>>11186Well, as far as I know, that's quite literally what the "ita" means, in addition to being a reference to how expensive they are.
>In the 1980s, when Japan was at the zenith of its economic might, Tokyo's streets were a parade of luxury import cars. Among them, the "itasha"—originally Japanese slang meaning an imported Italian car—was the most desired. Since then, itasha (as the decorated vehicle) was derived from combining the Japanese words for itai (痛い, painful) and sha (車, vehicle).[3] Itai here means "painful", with additional senses of "painfully embarrassing" → "cringeworthy", "painful for the wallet" due to the high costs involved, or "painful to look at" (an eyesore). The name is also a pun for Italian cars (イタリア車, Itaria-sha), truncated in Japanese slang as Itasha (イタ車).[4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itasha
>Ita-bags serve to publicly express how much their owners love a particular fictional character or media franchise. In that respect, they are the equivalent of itasha, "painmobiles", which are cars covered with fandom-themed stickers and decals.[5] In both cases, the "pain" refers to the pain inflicted on the bag or car, and to the owner's wallet. Ita-bags are an expensive hobby, given that some buttons are of a limited edition and command high prices. Some fans spend more than the equivalent of a thousand U.S. dollars on their ita-bags.[1] When creating ita-bags, fans often "buy the same item many times."[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ita-bag
<When creating ita-bags, fans often "buy the same item many times."Wow, I remember buying all of the (identical) buttons of a particular character I liked back in my teenage years, just so no one else would have them, once. Maybe I could use them for an itabag. Too bad I will never like Shitalia as much as I used to. Maybe an itabag for all the megane characters I like?
Also I wonder if my anime button-covered backpack in middle school counted as an itabag.