Manga Maniac Cafe For the Geek in all of us

It was with a great deal of anticipation that I lugged the beefy, 20 lb package left on my porch by the friendly neighborhood UPS driver into the house. I opened it up, marveling at the shiny black cardboard box that was revealed. The collector box is attractively designed, with the Naruto logo and silver metallic swirls. I like the box a lot.  It’s so glossy and pretty!  I was mesmerized by the swirls, and wondered why I hadn’t been sucked into the Naruto world sooner.  Then I realized it was all due to the influence of the spirals that I was even giving it a second glance now.  Oh! Those devilish spirals!! 

I lifted the lid, exposing the wooden book rack that holds all of that ninja goodness. There are two tiers to the rack, and each has a clear plastic window that slides out for easy access to the books.  The top piece has the Naruto logo, and the bottom piece has another mind-numbing spiral.  These Viz people really know what they’re doing!  If I hadn’t read Uzumaki, I would have been totally sucked in! 

Removing the plastic wrap surrounding the book rack, I stared at all of those unread gems with glee. 27 crisp volumes of Naruto stared back, just waiting to be fondled by a manga maniac. Here’s were things started falling apart. I took the wooden shelf out of the cardboard collector box, only to discover that the backboard was no longer attached to the rest of the unit. The middle supporting piece of wood had splintered, and the glue, applied in the stingiest of amounts, wasn’t adequate to keep the back in place.  Boo hoo! I don’t want to go through the hassle of repackaging this back up and sending it back to Amazon for a replacement. I am hoping that copious amounts of glue will quickly put things right. As a warning to those who have purchased this as a gift, you might want to perform some due diligence and make sure everything is still in one piece before handing it off the recipient. It might save someone from being upset down the road.

I think this is an awesome idea, but the execution is a little weak. The book rack is flimsy at best, (arriving in pieces at worst!). I understand that higher quality would equate to a higher price tag, but I feel a little more research was needed before producing these. The books are too heavy for the unit to support, and the wood looks so cheap. I would almost have preferred something made out of plastic, because it would have been more durable.  Or a divider in the cardboard box, which is a lot more attractive than the wooden rack.  I’m not going to complain overly much, because when it comes down to it, I only bought this set so I could acquire a large chunk of the Naruto series in one easy to make purchase, but it would have been nice if it had arrived in one piece.

Notice the protective clear plastic wrap surrounding the book rack. Little did I know that it was really there to hold everything together! A friend who enjoys woodworking projects offered to fix it up good as new, and I’m going to take him up on his offer.   If all turns out well, I will post another picture.  If not, then please help me mourn the passing of Collector Boxset #621’s mangled wooden book rack.