Late Adopter Chronicles: the Kakuno fountain pen by Pilot

Best fountain pen on a budget, even with its (his?!) weird anthropomo branding. 

Wow, the Kakuno with fine nib totally outperforms my longtime go-to fountain pen, the Lamy Safari with extrafine nib—for a third of the price. I got mine for the stunning price of 1200 yen, but it can be had in the US for about that much ($10-12 on Amazon, for instance). Writes smooth to give a generally crisp line of ink. Just wish the cap had a clip on it to secure the Kakuno to pants or backpack pockets.
Kakuno fountain pen on a Baron Fig Apprentice notebook
The winking smiley face on the nib may add some playfulness to the pen for some, but I don’t like the idea of writing with ink coming out of the top of someone’s head.
information sheet accompanying the pen