Weaboo Pencils

Ok, I’ll admit. I’m obsessed with the mechanical pencils, especially with overengineered Japanese ones. If you ask me how all of this started, I would blame reddit, as as with the every poor financial choice.

I used many different mechanical pencils during my school years, from the bottom of the barrel to mid-high tier mildly expensive ones, I used nearly every mechanical you might have seen at the stationary store. In my freshman year of university, this was the same. I just got myself a Faber-Castell Tri-Click because the thing is basically indestructible and cheap.

In my second year at university, I met with the r/mechanicalpencils. I was bombarded with the rotrings and all of the different pencils there. From all of them, one of them caught my interest, it was the Uni Kuru Toga and in the comments, people were talking about its spinning mechanism. Wait what? It SPINS? HOW!? I HAVE TO LOOK INTO THAT!

I’ve researched a bit and yes, Kuru Toga spins the lead so you can write sharp and nice every time. THAT’S IT! THAT’S THE CURE FOR MY BLEEDING WOUND! I was always frustrated with how easily 0.7 leads becomes dull.

So I bought one. Not the advance model, the cheapest 450t model because I didn’t want to spend too much money for something I’m not sure how it works. I bought a green one from bkmkitap alongside a few mangas. Unsurprisingly they couldn’t supply the mangas but surprisingly they sent the wrong color kuru toga. (It’s too rare for them to make a mistake like that) They sent a pink one instead of green but I didn’t mind that. I just gave it to my sister.

Then I ordered a black one from Hepsiburada (of course from my dad’s account to keep the shipping free). This time they sent the correct color but the tip was missing!

So I asked them about the situation, and they apologized and told me they were going to send a new one. After one week the pencil didn’t come so I asked them again, they apologized again and made a new order and it arrived in 2 days. Next week first replacement arrived too, so now I had 3 black kuru togas (albeit one of them is broken) for no reason

I used this pencil for one semester and in the summer, when I was browsing Amazon I’ve seen a good price for Rotring Rapid. After it arrived my sister liked it so I gave it to her and I got myself an OHTO AutoSharp

While it looks cool, this pencil is full metal so, it’s heavy. Also, my sister pointed out that its mechanism is not good and she was having hard time to justify it’s price with these kept in mind. In the end, I returned it.

Then I decided to look into Zebra Delguard. If you’re curious about what it does, it’s the first pencil in the video below.

I got the zodiac signs special edition version in 0.5mm. Yes, after all of these years I’ve taken a risk and decided to return to 0.5mm because it’s impossible to break leads.

What I can say? This pencil made me return to 0.5mm. It’s just as advertised, it’s impossible to break lead and I feel like you can use 0.3mm like it’s no big deal. Also, it has the most rigid, stable, and overengineered mechanism I’ve seen. As expected from Japanese goods it’s quality is top-notch. I definitely recommend it and it’s a must-buy.

Since I still have budget left after returning the Ohto no-noc, I’ve decided to buy a Kuru Toga Advance too. I ordered it from bkmkitap and it arrived in 2 weeks thanks to the manga I ordered alongside.

This time I’ve ordered 0.7 because I think the spinning Kuru Toga mechanism is unnecessary for 0.5. This pencil follows a minimalistic approach in its design. It looks like a plain old ballpoint pen but it’s actually a mechanical pencil. As expected, it’s quality and mechanism are top-notch. The last thing I want to mention is that this one’s mechanism spins two times more than the 450t. So it writes much better and I think the spin rate is much better for 0.7. If you have the budget and 0.7 person, go for it.

Lastly, I got a Pentel Orenz 0.7. I got this one for very cheap from a stationary store. This one also advertises no anti-breaking feature but it’s much simpler than the Zebra’s system. You just have to click once and leave the lead in the metal tube. If you want to use it as a regular old mechanical pencil, that’s possible and I think it’s minimalistic designs allow this just fine.

Oh, I nearly forgot 2 Kuru Togas I got from a sketchy-looking website. They were a complete surprise to me because they were way cheaper than the normal price. I ordered two and nevertheless, they arrived!

But as I’ve mentioned before, 0.5 Kuru Toga is completely unnecessary in my opinion. 0.5mm leads become sharp enough to write easier. Especially if we consider the slower rotation rate, you can only pick these up if you want a quality pencil or want to step into the Japanese pencils.

All in all, that was a look at my Japanese mechanical pencil collection. For now, I have, 5 Uni Kuru Toga 450Ts (1 of them is broken), 1 Kuru Toga Advance, 1 Zebra Delguard, and 1 Pentel Orenz. The grand total is 8 pencils ?.

You might say why do you need that much? The answer is same as the every hobby, why not?