Gear acquisition syndrome. Ugh. Haha. I'm such a good little consumer sometimes it's nauseating... So I picked up a box of Mitsubishi Hi-Uni 10b pencils. Why? Well. Why not? I wanted to try them. Plus, I love me a good dark dark pencil, and this one is supposed to be one of the darkest regular graphite pencils out there. No surprise, they've been on my list for a while. It does not disappoint! First impression: they glide. My hand skates across the paper, and the marks are just so beautiful. O. M. G. And I can get near charcoal levels of black out of these. Hello lovely! They are SUPER dark, and rich, and buttery, and awesome, and I think I'm in love. Haha. Maybe they have a little less control than the Blackwing Matte (my other bougie favorite), but they definitely go a shade or two darker, which I like a lot. Of course they shine, as all graphite does, but it's soo nice to draw with. Compared to the Blackwings, the Mitsubishis feel very similar. The graphite is so smooth in both of them it's ridiculous, like drawing with chocolate, but the Hi-Uni might have the edge between the two just because I can push the tone even more. That and the actual lead inside the cedar barrel is huge (thicc), so they go a long way. I find most of the time with these more expensive graphite pencils they just feel nicer to work with than anything else. Even more so than the Conte 1710b or the Wolff's Carbon 6b (my other favorites). I don't like how those pencils "collect" the grain of the paper on anything other than smooth newsprint (honestly still the GOAT as far as drawing surface goes when combined with those charcoal pencils), which makes it tough when I'm using anything besides the big pad. I just always wish I could get a similar value range out of a single graphite pencil like I can with a single charcoal pencil. Because I'm lazy. The Hi-Uni 10b gets so close. Closer than anything else I've tried. So I might have a new favorite, people... Watch out! Definitely a keeper. Try if you have the proper dexterity for the softness. You won't be disappointed.