A bit late for summer, but summer lasts forever in global warming south! I decided to keep going with the Free! swim anime summer setups for the last 2 years I made summer setups, so here we go, this time with Rei, the former track runner glasses guy who swims butterfly.
Check out this nighttime photograph that you can barely see anything due to the lights reflecting off the plastic, lol. As with my Haruka theme from 2024 and my Momotarou theme from 2022, I used mostly official merch and artwork for the setup. But I did track down every fanart of Rin and Rei (my pairing at the time) on the internet and in artist alleys from 10 years ago, so I actually have more stuff for them as a pairing than Haruka and Momotarou by themselves (Haruka because I didn’t like any fanart I saw of him by himself and didn’t picture him in a pairing, Momotarou because he’s a minor character and not popular except to me). The top three fanart prints are by artists I was already following for some other reason (vetiverfox, (someone who is not birries lol) and misslucid who also made the notepad set). The big print on the bottom left I have no idea who drew that, sorry. The Japanese fanart post card is by ゆきじ (surume). The couple postcard is by crispyweenie and the couple sticker is by butterbear, both still on redbubble. The round Rei button is by dimsouls on Instagram and the heart Rei button is by… I don’t remember. The big shaker charm is by a local artist aokii.b on instagram. Anyway, I searched my etsy and storenvy history but I’m pretty sure I bought the unknowns on a different shop site or at an artist alley, before I remembered to log my purchases, if this was you, let me know so I can credit you if you want.
I did put up official birthday art merch and clearfiles and postcards, and I broke out the “favorite character” box with the cute cafe stickers. Also, I set up the Alter figure, more tiny statues, the little bean plush, the mochi merch, fabric coaster, the image song CD, and the purple butterfly plushies. Just a small selection of my entire huge collection which I think is the biggest collection of any one character I own.
The florals are still blue hydrangeas and irises from last summer, plus cherry blossoms and wisteria from spring, but this time I added purple water lilies and purple hydrangea petals since Rei’s image color is purple. I especially like the lavender roses and pink hydrangeas in the glass vase. For some reason I included a pastel Mob Psycho print from lacelria on instagram, because… idk, it’s pastel lavender and Mob is kind of like Rei in that they’re autistic-coded, but Rei is much more physically fit lol. I also used a new set of string lights, this time translucent roses. The cup is the same as previous years, a pink and purple sakura blossom Japanese ceramic cup from local tea shop.
Anyway, I quite like this setup, it’s all of my favorite colors all at once, and I got to display more merch that I don’t usually get to see because they don’t go on my usual display bag or corkboard. Now I really have no idea what to do for fall or winter because I used all of my best ideas and merch already lol.