Tenso.com update
Sep. 12th, 2013 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigozealI did end up purchasing that passel of books from Amazon Japan through tenso.com's reshipping service. The shipment arrived today, and while shipping was very quick - four days from service payment to delivery - the packaging left a little to be desired. They reuse the same box in which Amazon.com sends your stuff, which is fine, but Tenso didn't quite put my package back together after opening it to check the shipment; the opening on the side was kind of hastily taped up, and the cellophane binding all the books together wasn't replaced or reattached where it'd been peeled away, so one of my Baten Kaitos novels was free to flop around in the box and get its cover folded in half. (The box was also kind of squashed, with another hole on the other side, though that could very well be a postal issue instead of Tenso's fault.) A minor loss, I guess, but it wouldn't have taken much in time or resources to prevent it. All the other books seem OK, though.
I did like how Tenso made the process of arranging for reshipping streamlined and professional, even if their handling of the physical merchandise is a bit lacking. They update you frequently on the status of your package, handle payment & reshipping requests through their website (even if you sometimes have to poke around a bit to find stuff), and give concrete reshipping deadlines depending on your payment date. Ultimately, it cost only about $20 more to get the package than it would have straight from Amazon, but it's a frustrating surcharge nonetheless. I guess Tenso's the only option, though, until Japanese game designers decide to make it legal for those overseas to read about their products.
Short stuff from the books:
- The Illbleed guide has a feature where it asked several staff members to list their favorite horror films, and I don't know why the most assuredly wretched little horror flick The Burning was such a sensation in Japan, but it seems to have been, as multiple folks on Illbleed's staff cited it as a fave. (So has Hifumi Kouno, the man behind Clock Tower.)
- The reasons cited by one Illbleed programmer as to why he liked three successive horror movies: "Nudity." "Nudity." "Tits."
- The 999 novels come in little silver slipcovers - cardboard silver slipcovers, granted, but a nice touch.
- Someone left their Lacus Clyne doujin idol card in one of my Baten Kaitos novels.
- I've spent, like, a minute looking at the Baten Kaitos novels, but from what I can tell, it seems to be one of those affairs where it just takes the dialogue straight from the game and brackets it with descriptive prose instead of expanding on the source material. Not many illustrations, either - about four per novel, of just-OK quality. A pity. (Oddity: the novel seems to be nonlinear, as "Life is so long when you live it..." etc. is actually one of the very first events, whereas the Castle Elnath attack is a good way through book 2. A lot of it must be structured around flashbacks.)
- The X-Files choose-your-own-adventure book based on the first-season episode "Eve," on the other hand, has no illustrations at all. Boo.
.
I did like how Tenso made the process of arranging for reshipping streamlined and professional, even if their handling of the physical merchandise is a bit lacking. They update you frequently on the status of your package, handle payment & reshipping requests through their website (even if you sometimes have to poke around a bit to find stuff), and give concrete reshipping deadlines depending on your payment date. Ultimately, it cost only about $20 more to get the package than it would have straight from Amazon, but it's a frustrating surcharge nonetheless. I guess Tenso's the only option, though, until Japanese game designers decide to make it legal for those overseas to read about their products.
Short stuff from the books:
- The Illbleed guide has a feature where it asked several staff members to list their favorite horror films, and I don't know why the most assuredly wretched little horror flick The Burning was such a sensation in Japan, but it seems to have been, as multiple folks on Illbleed's staff cited it as a fave. (So has Hifumi Kouno, the man behind Clock Tower.)
- The reasons cited by one Illbleed programmer as to why he liked three successive horror movies: "Nudity." "Nudity." "Tits."
- The 999 novels come in little silver slipcovers - cardboard silver slipcovers, granted, but a nice touch.
- Someone left their Lacus Clyne doujin idol card in one of my Baten Kaitos novels.
- I've spent, like, a minute looking at the Baten Kaitos novels, but from what I can tell, it seems to be one of those affairs where it just takes the dialogue straight from the game and brackets it with descriptive prose instead of expanding on the source material. Not many illustrations, either - about four per novel, of just-OK quality. A pity. (Oddity: the novel seems to be nonlinear, as "Life is so long when you live it..." etc. is actually one of the very first events, whereas the Castle Elnath attack is a good way through book 2. A lot of it must be structured around flashbacks.)
- The X-Files choose-your-own-adventure book based on the first-season episode "Eve," on the other hand, has no illustrations at all. Boo.
.
