The extremely creative anime series Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! was fun and clever enough for me to include it in my portion of the OTAQUEST Year in Review. And I wasn’t the only person to find this series to be worthy of praise.
The series hasn’t been a merchandise magnet like some other series I could mention. But when they do come up with tie-in goods, they are just as unique and interesting as the series.
A few months ago, Good Smile Company announced the Eizouken cardboard box backpack, based on a design by mangaka Sumito Owara. It seems that that idea was enough of a hit that they’ve come back with a smaller, shoulder bag-sized version of the same thing. I feel like both of these items capture the ‘make something out of nothing’ philosophy of the series pretty well.
Like the original, this one is designed to look like plain ol’ cardboard, held together with shipping tape, but it’s actually made of durable Tyvek. This time around, they added magnets to the opening to help keep it closed. It can also be attached to the inside of the cardboard backpack.
The Eizouken cardboard shoulder bag will cost 8800 yen. Good Smile will accept pre-orders until 12:00 on 29 April (Japan Time; not clear if noon or midnight). You can find the website here.