Absolutely perfect interior accent for anime aficionados or execution enthusiasts, and it could be yours free!

The fall TV season is starting in Japan, and once again dozens of new anime series are hoping to stand out from their rivals and become the next big thing.

One tried-and-tested way to drum up publicity for a show is with a giveaway contest, which is just what the producers of Dies Irae have decided to do. But instead of posters, clear files, or any of the other standard anime goodies, the winner of the Dies Irae promotion will receive a full-scale guillotine.

Why a guillotine? Because as Dies Irae’s story begins, its protagonist, ordinary Japanese schoolboy Ren Fujii, has been having disturbingly violent dreams involving a guillotine, which are somehow connected to a group of Nazi sorcerers who disappeared after the end of World War II. So there’s at least a somewhat logical reason for the contest organizers’ prize selection.

▼ Dies Irae’s preview video

The guillotine looks to be meticulously made, though if we’re being perfectly honest we haven’t seen enough modern guillotines to really establish a baseline for contemporary quality in the old-school decapitation devices. The frame is made of wood, but thankfully the designers’ commitment to realism wasn’t so strong that they insisted on a metal blade. Instead, the blade portion is made of urethane foam. Nevertheless, the contraption does allow you to drop the “blade” if you so desire, and if you’ve really got your heart set on causing bodily harm with the world’s first officially licensed anime guillotine, the whole frame weighs about 100 kilograms (220 pounds), so you could always try to tip it over on your enemies, we suppose.

Much like with life-size anime figures, interested parties will want to make sure they have enough space in their home for this macabre merchandising exercise. The guillotine stands 250 centimeters (98.4 inches) tall, and its base measures 120 by 70 centimeters.

Interested contestants will need to tweet about all 12 episodes of the anime series and also follow the Abema TV official Twitter account (which can be found here). The winner will be presented with the guillotine at a special ceremony hosted by Yui Sakagibara, voice actress for Dies Irae’s female lead Marie, at some time in 2018. While we can’t imagine a guillotine fits with too many people’s current interior design aesthetics, there’s no denying that having one sitting in your living room would be an immediate conversation piece, and also give you bragging rights for owning the strangest Japanese animation tie-in since the free anime condoms they handed out in Akihabara.

Source: Dies Arie official website via Jin
Images: Dies Arie official website