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Shueisha's Basement Overwhelmed by Chocolates Addressed to Prince of Tennis Cast

Valentine's Day may have been last week, but Shueisha is still trying to rummage their way through all of the chocolates sent to The Prince of Tennis characters.

It's become an annual Valentine's Day tradition in Japan for fangirls of the hugely popular The Prince of Tennis manga series to send chocolates to their favorite bishōnen characters. It's even become something of a competition to see which character gets the most chocolates each year.

Well, the totals are still being calculated, but so far it seems there are "easily" 100,000 boxes of chocolate addressed to Prince of Tennis characters. Shueisha (the actual recipient) is stashing them in its basement, but as photos uploaded by manga artist Takeshi Konomi illustrate, it's becoming "buried" underneath piles of cardboard boxes. Konomi also describes the turnout as "unprecedented."

Although the overwhelming majority of these boxes are mass-produced Valentine's chocolate — like the Morinaga Dars now associated with the favorite, Keigo Atobe — Konomi also points out some more unusual gifts. For starters, the wealthy Atobe has received this stack of "gold bars":

Kuranosuke Shiraishi, who supposedly has venomous claws underneath his bandaged hand, got this encyclopedia of poisonous herbs:

Gen'ichirou Sanada received this daruma (a traditional Japanese toy that always rights itself when pushed over):

Tetsuya Hara received this shirt; it says "kuidaore," a reference to a Japanese saying about Osakans' predilection for spending money on food:

Houou Byoudouin got an impressive bamboo sword inscribed with his name:

Someone managed to get space food for an unspecified character:

Someone else decided to splurge on this high-quality champagne for a character Konomi felt was "best left unsaid":

[Via Hachima Kikou and Twitter]