Black Friday sales have come and gone, the chaotic crowds swarming the entrances to big box stores, small boutiques, and shopping malls have thinned to more reasonable gaggles of people. But that doesn’t mean that holiday shopping is over. Far from it! If anything, the Black Friday sales are just the frenzied beginning of the much larger, month long shopping season. From Thanksgiving evening to the last hours of New Year’s Day nearly every retailer will be busy bees, helping everyone get ready for the holidays while enjoying one last burst of business to help balance their bank accounts before the end of the year. Love it or hate it, this has become a yearly tradition for many. Though I tend to skip Black Friday sales, there were many in the anime blog-o-sphere that seemed to be very excited about it! Their posts were quite entertaining. Inspired by a post by Beneath The Tangles Team about Black Friday Shopping, and the yearly shopping season got me to thinking, who are the best shoppers in anime? Not just which characters would be the most fun to go shopping with, but what anime characters had some serious shopping skills? Who are big enough, strong enough, who had the most fortitude? Who in the anime world are up to the challenge of being a Pro Shopper?!
Tatsu – Way of the House Husband
I definitely agree with Beneath The Tangles that having Tatsu from The Way of the House Husband would be a huge asset when going on a shopping mission. In their post, BTT mentioned that Tatsu would be both a scout for great deals and could also be a body guard of sorts. I think those are very good points, but it’s not just his scouting and guarding strengths that would make him a top tier shopper. Many of his old yakuza skills could also make him a shopper to be feared. The Immortal Dragon could keep everything on track, making sure that nothing was missed on the shopping list with his excellent organization skills. With his menacing appearance and his take-charge attitude, wading through crowds of feisty shoppers and fending off competition for in-demand sale items would be a piece of cake! The only challenge to his excellent shopping skills is that he’s definitely too easily distracted by cute dogs and taking pictures to post online!
Oota – Tanaka kun is Always Listless
Though Tanaka kun is hardly the ace of the shopping aisles, in fact he would usually rather take an nap under a nice shady tree, he happens to have a rather tall friend that is! The lanky Oota uses his height to spot great deals from a far, his long arms to reach over the crowds to snag hard to reach items, and his shopping know how to plot out which bargains to go for and which ones to skip. It’s not just height that makes Oota a superior shopper, it’s also his dedication to getting that hard to find item no matter what. On one occasion, Tanaka didn’t even remember what it was that his sister had sent him to the store to buy, but with Oota’s help they decided to buy everything that could have possibly been the right item! Because surely out of all the purchases, one of them had to be right. Though Oota might not be the friendliest looking high schooler, in fact even his little sister refers to him as a gorilla, many grannies at the grocery store have mentioned that he would make an excellent son-in-law because of his amazing shopping skills. Little do they know that there’s a very sleepy best friend that’s already spoken for the rest of Oota’s life.
Yarizui – Ben-To
Nothing trains a hardened and disciplined shopper like a discount ready-meal death match! And that’s exactly what the anime Ben-To is all about. The feistiest of those food fighters is the main character’s mentor, Sen Yarizui. In the grocery store battle royal competition to get the few discounted pre-made meals, Yarisui has had to win fist fights with dozens of other high school students, many of which are bigger, stronger, and older than she is. Winning these unbalanced fights is exactly what she’s been doing. She not only can waltz into a grocery store with little money and waltz right out again, completely unscathed, with all the ready-made meals she wants. She’s also been so good for so long that she’s wall papered the club room of the Half Priced Food Lover’s club with all the discount sticker trophies from her grocery store victories! Not to mention that she’s also the founder and president of the club. This fast kicking, high jumping high schooler might even give Tatsu from Way of the House Husband some trouble, because when she’s hungry nothing gets in her way!
Shout Out to Beneath The Tangles!
Definitely check out their post on Black Friday shopping, it’s a really fun read!
Anime Hanabi 