LEVEL UP!

The LEVEL UP! is another item from my trip to Japan last year.
I bought it at the same store I got the Baccano shirt in. It was a little hole in the wall called “Gee Store”.  It took us a while to track it down but, with the help of the iPhone and GPS, we were able to find almost all of the stores that sell Cospa merchandise in Tokyo. Each store has slightly different stock and merchandise –like older and newer items depending on how much traffic they receive compared to another franchise-. This was from several seasons ago so you might be able to get it from another store or their website.
http://www.cospa.com/detail/id/00000027465
Ohh yeah, grey shirt. These match some of the pants I have well and are a healthy change from my slew of straight black or white shirts. The design is printed in one color –white- with very detailed halftone dots to create tones and shades. Because of this detail and the very fine lines on the graphic I am worried that the smaller areas will begin to fade or simply break off quickly. The shirt has only been worn a few times so I haven’t been able to gauge the ruggedness of the ink.
This design is a little complicated and I didn’t know its origin when I got it. At the top it says “Congratulations!” in a scripty font outlined in the color of the shirt. All the way across the middle in big capital letters it reads, “LEVEL UP!” with sparklies and outer glow. Conveniently blocked by the “LEVEL UP!” is a scantily clad anime girl complete with a tiara and lingerie. Way on the bottom it gives us the name of the character and a brief description: “Kumiko – The Goddess Of Level Up”. She was the main character of the H-game “Toushin Toushi” where the goal is to win a tournament of champions in order to enter the Combat God mansion. She cameos in the sequel “Toushin Toushi 3” as the Goddess of Level Up for some reason, but that’s what the shirt is referring to.
Truly, I got the shirt because it had a half-naked chick on it. I feel that if a store is okay selling it in a store then it is okay to wear on the street. I mean, hot anime girls are awesome and I’m cool with wearing my interests where I go, so the two should go hand in hand right? I didn’t know that this was specifically an adult title when I got it, but I figured it was a distinct possibility. I have the wherewithal to not take this to a group of people who are going to be uneasy or somewhere I need to make a good impression. I feel that lowbrow characters, “art” and design are A) sexy, B) underrepresented an C) pushed down by censors and… lets go with “prudes”.

In Japan the term “Otaku” is synonymous with someone who has become obsessed with the anime and game culture; a person who is destined to be “forever alone” and is shunned from society for being so far off from the norm. Out west we use this word otaku as a term of endearment, for someone who is “hardcore” and devoted to the “fandom”. I wore this shirt proudly on one of the last days I was in Japan and I hope that someone saw it and was like, “That guy is such a nerd…” But what I really hope, is that someone knew who the character was and secretly wanted to give me a high five.