Itabag
| Synonyms: | |
| See also: | Itasha, Character shrine, Merch Shrine |
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Itabags or ita-bags (痛バッグ) are purses/backpacks/bookbags used to display fannish items such as merch, charms, enamel pins, keychains, fanart, stickers, buttons, and plushes. Usually a fan's itabag contents will be focused on one character, group of characters, pairing, or series. Some bags are specially designed to be used for this purpose, featuring a transparent plastic window so that items inside can be protected from accidental scratches or falling off and being lost. Itabags originated in Japan in the 2010s and have since spread internationally.
The term "itabag" mirrors the term "itasha", which is a similar fan practice: extensively decorating a car or other vehicle to show the owner's devotion to an anime/videogame character or series. "Ita" is Japanese for ouch or painful, which is a tongue-in-cheek reference to "the pain inflicted on the cars as well as the owner's wallet."[1]
Itabags Created by Fans
Itabga for Ren Akiyama from Kamen Rider Ryuki. This image was posted to Twitter by Satoshi Matsuda, the actor for Akiyama, who was pleasantly surprised to see an itabag for him at a department store in Chengdu, a city in China.
Itabag for Satomi, a J-Pop idol VTuber; part of the boy band Strawberry Prince. By juraneko2.
Paul Dano as Edward Nygma drawn with an itabag for Bruce Wayne by a western fan, oreebaa. Riddlebat fanart.
Itabag for Majima Goro from Yakuza, (specifically as Goromi,) by a western fan, radicaleddy.
Itabag for Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson from Stranger Things by a western fan, a-dragons-drabbles.
References
- ^ Ashcraft, Brian (September 27, 2018). "Trend for Female Geeks: "Painful" Anime Bags". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 2022-06-16. Retrieved February 12, 2019.