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Taccia overview: Taccia is a Taiwanese-American brand started in California, that has been recently been bought by the Nakabayashi company. Nakabayashi is a maker of a long list of home and office products who have, under the Taccia brand, begun making fountain pen inks. All Taccia inks are made in Japan. There is some speculation as to whether Sailor makes the Taccia inks, but I have found no evidence to prove this. What I can say, according the the information I was able to gather is that at the time when Nakabayashi bought Taccia and wanted to release inks under that brand, they entered into an agreement with Sailor for the purposes of expert ink consultation. A couple of the Taccia standard line bear a striking resemblance to Sailor Jentle/Shikiori inks. Outside and within the standard line, they have a few unique inks. Also, Taccia inks I have tried do not have that "Sailor-made smell" you are all so familiar with. The Ukiyo-e Ink Series was released overseas in 2019. In March 2020, a second series of 8 inks was released. These are for Utamara Hiroshige and Kitagawa Utamaro. I saw the release post on the Nagasawa Instagram page and emailed them directly for order. As of this publication, other Japanese bungu retailers have received stocks. They were Y1,600 or USD15 for each 40ml bottle of ink. The below translated names in Japanese and English are credited unchanged to Nagasawa Kobe Stationary store. Second Series Taccia Ukiyo-e Includes: 歌川広重（Hiroshige Utagawa） 1.広重浅縹（Hiroshige asahanada） 2.広重瑠璃（Hiroshige Ruri） 3.広重中紫（Hiroshige Nakamurasaki） 4.広重藍鼠（Hiroshige Ainezu） 喜多川歌麿（Utamaro Kitagawa） 5.歌麿紅桜（Utamaro Beni Zakura） 6.歌麿青紫（Utamaro Aomurasaki） 7.歌麿薄墨（Utamaro Usuzumi） 8.歌麿梅紫（Utamaro Umemurasaki） I’ve only opened one of the inks so far, and that is Taccia Hiroshige Ainezu. Now let’s get into the review. Online images are unhelpful. Taccia's own marketing materials do not give a fair representation of any of the inks I've tried. I would have sworn, from seeing their images and sample writing, that Ainezu was going to be a blue-black ink. I was way off. Ink bottle opening will fit large nibs comfortably, they are 40ml glass bottles with metal caps. The packaging is lovely, and far larger than the bottle needs in space to fit, which is nice, as this means the box artwork is easier to admire. Packaging & Bottle Each bottle comes packaged with a sturdy card. I've included both series below. The good stuff. Tomoe River Paper 52gsm White This is a gray ink, through and through. What I am able to cypher from the Kanji is that Ainezu means indigo-tinged gray. The kanji: 藍鼠 藍 ai / indigo 鼠 nezu / dark gray Ink Characteristics 1. Well-behaved 2. No feathering 3. No bleed-through 4. Acceptably wet 5. Smooth flowing, not gushing 6. Good shading in right pen [light to dark gray] 7. Easy cleaning with a few flushes 8. No staining discovered 9. Unexpected water resistance Other Ink properties you might find interesting is the ink goes on as a super-dark gray, almost black. It lightens as it dries which makes writing easy on the eyes. This is the opposite effect of Montblanc Spider Web Grey, which goes on nearly invisible when wet and dries darker. I prefer the former over the latter. As for the sheen, it is seen in the borders between light and dark, and is red and coppery. It does not overwhelm. The ink also looks quite light or dark depending on the paper and pen used. The shading also varies greatly under these conditions. Rhodia Dotpad Life Bank Paper Mead notebook paper / college ruled There is barely any feathering, which is quite good considering the wetness of the pen (and the terrible quality of the paper). It only shows up on close inspection. Even in this image it is difficult to spot. Water drop test Rhodia Water drown and dab test Rhodia Rubbed in and swirled. Pretty good. Both water tests left for 2+ minutes. Ink also dry for 2 minutes. Dry times Pretty average. Comparison Tomoe River Paper 52gsm Cream That's it! I do believe that we should receive this second set at some point, as we have had everything except for the special editions and the jeans ink available outside of Japan. Finally, of the newer ink manufacturers, Taccia is definitely a personal favorite. And I've been on a gray ink kick, so this was a welcome surprise. To be honest, I would't have really minded if it was another blue-black. I like those too. And that's the end of my first review. Hope you enjoyed this. I may do the remainder once I’ve tried them and if this was helpful to anyone. Happy inking and thank you for your time.