itg bag top

You’ve probably heard of itasha before, otaku-owned cars that are so laden with designs of anime girls that they are almost painful to look at. Whether you’re a fan or a hater, you have to admit the owners of itasha are extremely dedicated to their passion. There’s only problem: you can’t flaunt your passion when you’re not in your car.

Thankfully there’s a solution! Ita-bags—bags that are so weighed down with anime girl pictures and merchandise that they may cause sudden pain in the beholder. And ita-bags are not a niche interest either; they everywhere. There was even an ita-bag contest held in Tokyo recently, and you have to see the winning bag to believe it.

The ita-bag contest was held in Tokyo’s Tachikawa City between July 25 and August 23. Apparently one bag was just so painful to look at that the judges immediately knew they had a winner, however, and on August 24, they posted the photo on Twitter: a Love Live! ita-bag centered on Minami Kotori:

▼ “Take a look at our winner from the ita-bag contest!”

https://twitter.com/seiyufan/status/635708983639040000

Want a closer look? Here’s a tweet from the winning ita-bag owner himself. (Click images to enlarge.)

▼ “Seems like I won the ita-bag contest, so I’ll post my winning entry for everyone to see!”

Oh. Ouch. Geez, it’s like looking at the sun. You can only look at that ita-bag for a few seconds before it really starts to burn.

While your eyes are recovering, here’s some more tweets from the winner who attended the recent Comiket with his epic bag:

▼ Wearing what looks to be a Minami Kotori watch, so that the non-bag carrying arm doesn’t get too jealous.

▼ “Eight people asked to have their picture taken with me, so happy! Even cosplayers asked me, so happy! Got some compliments from the staff, so happy! Comiket is so much fun!”

https://twitter.com/vicks2054/status/632453070874525696

Of course Japanese netizens, most probably just like you, had some questions about this bag:

“How can you carry that around? It looks so heavy.”
“Is it even a bag anymore?”
“How much did all that cost?”
“I like how there’s even a picture of her on the bag itself… at least, I think that’s the bag….”
“You, sir, have my respect.”

So what do you think? Would you be willing to carry around an ita-bag of your own? Or is even the idea just too painful?

Source: Twitter (@seiyufan), Twitter (@vicks2054) via My Game News Flash
Featured/top image: Twitter (@vicks2054)