Do you remember the first time you saw a Sakura ARCHI Y pencil? For me it was around 2015 or so on the platform formerly known as Twitter. I didn’t even know the one I saw, with its amazingly intricate punched hole grip, was the ‘Y’ series. Or that there was even a ‘Y2’ lurking around. All I knew was: Wow! Sakura is really focused on designing super stylish and high-tech pens!
Searching on the newly accessible Yahoo Japan Auctions via a proxy service, I had the chance to bid on the Y series, and… I went for the ballpoint instead of the pencil. “Nuts!” you say? Well, in hindsight, I wish I had the funds to get both, of course! But the pen at 5000 JPY was a purely practical choice: I knew I would use it more at work. I even drew a journal entry for it! Besides, the pencil had a weird quirk in how the tip protrudes out from a chopped-off cone, and to be honest, I still don’t really like it today! See Ray’s post on Reddit for a close-up.
As I looked into the ARCHI series, I would learn about Takuya Yura, the hands-on race car designer who didn’t just ‘style’ cars but actually worked on the mechanical aspects as well. He founded Mooncraft in 1975, and amongst his most iconic car designs was the Shiden 77. Featuring a closed-canopy, the car didn’t actually win anything of note except the hearts and imaginations of a generation of young Japanese racing enthusiasts. You can catch a glimpse of the still working car on Youtube..
According to the Mooncraft website, the Y series was visually inspired by a car exhaust pipe, while the Y2 takes after the streamlined forms of race cars. The Y series would go on to receive industry accolades in the form of a iF Design Award in 1988. And the Y2? Well, it probably broke a lot of hearts with the way auction prices went around 2020.
Since obtaining any ARCHI pencil was going to be an exorbitant outlay, I determined to go for a Y2 just so I could have a representative of the 2 lines. And I was glad I did so. The Y2 pencil is like a Platinum Z on steroids. Much tighter fit and finish, crisp knocking mechanism, and an automatically retracting sprung clip when it is twisted completely open. A true Japanese supercar of mechanical pencils.
OK, hope you enjoyed this short trip down memory lane!
