We’ve taken a few looks at The Otaku Box by now. If you missed our previous coverage, it’s a customizable anime surprise box, with figures, cloth posters, and random anime items inside. Members can vote on what characters or series should be included next.
What Sort of Thing is Inside?
Each month brings figures, t-shirts, and cloth posters, alongside some other things. Notable of The Otaku Box is that it runs somewhat lewder than most other anime boxes. There’s even an uncensored option, which does include nudity on the cloth poster.
The items do change slightly depending on the options. Aside from the level of lewdness, you can either remove the t-shirt for a lower cost and choose whether to include a 1:9 scale figure or a mini-figure instead. Long-term subscribers can also get bonus items.
It is worth noting that this is an unofficial, but not bootleg item box. They work with artists to create the items. It sits between things like the Sugoi Mart Anime Set which is fully official, and Anime Box Club, which appears to use fanart without attribution and clones of official models.
Fortunately, each box also includes an information sheet. This lets you know about all the items, with a little commentary.
What’s In the Box – June 2023
Opening the box up, I found the following:
- Erza Scarlet Figure
- Suu Figure (Bonus)
- Otaku Box Liz Figure (Bonus)
- Mini Liz ‘Hero’ Figure (Bonus)
- T-Shirt
- Cloth Poster
- Medical Bag
- Hip Flask
- Silicone Bracelets
- Cards
- Standee (Bonus)
- Hero badge (Bonus)
- Information Sheet
Figures
As mentioned, these are all unofficial, but not bootleg goods, so you won’t find them anywhere aside from The Otaku Box.
The June 2023 figure is Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail. She’s wearing her bunny girl outfit. I’ve not watched this anime myself (though a former writer more familiar did review the game for us), but I believe the outfit is a fairly accurate recreation of an outfit from the second Fairy Tail movie. It’s quite a nicely designed figure. If I had to pick on anything about the details, it’d be that there’s a missing eye under the fringe, but the fringe doesn’t quite cover where it should be.
Rather than an unstable peg to attach her foot to the stand, Erza is attached to a bar stool via a small peg, which in turn is attached to the stand. This is very stable when left alone, but the stool does allow her to easily spin out of place.
If choosing the smaller figure, the offering this month was a Demon Slayer one.
Presumably as a bonus for the VIP programme, they included a figure of Suu from Monster Musume. This is a repeat from the September 2022 box. It’s a great figure and a personal favorite, but I’ll leave you to read about it here.
Another bonus was a figure of Liz, the owner of / mascot character of The Otaku Box. It has her carrying one of the Otaku Boxes. Despite not being a character from an anime I watch (or any anime), I like this one quite a lot. She’s wearing a cute outfit, particularly the hat. The curls in the hair come through well as well. In terms of attaching to the stand, it has raised footholds with pegs, which are much more secure than the solution for the Moka Akashiya figure last month.
The other bonuses included the same mini Liz figure that seems to be made of rubber that we received last time. The hero badge too. These are six-month bonuses. A Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid keychain was listed as a VIP bonus, but wasn’t included in my box.
Most of the figures here are bonus ones, but I was certainly happy to receive so many of them in one box! As always, the disclaimer is that these are good for the price; not expensive high-end figures.
T-Shirt
Sword Art Online items are always welcome, and even more when they’re of Lisbeth. She’s one of my favorites, just below Sinon! The outfit isn’t the most recognizable for her, but even without her blacksmith dress, it looks great. This design is more subtle than some of the t-shirts that come with The Otaku Box too, so it can be worn anywhere.
Cloth Poster
The cloth poster is Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail again. This time around, we checked out the uncensored variant, which features her topless. Much like the poster of Marin last month, it generally looks great, but there’s something about the face that makes the aspect ratio look slightly off to me. The print quality and everything are all great though.
Medical Bag
A medical bag is always useful to have. This Otaku Box branded medkit can be filled with first aid supplies and kept somewhere safe.
Hip Flask
If you’ve watched Konosuba, you’ll know that Aqua likes a party and a drink. That certainly makes her a fitting character to put on this Hip Flask.
The face on it is comically horrible looking, which it kind of gets away with considering Konosuba’s frequent use of weird faces. Otherwise, the design looks nice. I’ll be using it for display, but it has a convenient arm to keep the top on, is made of stainless steel, and it’s convenient to carry around.
Silicone Bracelets
A couple of silicone bracelets are included, with some motivational quotes. “We can’t waste time worrying about the what if’s” from Bleach’s Ichigo Kurosaki and “No matter how hard or impossible it is, never lose sight of your goal” from One Piece’s Luffy.
Cards and Standee
The same five cards from Demon’s Trick (an original manga from The Otaku Box) as last month were included again, as well as the same standee of Yuki from the same series.
The unique card this month was Fubuki from One Punch Man. The uncensored version of the box puts everything on display and comes with an interesting profile of her on the back. Amusingly, the tips of the nipples shine in the light.
Final Thoughts
While it was because of the bonuses, I was happy with the sheer amount of figures in the June 2023 Otaku Box. A Fairy Tail fan may appreciate the Erza one, but it certainly looks nice. The bigger Liz figure is great. And while I already have the Suu figure and there are some other previous ones that I missed and would’ve preferred, it is a particularly good one, so I don’t mind a spare. The T-shirt was a nice one too, and one that I can see myself wearing often in public.
Some of the other items are a little more mixed, but the medical bag is a useful item to have and might remind some people to get prepared if not. Hopefully, the Aqua hip flask won’t do the opposite and encourage a bit of sly day drinking that causes accidents.
Many thanks go to The Otaku Box for sending out a box for this feature.
A gamer since the days of Amstrad and DOS and someone who has dabbled in a variety of professions. He enjoys a wide variety of genres, but has been focusing on visual novels and virtual reality in recent years. Head Editor of NookGaming. Follow him and the website on @NookSite.
