Bungbox Tokyo Metro Colors Ginza, Marunouchi and Tozai Lines

The last and longish review of three great colours to round up the nine inks.  I must admit I am over these inks and am glad to be doing the last three, I have so many more bottles of ink to get through.

Ginza Line

The Ginza or number 3 line is the oldest subway line in Asia opening in 1927.  It has 19 stations and is the 7th most crowded line, running at 168% capacity.  Being the oldest line it runs the closest to the surface with many of its stations only being 1 to 1.5 stories under ground.  The western end of the line emerges to the surface and enters Shibuya Station located on the third-floor of a building that is located in a depression.

The Ginza Line was conceived by a businessman named Noritsugu Hayakawa, who visited London in 1914, saw the London Underground and concluded that Tokyo needed its own underground railway. He founded the Tokyo Underground Railway (東京地下鉄道 Tōkyō Chika Tetsudō) in 1920, and began construction in 1925.   The portion between Ueno and Asakusa was completed on December 30, 1927, and was so popular that passengers often had to wait more than two hours to ride a train for a five-minute trip.  The line finally reached its originally planned terminus of Shinbashi in 1934.

The idea for the colour on this line comes from the Berlin subway, BVG.  The orange colour was chosen on the concepts of ‘a little luxury in everyday life’ and ‘a little more fashionable’.  The orange colour is apparent the minute the bottle is opened but it looks translucent as if it will work more like a highlighter.

The drop on absorbent paper revealed bright shades on orange and yellow which suggested it would be a good shader. 






The col-o-ring swatch had a slightly faded look to it but that seems to be what occurs
with any of the yellow / orange inks I have.

The minute I had the col-o-ring swatch I knew I had seen this ink before.  Despite the Nemosine Solar Storm having a different colourway on absorbent paper the col-o-ring swatches look like I have used the same ink on both.

Tomoe river was as expected also a little washed out looking.

The writing experience was completely different.  It is a vibrant ink with excellent shading properties and if you are a fan of Noodlers Apache Sunset or Nemosine Solar Storm you will love this ink.   I used a Noodlers Ahab with a flex nib as I was expecting this ink to shade and I wanted a pen that would bring out its best.
The writing was done on Rhodia paper, Tomoe River 52gm and lastly a cheap notebook.

There is a lot of shading apparent on the rhodia so I went to town playing with my new clip-on macro lens for my phone.

Tomoe River followed and more playing around with the macro lens.

 
Though the swatches were similar this is a more exciting ink to use than the Nemosine solar storm.  Lastly cheap paper.  I probably should have played with the macro lens here to demonstrate the feathering, there was also a lot of show through on the cheap paper.

Overall a very vibrant orange ink with lovely shading.   I am not a great fan of yellow and orange inks but am sure I will find a use for this.

Marunouchi Line

I feel like I am writing about Nemosine Aeolis Palus red again.  If you have that review you will understand why as you read this.
The Marunouchi or number 4 line runs a U shaped route.  The first line was opened in 1954 (25 stations) with a branch line added in 1962 (four stations).  It is the most frequent line with a train every 1min 50 sec even so it runs at 157% capacity.

The colour for this line is red and it comes from the Tobacco can (British tobacco brand, Benson and Hedges).  The former subway trasit authority president took note of the colour when he visited London to do research for the line.

Old B and H tobacco tin

When you open the bottle it is more of an orange colour but without the translucent quality the Ginza line had.

The drop on absorbent paper is orange, with a hint of another shade at the edge.  I would call it more watermelon than orange or red.

The col-o-ring test made it appear even more watermelon and yet again I recognised the ink - Aeolis Palus Red from Nemosine - hence my comment at the beginning.  The look of the ink in the bottle is also almost identical.

The Tomoe swatch pretty much matched the col-o-ring - giving off watermelon colour not red vibes.

With the writing I did not bother with the cheap note paper this time.  It wasn't going to add anything and all of the Tokyo Metro Colors I have reviewed to date and performed badly on cheap paper, I don't expect this to be any different.
It even writes like Aeolis Palus Red but surprisingly on the Rhodia there was some feathering.

It performed well on Tomoe River but there was no shading.

Using the macro for my phone there is a little bit of shading to be seen on Tomoe River but if you have to use a macro lens to see it then I don't think it really exists for general writing purposes.

As with the Aeolis Palus Red probably good for marking up or editing papers.

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Tozai Line

 I didn't have my col-o-ring book when I started this blog so do not have a comparison in it but will say right here this ink is very similar to Naples Blue from Private Reserve, the first ink I ever reviewed.
The Tozai or number 5 line is the East - West line.  It opened in 1964 and has 23 stations.  It is the only line which has a rapid service and it for this reason its colour is sky blue.  The colour was chosen to represent the image of speediness and it came from yet another tobacco product (like the Marunouchi line colour), high light tobacco.
It is the most crowded line running at 199% capacity at peak times.  Women only cars for use during rush hour were introduced in 2006.

It looks sky blue when the bottle is opened, with a hint of turquoise.
My cheap version of chromatography photo make it look like a pretty consistent sky blue colour but it was actually quite turquoise.  No matter how many photos I took or with what light I just couldn't get a photo that conveyed the turquoise.

Neither the col-o-ring or the Tomoe River swatch really did the colour any favours - just a consistent sky blue colour.

Col-o-ring

Tomoe River

I use my Opus 88 demonstrator for the writing test and tried to get clever with photos.  The ink in the pen looks a little more turquoise.

I started the writing on Tomoe River this time and was pleasantly surprised by the fact it did shade.  I am not a great fan of blue inks but began to really like this.

I haven't done any water testing this time as the previous inks in the collection performed pretty well i expected these inks to do so too.

Finally at the end:
Ginza line - beautiful shading orange Nemosine Solar Storm is an excellent dupe and comes at a much better price.
Marunouchi line - its red! Nemosine Aeolis Palus red is an excellent dupe and yes a much better price.
Hibiya Line - disgusting washed out attempt at silver.
Tozai Line - lovely blue, Private Reserve naples blue is an excellent dupe and much cheaper.
Chiyoda line - its green!
Yurachuko line - awful attempt at gold ink.
Hanzomon line - a lovely purple ink, I am still upset about knocking the bottle over and losing 3/4 of the ink.
Nambuko line - a nice teal green - Coloverse photon and Sailors Kobe Story Nunobiki emerald inks are excellent dupes.
Fukutoshin line - its brown!