I made a tweet the other day…
“Should Wednesday’s blog be a continuation of the expression drawing, or a rice cake review?”
Why are rice cakes so popular?!
I suppose I understand the reason quite well myself… they’re so delicious! I got so many for New Year’s myself!
The most specific rice cake or ‘mochi’ related to the New Year is ‘kagamimochi’, so today I’ll be doing a review of one of those for fun! Those who wanted the expression series to continue, don’t worry – I’ll be getting to it soon!!
Alright, let me go find some kagamimochi!
… I asked around a bit, only to find out from Seki-sama that GSC doesn’t actually have any kagamimochi!
W-What?!
But if I don’t have any how can I do my review! :(
At first I thought maybe I could still run out and buy some at a convenience store or something to grab one… Seki-sama even called Tokyo Solamachi for me to ask if they still had any in stock… but unfortunately they were all sold out!
Sorry Seki-sama!! I promise I won’t take any more of your precious time!!
The Nitroplus Offices!
The floor above the GSC offices is Nitroplus’ offices! It looks so fancy here… plus, I think I can see a kagamimochi sitting right there by the entrance!
I can only imagine how strange it must have sounded when I asked to borrow it, but the Nitroplus staff were strangely understanding and said I was welcome to! It’s so lovely to work around such kind people!!
A big thank you to the Nitroplus staff!!
Kagamimochi!!
| Kagamimochi are sets of two round, flat rice cakes, in which a smaller one is placed on top of a larger one. They are put on display during the new year as an offering to the gods, more specifically to the God of Grains, ‘Toshigami’.
‘Kagami’ means mirror, while ‘mochi’ means rice cake. The name ‘Kagamimochi’ originated from the fact that the shape resembled an old-fashioned kind of round copper mirror, which was used in religious ceremonies. It is said that the shape was taken from one of the three sacred treasures, ‘Yata no Kagami’ or ‘The Eight-Span Mirror’. |
It really is an impressive offering! It’s gorgeous!!
Not to mention this particular one is a Madoka special! As expected of Nitroplus!!! (This was apparently a product sold by Brain POLICE Light.)
It almost feels bad to unwrap it all and not just review it as it is, but today’s review is of the rice cake itself – so I’ll just have to take off all the decorations carefully!
All unwrapped!
It was hard to get a good look at the shape while all the decorations were still on, but now you can see lovely balance of the actual thing!
Kagamimochi is all about getting a good balance of the two round rice cakes as they are placed on top of each other!
This is how the other side looks!
It’s practically identical to the front!! Σ(ﾟДﾟ)
It’s quite hard to see from these photos, but you can quite easily tell which side is the front by looking at the letters on the sheet at the bottom.
The mandarin at the top can be removed!
Traditionally the mandarin is supposed to be displayed on top of the Kagamimochi, but on this one you can move it around wherever you please! The mandarin isn’t actually real, it’s just made from plastic, so it won’t go off!
It’s definitely a product that Kagamimochi fans will consider amazing quality! (this feels just like a figure review!)
A picture from a low angle!
The lower layer is definitely gives the whole thing a nice sense of stability. If you put a shadow across it like this, it feels a lot more like an offering!
The narrow connecting section!
This is definitely the sexiest curve on this Kagamimochi! All these photos actually still have a transparent plastic cover over the actual rice cake part… it’s like it’s still wearing it’s clothes!
So smooth and shiny!!
Take a good long look at this picture… what do you see?
Don’t you think it looks a bit like a girl’s body?
Maybe it’s just my mind being weird… :P
It also comes with a small offering stand!
The actual Japanese name of the stand is a ‘Sanpou’, which is the kind of stand you put the Kagamimochi offering on! There are three holes on three sides of the stand, while the forth remains closed! It really gives it a much more gorgeous feeling suited to New Years to have it displayed up on here!
Kagamimochi!!
These are traditionally opened on the 11th January!
Get in contact with a Japanese supermarket, or other food stores if you have any preorder or sales queries! :P
But that’s all for today!
I hope to see you all again tomorrow!! (・∀・)ノ゛
… is what I’d normally say, but today that isn’t the case!
I’ll be off on a business trip to China for the next three days!
I don’t want everyone to wait for prototype reviews, so in that time, I have three people to take over the blog for me and show off some lovely figures!
They are Gou from the sales team, Shuu-chan from the planning team and Nutty from the production team!
I’m sure they’ll provide a slightly different viewpoint for the reviews compared to me, so they should be quite an interesting read! I hope everyone will take a look!
I will actually be stealing the GSC Newcomer’s blog for the days I’m away for some reports from China, so if you’re interested, you can read up about China over here – they’ll only be in Japanese though, sorry!
GSC Newcomer’s Blog
http://ameblo.jp/blog-shinsotsu2012/
Anyways, I hope to see you all on the Newcomer’s blog over the next few days, or instead next week back on this blog!
Gou-kun… I leave the blog in your hands now!! (・∀・)ノ゛
© Magica Quartet／Aniplex・Madoka Partners・MBS