My week, it has been made!

I have long admired those who supported the H!P girls through their regular purchasing of merchandise.

By admired, I mean that I was jealous of those devoted bastards* to the point of tossing stuffed animals at the screen every time I saw that someone had bought twelve zillion versions of Morning Musume’s new single, or nearly went oldschool and tore at my hair on seeing scans from Maasa’s photobook.

Now, I’m not saying that I didn’t buy the occasional CD, but that’s just it. That’s all I did. A single or two for my birthday, or BK’s latest album brought back when a friend went to Japan. I always felt like I wasn’t doing enough. I think a lot of fans feel like that after a while- that it’s not enough anymore to just sit there and watch.

About three days ago I decided that I wasn’t going to let myself off the hook anymore. I’m 16, I have a job and nothing to spend my money on. Thanks to the new HelloStoreUsa, I have now joined the ranks of those people whose webpages I used to bombard with stuffed toys: I have bought my first Official H!P T-shirt (please note the capitalization- this is serious)!

This is about as far as my writing skills can take me for now, so here is a picblizzard of my purchase!

Choosing which shirt to buy was an easy decision: It had to be one of Linlin’s. Here it is, in all of its glory! By the way, the color is much brighter and more vibrant in real life. I have to say, though, I think that the smiley in the lower left corner fits Lin’s facial expressions better. Oh well!

Here’s the shirt being worn. By the way, I got the large size, and it’s huge. I tied it back with a rubber band in this picture, but wow, it really is large!

It was at about this point that I started jumping about and down and squealing like a fangirl. I nearly broke my mom’s camera.

Here’s the accompanying wrist-band. I’m not sure I’ll ever wear it outside my house, but then again, it has Linlin’s name on it. I don’t mind looking like an 80s reject for her! (Seriously, why wristbands? Is it so the wota can wipe their sweat on a physical representation of their idol? Is that some sort of common wota kink that I’m missing out on?)

Finally, the part of my purchase that made me squee the loudest! Pictures of Linlin! Wow. I mean, just… wow. Look at her, for Gaki’s sake! She’s just… so amazing.

In all, I’m incredibly happy with this purchase. Buying merchandise and supporting my favorite makes me feel like I’m somehow closer to her, an important thing for a fan who has yet to make the pilgrimage to Japan and won’t be able to do so for a while yet. The t-shirt is a reminder that the person I’m supporting is in fact, a real, physical being and not just some tiny animated figure trapped on my computer screen.

*No offense intended to all of you devoted bastards out there. Really. None. I love you guys. Now go back to fondling your piles of merchandise, you jerks.