When I originally heard that Its’Demo was offering a Valentine’s Day themed Pokemon collaboration promotion so close to the third cross-over promotion, I was a little surprised, but not unhappy. Most of the items from this third installment were still in stock at most of the Its’Demo branches, but if they wanted to give us new items featuring cute Pikachus, who am I to argue?

Valentine’s Day in Japan is the time when girls give gifts to boys, and the items offered in this Valentine’s promotion reflect this.

Homemade chocolates are some of the most popular gifts, and consequently, a lot of stores sell these clear plastic bags, which can be used to wrap your cutely decorated chocolates.

What better way to present your homemade chocolates wrapped in cute Pikachu plastic wrappers than in even cuter Pokemon themed paper bags?

Unsurprisingly, there was plenty of food as well. The marshmallows, which feature prints carried over from the third Its’Demo x Pokemon collaboration, came in one pack of 9

Two packs of 6, with one 6 pack featuring Clefairy/Jigglypuff & Friends designs and the other 6 pack featuring Pair Pikachu designs

As well as three different 3 pack sets.

If the love of your life doesn’t like marshmallows, never fear, as there were cookies as well. The pink cookies had a berry flavoring and although it’s hard to see, each pack of cookies also came with 2-3 heart shaped chocolate cookies.

These two sets of cookies also came packaged together with chocolate heart shaped cookies.

The two jars of biscuits were my favorite items from this promotion. The jar itself is sturdy and features the Pikachu Pair and Jigglypuff & Friends print, so a perfect gift if your friend or loved one is a fan of Jigglypuff or Clefairy (I am). I didn’t buy the jar for myself so I’m not sure what the biscuits taste like, but I’m sure they’re delicious.

There was also two heart shaped boxes of cookies in two different sizes

And mini gift bags and flat pouches, with each bag and pouch containing 3 of the printed marshmallows.

(Sample pouch and print marshmallows from the Daisuki Club post)

“Well, Miki,” you’re saying at this point. “This doesn’t seem very scary at all. Cookies, marshmallows, and gift bags sound downright delightful!”

Yes, they do, don’t they. When these items came out, we were a little disappointed that the focus was so heavily on the snacks, but we should have expected as much from a Valentine’s Day promotion. The items were cute, and life continued.

But then…

On January 18th, the Daisuki Club updated with an announcement that large Pikachu cushions, slippers, and mascot plush would be added to the line-up starting Thursday the 21st. That coupled with the Its’Demo announcement that necklaces would be restocked on the 23rd is when hell for Pikachu collectors started.

Of course, everyone was ecstatic. Its’Demo has never offered plush items before, and these were perfect, especially for collectors of girl Pikachu merchandise. I had several errands to run that Thursday, mainly getting tons of mascot Mew plush from the I Love Mew series, so I figured I could pick up some Pikachus while I was out and it wouldn’t be a big deal.

Oh Miki of the past, so naive. So full of hopes and dreams.

My plan for Thursday was to get to Ikebukuro, waste about an hour or so by winning Mews, and then meet my friend for lunch in Shinbashi. I’m winning Mews and having a good old time when I check my Twitter timeline and see a Pokemon friend tweet something about how the Its’Demo store he went to only had 1 of each of the big plush and it was a good thing he didn’t have school today or else he would have been in trouble. Uh oh, I think to myself. Maybe I should head over to the Its’Demo here and casually see what their stock situation is like. I rush over and there is 0 of the cushions and 0 slippers but 1 set of the mascot plush. I grab it and head to the counter where I ask the staff what’s going on; they tell me everything else is sold out.

My thought process was uh oh followed by, did Its’Demo really think sending 1-2 sets of these plush to each store would be enough??

Run back to the station to head to Shinbashi. While I’m on the way, I start looking up different Its’Demo store locations and discovered there was one in Shinbashi. While waiting for my friend to meet me, I find this location, and miracle of miracles, they had 1 set of the cushions. However, they had no mascot plush and no slippers.

Lunch gave me a chance to semi relax (and I ate at Yoshinoya – a restaurant that specializes in rice bowls with meat on top – for the first time in my life) and then off I went to resume my journey for plush, cushions, and slippers.

Maybe because it was Thursday and everyone was at work, but even more miraculous than the Shinbashi find, the Shibuya location had 2 sets of the cushions along with a bunch of the mascot plush (but no slippers). When I asked the staff about the stock, they confirmed the two sets of cushions was it and there was no more … however this turned out to be a semi-lie because when I returned on Saturday, they had more of the cushions, but they might have gotten them later in the mail.

From there, I skipped the Shinjuku location (it’s really tiny) and went straight to Takadanobaba, which ended up having at least 1 set of the cushions, a bowl of mascot plush, and the mysterious slippers!

The day was saved thanks to it being Thursday and me being able to travel around Tokyo, but the entire experience left a semi bitter taste in my mouth. Did Its’Demo really think more people would be interested in marshmallows and cookies than stuffed animals? Do they not understand collectors? Who thought that only stocking about 20 or so of the cushions for the entire Tokyo area would be enough? I had been lucky because I have the freedom to go out on a random Thursday and go hunting for plush, but what about people who had work and wanted these items and their closest locations had sold out by the time they could visit?

It was pretty much the original necklace release all over again, and you would have thought they would have learned their lesson from that.

It’s okay, Miki. They’re restocking necklaces, they should understand the demand at this point. I’m sure they will have plenty.

Backstory: There were three necklaces that came out as part of the third Its’Demo x Pokemon collaboration. The three designs were Pair Pikachu, Mew, and Jigglypuff. We knew these necklaces had come out because Daisuki Club told us and one of my Japanese friends took a picture. I never found these necklaces in person. They were kind of like the loch ness monster of Its’Demo items.

Based on the stocking issues with the cushions and plush, my guess is they existed in a lot of the bigger stores but probably only 1 or 2 of each design, which meant once 1 person came in and bought something, they were gone forever.

I showed up about an hour early on Saturday (store opens at 10, I got there a little before 9 am). When I arrived, there was already 2 people waiting outside of Its’Demo in Ikebukuro. I was a little concerned but shrugged it off and told myself it would be fine. As time passes, the line behind me grows, and by the time the shutters are rising at around 10 am, there is about 10-15 people in line. Shutters open all the way and there in front of us are the necklaces.

And that’s when I realized there was only 2 of each design. Their “restock” was a grand total of 6 necklaces per store.

The first person in line took 1 of each necklace, the second person took Pikachu which meant Pikachu was gone when it was my turn. I got the last Mew.

Sorry to everyone else waiting in line behind us. This was the stock literally seconds after opening. Pardon my language but what the fuck sort of game are you running here, Its’Demo?

The rest of my morning into early afternoon was spent running around Tokyo again trying to find necklaces and completely failing. I did find more cushions at Takadanobaba and Shibuya (as mentioned) but necklaces? Nope.

Will they “restock” again? Who knows! It would be nice if they did considering how little stock they originally had but I’m honestly surprised they “restocked” at all.

The two cushions are much bigger than I was expecting. They’re very fuzzy and soft and are, of course, sold separately.

The tail on the girl Pikachu cushion is the highlight. It is adorable and pink and if I had to choose between the two plush, I would choose the girl because of the tail detail.

If you’re a fan of the plush style but the cushions were a little too pricey (or difficult to find), the mascot sized plush are also adorable and also features the cute pink heart tail on the girl.

The slippers were a little bit of a disappointment to me. I was expecting fuzzy, soft slippers, but these ended up feeling a little hard and cardboardy. Also, as evidenced in the photo, the faces can get a bit smushed, although I’m guessing this flaw will even itself out over time as you wear them.

All of the items come with this cute tag featuring the Pair Pikachu art.

And that concludes my tale of woe and treachery! Have you ever been in a situation where stock for an item you wanted to buy was abysmal? Regale me with your stories!