BUNGUBOX - Mandarin Orange

BUNGUBOX Mandarin Orange - Ink drop

I immediately knew I wanted to get this ink, as I’d hoped the color would match the energy and personality of both versions of the bottle labels. It does! This is Mandarin Orange or Mikkabi Mikan from BUNGUBOX in Japan. It was first released in February, 2012 and quickly became popular. It was re-released in the square, 50 ml bottle in 2021 to mark the company’s 10th anniversary, and then again in the 30 ml heel-shaped bottle in 2023. Both the square and heel-shaped versions are available today.

Ink Swatches on Cosmo Air Light and Tomoe River

This is a bold and potent orange, but it’s never blinding in the way some oranges can become. To say it’s close to the color of a ripe Mandarin orange is probably an understatement! It has the unmistakable intensity of the perfect peel on most papers, and there is the tiniest hint of brown on some giving it just a slight burnt orange appearance. It’s a very nice shading ink. It shades towards stroke ends, but only enough to decorate the page with sunlight. The shading isn’t frequent enough to cause the visual chaos that would result if each and every stroke. There is also interesting silver sheening in the swatches. In writing it appears on stroke edges on most high-quality papers, but mostly absent on Tomoe River, and standard copy papers.

Ink Swatches on Iroful and Takasago Bank papers

Writing is effortless and worry-free. Flow is smooth with the consistency of feel that gives you the confidence to focus purely on the words and not on the performance of the ink. The swatches showed some ghosting and spots of bleed, but on most papers there was surprisingly little to no ghosting at all. Feathering is not an issue. Strokes were consistently clean and sharp. Drying was average, so again, no worries. Nice ink!

Writing sample on Cosmo Air Snow paper

As I mentioned, you can find this in the 30 ml heel-shaped bottle, but if you go through BUNGUBOX directly, the 50 ml manyo bottle is still available. (Top tip: the 50 ml is cheaper than the 30 ml, too!) BUNGUBOX inks are very high-quality in either case, and I haven’t had problems with any that I’ve tried. Enjoy!

BUNGUBOX Mandarin Orange ink writing samples

BUNGUBOX Mandarin Orange - Swatch Card

BUNGUBOX Mandarin Orange - Comparisons

BUNGUBOX Mandarin Orange 30 & 50 ml bottles