The 12 Days of Kurisumasu are back for 2013!

Well, once again, it’s holiday time, which means it’s time to hit the malls and get serious about your holiday gift buying. So how’s that going for you? Well, if you, like 99.99999% of the rest of civilization, are either (A) having trouble deciding what to buy someone, (B) procrastinating right up till the end and need to find someone a gift RIGHT NOW!!!!11, (c) are lazy and need someone to help pick gifts for you, or (d) all of the above, well, guess what, we can help youwith that. Because it’s once again time to unleash that wonder of wonders we like to call The 12 Days of Kurisumasu!!!

In case you’ve been living under a rock (or in the desert, or deep in the Himalayas, or on Mars, or in a distant galaxy/another dimension/etc.) for the past year, and haven’t the faintest idea what the heck I’m talking about, here’s the scoop: starting tomorrow, Saturday, December 14 and going through Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25, I will be picking a cool new otaku-themed product each day and will be featuring it on our Twitter and Facebook. (They’ll also be posted on the 12 Days of Kurisumasu page here, along with a witty (well, at least I think so) writeup.) And if you’re still clueless as to what the heck I’m talking about, you can also check out the 12 Days of Kurisumasu from years gone by at the 12 Days of Kurisumasu page.

Each product I’ll be featuring will come from one of our affiliate advertisers — Amazon, CDjapan, Right Stuf, J-List, etc. Yeah, I know what you’re saying, you’ve been waiting for the “catch” and it finally came. But as catches go, this isn’t much of one. Remember that purchasing through any of the links here costs you nothing extra but brings us a little much-needed income, which helps keep the lights on and the bits flowing.

What products will you be choosing, you might be asking. No real rhyme or reason to it, really. As long as it’s even tangentially related to anime or other otaku-worthy pursuits, then it’s fair game. That means anime DVDs (and even Blu-rays); calendars; figures; “stuff from Japan” (food, snacks, etc.); plushies; dating-sim games/visual novels; whatever. Hopefully, among this cornucopia of consumer goods, you’ll find something cool and out of the ordinary to give to any otaku-leaning friends/acquaintances you’re looking for gifts for. (Or even yourself…)

So why subject yourself to the hassle, expense and bloodletting of doing battle in the malls and on the streets, and come shop with us instead?

This year has been especially hard for me, thanks to some unexpected bad medical news (and the large medical bills that tend to come with things like that) so your help is gratefully appreciated. If you don’t see anything that strikes your fancy among my picks this year, then perhaps you can find something else among our many affiliates? Donations are also accepted (and are very much appreciated). You can find links to all our affiliates as well as donation links on our How You Can Help page (which, I just noticed, looks really weird/crappy on the iPad. Gotta fix that.). And, as always, you have my thanks. You rock.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you