to include the ad for Ciao, always a master of furoku, this time with a Gesshiz(? Is that really how they’re romanizing it??) memo pad, a gummi neon slider pouch (I’m not exactly sure what all those words mean together, but I kind of want it) and a four pen set featuring the magazine’s mascot Usapanda. This magazine also features a short selection from one of Ciao’s most popular current series, Hello! My Baby by Shino Kawada. I can take or leave the premise about the main character’s baby from the future going back in time, but it does look genuinely cute. That mangaka is really good at drawing small round things.

Then there’s the always-tempting giveaway page:

And finally, the furoku. It’s a cute water game — though you’ll have to excuse me for not testing how it works. Once I got it out of the box, I thought it would just be cuter displayed without water. But you can see some more detailed pictures (though the writing is all in Japanese) here.

Standing about three and a half inches high, I think this looks even cuter in person! Whereas a lot of furoku around here lately gets blogged about and then put/given away quite fast, this is cool enough it’s going on a shelf for a while.

Preparing this entry, I was originally going to say I wasn’t likely to buy another issue of this magazine, especially since the next issue seemingly features pretty much the same characters as this one. But then I see this Sumiko Gurashi tote bag….we’ll just have to wait and see. ^ – ^