Loot Anime April 2017: Humanity (Review, Spoilers)

Loot Anime’s Humanity crate arrived, containing remnants and refugees from the monster-ravaged anime and manga franchises Attack on Titan, School-Live!, and Black Lagoon. As two of Humanity’s inclusions have some real-world application—kitchen gear, and something for those that jot their ideas on the go—it seems that this month’s Loot Anime may be taking a cue from Marvel Gear + Goods, a subscription which delivers a number of usable items. Or it may simply be the theme of survival that underscores this month’s franchises.

There’s no Crate Craft for Humanity, but this month’s crate can be turned inside out so that it resembles the dwellings of Attack on Titan, complete with a Titan-sized hole in the back. Manga collectors: this would snugly hold eight to ten standard-sized manga, if you have any volumes that you want to keep safe from shelf wear.

The most unique item this month was no doubt the exclusive Attack on Titan pouch and notepad set made by A Crowded Coop. This is a sweet AoT collectible, with the Survey Corps’ symbol on the pouch and the notepad, and there’s also some utility in this item, which has graph paper pages, a carpenter’s pencil, and a loop, so that you can snap this on to your belt or bag strap. If you’ve never sharpened a carpenter’s pencil before, you may want to check out Google or YouTube for a quick tutorial, as you can’t jam one into a pencil sharpener.

The second Attack on Titan item in the Humanity crate is this well-sculpted Levi figure made by Banpresto. Banpresto’s recent inclusions in Loot Anime have been outstanding, my favorite of which was the Luffy figure in the Together crate. Banpresto did an excellent job this month as well, painting just the right amount of arrogance on Levi’s face so that everyone that gets an eyeful of this piece knows instantly that this is AoT’s resident Napoleonic macho man.

Trust me when I tell you to put this exclusive variant of Yen Press’s School Live! Volume 1 on top of your reading pile. I’m a fan of School-Live! already (you can find my review of Volume Six through this link), so believe me when I warn you that if you judge a book by its cover, specifically judging this book by its cover without reading the blurb on the back cover in full, you may be surprised by the contents, which includes (implied) shovel decapitations, zombies, and a lead character who is completely out of her gourd. Yeah, that’s her on the cover—the one with the teddy bear and the cat pin.

Next we have an exclusive Black Lagoon cork-backed coaster set in a metal tin designed to look like an ammo case by Jack Nadel Inc.. More nerd kitchen gear is always a plus, and we can’t seem to get enough coasters, as on game night, the table is usually loaded with various drinks, including booze, sodas, coffee, and matcha. I like that there’s a lot of room in this tin, so that I could use it to hold all of my coasters, loose tea leaves, playing cards, or any other small items I want to keep together.

Most of Loot Anime’s Yume phone charms have a black background, but this month’s Humanity charm, with art from Michelle Mauk, has a blood-red background. This matches the red background of this month’s Humanity poster, illustrated by Low Zi Rong and Wong Su Ling of Collateral Damage Studios, which depicts Yume battling a dragon.

Humanity’s last days have passed, but until May 27^th, you can order next month’s Loot Anime, Unnatural, which contains exclusive items from the franchises Mob Psycho 100, Death Note, Noragami, and Parasyte.

Loot Crate sent the review copy.