October 2019 Special Update

Thank you to everyone who saw and answered my update on Twitter. For those who haven't, I finally have some time to provide information concerning the next few weeks.


I have flown to the USA for family-related reasons and plan to be there for at least two weeks. Needless to say, this affects a few things concerning sales and pre-orders, so I'll try to outline everything as best as I can.


I am in the process of completing orders for the Shining Web Store. I've ordered all of the Q-Pot items and I also picked up some items at the pop-up shop. I will be completing the rest of the order online in the next few days, so everything should be going as planned. If you haven't paid your invoice yet, please do so. Sadly I won't be able to trade anything until I get back to Japan, but hopefully there will be a chance to get something done when I do.


The order for Dream Star Live (the UtaPri x EnStars collaboration) was marked as "Preparing Shipment" so I'm expecting that order to be delivered while I'm away. Depending on the ship date, I may need to have it rerouted to a friend's address, and if that happens it may take a little time to go through everything.


I should be back before Secret Garden Party items arrive, so those should remain unaffected.


If you recently paid for shipping on an order, made a purchase or asked to purchase something recently, I will handle that as soon as I get back.


Concerning the recent post I made on the 6th stage Ring Lights that some of you have asked about, I completed the purchase from seller on Yahoo Auctions and the rings have arrived at my friend's place. Pretty much all of the rings have potential buyers at this point, I just need to get back to each person and finalize the cost.


I think that should cover everything. If there's something that I've forgotten, please don't hesitate to remind me, I'll be looking at messages, though it's a possibility I won't answer right away.


Lastly, thank you very much to everyone who sent well wishes, and please don't worry about me. Continuing to work on anything UtaPri-related puts my mind at ease, so I'll do my best.

Fall 2019 Update

Finally, some time to sit down and give a proper update!

Group Orders

This time I'll be covering all information about the Shining Store, from the first Shopping Service in August to the current group pre-orders. So if you signed up for any of these, the information probably applies to you!

• Shining Store Shopping Service (from August): If you had any "sold out" items in your invoice, I'm retiring store pickups so that I can focus on the online group orders and trading items. If there's anything you didn't get that you still want to buy and don't mind waiting until February/March of next year, please sign up for the Shining Web Store group order!
• Shining Web Store Trading Item Group Order: If you signed up before September 10th, I've picked up some trading items from the store already so I can have more time to exchange for requested characters. My next visit will probably not be until the end of this month, but I aim to pick up more at that time. If you only ordered trading items and I finished getting everything you asked for, I can send it sooner than the posted February/March release.
• Shining Web Store General Item Group Order: I'll start sending invoices this weekend. If you pay before the end of September, I may be able to pick up items from the pop-up store. If I get everything from your sign-up, I can send it early; if not, I'll hold what I have and combine it with the online order. If you ordered trading items, it may take extra time if I haven't finished trading.
• Other Group Orders: Broccoli Girls Shop (Color Ribbon series),  anime Japan, and Heavens Garden items came in a while ago. I'm holding orders for anyone who also bought merch from Dream Star Live and Secret Garden Party, which isn't in yet. All of these orders are NOT eligible to be combined with Shining Web Store, as I'm trying to send everything out by the end of the year.

If you haven't signed up for the above group orders, you can find the sign-up forms in my Group Order Information page. The deadline is coming up soon on Wednesday, September 25th.

I don't know what UtaPri will come up with next, but right now I don't plan to host another group order for the rest of this year. If I do, the new combined shipping period will start AFTER I ship all of the Shining Store stuff to everyone.

Other News

• I've just recently set up a Google Pay account and I'm looking into how the payment procedure works. So far I want group orders and shipping invoices to go to PayPal, and general sales (items in my inventory for instant purchase) to go to Google Pay or some other payment method. I had one person test this so far and they ended up downloading the app, but I would prefer for people to be able to pay the invoice without having to download anything new. Hopefully I can figure things out by the end of the year!
• Congratulations to those who were able to see Maji Love Kingdom in North America (or are seeing it soon)! I've seen a few tweets from people who want to petition for a UK screening, I hope that happens!
• I recently went to Tokyo Game Show, and sadly there wasn't anything other than a display for (yet another) release of Repeat for the Nintendo Switch. I was there for other reasons anyway but I did take a picture (seen above).
• Some of you may remember a post I made on my Tumblr last year about popularity rankings when it comes to trading. I've been doing a lot of trading this year and noticed some changes ever since Maji Love Kingdom, and I found it very interesting so I hope to write about it soon!

For now that's all I have to report! With only two pre-orders left this year I'm hoping to have time to reorganize everything for next year, but for now it looks like I won't have to quit hosting group orders completely!☆

Shining Web Store 2019 Purchase Guide

As you may know from previous blog posts and social media, I've decided to slow down on doing orders and shopping services for early next year. That said, I won't be hosting a full group pre-order for this year's Shining Web Store.

I know for many of you this makes it a little more difficult to get items, but I've written up this special blog post to help out, so I hope you find it useful!

First, please check my general guide on searching for and ordering UtaPri items using a proxy service. I recommend using FromJapan, and if you sign up using my referral link, they'll give you 500 pts (equal to 500 yen). If you're comfortable navigating Japanese websites and have an eligible credit or debit card, you can sign up for a forwarding service like Tenso and use the mailing address and phone number they provide you with to make an account with the online shop and order directly.

Once you sign up, here are the three different shops for the Shining Web Store:

• Broccoli Official Store "Main Store" (For My Favorite Things and PRINCE CAT)
• Movic Online Store "Annex" (For Be With You, KumaPri, and Shining Store Lot items)
• Broccoli Official Store "Q☆UP Collaboration" (For Q-Pot items)

Please note that Prince Cats, Special Prince Cats, Mini Prince Cats, and Tiny Prince Cats will NOT be available in the Shining Web Store! The Shining Store Item List does mark them as 通販 which means that they should be available for online sale at some point, but it's not certain when that will be.

Next, keep in mind that there are purchase limits per order. For example, My Favorite Things Can Badges have a limit of 20 per order.

So if you want to buy 40 can badges, you have to make two orders for 20 can badges. Likewise, if clear files have a limit of 3 per character and you want to order 4 Tokiya clear files, then you have to split the quantity to stay under the limit. Broccoli will charge about $5 shipping for each order you make. Movic charges about the same, but offers free shipping for orders over 8000 yen. Movic also gives purchase points that you can use to buy items from their points exchange page.

For anyone concerned about trading items, I'm hosting a group order for those to help people get the characters they want. As usual, the requested characters aren't 100% guaranteed, but hopefully I'll be able to gather as many as possible. The sign-up link is here.

All Shining Store items this year are estimated to be released from mid-February to early March. So if you plan to order from two or more of the above shops, the proxy/forwarding service that you use should be able to combine those orders for you (most services hold orders for up to 30 days). But keep in mind that these services will either charge you for extended storage time, or they'll discard your items! So make sure to check your e-mail often when the release date nears.

I may host a group order for other items, but I can tell you that if you do the work yourself by using a proxy or forwarding service, you might end up saving some money on big orders. Hope this helps and I'll add any information that I might think is important!

UPDATE 2019/09/13: I have opened a group order for other Shining Store items! Please note that I've set purchase limits for certain items and other items are excluded, so if you plan to make a large order it may be beneficial for you to use a proxy service.

The sign-up form is here!