Kuretake Zig Letter Pen CocoIro Pen Refill - Super Fine - Cool Gray

I really wanted to like this gray refill but I can't get it to write with enough ink to be legible.

Pros: Nice fine line, lovely bluish dove grey ink. "Extra Fine" really is EF. I imagine it works great for writing characters with many detailed strokes.

Cons: These pens (well, refills, but I use them just as pens) tend to get blobs of ink on the tip while capped, no matter how they're stored. On some papers, they take an extremely long time to dry completely. I seem to be using up the ink very quickly, sketching rather than writing.

YMMV: The pen holders look weird with the refill sticking out the back. I'm not sure whether the blobbing problem has to do with something like the heat/pressure from using the refills without a holder. If I were more motivated to test them, I'd experiment, but I don't care for the holders and I like a narrow pen, and this is working well enough.

Overall: I love this soft grey for sketching and for fine, small writing, and it hasn't blobbed yet. It's functional enough to get a middle-of-the-road, 3-star review.

Of all the ink colors in this line, black is the smoothest I've used!
It does take some getting used to, but the tricks this pen can do are cool! Writes variable line widths, no skipping, smooth flowy ink, even when you write fast. Its not scratchy to me, and I am very picky about scratchiness (Hi-Tec C 0.25 mm, I'm looking at you!).
Writiing in English or Japanese (I can't write in any other languages but I'm sure it handles just the same) looks very pretty and you can even get a lttle fancy with your script uusing the Letter Pens, without even trying too hard.

Yes, you can use these refills alone without the pen body, but I suggest you get at least one pen body to try oout. I pprefer using the pen body not just the refill alone.
(aand, sorry for the typos, I'mtyping on my phone!)

Bought this pen to practice chinese calligraphy, and I'm pretty disappointed. The pen writes very wet, causing the ink to feather and bleed on cheaper paper, or take a small eternity to dry on higher quality paper. The brush part is made of synthetic fiber and holds its shape surprisingly while still giving lots of nice variation. Unfortunately, it's also super thin and really really hard to control. I'll probably end up buying on the normal fine/extra fine refills next time.

This is a nice burgundy color, but it's a little too transparent to pass as real blood -- it's got a sort of watercolor quality to it. It's very close to the Marvy Uchida burgundy, but a little more transparent. It's roughly the same deep red with a hint of purple as partly-dry blood (not as red as freshly-spilled blood, not as brown as old dried blood) but not as opaque as real blood. (If that's your thing, you might want to try using an opaque acrylic paint instead.)

The Zig pens have a bit of a brush quality to them (with a small, mostly-stiff point) that gives a line quality similar to a Tradio/Pulaman/Fountain Pentel, but the Zig has many more color options. The Tradio/Pulaman/Fountain Pentels go "scratchity scratchity scratchity" when you write -- and sometimes "spit" little droplets in a random direction. The Zig writes more quietly, and has similar thicks and thins, but without the occasional spitty surprise. I personally prefer writing with the Tradio/Pulaman/Fountain Pentels, because their scratchiness grips the paper firmly and their ink is a bit darker, but I suspect most people will prefer the Zig's predictability and wider range of colors.