Loot Anime September 2017: Survive (Review, Spoilers)

Episode 23 of Loot Anime, Survive, arrived with a cache of survivors from Naruto, Death Note, Black Clover, and Deadman Wonderland, including a souvenir t-shirt from a prison amusement park, a magical manga about an anti-magic user, a ninja assassin, and shinigami footwear.

My favorite item in Survive was the exclusive pair of Death Note socks, because not only are they anime socks and Death Note merchandise, but they also depict Ryuk, my second favorite Death Note character (after L, of course), and the shinigami whose Death Note fell into the human world and started Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s twelve volume manga odyssey. Not only do I love the look of these socks, but my feet love them too, as they have lots of elasticity at the toes and the lower calf, resulting in a roomier fit that isn’t always typical of novelty footwear.

Though I haven’t read the manga or watched the anime, I’m a big fan of this month’s exclusive Deadman Wonderland t-shirt, due to the energetic contrast of the bubblegum pink and rose red imagery on the solid black fabric. Moreover, it’s a soft, comfortable cotton. This was my second favorite inclusion in Survive.

Banpresto’s figures usually rock, and the Loot Anime original coloring variant of Sasuke from Naruto is no exception. The figure is an awesome sculpt with studied anatomy, character art, realistic contours on his garments, and excellent light effects in the color art.

This month’s manga is the Loot Crate edition of Black Clover Volume 1, a book which I’ve already read, enjoyed, and reviewed on NerdSpan. For those that don’t click the link, Black Clover tells the story of Asta, a boy who dreams of being the Wizard King,despite his lack of magical gifts. When he discovers that his deep-dyed mundanity is actually a powerful knack for anti-magic, his wizard’s journey begins.

Last month, I wondered if Loot Crate was experimenting with a run of phone charms made from varying materials, and this month’s charm, the exclusive wooden Yume, seems to confirm that. It’s a nice teardrop shaped charm with Yume’s face pressure-stamped into a light wood, which is then layered on another piece of wood to provide the right amount of strength to survive purses and pockets.

Survive’s poster art, created by Xipel, is a dynamic tetrads color scheme using red, white, black, and grey to great effect. Simply based on the evocativeness of the color art, the Survive poster is my favorite Loot Anime poster so far.

Survive was an excellent installment of Loot Anime simply due to its high quality inclusions: the excellent and comfortable Ryuk socks hugging my feet as I write this; the engrossing color schemes not only on this month’s tee, but this month’s poster; a fun manga to read or share; and, a magnificent Banpresto that brings another manga and anime character into three dimensions.

While Survive is no longer available, until October 27th, you can order next month’s Loot Anime, Gods and Spirits, which contains merchandise devoted to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Mushi-Shi, Noragami, and the artist Yoshitaka Amano, the artist best-known for his work on Final Fantasy, Vampire Hunter D, Gatchaman (aka Battle of the Planets), and Speed Racer.

October’s theme is #GODSANDSPIRITS! Sign up by 10/27 for #JoJosBizarreAdventure, #Noragami, #Mushishi, & #Amano! https://t.co/ObPaH9AK5p pic.twitter.com/L82gJSvLvn

— Loot Anime (@lootanime) September 28, 2017

Through the preceding link, you can not only place your order, but get a spoiler for the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure inclusion.