The Mounting Battles That Started with Purikura Albums: Exploring How to Fight in the Reiwa Era

*This essay depicts scenes from the perspective of a young boy, interpreted through the lens of a middle-aged man. Please understand and forgive that it may differ from the actual scenery.

Puri-album.

It was a notebook that was popular among young women in ancient times.

That puri-album was used as a tool for factional strife and established its position as the main force in mounting battles.

If you were a girl, it was taken for granted that you had one.
That kind of atmosphere was in the air.

Even as a young boy, I remember thinking from the bottom of my heart,"I'm glad I'm a boy.".

I don't know what has become of Purikura now.

However, during the heyday of the puri-album, Purikura occupied about 80% of the arcade. (Exaggeration included)

Moreover, there were long lines in front of those Purikura machines.

And it was a secret territory where men were not even allowed to enter alone.

I remember keenly feeling that men are miserable creatures through and through.

Well,as a super-duper ultimate popular kid who should explode,I, of course, could enter with a free pass.

Well, jokes aside.

With such Purikura, you could print stickers by specifying the number of sheets, such as 8 or 16, and the size.

What would you do with those printed stickers?

Of course, you wouldn't stick them on a dresser or in a trash can.

They were exchanged among the girls.

Information about "who took Purikura with whom" becomes tangled.

And the girls set their sights on the rare items.
The boys play dodgeball, blissfully unaware.

Of course, the higher the social hierarchy of the girls in the Purikura, the higher its rank.

Just having one is something to brag about.

Rare stickers turn into such magic items.

And they plaster those stickers, which have become magic items, all over their notebooks.

That is the Purikura album.

It exuded an atmosphere like that of a grimoire.

The thicker that notebook (grimoire), condensed with human obsession, the more powerful it was.

Using that notebook (grimoire), the girls would engage in mounting battles.

Back then, the boys would engage in mounting battles over who could throw the fastest ball or who could catch it.

Nowadays, with the spread of social media, mounting battles have surfaced through easy-to-understand metrics like follower counts.

But even without social media, mounting battles were being waged beneath the surface using Purikura albums (grimoires).

Terrifying.

Is it better now that it has surfaced?

Or was it better when it was done quietly beneath the surface?

This old man wonders.

Kids today have it tough.

Will I be able to understand my son's worries?

Or are boys still giggling while playing dodgeball?
If so, I think I'll teach him the throwing technique I invented.

Are those ancient |sticker albums<grimoires> still sealed away as dark history?

I doubt you can just throw something like that away so easily.

I wonder if there's one at my wife's parents' house too.

After all these years, the grimoire must have increased its magical power.

Maybe I'll ask to see it next time.
Though I might get cold feet in the face of its ominous aura.

By the way, when I took purikura, I was the kind of |cool<annoying> guy who gave off an 'I can't be bothered' aura.

Heh heh heh.

What a cute guy I was.

Harmless me, just standing straight and smiling.

I never want to show that to anyone, ever.

But there's no risk of it leaking.

After all, it's just a sticker.
It's easy to destroy.

It must be hell to have your dark history live on in data that might last a lifetime, like in this modern age of so-called digital tattoos.

Good luck, my son.
I have no idea how the one-upmanship battles of the Reiwa era will unfold, but your dad thinks it's wiser to focus on defense than offense.