Those of you who have been to Japan in, like, the last four decades and have shopped around in some of the nerdier areas like Tokyo's Akihabara and Osaka's Den Den Town have probably stumbled upon a less discussed strata of Japanese collectibles: telephone cards. While the cards themselves are perfectly functional, should you actually find a public phone that will take them in this day and age, quite often they've been printed more for promotional purposes than actual practical ones, their form factor often inviting unique designs and artwork that you won't find on other merchandise. These days, I get the feeling that they're most widely associated with idols, but you can be sure that games have gotten in on the act plenty of times over the years, particular galge and eroge.
The ones with actual people on them have never held much sway over me, but since discovering them in 2009, I've been something of a very casual and even more distant admirer of the game-branded ones from afar. Given that some of the rarer ones with more iconic designs and characters can fetch a decently hefty sum, though, I'd long sworn off ever buying any myself. There's plenty of stuff I'll pay stupid amounts of money purely for their form over function, but doing so for what amounts to small pieces of paper that are flimsier than even their baseball counterparts has always been a bridge too far.
That is with one exception, and of course it had to be for my one and only in Amagami, Haruka. I stumbled across this design several years ago, probably while shopping for blu-rays or figures to round out my collection, and I realized that perhaps there was a phone card for me after all that I would actually pay money to own. I sat on it for a couple years to wait for the price to slowly come down—Amagami has enjoyed an unofficial resurgence for well over half a decade now thanks to vtuber let's plays—and finally pulled the trigger last week for several hundred yen. Still more money than I would ever dream of parting with for just about anything else of this ilk, but, if you've been with me for a long time, you know how much Haruka means to me. She's worth it.
And so, I present you, the Internet's biggest scan of my favorite Amagami in her element. Let it now be never said that I am truly above buying anything, anything at all, for this gremlin to end all gremlins.
This one's for all you other Amagami sickos out there on Cohost, all five of you who joined me when I migrated to this site away from Twitter. I know I don't Amagamipost nearly as much as I used to, but rest assured, the flames of that passion burn as brightly as ever. 