Quick correction (thank you to a few comments): Ita bag means painful bag, but the initial meaning for this was due to it being seen as cringey/embarassing/painful to look at. Hence terms like ‘ita’ used as an insult towards lolita’s in the days of live journal. Later interpretations of the name see it more as a dedication term. I always try to research & I keep sources saved on my script but unfortunately as an english only speaker, I can miss nuances or extra insight. Mistakes happen and so I appreciate corrections & additional information given in good faith 🙂↕️🎀
I remember ita bag panel in anime-expo 2005 or 2006 they were japanese and gave a history lesson on how the ita bag came to be that's how I got into it. From what I remember itabag started as a bag of favorite band or character and it would be filled with original merchandise and home made like magazines cut out of favorite thing wrapped in that clear tape to Protect the image then use a hole puncher to make a hole and use a safety pin to attach 😂
@@keikoyayoi9454Yes! Pocari Roo made a great video that I only stumbled on after filming (hence the on-screen notation). Apparently it started with V-kei fans cutting out pictures of their favourite member or V-kei bands and sticking it to their bags & stuff. So interesting ✨🎀
It’s the exact same double meaning (painful to look at/painful for the wallet) as itasha, those cars fully covered in character decorations you see driving around in Akihabara sometimes. Character devotion to the point of pain is transcendent.
This is why I love wearing my merch in public. I love it when people stop me and compliment it. A few times, I've even gotten to gush over a character, with a fellow fan girl or fan boy. It's just a fun way to show your interests.
real people love to see my bag even if they dont know the characters ! and Ive gotten other people who did know them ask if they can take a picture of my bag ;o; especially at conventions
EXACTLY! A girl at school saw my Ita bag and told me that the way i designed and organized my Ita bag was very cute she took a pic of my bag, and im happy about it 😭, it sucks that some of my classmates who don't understand Japanese idol culture and anime fan culture told me I'm just showing off and should stop bringing my Ita bag to school (it literally contains the items i need to stay sane and to survive school without getting sent to the prefec or guidance)
As someone who has lived in Japan longer than most tiktokers have had control of their bowels, the phrase "traditional Japanese itabag" is an absolutely wild combination of words to hear someone say with a straight face!
Correct me of I'm wrong but the point of the bag is ti be homemade or made to the person's taste. It would be like telling someone from the UK "traditional British punk vest" when the point of punk clothes is doing what you want with your clothes.
My tikka masala-level hot take: I actually prefer itabags that show off indie/fanmade/handmade merch. I just find fan-made designs so much more varied and interesting than official merch a lot of the time!
I'd rather spend money giving to small artists than a large company tbh. I draw and love supporting other people who are sharing their creations with others.
I also mix in fakes and change my bags every day when I go out. I previously bought a WOC Caviar dupe on the *gtdupe* and I loved it, but I wasn't going to pay $3500 + tax for such a small bag/SLG.
"japanese traditional ita bags" as a korean this is like hearing "korean traditional photocards" and it dealt 4d10 psychic damage to me girl what are you saying
This drama is legit so funny to me because when I was in Japan earlier this year I took my "western" style bag of Minami from i7 with me (rosettes, flowers, custom fabric insert, pins/keychains/badges) and got a ton of compliments in Ikebukuro and Akihabara. Especially from people who were excited that a tourist knew the series in general.
Real. If i saw someone from a fandom i liked, i wouldnt go "erm your bag sucks because it only has one of this character's pin", id be like "OMG FELLOW ____ FAN???'
UGH the same thing happened at a convention I went to??? This one WHITE individual called everyone who's against or criticizes "proshipping" as colonizers... what a weird thing to say??
As someone who is currently learning about the colonization of the Americas (as of writing this comment), comparing a bag to a person who enslaved, abused and murdered thousands of people just to have gold, glory, and god on his side is INSANE.
thats the kinda stuff you say when you have no community or personality, utterly isolated in a suburban hovel. social media is cumbling the very building blocks of culture.
its very… weaboo of them, lol. has the same sort of white knight vibe other anime fans have of protecting japan from the diversity politics of the west, or whatever. but its reversed and for something WAY less important. to use a colonizer to defend a colonizer is so funny to me. like, y’all remember and know that japan are colonizers too…?? 😭 people absolutely bastardize and appropriate japanese culture, but this isn’t an act of… colonization? 😭 like be fr, you’re just minimizing colonization while pretending to be woke… the definition of performative activism
>accuses the West of “colonizing” Japanese culture >tries to gatekeep a Japanese cultural hobby as a Westerner introduced to it by trying to give the “correct” way to participate in the hobby based on her own views The joke literally writes itself holy shit
It’s so common that the people being offended are not even of the origin country/culture. 😅 isn’t it quite demeaning to believe, as a Westerner, that you need to speak for other cultures and niches?
I was going to make this same comment. Like, imagine saying people can't engage in fandom in a certain way because they can't afford 20 copies of the same officially licensed badge. Get the heck outta here with that nonsense. I personally love when I find small enamel pin artists who have a style and product of character that I love.
Right? Like oh. I guess this bag that isn't a sacred item that I am using for it's intended purpose, is unacceptable because oops I can't afford/don't want to enjoy it in the exact same way as you. My ita bag has handmade pins and a mix of pins I got from small artists in it, placed in a way that just allows them all to be visible, because it makes me happy.
My Final Fantasy ita bag was a hit with a random granny in Kyoto, who reminisced with us about how her grandson played the games. It was so wonderful. Sunnie can eat it.
Late, but as an artist alley artist, thanks for discussing small business pricing like that. It really made my blood boil to be accused of 'scamming' people because we have to charge enough money to cover our overhead plus have enough to, you know, live on. We didn't just buy a bunch of premade bags and jack the prices up, we DESIGNED them ourselves. We spent months interfacing with factories to find the right one and to communicate our design to them and checking proofs and raising funds to produce them. Product design is an actual skill that not just anyone can do.
I honestly live for artist alley merch! You guys are so creative and make such cool art! I wish I could go to more of these events because I just love seeing all the art and effort that went into your merch. I hate it when you get criticized for the price as well, your time and effort went into this + the cost of printing them and making the pins/keychains. Its ridiculous to see people get mad over this when they don't even understand what goes into making merch like this
@@noonehereChilling Thank you for saying so! Like the proof that our merch is meaningful to us is in the fact that even if someone can't afford to buy something I designed, just hearing them talk about how much they like it is very motivating and flattering to me. If I were just buying a bunch of aliexpress shit and marking it up I'm pretty sure I wouldn't care lmao. We really would just like to make a salary for what is a full time job even during the day to day outside of the actual event, and the way to do that is by pricing our merchandise. I wish people would change their language from 'that's too expensive' to 'I can't afford that' which is the truth. Nothing wrong with not being able to afford something but it's not my responsibility to make sure everyone can afford everything I make.
@@JamesLacroixx im glad I could make you feel seen. I also hate the verbiage of "its too expensive", it sounds like people like this feel like they should be entitled to your merch at a low price because it isn't "the real thing", which is so stupid. Just because you guys aren't manufacturers, doesn't mean that it isn't worth paying the price. Just keep doing what you're doing and ignore them. You don't own these people anything. It can be hard at times to ignore the haters, but paying them attention won't do you much either. It's a waste of energy. Just keep being creative and do what makes you happy, because it makes a lot of other people happy too, just by being able to see it ⭐🧡💚
same, I just thought it was a genius idea to keep my pins from getting stolen/damaged. It's got all kinds of pins- music, movies, different enamel and badges. I had no idea I was doing it "wrong".
It realy is a great idea to keep your precious rarities save. People have no idea how freakish expensive and/or rare some pins are. Had people bugging me to sell or even gift them some of mine. In an Itabag I could just say, sorry they are not removable from my custom bag.
When I was in middle and high school, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I kept all my little goth pins on a messenger bag, just... Hanging loose, because ita bags literally didn't exist yet, and yeah! They got lost and damaged ALL the time. They're pins! They snag on things sometimes. I would have loved a way to wear all my pins safely. It's an extremely practical idea. I was about to gatekeep myself, as "too old" for an ita bag, but in the spirit of the video, maybe I should... ungatekeep myself and get one? My pins are cute! I should show them off.
@@ScientificallyStupid You aren't doing anything wrong. The whole point of the subculture is to express yourself, so be as creative with it as you want. This "drama" is just a weirdo trying to justify thier preferences and a few people being convinced by thier made up arguement.
I have a “western” ita bag and the only thing I’ve ever gotten in response to people seeing it is that they like my pins lol. I actually love how they’re all mismatched, because it tells a story of my interests! I’ve been able to strike up a conversation with anyone who comments on them, whether it’s about Deadpool or Hello Kitty or Stray Kids. All of my pins have been gathered over the years from meaningful events/moments in my life, or things that interest me. I collected pins wayyy before I had an ita bag. I think ita bags solely based on shows are amazing, the repeat ones are super cool too! I also only use one purse most days, so having all my favorite pins on one bag makes it more fun for me than dedicating one bag to one of my interests (tho that would be fun to do in the future). I think fan culture and ita bags are definitely a matter of taste in what you like. When I saw Sunni’s video, my first thought was “it’s not ur bag???” It seems pointless to fuss about something that people enjoy and see as a form of self expression 🤷♀️
I love that you have all those pins together. That’s definitely the style I’d go for, right now I’m still sorting my punk denim vest jacket with patches and badges as well as a large jacket that has about 100 pins on it that I switch out
I also have an American ita bag and I LOVE being able to show off all of my interests with it!! From the niches things to more mainstream stuff I get to talk to fans of it like me!
i was in japan recently and i saw people with both kinds of bags... the repeating pattern and a bags with mixed matched merch. I dont understand why some people assume Japanese people are always super strict with fan culture... we are all just having fun no matter the country.
I think that’s kind of representative of how a lot of Western anime fans treat Japan. It’s not a real country filled with people who have differing opinions and tastes and independent personalities and subcultures, it’s a far of distant land that you can idolize an extremely simplified version of. And just from personal experience, I feel like a big part of that is because if you can decide there’s “one correct authentic Japanese way” to do something, you can get social power from telling other people they’re doing it wrong. It’s like that white kid in high school who makes it their business to tell everyone else they’re using chopsticks wrong.
@@neonradiusFrom experience, the people that complain THAT MUCH on situations like this aren't fans of anything. They just see a popular situation and try to control it to gain power for THEMSELVES to be the face of something. It's completely disingenuous.
Also hate the overconsumption aspect of sunnie’s ideas. I don’t own an ita bag, I would love too, but I don’t need to own a multiple bags that perfectly match my “curated Aesthetic” my Goemon Ishikawa pin is going to be next to Percy De Rolo because I like Lupin III and critical role.
This, genuinely for me my only goal is to have maybe just 3 bc of my different fashion aesthetics: one that's generally more edgy & black, one that's more pastel and cute, and one that could totally pass as a regular bag and could be worn to formal events (which i already have, a gift from my friend). I feel like my ita bag variation wants aren't so outlandish since they're just general aesthetics that could possibly go with anything I wear in any of those three outfit categories. And even then I'm seriously saving up for it But I feel like it's such a rich person problem to want an ita bag for every single content collection..? I mean if you have the money by all means that sounds cool, but it's crazy to expect that to be what's the "proper way" like in what world would the general populace need that many bags for realistically 😭
Exactly. Not just that, but I'm not buying a bulk of 100+ pins and badges I don't like just so I can have a "curated aesthetic." I'm going to use the pins and badges I have that I do like.
To add to this, Chinese Ita bags also have their own take on this. They like to decorate the bag beautifully dedicated to just one character but everything would be placed strategically and they're really aesthetically pleasing to look at. I saw some Japanese tik tok creators that recreated a Chinese style ita bag because they find it cute.
@@H00DEDCR0Wno it is not. What? These are quite literally abbreviations that are used online . You would have to be online quite a bit to know these very well.
If you are on japanese SNS 90% of bags that go viral are big repeat bags. But if you go outside to live events, a lot of people have small bags with different can badges and decorations inside. Especially chinese style bags that are more decorations than goods have gained popularity. And "oddly shaped" bags are rare but exist in japan as well. The only difference is that they are official and not fan made. The idea that there is only one true itabag style is chronically online. It's not happening in real life in japan. If you have a cheap mixed bag and meet japanese otaku, they would not care.
it’s a classic case of “person not in group speaking for the group”, which seems to always happen w anime fans and japan. otaku culture is a culture about loving what you love without a care what other people think, a counter to japan’s strict collective culture. otherwise, why else would they dress up in crazy expensive costumes or spend thousands of dollars on anime figures… the japanese do not care. it’s not like they do ita bag checks in front of cons. japanese people who aren’t familiar with it and would like it. as they usually do with weaboos- typically they’re just happy you’re into the same stuff they’re into.
I was gonna say, there's absolutely NO WAY that every single ita bag put together by a japanese person is a repeat bag, and to claim otherwise paints japanese fan culture as a monolith. the "standard" look may differ between countries, but that doesn't mean an assorted bag isn't an ita bag.
Im on the chinese side and find it wonderful that people will make big, elaborate bag designs to compliment a single fan-made badge made by indie artists thats sold for like, 3 buck a pop. We're here to celebrate the series and our love for the characters, not to show off how many of the same shit we can buy as a flex. I love repeat bags as well, but to gatekeep other designs is just not it.
The funniest thing of all of this is a quick search of 痛バッグ on Twitter immediately shows Japanese users also creating mixed-item ita bags, making her belief that only repeating badge patterns being "real" on the foundation that it's what Japanese people do is just wrong.
I've made a few bags and had no idea there was even a difference. I just assumed the whole point of an ita bag was something that was "painful to look at" because it has so much going on.
@@BJGvideosNo, it refers to it being cringe. Instead of fitting in with the rest of society and having a normal bag, the bag has otaku goods on full display.
"Fandoms are supposed to be fun" louder for the people in the back. She can say all she likes about what a "proper" ita bag is supposed to look like but I doubt less privileged people in Japan limited to 2nd hand merch stores and the same cheap mass-produced ita bags we were stuck with originally share the same sentiment.
it's funny that you used a battle jacket at 3:21 as an example of a western version of an ita bag, because it has the EXACT same online debates around what is and isn't a "proper" jacket. usually the arguments are around what kinds of patches you're allowed to put on (only bands youre "actually" a fan of, only bands you've seen live, only punk/metal bands, only the RIGHT punk/metal bands, DIY patches are lame, putting political stuff (aka being visibly queer) is cringey, etc etc). the arguments probably exist in real life a little but only in super echo-chambery spaces, most people will just say hey cool jacket.
I'm so glad I have no familiarity with that particular fandom. Yes, I consider metal bands to be a fandom. I have a friend who remade his patch vest on stream, sewing one patch per stream, and it was a great time. He played music from the band the patch was from and talked about how much he enjoyed whichever concert he got it from if he got it from a concert. Some of the patches were actually fan-made because the band didn't make their own, and some weren't patches from bands at all. Nobody cared! And from the amount of work he put into placing each patch perfectly so that the vest as a whole was aesthetically pleasing, you're right: it was exactly like an itabag. And it was a cool vest.
I find it incredibly funny that there are people who say you can't put political stuff on battle jackets when punk culture was born out of political counterculture.
@@dutchik5107Yeah it’s a really dumb thing to criticize. Like, I’m planning to turn a jean jacket into a battle jacket by putting something that shouldn’t be controversial but somehow is becoming controversial lately on the back in massive runes. The people who can recognize it exactly will either be mildly amused or offended by the title of a relatively mainstream song. It is a deliberate political statement because I want to be unapologetically clear that I’m against using runes for hate.
There shouldn't be rules when it comes to your hobby. Life is short, as long as it's not hurting anyone do what makes you happy! I've never heard of an ita bag before, but I love the idea of bags with a "display screen" so to speak. I would love to print out art and slot it in, or even a book I may be reading (if it fits) to display the cover art.
I love unofficial merch!!!! All the things i like either have 0 merch or i'll need to spend a billion dollars to get it to australia or I hate the company that owns it.
i’m just baffled at the idea she thinks people putting pins on bags is ‘doing ita bags wrong’. i never even heard of ita bags before this video but people have been putting pins on bags and stuff for literal decades? just bc it involves pop culture now suddenly i’m committing ita bag sins for having a band pin on my bag 💀
@@quanticflowers I mean, saying "this thing is actually X because I said so" it's pretty Western way of thinking. Your bag covered in pins and badges is not an ita bag, unless it meets specific criteria. Just because you insist on calling it an 'ita bag' doesn't magically make it that, it's still just a bag with pins and badges.
@@severalverysmallmangosy’all say this and then throw a fit if they called it something else or didn’t mention the fact that they got the idea from an itabag
@@Bokatisha1234true but saying “Japanese traditional” which brings to mind kimono and tea ceremonies to describe cringy 21st century plastic is very funny
@Bokatisha1234 Not really. It means the same thing colloquially, it is means "from the origin, of the standard" and when you are talking about a tradition that doesn't have much of any amount of time under their belt then it is a fair cop.
I’ve always loved both. Repeating pins can be super cool to see on a bag. It definitely shows the money put into the bag, but it also shows the time and dedication to collecting multiples. Most times the pins are within lucky boxes, so you don’t know which you’ll get. Meaning you’re either really lucky or will have to continue searching in resell stores. There’s even the custom in Japan to trade pins at cons in order to get your faves pin which I found to be a super cool way to interact with other people in a fandom. You could truly see the happiness when someone traded for a pin that they had been searching for to complete their collection. Mixed ita bags also show the same level of dedication especially when it’s overseas. Even if you have one item from a series it also shows that person’s commitment to searching and finding that one pin or item to go on their ita bag, whether adventuring out to your local hobby shop or venturing through a convention to purchase the only item for that series or character that is available. Even the combination of “random” pins/items from different things is like a showcase of all your different interests which can be a stellar conversation starter or just make you happy as a fan to see another person enjoy the same character or series.
I saw the title of the video and immediately clicked because I’ve loved ita bags since I first saw them popping up on tumblr in the 2010s. I made my first one in 2012 when there was one vendor at a con that had brought a few from Japan to sell. I was so happy to finally showcase my fave on a bag, and I put on all the merch I had gotten from the convention for Okita(Hakuouki) including a shikishi, two pins, and a small keychain figure (also painfully poked myself in the process). It wasn’t much compared to what I saw Japanese fans making for him, but I was just so happy with my little bag. Then I made 2 for Syo(Uta Pri) which included many more pins, plushies, ribbons, and even lights because the new bags people were posting about included much more elaborate set ups which were so pretty. Then I saw more vendors bringing them to cons which made me so happy to see ita bags gain popularity in the US. I then remember seeing the first crowd funding for ita bags, and I was just so excited to see more designs to display my faves in. Pencil case ita bags are still my faves to come out from new designs. Since then it has been great seeing more people with ita bags because I just enjoy seeing them. Whether it has one pin or a thousand, I find them all so fun and beautiful. I still continue making and updating my ita bags till today because it brings me so much joy. Also why I found the entire controversy so infuriating because I’ve loved seeing this side of fandom culture evolve. No one should be gatekeeping nor limiting what should go on an ita bag. It’s your bag, and you can be as elaborate or as simple as you want to be, official merch or fan merch, repeated or random there’s no one right way. We wouldn’t get new bag designs, displays, or decorations if everyone just stuck to one way of an ita bag display.
I've only seen you on tiktok until now and I had no idea about those bags 15 minutes ago. but I'm a fan of a german children's book/moovie series from the 2000s, more specifically the merch that came out back then. I'm so tempted to make a bag like this to display the smaller things in my collection like finger skateboards, toy cars, original labels and patches. I'd probably sew it myself, since the merch has a very specific color scheme. It's such an incredibly cool and creative way to show of stuff someone likes! I kinda love it
love when youtube recommends videos about really niche online drama. why yes, i would like to hear about how things are heating up in the ita bag fandom!
Yup! I think the algorithm knows that I'd very much like to see 10-15 min videos of drama from random groups I've never heard about, while I eat my popcorn 🍿
I just got back from a trip in Japan. I wore one of my "western" ita bags everyday, and I got compliments everywhere I went. Most of the ita bags I saw in Japan were the repeating styles. I am not a fan of that style because it feels like a waste of space for me, and I support too many fandoms to just dedicate to one. I have a lot of different pins I've collected over the years, so I enjoy ita bags as a way to display them all.
no, strangers would totally say to your face your bag is bad, because that's how japanese people are often behave, right? that what you think? I am just saying it's not really an argument
As someone who’s been creating itabags since around 2005, I hated the discourse. The way Sunnie went about this whole drama was elitism and rude, but tiktok fed that fire and gave her ammunition to carry on. I have around 16 different itabags and several different inserts for them, each one being for a different series or character. My personal preference is sticking to one series/ character per bag/insert but I can see why people don’t and I think bags with multiple fandoms in are totally fine and valid. At the end of the day, it’s your bag not anyone else’s! We should celebrate everyone’s unique take on the itabag and just enjoy them. I love seeing others bags in the wild or in a con setting. They’re great conversation starters!
Also I’m well aware that 16+ is A LOT, but this has been a labour of love for the last 19 years. Ive spent way too much money and time on them but it’s something I love to do and am lucky enough to be able to do!
@@smegellimes at 2:11, there's an on screen correction. Ita bags were from V-Kei and idol culture from the early 2000's. in the 2010's is when the anime fans started to take interest and popularize the version we see today. Perhaps watch the video before commenting?
@@Pastelbreakdown Itabags as a hobby came from love live 'otaku battle armor' you're confusing it with something else, itabags don't even show up pre 2014 on jp tags. Hobbies can have similarities and still ultimately be different things which is the case with Vkei fandom and itabags, not to mention that in the video brought up has absolutely zero sources connecting the two hobbies.
i have one ita bag of baizhu from genshin!! it's filled with mostly fan merch with only two official hoyoverse pins since i'm in a lot of artist alleys as a visitor and an artist, and baizhu fan merch is quite rare to see in my area since he isn't very popular. i hoard fan merch of him like my life depends on it and i love to show off what i've collected from other artists! it's not very neat and i could definitely use the space better or decorate it more, but i strongly prefer only adding to it when i find new fan merch from other artists and get to nerd out over an underappreciated character with them
5:52 I'm sorry but how did she think this was normal??? "You're fandom is incredibly niche with zero official merch, well then you arent allowed to show off your love for it, sowwy" Like be so fr right now 😭 Like damn i guess because i didnt catch any of the 3 merch drops of my favourite game because i was broke at the time I don't deserve to showcase my 5 year devotion to it 🤨 Anyways, I actually personally prefer the varied but themed designs, especially ones with plushes! The repeating designs can look nice, but i like the asymetry of featuring keychains and particularly plushes and that it gives more of a chance to showcase multiple artists! I've also seen ones with seemingly unrelated charms that catch on motifs or moments about the character. I recently bought a blue rabbit keychain and a pudding keychain because they both reminded me of parts of my favourite character who im trying to build a themed bag around, Mizuki Date! (and they match her colour scheme so i feel like they'll blend right in lol)
Fr the main fandom I’m in literally has no official merch.. it’s a fan game so legally I don’t think they can make merch anyways, since there’s barely any fan made merch either I’m planning on making my own pins, keychains and plushies for an ita bag I want to create.
@@doggiemaina11 There is a good amount on Etsy (although usually only through preorder periods which are easy to miss) but still 🥹 I'm lucky my faves are usually the ones getting fanmerch (I love the psyncers and iris) but it's still difficult to get my hands on! At this point I'm tempted to just make stuff for myself lol
Capturing moments of a character? I have not come across this concept in anything apart from like a PNG mood board. How interesting! That would show some serious devotion. Crap, I might have to try it. 😂
It’s always hilarious seeing normal people take stuff from alternative subcultures (punk and metal diy in this case) and turn it into a gatekeepey “look how rich I am” capitalism contest. Metalheads have been doing stuff like this for decades with thrifted denim vests and DIY patches and pins. It’s how we show our love for the subculture and our own creativity, not showing off how much money we can spend
As a metalhead, this whole situation over girly bags is hilarious. Leave it to others to turn something creative into a fixation on price and obsessive consumerism. And those bags look freaking ugly. Guess it's a good red flag though, see a girl with one and go the other direction lmao
The repeating pattern ones aren't for me, part of the fun of an ita bag for me is hunting down a variety things for a character and arranging them in a bag and using items like flowers that feel on theme with the character. I like both official merch but also really love fan merch because artists get really creative! I wouldnt want 20 of the same badge because thats space 20 unique badges could occupy. Or that one badge/keychain and then things related to that character around it. I make my bags to be shrines to the character not to try to flex how many badges I imported.
My first time seeing your content. I've seen many "tea" channels. They talk slow and I usually have to speed them up. But not you. I appreciate your speech speed. Thank you for speaking so far. Much appreciated. And the video was very interesting!
I cannot express the joy I felt as an older anime fan hearing someone your age name check Serial Experiments Lain. It's been my favorite for decades and I'm happy younger fans have ever heard of it! I feel your pain on the desire for merch 😂 Love the video, I look forward to seeing more from you ❤
I had no idea there was drama surrounding these. Today i happened to have one on me and a lady asked me about it because she wanted to get one for her daughter. I happily explained and she was excited to have an idea for a gift. The idea of keeping a fun hobby to myself doesn't sit right with me.
I get that! I have a few ita bags but have been unsure how to decorate it (both because I am an artist, have 3 enamel pin binders, and have a habit of painting old badges and such) I love creating and creating makes being a fan or anything 100% worth it for me! sharing art, original characters, and more is fun and your hobbies are kinda meant to be shared! (though understood when you want to avoid sharing because of it being used for coping or other things where it might put you in danger if others knew about it- like a fanfic writer not wanting 18+ fics they wrote pre-that job being found by their work or similar)
The actual differences between "western" and "Japanese" itabags if there are any come from the fact in Japan there isn't as much of a fan merch culture (as there are rules preventing mass production and sale for profit) like there is overseas, and conversely there's a lot more emphasis on buying official merch to financially support your favourite genre, whereas overseas it's a lot more difficult to buy official merch directly so your money just ends up going towards the upselling resellers. There's also a lot more emphasis in Japan on keeping different genres separate, so in mixed itabags it's more likely to still be all merch of the same character or genre, rather than a random mix. This is mostly because it's more common to make your itabag to take to a specific event rather than just general use, and it's a bit rude to show up to a live with a bunch of unrelated merch 😂. Meanwhile overseas there aren't as many events, so it's more just for fun and general self expression. It's also a lot easier to make the repeating same badge type itabags in Japan, because a lot of people buy multiple box sets of random merch and trade with other fans so everyone can collect multiple copies of their favourite character. Because of that there's a sense of community involved in being able to make those A3 same badge itabags that go viral on SNS, since you usually can't make one without help from a lot of other people (unless you spent the money on 80 box sets by yourself...). If you actually go to any otaku event or area in Japan though, you'll see lots of people with mixed itabags. It's super common for people to do things like specifically collecting different badges with contrasting colours to make patterns or shapes on the bag (hearts and rainbows are common), or using polaroids or trading cards instead of badges (or both together), or the "Chinese style" itabags where you only use a couple of pieces of merch and then decorate the remaining space to match the character's motif, or using a generic see-through tote bag instead of the common window type itabag and filling it with plush toys and merch. A lot of people hand print, cut out and laminate art of the character, or make sheet inserts of the character's signature, to put inside their itabags with the merch too. Not to mention the (usually) hand-made deco frames, rosettes, ribbons and rhinestones people decorate their merch with. So tldr, fundamentally there's no such thing as distinct categories for "Japanese" and "western" itabags! At most it's trends based on what's available in that region that becomes popular! You can make whatever you want wherever you are and nobody will care!
Also since a lot of people in the comments don't seem to be fans of the same badge type of itabags I'll try to come to their defence, but I love them! When making it yourself it's fun having a goal in mind of exactly how many badges you need and very satisfying slowly watching as your collection comes together, and when I see other people with them, I can really appreciate how much time and effort it must have taken for them to get to that point, since those bags have to be specifically planned out to put together compared to ones with a random collection. (And as a bonus, from personal experience, if you have an ita bag really obviously dedicated to one character you might get people coming up to you to offer random merch since they can tell from one look who you're after 😊) Everyone has their own values and goals for how they want to express their love for their favourite characters, so there's no reason to put down any of the methods!
Well, the other thing I thought about *why* repeating type itabags might be easier to get in Japan is also because it’s SO much smaller geographically! I’m from central North America. If I want to go to the next big city over, that’s 8 hours of driving, with no stops along the way. It would be physically impossible to me to go to one of these events, never mind MULTIPLE, never mind trade with other people! 8 hours can get you from one end of Japan to Tokyo! Making a repeating ita bag or even an ita bag of only *one* character would be near impossible for me!
I do have the mentality of buying official to support the author and artists plus the studio and staff who animated animes I love. I feel weird about buying fan made stuff though it is cute. I bought these two figures and got some acrylic stands which were fan made and thinking about selling them.
I feel the "it's hard to get merch" in my soul man.... I'm a huge fan of the Nikki games and have been for years. It's SO HARD to find merch for Love Nikki. Shining Nikki? Tons. Infinity Nikki? There probably will be tons. Love Nikki though? The only merch I own that I could get affordably was some of the trading cards and I have them in a binder to keep them prestine. I'd love to have an itabag of Nikki merch....
Most people that you see IRL wouldn't even know the difference between a Japanese ita bag vs the Western one, or care to. Most people might look at both styles and find them cringey. So being a major elitist over ita bags is pretty stupid.
@@athenagreen5390 I use my Ita bag as a bag. I “drag it around” wherever because that’s how I carry my things when I go places. I like to display some of my favorite pins stickers and keychains on it because I like them and it makes me happy.
@@athenagreen5390 So it’s just solely about the consumerism and not even having a practical, usable item that expresses your personal style? And that’s supposed to be a virtue?
My ita bag was a graduation gift from my momma, it’s basic but nice. The pins and keychains on display are a mosaic of my biggest interests over the past two years: I have pins from musical theater, anime, and some games. A few badges on there were commissioned!! I’m the only person who owns them!! And that’s the way I like it :) my bag is very meaningful and sentimental to me, I don’t care if it’s “traditional” or whatever
why am I getting the vibe that she wants to be Asian 😭 like the way she did her makeup and hair here 4:33 I thought she was Asian until we got a closeup of her face. and the way she’s so protective of something that originated from Japan and hates the “western” version, very much giving obsession to the point of self-hatred. (I’m Asian btw, so I’m very used to spotting these things 😭 )
twinbuns is actually known for doing that and mocks comments and people about it (even tho she LITERALLY squints in stuff to look "more asian" like okay?? 😭😭)
I love this video! Everything you said is so true. Most people have many fandoms, so showing more than one off at a time makes sense. It's just fun to express yourself and what you love. I just ordered my first ita bag. It hasn't arrived yet and I'm already looking at my pins and thinking about how I want to design it. I have come up with several ideas already, so I'm sure I will be changing it up depending on my mood.
proud to say I actually go outside to when I see an ita bag I compliment them no matter how it looks because it’s so cool to see people show off their interests. There is no specific way an ita bag is supposed to look as long as you’re having fun and proud of your interests
@@AddyHarajuku YIPPEEE I'm genuinely so excited to see what else you have to offer us because these first two videos have been amazing and such high quality 💖
the drama was so silly but I did love seeing everyone's ita bags because of it!! I have three ita bags I'm trying to fill out - an astarion bag, a biology bag, and a catgirl bag!
I like both but for myself I prefer a bag that's a mix of pins of different fandoms/interests etc. as I like a lot of stuff and don't want to be defined by only one thing ^^
My ita's a hodge-podge of everything and anything. Too many Simpsons pin? Check. A custom pin of my favourite singer in his simpsonised form? Check. My favourite Stardew Bachelor (Harvey) as a Cat? Check. Too many MLP pins? Check. An old brownie badge? Check. One of the sexy goldfish from Fantasia? Check. As much as I would like to make a 6x4 grid of 7.5cm wide badges of one entity, I like the patchwork element of collecting different pins. I'm a multi-faceted person who likes a lot of different things.
For people wondering "is my ita bag good enough? Is my bag considered a ita bag?" Let me break it down for u. Ita bag, is a bag that showcase what you like. So as long as its a bag u can carry around in, has a window(or not, ain judging u for living a risky life), and shows everything u like in there? It's a ita bag. As long as u think it is, it is. Plain and simple. I don care if your bag has a tiny pin on it. If u think its a ita bag, it is. IT'S JUST FOR FUN.
I legally cannot do the "Repeating design" itabag, ive been raised on arts & crafts and collages. its cool, sure, but getting repeats of ANYTHING older is painfully expensive. I dont even have a theme! i put metal band enamels, vocaloid pins, random video game pins, and if i wasn't modifying my bag...MANY plushies. There is no singular way to decorate an itabag, and i don't even know who started it...but may her next pack of pins be unbuyable. So exclusive its not even on resale. I actively hunted for a legit sonic-x-treme pin from 1994-5, bought a balan wonderworld pin JUST BECAUSE it was oshima artwork, bartered for a pack of racing miku pins from 2010, paid 50 bucks EACH for a durarara poster and clip, and gladly carry my shuake keychain from the (infamous) showtime zine! One time i wore a graffitti soul pin and a reaper pin to a college event, and i met a fellow fan! We were talking for a bit on how neoTWEWY neku needed a figma YESTERDAY, and "omg when will jsr get a new game." All this social media in-fighting is dumb, go to a park fully decked out and see how poppin' your conversations will be!
@electrocast i havent found anything nack or fang, but it was pure luck i found someone on ebay selling that pin! Up until then, all i saw was the walkie talkies for sale.
i follow so many japanese artists who don't have repeat ita bags, it's crazy to police how other people express their fandom (especially as someone who asian-fishes).0 i have several ita bags, i'd love to have a repeat bag of my fav but merch of him is hard to come by especially now his movie is off-trend. I have dragon ball, jjk, genshin (which is probably going to get changed soon) and a general enemel pin bag :) (that one's shaped like a beetle) (also I love that you're making long-form content now, I love listening to you yap)
If you want a tutorial on like a way to achieve that. There's a tutorial from a furry using giant blank desktop mouse pads and getting them printed on, trimmed and attaching it to your self made bag! Could probably do something similar with a human character
While i do not have an ita bag, i have considered doing similar but with "fake stickers". The idea was to make little drawings of all the fandoms im in a sticker-like style and then put them all on one big wallpaper like a sticker wall. As someone who likes ALOT of fandom, i am so confused as to why a bag should be reserved to one fandom, when you could have so many in one!! As bonus points; the more fandoms you reference, the more likely you are to find someone who recognizes one :3
my ita bag is a lavender coffin. I bought it to use as a blythe doll carrier, but i also used it as my everyday bag for a while with the insert covered in various enamel pins and badges. Some fandom-related, some snarky, several spooky themed. Twin Buns would most definitely not approve.
My favorite thing when people buy merch from artists is being able to take one look at someone's ita bag and seeing the community behind it. Different styles or different ways people draw that particular character brings so much community and life to that character or series. It shows how people are willing to support artists regardless of art style or that artists popularity, but instead, for the sole purpose of adding to their collection and showing their love for something!
i have so many shuake stuff...too much...but my boys need to be happy.
2 หลายเดือนก่อน +49
Wasn't the whole ides of it being "ita" that the bag had so many trinkets and charms and pins and stuff that the bag was painful to look at? I feel like these repeating pattern bags are fairly recent. I dont get why twinbuns insists on calling the mismatched bags "western"
My thought was it was painful to wear since the more shit you put into it the heavier it became and thus the more painful to carry around. I know back when I wore every single pin I owned on one bag that thing was like 8 lb without anything in it.
"Painful" in this context is just about being a "painful" fan, as in "cringe". Like otaku, it's a term that can both be an insult or something the fans themselves use as a badge of honor.
let alone if you have a favorite character who has little to no official merch. it's so prideful to be able to show off artist's work from an ita bag, especially when some of these artists are my friends who've made merch of this niche character specifically for me
To me I like the American ita bags solely because I like seeing all the art from multiple different artists rather than a repeating the same thing. I love seeing the styles, poses, etc etc all upon one canvas (the bag) Hell I might get inspiration for my own art style if I spot one I really like or I'll ask which artist in the alley made it so I can purchase from them
I love the creativity that western fandom itabags display! You can have fun with it, and I know it's not the "hardcore oshi culture", like in Japan, but we still show appreciation towards series and artists in our own way. Not to mention, a lot of Japanese people do NOT care if you put a spin like that on your bag, I know of situations where Japanese girls would actually be massively interested in a mish-mashed ita that a foreigner brought to a meeting and say it's cool and fun. There is always someone who tries to ruin the fun and is elitist, I'm waiting for this creator to say that it's "cultural appropriation" where it's literally not her place to speak on this, but Japanese oshi community's itself.
Twinbuns literally doesn't know what they are talking about regarding "traditional" ita bags. I spent a bunch of time in Ikebukuro / Otome Road just over 10 years ago when ita bags were just getting popular in the anime community. Sure, can badges and keychains were more common to see than enamel badges but it was VERY common to see people with mismatched merch displayed in a messy way. It's also common to see bags with only a few items in or gaps because DUH part of the fun is building your collection over time. Most of the people who participate in this were younger people like school or uni students and most of the stuff people put in their bags was scavenged from second hand shops so of course it wasn't all going to be matching. I haven't been to Japan in a while so IDK if the trend has changed but having a bag with all one badge is definitely not "traditional". The main difference is that in Japan people usually keep their bag dedicated to one character or show, but in the West people often have more of a mix.
5:02 I always assumed an ita bag was something you *build*?? Like how battle vests and patch pants take time and energy, ita bags very much the same. To have a full ita bag takes time *especially* so if you want it for just one show or one character or one artist
That's why I'm kinda economical/poor af because I make my own badges based on Rika Seto (making them on paper) and I put it in my ita bag, also because Rika almost doesn't have merchandise, so I create my own.
i love fan-made merch so much and i think their designs look so cool on my itabag, because you have the same character in vastly different artstyles and it just looks fab imo ive only ever gotten compliments for my bag haha, it's a great talking point at cons as well :D
I have a more "westernized" ita bag and it's dedicated to a group of characters of a video game that I'm a HUGE fan of and yes, I did have to pay a hefty price tag because I bought the bag from an artist from Spain and I had to get it imported to the US. I do also want to make more ita bags (especially centered around the Halloween guest characters from the same video game) but they have absolutely NO official merch so I have to be on the hunt to find merch made by fans
This is a shot in the dark but would you happen to be talking about Twisted Wonderland by any chance? Cause I also happen to have gotten a Twist ita bag from Spain and feel you on the no merch for the Halloween event characters thing (Fellow Honest, my beloved, why must you have basically NOTHING?)
As an artist too I just like to buy a lot of pins and stuff from local artists and show them off :] I have a bag that I’ve just filled with all the merch of Chilchuck (delicious in dungeon LOL) I can find and it’s my pride and joy knowing how many artists have contributed to it, I like to show off the characters I like and a bag is a great way to display that :) !!
@@crunchysalad_ the characters I tend to like are so niche it's rare to find even fan-made stuff of them so I was so happy to find two charms that were specifically of them. Pokémon SV spoilers but It's so hard to find anything that's specifically of the AIs and not their creators, but this one has their eyes different colors, so you know it's them.
@@crunchysalad_ Aww thank you! My heart decided that, out of all the characters, the sad robots were all I was going to think about for the next foreseeable future. I come up with all sorts of storylines for them (AI Sada gets lonely in the past so she creates Golett is one I want to explore more. I'm writing one where AI Turo finds a way to return to the present, and exploring how that affects everyone has been interesting)
Not an anime, but as someone who is a huge fan of a show that came out in 1999 and is the black sheep of the series so it doesn't EVEN HAVE FAN MERCH...I have my own bag with a "pin window" and I wanted to show off my love for Pokemon and Sonic (the series that was mentioned above), so I have my fan made pins and stickers inside right now to show off my love. And hope to get a bag with a bigger window. I had no idea there was a "right" and "wrong" way to it. ;w;
im a young cosplayer, and the only ´ita bag´i have is a blue backpack that has a LOT of different fandoms and stuff i just randomly got or made myself. From Resident Evil and Slipknot merch to Genshin and some random animes, thats all i can afford XD
Not really Ita-bag, but I work at a boba shop. My colleagues and me decided to decorate our aprons with pins. So now each of us has an apron decorated with enamel pins of our favorite games, anime, animals and memes. Occasionally we gift each other pins. The pins are not really harmonic, for example astarion next to a bottle of soju and a cat saying „huh?“ but they just nicely show who we are. I also have an Ita bag. I just personally can’t afford to buy the same pin twenty times or something. When I’m a broke student I prefer to buy multiple different motives and then combine them instead of spending all of my money on twenty identical ones… aside from my chaotic apron I try to keep it aesthetic and matching xD
Being an Asian, I gotta say: Gatekeeping someone else's culture is the weirdest shit I've seen to come out of white ppl (n frankly, some black folks too) in a good while
This is just as ridiculous as an incident some years ago where white people berated japanese people at like a museum or something for letting non japanese people try on kimonos
Personally I love the messy and collective look of the western ones, having one myself lol!! I'm apart of the local music scene in my city as well so I have band patches and lace sewn to the back of mine. I think they're so fun!
just a correction: it’s called an ita bag because it’s painful to look at. aka it’s cringe. it’s a play on itasha (cringy car) and ita lolita(this is more used as an insult). a tongue in cheek and self aware way to refer to their hobby. the “painful to the wallet” meaning is just a later interpretation
in japan, itai is very often used colloquially as “cringe”. if you see something extremely cringey you call it “itasugiru”. honestly this makes this situation more laughable. just nerds policing other nerds over their cringe bags
Heya! Thank you for this insight, the common consensus I saw when researching was the painful to wallet/painful dedication meaning. But I appreciate this correction & insight, unfortunately english sources can be limited or incorrect at times. So thank you for this! 🙂↕️✨
@@Resonance1919 LOL yeah tbh ppl tend to add meanings to a word bc of coincidences, but it plays more on the concept of secondhand embarrassment. it an offshoot of itasha (those gaudy cars with anime skins over them, really cringey to look at)
I hate what social media has done to fandom so much. like stuff wasnt all peaches and roses when I was growing up but Id legit rather deal with a thousand Simpsons Comic Book Guys than whatever the fuck the late to the fandom party tiktok gatekeepers have goin on.
Its also with that hottake from that person earlier it is SO hard to get anything in uk (im a welsh person) you CANNOT find anything related to fandoms i like because my only option would be insanely expensive stuff from places shipped from japan ita bags are for anyone and if anyone wants to repeat patterns or not have them repeated someone should be able to do whatver ^^
Try being in Hawaii trying to find those Project Sekai wafers that appeared in California first. I don't see any of the recent L/N figures either. The Wafers with a card, I see anything, but the ProSeka one (Gundam, Idolmaster (ironically), Fate Grand/Order, and especially Pokémon [that franchise over here has every imported snack or gum]).
policing over how to decorate a bag is so stupid like😭 i’m from a country where Japanese culture and anime are more common, rlly nobody cares what you put in ur bag u can mix dolls and pins in the same bag and that’s totally fine
i used an Ita bag during a concert overseas and it was nice to see others do too. it had my bias name and photos in there so when we don't speak the same language, we just look at the bags and we get to know which members we like and even get freebies for that member bec it was visible.
![[ snooze ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 .ᐟ ] a chaotic desk and room tour 😵💫🎀💬](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-xlp7m-882Y/mqdefault.jpg)
Quick correction (thank you to a few comments): Ita bag means painful bag, but the initial meaning for this was due to it being seen as cringey/embarassing/painful to look at. Hence terms like ‘ita’ used as an insult towards lolita’s in the days of live journal.
Later interpretations of the name see it more as a dedication term.
I always try to research & I keep sources saved on my script but unfortunately as an english only speaker, I can miss nuances or extra insight. Mistakes happen and so I appreciate corrections & additional information given in good faith 🙂↕️🎀
I remember ita bag panel in anime-expo 2005 or 2006 they were japanese and gave a history lesson on how the ita bag came to be that's how I got into it. From what I remember itabag started as a bag of favorite band or character and it would be filled with original merchandise and home made like magazines cut out of favorite thing wrapped in that clear tape to Protect the image then use a hole puncher to make a hole and use a safety pin to attach 😂
@@keikoyayoi9454Yes! Pocari Roo made a great video that I only stumbled on after filming (hence the on-screen notation). Apparently it started with V-kei fans cutting out pictures of their favourite member or V-kei bands and sticking it to their bags & stuff. So interesting ✨🎀
Hiii❤
then why are ppl complaining abt ugly ita bags id they are supposed to be tacky
It’s the exact same double meaning (painful to look at/painful for the wallet) as itasha, those cars fully covered in character decorations you see driving around in Akihabara sometimes. Character devotion to the point of pain is transcendent.
people irl: hey I like your bag
i love this comment
This is why I love wearing my merch in public. I love it when people stop me and compliment it. A few times, I've even gotten to gush over a character, with a fellow fan girl or fan boy. It's just a fun way to show your interests.
real people love to see my bag even if they dont know the characters ! and Ive gotten other people who did know them ask if they can take a picture of my bag ;o; especially at conventions
EXACTLY! A girl at school saw my Ita bag and told me that the way i designed and organized my Ita bag was very cute she took a pic of my bag, and im happy about it 😭, it sucks that some of my classmates who don't understand Japanese idol culture and anime fan culture told me I'm just showing off and should stop bringing my Ita bag to school (it literally contains the items i need to stay sane and to survive school without getting sent to the prefec or guidance)
Fr fr everyone always compliments my bags.
As someone who has lived in Japan longer than most tiktokers have had control of their bowels, the phrase "traditional Japanese itabag" is an absolutely wild combination of words to hear someone say with a straight face!
Ikr? I straight up laughed when she said that, like honey I don't think that word means what you think it does.
I hate getting ooooolddddd. But am happy I was an otaku in Japan in the 90s
this
Correct me of I'm wrong but the point of the bag is ti be homemade or made to the person's taste. It would be like telling someone from the UK "traditional British punk vest" when the point of punk clothes is doing what you want with your clothes.
A bit off topic but "longer than most tiktokers have had control of their bowels" has me dying!!
My tikka masala-level hot take: I actually prefer itabags that show off indie/fanmade/handmade merch. I just find fan-made designs so much more varied and interesting than official merch a lot of the time!
Me too!!
I'd rather spend money giving to small artists than a large company tbh. I draw and love supporting other people who are sharing their creations with others.
As someone in a lot of small fandoms, fan-merch is a must
But they dont look like the characters lol
I also mix in fakes and change my bags every day when I go out. I previously bought a WOC Caviar dupe on the *gtdupe* and I loved it, but I wasn't going to pay $3500 + tax for such a small bag/SLG.
"japanese traditional ita bags" as a korean this is like hearing "korean traditional photocards" and it dealt 4d10 psychic damage to me girl what are you saying
Imagine saying "traditional American friendship bracelets". You'd sound insane
Any legitimate fan knows that samurai used to cover all of their armor with the exact same pin of their favorite ancient Vtuber
This drama is legit so funny to me because when I was in Japan earlier this year I took my "western" style bag of Minami from i7 with me (rosettes, flowers, custom fabric insert, pins/keychains/badges) and got a ton of compliments in Ikebukuro and Akihabara. Especially from people who were excited that a tourist knew the series in general.
natsume minami moment 🐍🐍🐍🐍
Real. If i saw someone from a fandom i liked, i wouldnt go "erm your bag sucks because it only has one of this character's pin", id be like "OMG FELLOW ____ FAN???'
It was the same when I had a crossbody ita with One Piece pins. Seeing people react happily is so nice.
as a native person i cannot believe that person was comparing western/niche/subtle ita bag designs to literal Columbus
FOR REAL that was an insane take, Im pretty sure it was just more rage bait but you never know anymore 😭
UGH the same thing happened at a convention I went to??? This one WHITE individual called everyone who's against or criticizes "proshipping" as colonizers... what a weird thing to say??
As someone who is currently learning about the colonization of the Americas (as of writing this comment), comparing a bag to a person who enslaved, abused and murdered thousands of people just to have gold, glory, and god on his side is INSANE.
thats the kinda stuff you say when you have no community or personality, utterly isolated in a suburban hovel. social media is cumbling the very building blocks of culture.
its very… weaboo of them, lol. has the same sort of white knight vibe other anime fans have of protecting japan from the diversity politics of the west, or whatever. but its reversed and for something WAY less important. to use a colonizer to defend a colonizer is so funny to me. like, y’all remember and know that japan are colonizers too…?? 😭 people absolutely bastardize and appropriate japanese culture, but this isn’t an act of… colonization? 😭 like be fr, you’re just minimizing colonization while pretending to be woke… the definition of performative activism
>accuses the West of “colonizing” Japanese culture
>tries to gatekeep a Japanese cultural hobby as a Westerner introduced to it by trying to give the “correct” way to participate in the hobby based on her own views
The joke literally writes itself holy shit
Add tries to race swap as a Asian woman using makeup
It’s so common that the people being offended are not even of the origin country/culture. 😅 isn’t it quite demeaning to believe, as a Westerner, that you need to speak for other cultures and niches?
Mental illness moment
Wait define west? Do u mean the brittish
Yeah based, white devils get out of my hobby
imagine gatekeeping a bag 💀💀💀
Literally lmao, the way she complains on small bussiness ita bag is like complaining to an artist that their commision price is too high.
I was going to make this same comment.
Like, imagine saying people can't engage in fandom in a certain way because they can't afford 20 copies of the same officially licensed badge. Get the heck outta here with that nonsense.
I personally love when I find small enamel pin artists who have a style and product of character that I love.
oh i can imagine 😢
Twinbuns has no other productive thoughts to offer to the world besides faking being Asian and instigating drama amongst the chronically online.
Right? Like oh. I guess this bag that isn't a sacred item that I am using for it's intended purpose, is unacceptable because oops I can't afford/don't want to enjoy it in the exact same way as you.
My ita bag has handmade pins and a mix of pins I got from small artists in it, placed in a way that just allows them all to be visible, because it makes me happy.
My Final Fantasy ita bag was a hit with a random granny in Kyoto, who reminisced with us about how her grandson played the games. It was so wonderful. Sunnie can eat it.
that sounds so sweet 🥹 grandma of the year
Late, but as an artist alley artist, thanks for discussing small business pricing like that. It really made my blood boil to be accused of 'scamming' people because we have to charge enough money to cover our overhead plus have enough to, you know, live on. We didn't just buy a bunch of premade bags and jack the prices up, we DESIGNED them ourselves. We spent months interfacing with factories to find the right one and to communicate our design to them and checking proofs and raising funds to produce them. Product design is an actual skill that not just anyone can do.
I honestly live for artist alley merch! You guys are so creative and make such cool art! I wish I could go to more of these events because I just love seeing all the art and effort that went into your merch.
I hate it when you get criticized for the price as well, your time and effort went into this + the cost of printing them and making the pins/keychains. Its ridiculous to see people get mad over this when they don't even understand what goes into making merch like this
@@noonehereChilling Thank you for saying so! Like the proof that our merch is meaningful to us is in the fact that even if someone can't afford to buy something I designed, just hearing them talk about how much they like it is very motivating and flattering to me. If I were just buying a bunch of aliexpress shit and marking it up I'm pretty sure I wouldn't care lmao.
We really would just like to make a salary for what is a full time job even during the day to day outside of the actual event, and the way to do that is by pricing our merchandise. I wish people would change their language from 'that's too expensive' to 'I can't afford that' which is the truth. Nothing wrong with not being able to afford something but it's not my responsibility to make sure everyone can afford everything I make.
@@JamesLacroixx im glad I could make you feel seen.
I also hate the verbiage of "its too expensive", it sounds like people like this feel like they should be entitled to your merch at a low price because it isn't "the real thing", which is so stupid. Just because you guys aren't manufacturers, doesn't mean that it isn't worth paying the price.
Just keep doing what you're doing and ignore them. You don't own these people anything. It can be hard at times to ignore the haters, but paying them attention won't do you much either. It's a waste of energy.
Just keep being creative and do what makes you happy, because it makes a lot of other people happy too, just by being able to see it ⭐🧡💚
i just wanted to show off my pin collection without them getting damaged jesus christ
same, I just thought it was a genius idea to keep my pins from getting stolen/damaged. It's got all kinds of pins- music, movies, different enamel and badges. I had no idea I was doing it "wrong".
It realy is a great idea to keep your precious rarities save. People have no idea how freakish expensive and/or rare some pins are.
Had people bugging me to sell or even gift them some of mine. In an Itabag I could just say, sorry they are not removable from my custom bag.
When I was in middle and high school, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I kept all my little goth pins on a messenger bag, just... Hanging loose, because ita bags literally didn't exist yet, and yeah! They got lost and damaged ALL the time. They're pins! They snag on things sometimes. I would have loved a way to wear all my pins safely. It's an extremely practical idea.
I was about to gatekeep myself, as "too old" for an ita bag, but in the spirit of the video, maybe I should... ungatekeep myself and get one? My pins are cute! I should show them off.
@sockpuppetqueen You should definitely get one.
@@ScientificallyStupid You aren't doing anything wrong. The whole point of the subculture is to express yourself, so be as creative with it as you want. This "drama" is just a weirdo trying to justify thier preferences and a few people being convinced by thier made up arguement.
I have a “western” ita bag and the only thing I’ve ever gotten in response to people seeing it is that they like my pins lol. I actually love how they’re all mismatched, because it tells a story of my interests! I’ve been able to strike up a conversation with anyone who comments on them, whether it’s about Deadpool or Hello Kitty or Stray Kids. All of my pins have been gathered over the years from meaningful events/moments in my life, or things that interest me. I collected pins wayyy before I had an ita bag.
I think ita bags solely based on shows are amazing, the repeat ones are super cool too! I also only use one purse most days, so having all my favorite pins on one bag makes it more fun for me than dedicating one bag to one of my interests (tho that would be fun to do in the future).
I think fan culture and ita bags are definitely a matter of taste in what you like. When I saw Sunni’s video, my first thought was “it’s not ur bag???” It seems pointless to fuss about something that people enjoy and see as a form of self expression 🤷♀️
I love that you have all those pins together. That’s definitely the style I’d go for, right now I’m still sorting my punk denim vest jacket with patches and badges as well as a large jacket that has about 100 pins on it that I switch out
I also have an American ita bag and I LOVE being able to show off all of my interests with it!! From the niches things to more mainstream stuff I get to talk to fans of it like me!
Actually, they are all produced in the same factory. Sometimes the quality of counterfeit goods is much better than that of genuine ones *gtdupe*
that's really cool, but that's just a pin bag, not ita bag
Why are people having beef about backs ?
i was in japan recently and i saw people with both kinds of bags... the repeating pattern and a bags with mixed matched merch. I dont understand why some people assume Japanese people are always super strict with fan culture... we are all just having fun no matter the country.
They're strict....but with the manners side of things. And what drama happened certainly isn't it. 😂
I think that’s kind of representative of how a lot of Western anime fans treat Japan. It’s not a real country filled with people who have differing opinions and tastes and independent personalities and subcultures, it’s a far of distant land that you can idolize an extremely simplified version of. And just from personal experience, I feel like a big part of that is because if you can decide there’s “one correct authentic Japanese way” to do something, you can get social power from telling other people they’re doing it wrong. It’s like that white kid in high school who makes it their business to tell everyone else they’re using chopsticks wrong.
@@neonradiusFrom experience, the people that complain THAT MUCH on situations like this aren't fans of anything. They just see a popular situation and try to control it to gain power for THEMSELVES to be the face of something. It's completely disingenuous.
Also hate the overconsumption aspect of sunnie’s ideas. I don’t own an ita bag, I would love too, but I don’t need to own a multiple bags that perfectly match my “curated Aesthetic” my Goemon Ishikawa pin is going to be next to Percy De Rolo because I like Lupin III and critical role.
This, genuinely for me my only goal is to have maybe just 3 bc of my different fashion aesthetics: one that's generally more edgy & black, one that's more pastel and cute, and one that could totally pass as a regular bag and could be worn to formal events (which i already have, a gift from my friend). I feel like my ita bag variation wants aren't so outlandish since they're just general aesthetics that could possibly go with anything I wear in any of those three outfit categories. And even then I'm seriously saving up for it
But I feel like it's such a rich person problem to want an ita bag for every single content collection..? I mean if you have the money by all means that sounds cool, but it's crazy to expect that to be what's the "proper way" like in what world would the general populace need that many bags for realistically 😭
Exactly. Not just that, but I'm not buying a bulk of 100+ pins and badges I don't like just so I can have a "curated aesthetic." I'm going to use the pins and badges I have that I do like.
To add to this, Chinese Ita bags also have their own take on this. They like to decorate the bag beautifully dedicated to just one character but everything would be placed strategically and they're really aesthetically pleasing to look at. I saw some Japanese tik tok creators that recreated a Chinese style ita bag because they find it cute.
this sounds so interesting! do you have any images or anything?
its so annoying bc people dont gaf abt ur ita bag irl only chronically online people care 😢😢😢
@@Debrislee amazing info
@@Debrislee if you're struggling with very common abbreviations, that's a literacy issue
Because they are netizens who believe they can do whatever they want online anonymously.
I like the blogger’s dressing style, it suits my taste, and of course the video style is also very comfortable *gtdupe*
@@H00DEDCR0Wno it is not. What? These are quite literally abbreviations that are used online . You would have to be online quite a bit to know these very well.
Imagine being a white American girl trying to police Japanese culture. Wild. Why can't Sunnie just let people have their fun?
Weeaboo moment
cuz she wants to be Asian so badly
yknow what they say, misery loves company
Some people have a terminal case of 'never touched grass before' itis.
People shouldn’t even care what this random girl says. Like who is she to think she knows what’s up? Just another unimportant opinion 😂
If you are on japanese SNS 90% of bags that go viral are big repeat bags. But if you go outside to live events, a lot of people have small bags with different can badges and decorations inside.
Especially chinese style bags that are more decorations than goods have gained popularity.
And "oddly shaped" bags are rare but exist in japan as well. The only difference is that they are official and not fan made.
The idea that there is only one true itabag style is chronically online. It's not happening in real life in japan. If you have a cheap mixed bag and meet japanese otaku, they would not care.
it’s a classic case of “person not in group speaking for the group”, which seems to always happen w anime fans and japan. otaku culture is a culture about loving what you love without a care what other people think, a counter to japan’s strict collective culture. otherwise, why else would they dress up in crazy expensive costumes or spend thousands of dollars on anime figures… the japanese do not care. it’s not like they do ita bag checks in front of cons. japanese people who aren’t familiar with it and would like it. as they usually do with weaboos- typically they’re just happy you’re into the same stuff they’re into.
I was gonna say, there's absolutely NO WAY that every single ita bag put together by a japanese person is a repeat bag, and to claim otherwise paints japanese fan culture as a monolith. the "standard" look may differ between countries, but that doesn't mean an assorted bag isn't an ita bag.
Im on the chinese side and find it wonderful that people will make big, elaborate bag designs to compliment a single fan-made badge made by indie artists thats sold for like, 3 buck a pop. We're here to celebrate the series and our love for the characters, not to show off how many of the same shit we can buy as a flex. I love repeat bags as well, but to gatekeep other designs is just not it.
i was so confused about how there could possibly be drama over a bag made to display pins, but then you said "tiktok" and now i understand.
I always thought the "painful bag" moniker came from the amount of pins you can put in, as a joke. (They don't poke you)
I think for one of my favorite bags, I got about......75 pins/buttons, not including the keychains.
The funniest thing of all of this is a quick search of 痛バッグ on Twitter immediately shows Japanese users also creating mixed-item ita bags, making her belief that only repeating badge patterns being "real" on the foundation that it's what Japanese people do is just wrong.
I've made a few bags and had no idea there was even a difference. I just assumed the whole point of an ita bag was something that was "painful to look at" because it has so much going on.
i made a mixed ita bag just recently haha, so i don't really get what's the problem with it lol
this. people getting on their soap box and treating ita bags as "traditional cultural objects" probably have never left their houses
@@loreniacupcake I heard the "ita" referred to the pins being sharp
@@BJGvideosNo, it refers to it being cringe. Instead of fitting in with the rest of society and having a normal bag, the bag has otaku goods on full display.
"Fandoms are supposed to be fun" louder for the people in the back. She can say all she likes about what a "proper" ita bag is supposed to look like but I doubt less privileged people in Japan limited to 2nd hand merch stores and the same cheap mass-produced ita bags we were stuck with originally share the same sentiment.
it's funny that you used a battle jacket at 3:21 as an example of a western version of an ita bag, because it has the EXACT same online debates around what is and isn't a "proper" jacket. usually the arguments are around what kinds of patches you're allowed to put on (only bands youre "actually" a fan of, only bands you've seen live, only punk/metal bands, only the RIGHT punk/metal bands, DIY patches are lame, putting political stuff (aka being visibly queer) is cringey, etc etc). the arguments probably exist in real life a little but only in super echo-chambery spaces, most people will just say hey cool jacket.
I'm so glad I have no familiarity with that particular fandom. Yes, I consider metal bands to be a fandom. I have a friend who remade his patch vest on stream, sewing one patch per stream, and it was a great time. He played music from the band the patch was from and talked about how much he enjoyed whichever concert he got it from if he got it from a concert. Some of the patches were actually fan-made because the band didn't make their own, and some weren't patches from bands at all. Nobody cared! And from the amount of work he put into placing each patch perfectly so that the vest as a whole was aesthetically pleasing, you're right: it was exactly like an itabag.
And it was a cool vest.
i thought those vests originated from like punk culture, which like inherrintly political
I find it incredibly funny that there are people who say you can't put political stuff on battle jackets when punk culture was born out of political counterculture.
@@dutchik5107Yeah it’s a really dumb thing to criticize. Like, I’m planning to turn a jean jacket into a battle jacket by putting something that shouldn’t be controversial but somehow is becoming controversial lately on the back in massive runes. The people who can recognize it exactly will either be mildly amused or offended by the title of a relatively mainstream song. It is a deliberate political statement because I want to be unapologetically clear that I’m against using runes for hate.
@@coolmacncheesepeople are trying to sanitize punk culture and it’s infuriating.
There shouldn't be rules when it comes to your hobby. Life is short, as long as it's not hurting anyone do what makes you happy! I've never heard of an ita bag before, but I love the idea of bags with a "display screen" so to speak. I would love to print out art and slot it in, or even a book I may be reading (if it fits) to display the cover art.
AND SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK 🔥🔥🔥
The side body ones are great for smaller displays.
@@SuperCosmicMutantSquid Thanks!
I love unofficial merch!!!!
All the things i like either have 0 merch or i'll need to spend a billion dollars to get it to australia or I hate the company that owns it.
Saying ‘americanised’ ita bags are equivalent to columbus after asian fishing for the majority of your internet career is wild 💀
i’m just baffled at the idea she thinks people putting pins on bags is ‘doing ita bags wrong’. i never even heard of ita bags before this video but people have been putting pins on bags and stuff for literal decades? just bc it involves pop culture now suddenly i’m committing ita bag sins for having a band pin on my bag 💀
@@quanticflowers I mean, saying "this thing is actually X because I said so" it's pretty Western way of thinking. Your bag covered in pins and badges is not an ita bag, unless it meets specific criteria. Just because you insist on calling it an 'ita bag' doesn't magically make it that, it's still just a bag with pins and badges.
i wasnt sure if she was wasian or smthng but this confirmed it for me bc NOT THE ASIANFISHING.... girl is truly columbus
@@severalverysmallmangosy’all say this and then throw a fit if they called it something else or didn’t mention the fact that they got the idea from an itabag
@@bestie9744exactly😭
“Traditional Ita bag” …hun, what tradition? It’s like barely 15 years old
LOL LITERALLY, that’s what I thought when she said that too
The word traditional has different colloquial meanings.
@@Bokatisha1234true but saying “Japanese traditional” which brings to mind kimono and tea ceremonies to describe cringy 21st century plastic is very funny
FR THEY TALK ABOUT IT AS IF IT'S THE BIBLE 😭😭😭
@Bokatisha1234 Not really. It means the same thing colloquially, it is means "from the origin, of the standard" and when you are talking about a tradition that doesn't have much of any amount of time under their belt then it is a fair cop.
gang do we think theres a warhammer 40k ita bag
New Goal Acquired
looks like there's about to be
Challenge accepted
There will be now >:)
i kinda have one 😭
I’ve always loved both. Repeating pins can be super cool to see on a bag. It definitely shows the money put into the bag, but it also shows the time and dedication to collecting multiples. Most times the pins are within lucky boxes, so you don’t know which you’ll get. Meaning you’re either really lucky or will have to continue searching in resell stores. There’s even the custom in Japan to trade pins at cons in order to get your faves pin which I found to be a super cool way to interact with other people in a fandom. You could truly see the happiness when someone traded for a pin that they had been searching for to complete their collection.
Mixed ita bags also show the same level of dedication especially when it’s overseas. Even if you have one item from a series it also shows that person’s commitment to searching and finding that one pin or item to go on their ita bag, whether adventuring out to your local hobby shop or venturing through a convention to purchase the only item for that series or character that is available. Even the combination of “random” pins/items from different things is like a showcase of all your different interests which can be a stellar conversation starter or just make you happy as a fan to see another person enjoy the same character or series.
I saw the title of the video and immediately clicked because I’ve loved ita bags since I first saw them popping up on tumblr in the 2010s. I made my first one in 2012 when there was one vendor at a con that had brought a few from Japan to sell. I was so happy to finally showcase my fave on a bag, and I put on all the merch I had gotten from the convention for Okita(Hakuouki) including a shikishi, two pins, and a small keychain figure (also painfully poked myself in the process). It wasn’t much compared to what I saw Japanese fans making for him, but I was just so happy with my little bag. Then I made 2 for Syo(Uta Pri) which included many more pins, plushies, ribbons, and even lights because the new bags people were posting about included much more elaborate set ups which were so pretty. Then I saw more vendors bringing them to cons which made me so happy to see ita bags gain popularity in the US. I then remember seeing the first crowd funding for ita bags, and I was just so excited to see more designs to display my faves in. Pencil case ita bags are still my faves to come out from new designs.
Since then it has been great seeing more people with ita bags because I just enjoy seeing them. Whether it has one pin or a thousand, I find them all so fun and beautiful. I still continue making and updating my ita bags till today because it brings me so much joy. Also why I found the entire controversy so infuriating because I’ve loved seeing this side of fandom culture evolve. No one should be gatekeeping nor limiting what should go on an ita bag. It’s your bag, and you can be as elaborate or as simple as you want to be, official merch or fan merch, repeated or random there’s no one right way. We wouldn’t get new bag designs, displays, or decorations if everyone just stuck to one way of an ita bag display.
I've only seen you on tiktok until now and I had no idea about those bags 15 minutes ago. but I'm a fan of a german children's book/moovie series from the 2000s, more specifically the merch that came out back then. I'm so tempted to make a bag like this to display the smaller things in my collection like finger skateboards, toy cars, original labels and patches. I'd probably sew it myself, since the merch has a very specific color scheme. It's such an incredibly cool and creative way to show of stuff someone likes! I kinda love it
Which show/childrens book may I ask?
love when youtube recommends videos about really niche online drama.
why yes, i would like to hear about how things are heating up in the ita bag fandom!
Yup!
I think the algorithm knows that I'd very much like to see 10-15 min videos of drama from random groups I've never heard about, while I eat my popcorn 🍿
I just got back from a trip in Japan. I wore one of my "western" ita bags everyday, and I got compliments everywhere I went. Most of the ita bags I saw in Japan were the repeating styles. I am not a fan of that style because it feels like a waste of space for me, and I support too many fandoms to just dedicate to one. I have a lot of different pins I've collected over the years, so I enjoy ita bags as a way to display them all.
no, strangers would totally say to your face your bag is bad, because that's how japanese people are often behave, right? that what you think? I am just saying it's not really an argument
This is not really an arguement, especially since you are making it seem like your method is better.
@@wmurd but would all the compliments be from people who were just lying through their teeth??
@@wmurdIf they dont like it they'll just keep it to themselves and not talk about it and laugh about it behind you brah. Are you human?
@wmurd people generally dont lie about compliments. are you okay man?
As someone who’s been creating itabags since around 2005, I hated the discourse. The way Sunnie went about this whole drama was elitism and rude, but tiktok fed that fire and gave her ammunition to carry on.
I have around 16 different itabags and several different inserts for them, each one being for a different series or character.
My personal preference is sticking to one series/ character per bag/insert but I can see why people don’t and I think bags with multiple fandoms in are totally fine and valid. At the end of the day, it’s your bag not anyone else’s! We should celebrate everyone’s unique take on the itabag and just enjoy them. I love seeing others bags in the wild or in a con setting. They’re great conversation starters!
Also I’m well aware that 16+ is A LOT, but this has been a labour of love for the last 19 years. Ive spent way too much money and time on them but it’s something I love to do and am lucky enough to be able to do!
Itabags weren't even a thing till 2014...
@@smegellimes at 2:11, there's an on screen correction. Ita bags were from V-Kei and idol culture from the early 2000's. in the 2010's is when the anime fans started to take interest and popularize the version we see today. Perhaps watch the video before commenting?
@@smegellimesI’m sorry MY experiences with itabags doesn’t match YOUR timeline.
@@Pastelbreakdown Itabags as a hobby came from love live 'otaku battle armor' you're confusing it with something else, itabags don't even show up pre 2014 on jp tags.
Hobbies can have similarities and still ultimately be different things which is the case with Vkei fandom and itabags, not to mention that in the video brought up has absolutely zero sources connecting the two hobbies.
I'm glad Ita Bags are a thing now, because I lost so many pins and buttons and I'm still sad that I lost them
i have one ita bag of baizhu from genshin!! it's filled with mostly fan merch with only two official hoyoverse pins since i'm in a lot of artist alleys as a visitor and an artist, and baizhu fan merch is quite rare to see in my area since he isn't very popular. i hoard fan merch of him like my life depends on it and i love to show off what i've collected from other artists! it's not very neat and i could definitely use the space better or decorate it more, but i strongly prefer only adding to it when i find new fan merch from other artists and get to nerd out over an underappreciated character with them
5:52 I'm sorry but how did she think this was normal??? "You're fandom is incredibly niche with zero official merch, well then you arent allowed to show off your love for it, sowwy" Like be so fr right now 😭 Like damn i guess because i didnt catch any of the 3 merch drops of my favourite game because i was broke at the time I don't deserve to showcase my 5 year devotion to it 🤨
Anyways, I actually personally prefer the varied but themed designs, especially ones with plushes! The repeating designs can look nice, but i like the asymetry of featuring keychains and particularly plushes and that it gives more of a chance to showcase multiple artists! I've also seen ones with seemingly unrelated charms that catch on motifs or moments about the character. I recently bought a blue rabbit keychain and a pudding keychain because they both reminded me of parts of my favourite character who im trying to build a themed bag around, Mizuki Date! (and they match her colour scheme so i feel like they'll blend right in lol)
LITERALLY LIKE? THAT CLIP PISSED ME OFF SM
Fr the main fandom I’m in literally has no official merch.. it’s a fan game so legally I don’t think they can make merch anyways, since there’s barely any fan made merch either I’m planning on making my own pins, keychains and plushies for an ita bag I want to create.
I feel that. I just have a general aitsf ita bag right now because merch isn't exactly easy to find.
@@doggiemaina11 There is a good amount on Etsy (although usually only through preorder periods which are easy to miss) but still 🥹 I'm lucky my faves are usually the ones getting fanmerch (I love the psyncers and iris) but it's still difficult to get my hands on! At this point I'm tempted to just make stuff for myself lol
Capturing moments of a character? I have not come across this concept in anything apart from like a PNG mood board. How interesting! That would show some serious devotion. Crap, I might have to try it. 😂
It’s always hilarious seeing normal people take stuff from alternative subcultures (punk and metal diy in this case) and turn it into a gatekeepey “look how rich I am” capitalism contest. Metalheads have been doing stuff like this for decades with thrifted denim vests and DIY patches and pins. It’s how we show our love for the subculture and our own creativity, not showing off how much money we can spend
As a metalhead, this whole situation over girly bags is hilarious. Leave it to others to turn something creative into a fixation on price and obsessive consumerism. And those bags look freaking ugly.
Guess it's a good red flag though, see a girl with one and go the other direction lmao
I don't think itabag was pulled from alt subculture due to the fact that it has consumerism as a big aspect of it
The definition of punk is complete shit music, as soon as there's commercial merch its no longer punk.
The repeating pattern ones aren't for me, part of the fun of an ita bag for me is hunting down a variety things for a character and arranging them in a bag and using items like flowers that feel on theme with the character. I like both official merch but also really love fan merch because artists get really creative! I wouldnt want 20 of the same badge because thats space 20 unique badges could occupy. Or that one badge/keychain and then things related to that character around it. I make my bags to be shrines to the character not to try to flex how many badges I imported.
agreed!
Exactly! Sorry but I’m into many different fandoms and a repeating pattern ita bag for me personally is just plain boring.
My first time seeing your content. I've seen many "tea" channels. They talk slow and I usually have to speed them up. But not you. I appreciate your speech speed. Thank you for speaking so far. Much appreciated. And the video was very interesting!
I cannot express the joy I felt as an older anime fan hearing someone your age name check Serial Experiments Lain. It's been my favorite for decades and I'm happy younger fans have ever heard of it! I feel your pain on the desire for merch 😂 Love the video, I look forward to seeing more from you ❤
I had no idea there was drama surrounding these. Today i happened to have one on me and a lady asked me about it because she wanted to get one for her daughter. I happily explained and she was excited to have an idea for a gift. The idea of keeping a fun hobby to myself doesn't sit right with me.
I get that! I have a few ita bags but have been unsure how to decorate it (both because I am an artist, have 3 enamel pin binders, and have a habit of painting old badges and such) I love creating and creating makes being a fan or anything 100% worth it for me! sharing art, original characters, and more is fun and your hobbies are kinda meant to be shared! (though understood when you want to avoid sharing because of it being used for coping or other things where it might put you in danger if others knew about it- like a fanfic writer not wanting 18+ fics they wrote pre-that job being found by their work or similar)
The actual differences between "western" and "Japanese" itabags if there are any come from the fact in Japan there isn't as much of a fan merch culture (as there are rules preventing mass production and sale for profit) like there is overseas, and conversely there's a lot more emphasis on buying official merch to financially support your favourite genre, whereas overseas it's a lot more difficult to buy official merch directly so your money just ends up going towards the upselling resellers.
There's also a lot more emphasis in Japan on keeping different genres separate, so in mixed itabags it's more likely to still be all merch of the same character or genre, rather than a random mix. This is mostly because it's more common to make your itabag to take to a specific event rather than just general use, and it's a bit rude to show up to a live with a bunch of unrelated merch 😂. Meanwhile overseas there aren't as many events, so it's more just for fun and general self expression.
It's also a lot easier to make the repeating same badge type itabags in Japan, because a lot of people buy multiple box sets of random merch and trade with other fans so everyone can collect multiple copies of their favourite character. Because of that there's a sense of community involved in being able to make those A3 same badge itabags that go viral on SNS, since you usually can't make one without help from a lot of other people (unless you spent the money on 80 box sets by yourself...).
If you actually go to any otaku event or area in Japan though, you'll see lots of people with mixed itabags. It's super common for people to do things like specifically collecting different badges with contrasting colours to make patterns or shapes on the bag (hearts and rainbows are common), or using polaroids or trading cards instead of badges (or both together), or the "Chinese style" itabags where you only use a couple of pieces of merch and then decorate the remaining space to match the character's motif, or using a generic see-through tote bag instead of the common window type itabag and filling it with plush toys and merch. A lot of people hand print, cut out and laminate art of the character, or make sheet inserts of the character's signature, to put inside their itabags with the merch too. Not to mention the (usually) hand-made deco frames, rosettes, ribbons and rhinestones people decorate their merch with.
So tldr, fundamentally there's no such thing as distinct categories for "Japanese" and "western" itabags! At most it's trends based on what's available in that region that becomes popular! You can make whatever you want wherever you are and nobody will care!
Also since a lot of people in the comments don't seem to be fans of the same badge type of itabags I'll try to come to their defence, but I love them! When making it yourself it's fun having a goal in mind of exactly how many badges you need and very satisfying slowly watching as your collection comes together, and when I see other people with them, I can really appreciate how much time and effort it must have taken for them to get to that point, since those bags have to be specifically planned out to put together compared to ones with a random collection.
(And as a bonus, from personal experience, if you have an ita bag really obviously dedicated to one character you might get people coming up to you to offer random merch since they can tell from one look who you're after 😊)
Everyone has their own values and goals for how they want to express their love for their favourite characters, so there's no reason to put down any of the methods!
Well, the other thing I thought about *why* repeating type itabags might be easier to get in Japan is also because it’s SO much smaller geographically! I’m from central North America. If I want to go to the next big city over, that’s 8 hours of driving, with no stops along the way. It would be physically impossible to me to go to one of these events, never mind MULTIPLE, never mind trade with other people! 8 hours can get you from one end of Japan to Tokyo! Making a repeating ita bag or even an ita bag of only *one* character would be near impossible for me!
This is a great, thorough breakdown of the differences!
I do have the mentality of buying official to support the author and artists plus the studio and staff who animated animes I love. I feel weird about buying fan made stuff though it is cute. I bought these two figures and got some acrylic stands which were fan made and thinking about selling them.
To say nothing of the entire rest of the eastern hemisphere outside Japan.
this drama is fr so stupid
why do people even care what you call your bag😭
"it's not a real ita bag" you can call it whatever the hell you want I just think it looks cool 💀 maybe you have to be peak weeaboo to care
Crazy that gatekeeper ita bag girl is known for pretending to be asian
"Sometimes being a fan is as simple as enjoying it"
I feel the "it's hard to get merch" in my soul man.... I'm a huge fan of the Nikki games and have been for years. It's SO HARD to find merch for Love Nikki. Shining Nikki? Tons. Infinity Nikki? There probably will be tons. Love Nikki though? The only merch I own that I could get affordably was some of the trading cards and I have them in a binder to keep them prestine. I'd love to have an itabag of Nikki merch....
Would not be suprised if dollskill came out with a pre decorated ita bag
Ew dont give them ideas 😭😭
😨
@@sweetheartangellic your right sorry 😔
Lower your voice, they’ll hear you 🫣
@@LionTheMisfit i know I'm sorry
Most people that you see IRL wouldn't even know the difference between a Japanese ita bag vs the Western one, or care to. Most people might look at both styles and find them cringey. So being a major elitist over ita bags is pretty stupid.
That's because real ita bags aren't dragged around everywhere, they are brought out for appropriate events and places, unlike in the west...
@@athenagreen5390who gaf lifes too short for that
@@athenagreen5390 I use my Ita bag as a bag. I “drag it around” wherever because that’s how I carry my things when I go places. I like to display some of my favorite pins stickers and keychains on it because I like them and it makes me happy.
That's me right now trying to understand what's the drama about lol
@@athenagreen5390 So it’s just solely about the consumerism and not even having a practical, usable item that expresses your personal style? And that’s supposed to be a virtue?
The amount of Pjsk ita bags and merch clips this video showed 😭 I’m the biggest Pjsk fan ever
My ita bag was a graduation gift from my momma, it’s basic but nice. The pins and keychains on display are a mosaic of my biggest interests over the past two years: I have pins from musical theater, anime, and some games. A few badges on there were commissioned!! I’m the only person who owns them!! And that’s the way I like it :) my bag is very meaningful and sentimental to me, I don’t care if it’s “traditional” or whatever
isnt twinbuns literally an asian-fisher? shes literally a non-japanese person from arizona, i dont think she should get to have an opinion
whats her @
oh my god what
omg as an arizonan we dont claim her i swear 😭
this!!!
Aswell as a literal pedo, she actively buys shotacon
I personally prefer the maximalist versions, there is more expression and the variety is just pleasing to look at.
FR!! those are so gorgeous :3
why am I getting the vibe that she wants to be Asian 😭 like the way she did her makeup and hair here 4:33 I thought she was Asian until we got a closeup of her face. and the way she’s so protective of something that originated from Japan and hates the “western” version, very much giving obsession to the point of self-hatred.
(I’m Asian btw, so I’m very used to spotting these things 😭 )
twinbuns is actually known for doing that and mocks comments and people about it (even tho she LITERALLY squints in stuff to look "more asian" like okay?? 😭😭)
Based on other comments she asianfishes.
They actually asianfished for ages. I didn’t believe it at first but then they stopped squinting and the difference was NOTICABLE 💀
I thought she was Asian until I saw the video and realized that she does her makeup like that on purpose to look Asian
She actually has an account where she’s acting like she’s Japanese
I love this video! Everything you said is so true. Most people have many fandoms, so showing more than one off at a time makes sense. It's just fun to express yourself and what you love.
I just ordered my first ita bag. It hasn't arrived yet and I'm already looking at my pins and thinking about how I want to design it. I have come up with several ideas already, so I'm sure I will be changing it up depending on my mood.
proud to say I actually go outside to when I see an ita bag I compliment them no matter how it looks because it’s so cool to see people show off their interests. There is no specific way an ita bag is supposed to look as long as you’re having fun and proud of your interests
I absolutely love listening to you yap, please make more videos girlie 😭
I am! I am aiming to try release a new video 2-3 times a month (wanting to prioritise quality first!) 🙂↕️✨
@@AddyHarajuku YIPPEEE I'm genuinely so excited to see what else you have to offer us because these first two videos have been amazing and such high quality 💖
SAME NAME!! (Quinn?)
the drama was so silly but I did love seeing everyone's ita bags because of it!! I have three ita bags I'm trying to fill out - an astarion bag, a biology bag, and a catgirl bag!
Biology ita bag sounds sick
I love astarion,,, good luck with the ita bag!
I like both but for myself I prefer a bag that's a mix of pins of different fandoms/interests etc. as I like a lot of stuff and don't want to be defined by only one thing ^^
Real, the 'theme' of my itabag is myself
Same!
My ita's a hodge-podge of everything and anything. Too many Simpsons pin? Check. A custom pin of my favourite singer in his simpsonised form? Check. My favourite Stardew Bachelor (Harvey) as a Cat? Check. Too many MLP pins? Check. An old brownie badge? Check. One of the sexy goldfish from Fantasia? Check. As much as I would like to make a 6x4 grid of 7.5cm wide badges of one entity, I like the patchwork element of collecting different pins. I'm a multi-faceted person who likes a lot of different things.
Off-topic but your hair and makeup are absolutely adorable, I love them so much
Things are heating up in the plastic bag fandom
For people wondering "is my ita bag good enough? Is my bag considered a ita bag?"
Let me break it down for u.
Ita bag, is a bag that showcase what you like.
So as long as its a bag u can carry around in, has a window(or not, ain judging u for living a risky life), and shows everything u like in there? It's a ita bag. As long as u think it is, it is.
Plain and simple. I don care if your bag has a tiny pin on it. If u think its a ita bag, it is. IT'S JUST FOR FUN.
I legally cannot do the "Repeating design" itabag, ive been raised on arts & crafts and collages. its cool, sure, but getting repeats of ANYTHING older is painfully expensive. I dont even have a theme! i put metal band enamels, vocaloid pins, random video game pins, and if i wasn't modifying my bag...MANY plushies. There is no singular way to decorate an itabag, and i don't even know who started it...but may her next pack of pins be unbuyable. So exclusive its not even on resale.
I actively hunted for a legit sonic-x-treme pin from 1994-5, bought a balan wonderworld pin JUST BECAUSE it was oshima artwork, bartered for a pack of racing miku pins from 2010, paid 50 bucks EACH for a durarara poster and clip, and gladly carry my shuake keychain from the (infamous) showtime zine! One time i wore a graffitti soul pin and a reaper pin to a college event, and i met a fellow fan! We were talking for a bit on how neoTWEWY neku needed a figma YESTERDAY, and "omg when will jsr get a new game."
All this social media in-fighting is dumb, go to a park fully decked out and see how poppin' your conversations will be!
legit sonic x-treme ANYTHING exists out there?? oh no do not send me down that rabbit hole before telling me if nack/fang is featured anywhere.
@electrocast i havent found anything nack or fang, but it was pure luck i found someone on ebay selling that pin! Up until then, all i saw was the walkie talkies for sale.
@@liz_violet that's such a lucky find! makes me wonder what other merch could exist out there.
i follow so many japanese artists who don't have repeat ita bags, it's crazy to police how other people express their fandom (especially as someone who asian-fishes).0
i have several ita bags, i'd love to have a repeat bag of my fav but merch of him is hard to come by especially now his movie is off-trend. I have dragon ball, jjk, genshin (which is probably going to get changed soon) and a general enemel pin bag :) (that one's shaped like a beetle)
(also I love that you're making long-form content now, I love listening to you yap)
...fifteen minutes is "long form"?
this reminds me of this picture of someone wearing an ita bag with nothing except a big picture of jerma in it
I needed this in middle/high school cuz I lost so many pins and buttons throughout the years
gonna make an ita bag of myself
Do it 😈
If you want a tutorial on like a way to achieve that. There's a tutorial from a furry using giant blank desktop mouse pads and getting them printed on, trimmed and attaching it to your self made bag!
Could probably do something similar with a human character
@@Its_Asteriado you have the name? I’m curious :0
I'll finally get the decorations for my ita bag tomorrow
Yay!! ✨🎀
REALL!! MY ITA BAG IS ARRIVING TMR!!
Cool also omg kagamine len pfp
Slay
@@ZvezdyStars what did you get for it?
Not the girl Asian fishing calling people with anime bags "colonizers" what a weeb 💀
5:40 her face is so punchable (I'm a woman so I can throw hands)
Weeb is a word that's misused all too often, but using it here is totally correct because this is pure cringe
Also saying you gotta have a DIFFERENT BAG for each of your favourite show or game is peak consumerism also. Not surprising at all
While i do not have an ita bag, i have considered doing similar but with "fake stickers". The idea was to make little drawings of all the fandoms im in a sticker-like style and then put them all on one big wallpaper like a sticker wall.
As someone who likes ALOT of fandom, i am so confused as to why a bag should be reserved to one fandom, when you could have so many in one!! As bonus points; the more fandoms you reference, the more likely you are to find someone who recognizes one :3
my ita bag is a lavender coffin. I bought it to use as a blythe doll carrier, but i also used it as my everyday bag for a while with the insert covered in various enamel pins and badges. Some fandom-related, some snarky, several spooky themed. Twin Buns would most definitely not approve.
If there is any silver lining it's def seeing all the cute ita bags and creative expressions as a response! Gatekeeping is lame. Stay creative friends
My favorite thing when people buy merch from artists is being able to take one look at someone's ita bag and seeing the community behind it. Different styles or different ways people draw that particular character brings so much community and life to that character or series. It shows how people are willing to support artists regardless of art style or that artists popularity, but instead, for the sole purpose of adding to their collection and showing their love for something!
i have so many shuake stuff...too much...but my boys need to be happy.
Wasn't the whole ides of it being "ita" that the bag had so many trinkets and charms and pins and stuff that the bag was painful to look at? I feel like these repeating pattern bags are fairly recent. I dont get why twinbuns insists on calling the mismatched bags "western"
My thought was it was painful to wear since the more shit you put into it the heavier it became and thus the more painful to carry around. I know back when I wore every single pin I owned on one bag that thing was like 8 lb without anything in it.
"Painful" in this context is just about being a "painful" fan, as in "cringe". Like otaku, it's a term that can both be an insult or something the fans themselves use as a badge of honor.
let alone if you have a favorite character who has little to no official merch. it's so prideful to be able to show off artist's work from an ita bag, especially when some of these artists are my friends who've made merch of this niche character specifically for me
To me I like the American ita bags solely because I like seeing all the art from multiple different artists rather than a repeating the same thing. I love seeing the styles, poses, etc etc all upon one canvas (the bag) Hell I might get inspiration for my own art style if I spot one I really like or I'll ask which artist in the alley made it so I can purchase from them
I love the creativity that western fandom itabags display! You can have fun with it, and I know it's not the "hardcore oshi culture", like in Japan, but we still show appreciation towards series and artists in our own way. Not to mention, a lot of Japanese people do NOT care if you put a spin like that on your bag, I know of situations where Japanese girls would actually be massively interested in a mish-mashed ita that a foreigner brought to a meeting and say it's cool and fun. There is always someone who tries to ruin the fun and is elitist, I'm waiting for this creator to say that it's "cultural appropriation" where it's literally not her place to speak on this, but Japanese oshi community's itself.
Twinbuns literally doesn't know what they are talking about regarding "traditional" ita bags. I spent a bunch of time in Ikebukuro / Otome Road just over 10 years ago when ita bags were just getting popular in the anime community. Sure, can badges and keychains were more common to see than enamel badges but it was VERY common to see people with mismatched merch displayed in a messy way. It's also common to see bags with only a few items in or gaps because DUH part of the fun is building your collection over time. Most of the people who participate in this were younger people like school or uni students and most of the stuff people put in their bags was scavenged from second hand shops so of course it wasn't all going to be matching. I haven't been to Japan in a while so IDK if the trend has changed but having a bag with all one badge is definitely not "traditional". The main difference is that in Japan people usually keep their bag dedicated to one character or show, but in the West people often have more of a mix.
5:02 I always assumed an ita bag was something you *build*?? Like how battle vests and patch pants take time and energy, ita bags very much the same. To have a full ita bag takes time *especially* so if you want it for just one show or one character or one artist
TH-cam: Would you like to become wholly invested in this obscure online drama over something you've never heard of?
Me: Absolutely I would.
That's why I'm kinda economical/poor af because I make my own badges based on Rika Seto (making them on paper) and I put it in my ita bag, also because Rika almost doesn't have merchandise, so I create my own.
i love fan-made merch so much and i think their designs look so cool on my itabag, because you have the same character in vastly different artstyles and it just looks fab imo
ive only ever gotten compliments for my bag haha, it's a great talking point at cons as well :D
I have a more "westernized" ita bag and it's dedicated to a group of characters of a video game that I'm a HUGE fan of and yes, I did have to pay a hefty price tag because I bought the bag from an artist from Spain and I had to get it imported to the US. I do also want to make more ita bags (especially centered around the Halloween guest characters from the same video game) but they have absolutely NO official merch so I have to be on the hunt to find merch made by fans
This is a shot in the dark but would you happen to be talking about Twisted Wonderland by any chance? Cause I also happen to have gotten a Twist ita bag from Spain and feel you on the no merch for the Halloween event characters thing (Fellow Honest, my beloved, why must you have basically NOTHING?)
@t1dotaku Yes I am! :D
ALSO EYYYYY I'M A FELLOW STAN TOO!
As an artist too I just like to buy a lot of pins and stuff from local artists and show them off :] I have a bag that I’ve just filled with all the merch of Chilchuck (delicious in dungeon LOL) I can find and it’s my pride and joy knowing how many artists have contributed to it, I like to show off the characters I like and a bag is a great way to display that :) !!
Eridan pfp!!!!!
@@pizzahutz_inthegarage yEAAAHH!! Indeed it is LOL :)
@@crunchysalad_ the characters I tend to like are so niche it's rare to find even fan-made stuff of them so I was so happy to find two charms that were specifically of them. Pokémon SV spoilers but
It's so hard to find anything that's specifically of the AIs and not their creators, but this one has their eyes different colors, so you know it's them.
@@BJGvideos YOU HAVE IMMACULATE TASTE !! :] I adore pokemon scarlet and violet
@@crunchysalad_ Aww thank you! My heart decided that, out of all the characters, the sad robots were all I was going to think about for the next foreseeable future. I come up with all sorts of storylines for them (AI Sada gets lonely in the past so she creates Golett is one I want to explore more. I'm writing one where AI Turo finds a way to return to the present, and exploring how that affects everyone has been interesting)
Not an anime, but as someone who is a huge fan of a show that came out in 1999 and is the black sheep of the series so it doesn't EVEN HAVE FAN MERCH...I have my own bag with a "pin window" and I wanted to show off my love for Pokemon and Sonic (the series that was mentioned above), so I have my fan made pins and stickers inside right now to show off my love. And hope to get a bag with a bigger window.
I had no idea there was a "right" and "wrong" way to it. ;w;
im a young cosplayer, and the only ´ita bag´i have is a blue backpack that has a LOT of different fandoms and stuff i just randomly got or made myself. From Resident Evil and Slipknot merch to Genshin and some random animes, thats all i can afford XD
Not really Ita-bag, but I work at a boba shop. My colleagues and me decided to decorate our aprons with pins. So now each of us has an apron decorated with enamel pins of our favorite games, anime, animals and memes. Occasionally we gift each other pins. The pins are not really harmonic, for example astarion next to a bottle of soju and a cat saying „huh?“ but they just nicely show who we are.
I also have an Ita bag. I just personally can’t afford to buy the same pin twenty times or something. When I’m a broke student I prefer to buy multiple different motives and then combine them instead of spending all of my money on twenty identical ones… aside from my chaotic apron I try to keep it aesthetic and matching xD
No way this channel only has two videos 😭
How am I supposed to binge watch stuff when all the good content is so underrated
Being an Asian, I gotta say:
Gatekeeping someone else's culture is the weirdest shit I've seen to come out of white ppl (n frankly, some black folks too) in a good while
They (a lot of chronically online black people) want to be heroes so hard
This is just as ridiculous as an incident some years ago where white people berated japanese people at like a museum or something for letting non japanese people try on kimonos
If you have a pin maker, the repeating pins don’t have to be expensive! :D
I have been seeing Addy all over pinterest, and I finally found her channel!! So excited.
Personally I love the messy and collective look of the western ones, having one myself lol!! I'm apart of the local music scene in my city as well so I have band patches and lace sewn to the back of mine. I think they're so fun!
just a correction: it’s called an ita bag because it’s painful to look at. aka it’s cringe. it’s a play on itasha (cringy car) and ita lolita(this is more used as an insult). a tongue in cheek and self aware way to refer to their hobby. the “painful to the wallet” meaning is just a later interpretation
in japan, itai is very often used colloquially as “cringe”. if you see something extremely cringey you call it “itasugiru”. honestly this makes this situation more laughable. just nerds policing other nerds over their cringe bags
Heya! Thank you for this insight, the common consensus I saw when researching was the painful to wallet/painful dedication meaning. But I appreciate this correction & insight, unfortunately english sources can be limited or incorrect at times. So thank you for this! 🙂↕️✨
That's funny I had always heard that they were called that because the bag is hurt from being poked with so many pins lmao
@@Resonance1919 LOL yeah tbh ppl tend to add meanings to a word bc of coincidences, but it plays more on the concept of secondhand embarrassment. it an offshoot of itasha (those gaudy cars with anime skins over them, really cringey to look at)
@@Resonance1919 yeah I always heard it was because you get pricked by the pins so you say ouch/itai
I got like a ita brand bag but it’s invader zim themed and theirs zim stuff and some of my other interests :3
I like the westernized version! Having different pins gives an awesome variety, and you can still have an organized and clean look !
I hate what social media has done to fandom so much. like stuff wasnt all peaches and roses when I was growing up but Id legit rather deal with a thousand Simpsons Comic Book Guys than whatever the fuck the late to the fandom party tiktok gatekeepers have goin on.
I literally got an ita bag to protect my pin collection after one of my Star Trek pins got stolen in Vegas. ._.;
This whole thing is nuts.
Its also with that hottake from that person earlier it is SO hard to get anything in uk (im a welsh person) you CANNOT find anything related to fandoms i like because my only option would be insanely expensive stuff from places shipped from japan ita bags are for anyone and if anyone wants to repeat patterns or not have them repeated someone should be able to do whatver ^^
the ominous bell tolls....
OMINOUS BELL TOLLING
Try being in Hawaii trying to find those Project Sekai wafers that appeared in California first. I don't see any of the recent L/N figures either. The Wafers with a card, I see anything, but the ProSeka one (Gundam, Idolmaster (ironically), Fate Grand/Order, and especially Pokémon [that franchise over here has every imported snack or gum]).
Australian. I've ordered 5 custom made badges from a seller on eBay. If I can't get it, I will pay someone to make it for me.
@@mraterwelon.8875 bells.
policing over how to decorate a bag is so stupid like😭
i’m from a country where Japanese culture and anime are more common, rlly nobody cares what you put in ur bag u can mix dolls and pins in the same bag and that’s totally fine
Man, must be nice to lead a life where your biggest gripe is what people are putting in their Ita bags.
i used an Ita bag during a concert overseas and it was nice to see others do too. it had my bias name and photos in there so when we don't speak the same language, we just look at the bags and we get to know which members we like and even get freebies for that member bec it was visible.