Samの英語チャンネル

Extra-large mousepad with a sky-high price needs a whole lot of silicone.

Among the many events disrupted by the coronavirus during the past year is Comiket, the twice-a-year gathering of otaku fan artists and small-batch merchandisers held at Tokyo’s Big Sight convention center. But even though the physical gathering for Winter Comiket was skipped, creators still showed off their newest creations online as part of the Air Comiket virtual event, and for merchandiser Yostar that meant unveiling its Handy Rest Dynamic Mousepad for Azur Lane character Kashino.

For those unfamiliar with the title, Azur Lane is a Chinese-developed mobile game with a large and loyal fanbase in Japan, in which the cast is made up of anthropomorphized anime-girl versions of World War II-era warships. However, with the Kashino mousepad the target market isn’t so much people with an interest in military history or maritime engineering so much as a gravitational attraction to gigantic breasts.

▼ Yostar’s Kashino mousepad

【グッズ】
エアコミケ2公式通販グッズが新登場！

本日紹介するのは「湯上がりハンディレスト」ダイナミックマウスパッド！(樫野)
YYY_( ´･ᴗ･` )（@zelda10010）先生描きおろしイラストの完全受注商品です！

▼販売ページ▼https://t.co/5R5ldxnK9I

重さも…ダイナミックです！#アズールレーン pic.twitter.com/2IWxOXCX2y

— アズールレーン公式 (@azurlane_staff) December 28, 2020

Kashino’s ample assets aren’t just for show, though, as the mousepad is also billed as a “Handy Rest,” Yostar’s way of saying that the character’s chest is rendered in pillow softy three-dimensional form to support the user’s wrist. That’s an idea that’s been done before with other anime/game franchises, but what really makes the Kashino mousepad special is that it’s essentially life-size, with the base being a whopping 60 by 48 centimeters (23.6 by 18.9 inches), with Kashino’s mammary mounds reaching a height of 10 centimeters.

▼ Video of the mousepad

Preorders started on December 31 here through Yostar’s online shop and ran until the end of January. With its bold design and dimensions, plus a price tag of 49,500 yen (US$479), this seems like a very niche product, and Yostar set a modest sales target of 100 units. So when the month was done, how many did they end up selling?

1,893.

こちらが本番でも使用したサンキューパイのパネルでございます…！

番組内でも少しお話しましたが、我々の予想を遥かに上回る多数の受注を頂いた関係で生産が追いつかず、予定よりもお待たせすることになってしまい誠に申し訳ございません#アズ生 pic.twitter.com/Xdc53LgsQ2

— 三輪木 大 / Dai Miwaki (@dai_miwaki) February 21, 2021

Yostar marketing director Dai Miwaki revealed the figure, which translates to 93,703,500 yen (approximately US$905,350) in revenue. While the company is no doubt thrilled to have such a huge surge of cash coming in, demand far outstripping what they’d expected unfortunately means that Yostar is now having trouble procuring enough of the high-quality soft silicone it needs to fulfill the orders in a speedy manner. “We don’t have enough of the breast material” viewers of last weekend’s Azur Lane livestream were informed, and Miwaki apologized on behalf of the company for an expected delay from the originally projected late March delivery for the pads, and at the same time he promised that all orders will be fulfilled. So everyone who plunked down 49,500 yen for a Kashino pad will eventually be getting there, at which time they should be free of any worries about potential wrist strain…right?

Source: YouTube/アズールレーン via Hachima Kiko, Yostar
Top image: Yostar
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Source: SORA NEWS24