January Newsletter

January Magic Events
All our regular weekly events will proceed into January with some new additions. Bargain Drafts for $10 on remain on Tuesdays, $5 Standard on Wednesday and  FNM draft for $15 on Friday, all events starting at 6pm. In addition, we will now continue to run Commander events starting at 2 pm on Sunday, until we close at 6. We will be doing a Conspiracy 2 draft on Saturday the 7th at 2pm, before Gundam Night starts. On Tuesday January 24th we will have our monthly Flashback Draft, this month it's going to be Return to Ravnica, which we had a lot of fun with last time. Next month I have something extra special planned! 

The biggest event coming up this month is the pre-release and then launch events for the next Magic set: Aether Revolt, the second set in the Kaladesh block. We will be running a midnight pre-release event after FNM on Friday the 13th, and then an afternoon pre-release event on the 14th at 1:30 PM. Pre-registration for both is currently open, there are limited pre-release packs available so come down to the store and sign up as soon as you can, especially if you want to play in both events! The Saturday after, following tradition, we will be running a 2-Headed Giant Sealed event for Aether Revolt, to celebrate the release of the new set. All these events will have exciting prizes, including those sweet pre-release promo foils for the pre-release events, and promo cards for the release event (I believe it's a promo Quicksmith Rebel for the release).

The last Saturday of the month (the 28th) We are going to be drafting the common/uncommon Cube that Robin is nice enough to let us play with, starting at 2pm, with a $5 buy in for prizes!. 

Don't forget also that if you want booster boxes or bundles for Aether Revolt, don't delay, as we'll have a limited allocation at release! We will of course restock as soon and as often as possible.

Last but not least, and not technically in January, but on the first Saturday of February (the 2nd) and the first Saturday of every month going forward, we'll be doing a Modern tournament starting at 2pm! You have a full month, so get those Modern decks ready!

Anime Night Viewing Schedule: 
1/7: Gundam Wing @ 7:30pm
1/14: Sakura Taisen: The Movie @ 8pm
1/21: Mai Hime @ 7:30pm
1/28: Record of Lodoss War @ 7:30

Other Events
This month we will be hosting a Gundam build night on the 7th and board game night starting at 7:00 on the 21st

New Manga and DVD/Blu-Ray Releases January
The manga avalanche continues AGAIN this month with more restocks of the Deathnote black editions, and new releases for a bunch of ongoing series, This month we picked up new volumes of My Hero Academia and One-Punch Man, restocks of the Neo Parasyte manga, the first volume of Gundam Thunderbolt, Akame ga Kill! Zero, Tokyo ESP, the Junji Ito Tomie (a big nice hardcover edition) the first 2 Legendary Edition Zelda manga collections, and the ENTIRE run of the Yu Yu Hakusho manga. 


This month in DVDs we have the Prison School complete set, the new S.A.V.E. edition of Robotics notes, Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Ilya, and the first DVD release in almost a decade of Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, one of my favorite Gundam OVAs! We'll also be trying to restock some of the Ghibli movies we've sold out of, so look out for updates about that!

Speaking of Gundam...

Merchandise Restocks and New Releases
It would be an understatement to say that December was a big month for Gunpla kits. We sold a humongous, insane number of kits, leaving our displays pretty wiped out, but FEAR NOT! We have an equally huge restock order coming in, that includes FIFTY kits from across the range of series and grades. Notably we are restocking the range of real grade kits, filling our HGUC selection back out, and restocking select master grade and Re/100 kits. I expect to see this restock come in by the end of the week of the 13th, so be on the lookout! Mixed in with this restock, I also got my hands on a few more Bandai limited release kits, so look out for those as well!

Also on the import front, by the end of the month we will be stocking a bunch of new Figma and Nendoroids, including the new Zero-Suit Samus and Hikaru from Magic Knight Rayearth Figmas, and Nendoroids of Korra from Avatar, Rem from Re:Zero, Elise from Fire Emblem: Fates, and Sinon from Sword Art Online II. These are obviously very limited stocks, so if you want them come get them!

On the games and cards front, we have expanded greatly our selection of sleeves and play mats, and in February we will have some really exciting news. In the mean time, there is one big announcement, which is that starting on the 20th we will be carrying the new Star Wars: Destiny dice/card game from Fantasy Flight! We will do a demo day to be announced later, and will stock the two starter kits as well as the booster packs. I'm really excited about this game, and I know lots of others are as well!
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WOO that was a lot of announcements. Now what about some recommendations?

Akiba Recommendations
Justin here! With Stein's;Gate 0 just being released, along with a ton of figures I just got hands on, I've been on a Stein's;Gate kick, so let's talk about the anime (also exciting, the movie has finally been licensed for domestic release by Funimation!!!! AFTER ALL THESE YEARS). Stein's;Gate is a really interesting story because it uses real life rumors and internet folklore (OR ARE THEY RUMORS) as backdrops for its story, and steeps itself in the popular culture of Akihabara (so I guess that's appropriate right for us to talk about right?) Stein's;Gate follows Okabe Rintaro, a Chuunibyou otaku dork who acts like a mad scientist who is hiding from a secret organization. Only one day, while experimenting on bananas teleported across the room using a modified microwave (no seriously) Okabe and his friends, the "super hacker" Daru and cosplayer Mayuri stumble into an actual conspiracy, involving assassination, time travel, and world domination! Stein's;Gate is notable not just for being a fantastic piece of science fiction, but also for being a truly fascinating character study, as the goofy and never serious Okabe is forced to face a gruesome series of events, and either rise to the occasion or fall to pieces. Stein's;Gate is a must watch for anyone who enjoys sci-fi anime or media of the time travel and parallel world's variety, and we'll definitely be watching it at the store at some point!


This month, Carolyn recommends the new Tomie collection by Junji Ito. I feel like half of my recommendations are these special Junji Ito volumes, but they keep putting out a new one every couple months and they keep getting better! Tomie is an overlooked Junji Ito classic, at least in the states it is. It's had a pretty spotty release history over the decades, with volumes of questionably quality going in and out of print, so it's pretty exciting to finally see it not just in one big volume (it's almost 800 pages big!), but in one big beautiful hardcover volume! It's not just outside that's important, but what's on the inside, and just like Tomie herself, this gorgeous volume is packed with horrors. The story of Tomie is not so much a linear story, but more of the idea of a story, repeated over and over again, the character Tomie more or less being a vehicle for Junji Ito to unleash some of his more gruesome ideas. The plot is more or less this: Tomie is a beautiful women, so beautiful that men are driven to kill for her, and sometimes kill her. But just barely below the surface she is 100% monster, she's evil and conniving, and also she is also often times a disgusting worm creature, or a living head in a bucket, or some other unspeakable horror. If you've ever fallen for a Junji Ito story, you're going to love the Tomie collection, because Tomie is where Junji Ito is at his finest.