Otaku Tanabata Prayer Scrolls – “My Wife is…”

A small tree planted inside the Kaiyodo Hobby store in Akihabara late last week attracted a good number of tanzaku (prayer cards) from the passing otaku customers.

The various wishes are almost entirely what one would expect given the usual clientele, including the words “My Bride” so often that Kaiyodo might have saved many pens if a pre-inked rubber stamp for those kanji had been provided.

Kaiyodo also did this interesting activity last year, with this one specifically promoting a new line of Revoltech “grown-up” stuffed animals. The normal Tanabata festivities do not begin for some weeks, but few customers likely complained about the discrepancy.

Instead, the the urgent business of claiming wives was attended to:

(From left to right)

“Ranka is my bride! Kira!☆“

“Mio is my bride.”

The right-most tanzaku’s writer apparently decided to have some fun, and someone else decided to join in:

(From left to right)

“Mio is my bride.”

“Don’t screw around!! YOU are my wife!!”

“Takuan is my bride.”

Takuan are pickled radishes, the yellow slabs of which Tsumugi was using for eyebrows and that Yui ate during her dream in the K-ON! finale.

Luckily, the more serious type of tanzaku wishes were predominant:

“I wish that this year Mamiko Noto will come to me dressed in a nurse uniform.”

(Mamiko Noto played Clannad’s Kotomi Ichinose, Haruka Nogizaka, among many other roles.)

“Nana Mizuki is my bride.”

“Minorin is my bride.”

He could either have meant Toradora‘s Minori Kushieda, or the seiyuu-singer Minori Chihara, but the first choice seems more likely.

“I wish that Haruhi will come to my house.”

No…wishes are meant to be big – you’re supposed to wish for them to become your bride!

“I wish that I can find a job.”

This person was obviously lost and had entered the wrong store, somehow.

“Economic Recovery. I wish for Nana Inoue to fall hopelessly in love with me.”

This one might have had a rough start, but quickly recovered in good form.

(Nana Inoue is a lesser known seiyuu, with roles in Tsuyokiss and Slap Up Party Arad Senki.)

“I wish that I can make a book and get into Comiket.”

Comiket often gets mentioned at this sort of thing, as seen below:

“I wish that I may become a good-selling ero-manga artist.”

Considering that the artist had but this crowded table to draw on, he did quite a respectable job:

Otaku.

In addition to the last tanzaku, there was another impressive offering that drew attention:

This is of course Nagato‘s mysterious tanzaku from the recent Bamboo Rhapsody episode.

Compared to the original…

Incredible! With this level of accuracy, we can only assume he had a reference image handy. If not, then we would be dealing with a Nagato fan of a truly epic scale…

Pictures via Akiba Blog, here and here.