Angel Beats! itasha auction wraps up for unexpected sum

01:40 cherishe 0 Comments

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Japanese marketing ploys of using popular characters to sell everything under the sun isn’t a new concept by any means, but when it comes to itasha, they’re almost always custom works created by otaku for otaku.

However, as part of a game-changing move, publisher VisualArt’s recently announced it would be auctioning off a BMW with an official Angel Beats! wrap job, posing the question of just how high fans of the series would go to purchase a one-of-a-kind, official item from their favorite series. The result, however, probably wasn’t what anyone was expecting.

The car in question, an Angel Beats! Series 1 BMW 120i courtesy of Wordbank, was put up on auction site Yahoo!Auctions Japan on August 6.

Word quickly spread between fans of the series and itasha lovers alike, and soon bids were pouring in from hopeful otaku. But when you look at the awesome detailing of the car, can you blame them?

The pre-owned BMW dealership vehicle comes with a car navigation system, rear-view camera, and leather seats on top of its beautiful custom finish.

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As you can see, no details have been spared. It also comes with two autographed signboards, one pictured below, and the other a custom drawing of your favorite characters by the original character designer Na-Ga.

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But with so much going on, surprisingly it seems like the final bid didn’t go quite as high as expected. The auction ended two weeks after it began for 1,505,400 yen (approx. US$12,500), which we admit is no small sum of money, but considering non-custom models of the same BMW series are valued at twice as much, seems a little on the low side.

As of yet VisualArt’s hasn’t made any remarks about the result, but some netizens have commented that driving an official car like that would put a lot of pressure on the driver or that all the attention and people possibly taking pictures would be a little too distracting.

All we can say for sure is that the high bidder certainly got a good deal, and he or she is probably floating on cloud nine right about now.

Source: My Game News Flash
Feature/top image: VisualArt’s/Key
Insert images: Yahoo!Auctions/VisualArt’s/Key