[decor] Winter 2026 PC setup – Violinist of Hameln/Castlevania!

Welcome to the first PC setup of 2026, for winter (even though winter starts in December), it finally got cold enough for me to feel like it’s winter mid January. While I sometimes skip winter setups because I don’t really have a lot of ideas and the fall one was decent to last until spring, I decided I had my Scum Villain setup long enough and wanted a change. I’m super happy to show off this nostalgic Violinist of Hameln and Castlevania setup! I know you’ve must have heard of Castlevania the videogame series and recently animation series, but you may not have heard of Violinist of Hameln, a manga and anime series that I am now showing you!

Here is the moody night photograph.

First off, I displayed almost all of my official Violinist of Hameln merch, including a manga art book, 3 pencil boards from the manga artist, a poster print, a postcard, and all of the trading cards a shounen series trading card game. But that’s not all, I also have music CDs from the anime series, including the character image song collection and a background music CD, plus the Pandora’s Box display box. Not only that, I have a magazine clipping of one of the characters somehow, a pair of small figures with corresponding pieces from some board game (one of whom is my favorite, Clari Net), and a keychain of Hamel’s violin that actually plays music. My friend also got me a phone card that I decorated in a top loader with music stickers. Finally, my favorite collectible, an animation cel from the anime series that my friends got from Ebay! Not shown are the few manga volumes I’ve collected and a large manga poster that I’m pretty sure wouldn’t fit and would also be a pain to try to hang.

I also decided to display the fanmerch I have – 2 pencil sketches and 2 watercolor drawings each from fellow Hameln fans I met in late 1990s/early 2000s of my RP character, Clari, one of whom played Ocarina, the other Trom Bon. Uhh… that’s all of the Hameln fanart I have, the final gift art is from the Flute RPer but it’s an even huger poster that wouldn’t have fit anywhere in this nook.

All of that is probably enough decoration on its own, but I decided to add the few pieces of Castlevania merch that I have for even more drama (as I did display Castlevania merch in a previous winter setup which I didn’t repeat here). Why? Because I was into the Violinist of Hameln and Symphony of the Night on Playstation at the same time, and both series referenced music and had awesome classical music for background themes, while the protagonists Hamel and Alucard have a lot in common. So I included recent Alucard prints from Lina (yaois) and Nemesis Kyo and Cressacore, plus an older sticker (Dracula family portrait from Iamlunasol) and Alucard clear keychain from kakimari maybe? I also just got a new sexy Alucard print and sticker from Daeyumi Arts, plus a stunning gold foil Dracula keychain from Shimmering Willow. My cute little Alucard nendoroid doll also gets a spot of honor on my monitor stand. I had the Vampire’s Vestige foil sticker from the Vampire Hunter D fanzine (hey it’s related!) and while I didn’t have room to display the Castlevania artbook, I put up the insert leaflet that had some Alucard sketches and the creepy castle itself. All around are some instrument stickers from Daiso that I just cut out. I forgot to display the Castlevania stageplay blu-ray though I’m not sure you would have been able to see it in this photo even if I did remember.

As usual, the flowers are red and white winter roses, camellias and fruits, with bits of iced pine branches and mums and golden accent florals. (Note, I forgot to take down the cherry blossoms and wisteria from spring lol.) I used another branch of ivy to emulate the old castle vibes of both series, and scattered white rose petals all around for gothic vampiric/demonic tortured byronic blond half-human hero flair. This theme’s cup is a green and gold vintage tea-cup I got from a tea seller, made no other changes to rest of the decor since the fall setup.

Special cameos from Blokees Jazz, a Transformer who is umm related to music, I think he plays guitar or bass on Earth and both of those are names of characters in Violinist of Hameln lol. And a keychain of Harry from Disco Elysium pulling off some disco moves (hiding on the monitor stand). And a cutie alert clip of the Mayor of Sprinkle Trinkle town because, well, we’re on cutie alert!

Perhaps not my most aesthetic display, but it’s full of nostalgic 90s love (except for Disco Elysium, which is a recent game but it does have some retro references) and there is a lot of brown and gold colors in both series so it feels extra cozy and mysterious in this cold weather. I was super blessed to have been able to collect merch from retro series with help from my friends, and I hope to be able to draw some Hameln fanart and catch up on the Castlevania series later this year. Take care, and stay tuned from the spring set up in March!