Zebra Sarasa Fujiya Scented Gel Pen Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

So, how are your notes smelling these days? Mine are good--really good. Zebra has come out with some new additions to their line of scented gel pens, this time in collaboration with Fujiya, maker of beloved Japanese sweets and treats. Remember, kids--don't eat your gel pens. You're going to want to. Don't.

The new scents come in two packs. The first contains a dark (nearly black) brown scented like Country Ma'am chocolate and vanilla cookies, bright orange scented like orange lollipops, pink scented like Peach Nectar drink, and yellow scented like Lemon Squash soda. The second pack is based on the popular Milky candy (note that the Milky colors here are not pastels, despite the name's similarity to the Sarasa "Milk Series" pastel gel pens), with original Milky flavor in light blue, Soft Cream (vanilla ice cream) Milky in dark blue, Strawberry Milky in a bright pinkish-red, and Matcha (green tea) Milky in bright green. (Thanks for the translation help Mel!]

It's particularly fun to mix the scents into fun, aromatic recipes, my favorite of which was the peach and green tea. The scents are sweet and definitely noticeable, but not overpowering. They do become less pronounced when the ink dries, which is quite quickly, as Sarasas are known for.

The .5 tips are a perfectly practical size--fine enough to write in small spaces, bold enough that even the bright colors are easily readable. They have the signature Sarasa quick-dry ink, though I did experience some slight smudging where I colored in solid squares (you can see it on the dark brown).

The pens themselves are the standard Sarasa Clip model, with the addition of the cute and beloved Peko-Chan mascot face on the press-point and the Fujiya product branding on the barrels. They have the ergonomic rubber grip, alligator clip, and clicky-retract that we've all come to love in the Zebra Sarasa Clip line--a fidgeter's dream pen. With the bright colors and cute branding, these editions are as much a toy as a pen--beyond the degree to which I already think of pens as toys.

The one criticism I have is that the pens are grouped by the Fujiya product type and not by color. It's perfectly logical to group them that way, but not as practical if you're looking for a pack of pens in a variety of colors. If you're shopping for variety, you're unlikely to buy a pack that is 50% blue or one with yellow/orange/pink without much contrast. These work better as expansion packs to an existing Sarasa collection than as individual packs, I feel.

But they are delicious. I mean--they smell delicious. Not for eating.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Fresh From Japan: Zebra Sarasa Dry and Uni-ball Air

My friend June Thomas teased us all about her pending tour of Japan in Episode 189 of The Pen Addict Podcast. She made it back safe and sound, and a little care package from her made its way into my mailbox last week.

Aside from the tissue and mask handouts (which are amazing!) I was anxious to try both of the pens. The Zebra Sarasa Dry I had only seen on the Zebra Japan site, and while I own the Uni-ball Air, the Micro tip size is a new one for me. Here are my first thoughts on both of these pens:

Zebra Sarasa Dry Gel 0.5 mm Blue

The first question I had about this pen wasn’t to see if the fast-drying gel ink worked, but how close this pen compares to an all time favorite: the Zebra Sarasa Clip. It does, but just a little. The clip is too bulky on the Dry Gel model for me, although the grip may be a bit better. They are close.

The more important aspect, of course, is the ink performance. It lives up to the marketing, drying almost immediately after going on the page. I ran my finger along the line when writing, as in this video, and there was no ink smear or ink transfer to my finger. Clean, and impressive.

Finally, how new is this ink technology from Zebra? I was thinking this Japanese model was newish, but as I dug around, Zebra USA has marketed the Sarasa Gel as Zebra Sarasa Rapid Dry Ink Gel for what looks like a year or two. I rarely visit office supply stores any more so I haven’t noticed this. Plus, this model of Sarasa is nowhere near as good as the Clip model.

So this begs the question: Has anyone used one of the Rapid Dry models, and does is work as well?

Uni-ball Air 0.5 mm Black

This oddity of a pen has been around in the US market for a while, but only in the 0.7 mm model. I bought a pack of those, and wasn’t sure what to make of it. More of a felt tip marker than rollerball, the Air leaves wide, wet lines. The 0.7 mm is fine, but I of course prefer the 0.5 mm model that June sent me. It’s still wide, but now it is closer to one of my favorite off the shelf pens in the Paper Mate Flair.

Since it is a liquid ink pen and due to the style of the tip, a lot of ink gets transferred to the page, causing some feathering and bleeding. I am a fast writer, and no matter how fast I go I can’t outrun a small amount of ink pooling at the end of my letters. That’s ok, as long as you understand what this pen is good for and if it suits your needs. Tiny writers need not apply.

Both of these pens are decent choices when used for a specific need or in the right circumstances. That makes them good, but not great. Thanks for sending me these to test out June!

Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.5mm Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

You can never have enough gel pens, which is the rationale I use when I continue adding more to my collection. With so many options out there, it can take some time to really give them all a fair shake. I've been using the Sarasa Clip 0.5mm for the last couple of months as a daily driver, and while it wasn't love at first write, it's won me over as a top contender.

There are a few things that make a gel pen great, and one of the most important ones is how it feels when it writes. Is it smooth or scratchy? Is it free-flowing or dry? This is where the Sarasa Clip threw me off at first. I'm so used to writing with a Pilot Juice that I've started to think that all pens should write exactly like that. While that's a compliment to the Juice line, it's not necessarily true. The Sarasa is different, and that's not a bad thing.

The Sarasa Clip 0.5mm refill provides more feedback when you're writing. It's a smooth writer, but you feel more texture when writing on the page. It took me a few days to take this in. I didn't like it at first, but I eventually started to enjoy the different feel — and that's exactly what it is. It doesn't affect the writing performance at all. This pen writes very well, but it just provides a more tactile experience when moving across the paper.

Of course, all of these observations are probably different in the various tip sizes offered by Zebra. The 0.5mm is somewhere between ultra-fine and medium, but 0.5mm refills in general are fairly smooth. It's not until you get below the 0.4mm range that you might start noticing scratchy qualities, so that's not something I expect in a 0.5mm. Still, calling the 0.5 Sarasa "scratchy" isn't the right term, because that's usually a negative attribute.

Apart from the feel of the refill on the paper, the pen writes fantastically. Never a rough start, skip, or blotch. It's a top performer in the gel pen world.

I went with a blue for this pen, and the saturation of the color is a bit too deep for my perferences in a standard blue. This reminds me more of a navy instead of a standard blue. For reference, I think Kaweco Royal Blue is a great standard for my idea of a general blue.

The body of the pen is light and very comfortable. Honestly, there's not much to say about it as it's exactly like most other comparable gel pens out there. That's not a bad thing - there's just not much to say about it because it works well. One thing that I really do love about the pen body is the clip. It opens wide and it's pretty strong, which adds a certain level of utility to the pen.

As far as putting the refill into other pen bodies, it looks very similar to the Pilot G-2 that so many pens standardize on. I think all you'd need is a plug for the end of the refill so that the nock mechanism would be able to operate.

Overall, the Zebra Sarasa Clip is a great pen, and easily one of my top 5 gel pens. The Sarasa Clip is available in a lot of colors, and comes in at just over two bucks for each one. Even better, you can buy an entire bundle with 20 colors for a bit cheaper than buying them individually. I highly recommend the Sarasa Clip 0.5mm.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)