Tiger Mask – In the Eye of the Tiger

TIGER MASK 🐯 – The heat of the day wafts the city streets as the caped hero rushes into the setting sunlight of a sweltering summer evening. He flies to the rescue of a desperate woman, who shrieks in help of a petty hoodlum. He lurked her in a narrow alley way to harass her now. Arriving on the scene, the masked hero not begged twice, blows the bad guy cracking …

“Tiger! A Tiger you will become!!” – Tiger Mask’s original looks from the anime TV series in the late 60’s. The unique designs and storyline are just as fierce as the signature tiger head mask itself. Tiger Mask is one of the legendary Showa anime characters. Wherever he appears justice shall rule!
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Fist of the North Star 3 – The Final Chapters

FIST OF THE NORTH STAR 3 🌟; admittedly that might be a bit bold a title to throw out there into the ring, but there is a final and third part to the original Hokuto no Ken (北斗の拳・ほくとのけん; Fist of the North Star) manga series from the 80’s that has yet to be released in English, so let’s call it this way!

Die-hard fans of this classic Shounen Manga already know this, so it’s not really news, but as VIZ Media has taken up the task to publish Fist of the North Star based on the in Japan released Hokuto no Ken Ultimate Edition, finally the last 3 books are made available into English for the first time! Look forward to it, but be prepared, it’s fierce, it’s violent, it’s heartbreakin’ 💔 – you will be shock 😱!!

Hokuto No Ken Kyuukoku Ban (北斗の拳[究極版]) or the Fist of the North Star Ultimate Edition volumes 16-18 with striking cover artwork of the protagonists Kenshiro (Vol. 18), Lin (Vol. 17) and Bat (Vol. 16), contain the last chapters of the original manga series. The main storylines of Chaos & Strife and New Legends finally to be complete and perfect!
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Wart – The Warden of Dreamland

‘I’m the Great Wart, ahahaa!’, the frog king proclaims before the final battle in Super Mario All-Star (スーパーマリオコレクション) unfolds. In this pop-cultural article, I’m going to talk about Nintendo’s forgotten prince of darkness, speculate about his origin as well as some froggy customs from Japan. Will this mischievous warden remain only in our dreams or will Wart eventually make a return out of the state of decade-long slumber?

A question worth pondering about as to why Nintendo printed that striking red question mark in its game manuals for the character. Wart, the video game villain that jumbled up the dream machine to bring haunting monsters into the world of dreams indeed raises a couple interesting questions. Let’s find out more together!
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Sanei Boueki Plush Dolls – A Fluffy World

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 If you are after faithfully reproduced fluffy game characters like Mario & Co., Sanei Boueki is your brand! Besides their best-selling plush toy series, the Super Mario All Star Collection, you find many more cuddly friends to gather up.
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Due to my activities in the past when living and working in Japan, I curiously started to develop a fondness for a couple of Japanese toy companies. One of those is Sanei Boueki (三英貿易・さんえいぼうえき; San-ei Boueki), which grew somehow dear to me. If you are a fan of game merchandise and Japanese popculture collectibles, the name should ring some bells, but I want to introduce it a little further with this article. Welcome to the Sanei’s plushy world!

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Castlevania Vengeance

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Konami‘s classic of the 80’s to return to the screens! Not as a game for once, but premiering as an anime on Netflix. Great artwork comes with it. This could become interesting and feed our thirst for nostalgia 😃.

As darkness to set over the land and evil to take hold in mortals, one fearless man to return from depths of oblivion to safe us all…

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Super Dragon Ball Heroes Card Game

20170330_Super Dragon Ball Heroes HeaderSince my last pop-culture related post nearly 2 years have passed and it was more or less about the same subject 😝 With all the community and fan blogs on anime and manga out there I’m never able to keep pace, so I rather choose to focus on other areas. I make an exception with this article though as I did at the time when I wrote about the release of Dragon Ball Super 🔗. Back then, it was also the first time I learned about Dragon Ball Heroes (ドラゴンボールヒーローズ; DBH) and actually intended to make a post about it. However, priorities changed and I left it on the side. Now, I incidentally came across the topic again just recently and it bugged me that I never managed to write that post. So I shall pick it up once more and set about this article under the motto, better late than never 😄 Here we go!

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It should have become an ordinary afternoon. School is finished and homework is done, you and your friends rally to the favorite spot in town, the local game center to immerse in carefree hours of play and to talk shop about Dragon Ball – your favorite hobby! But things turn out totally different, as you suddenly get sucked into the game with heart and soul, the moment you place down those cards onto the gaming machine monitor…

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AmazonGlobal Otaku and Popular Character Stores at amazon.co.jp

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amazon.co.jp got you settled with everything you need, directly from Japan to your door steps!

A few months ago, back in October 2016, I posted the first version of this article, however, a change corrupted some of the settings😤 and it’s no longer appearing properly on Google (sigh, technology 😩!), which lead me to post this again. Might have been a WordPress glitch, but I hope the new article stays unaffected. The former article I left as is though, as some visitors might still strand there (see Edition History on the bottom⬇). The main content remains mostly the same except for some minor editing. Well, here we go again🏃💨!

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The Legend of Zelda 30th Anniversary

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Played them all? For me personally, I like the titles up and until the Ocarina of Time best, whereby The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for the Gameboy and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo are my favorites. What is yours?

2016 marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most popular game series with Legend of Zelda (ゼルダの伝説ゼルダのでんせつ; Zeruda no Densets) and beloved game characters, the legendary adventurer Link (リンク). A character counting to the inner most circle of the expansive Nintendo line of heroes. Time to write a little tribute on this iconic game and its courageous hero!

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Amazon.co.jp rolls out Otaku and Popular Character Stores

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Originally I had planned a mini series for October, unfortunately though this drowned in work and I had to give it up. Still on my ‘Creative Break’ and finding myself with not enough time at hand for research and translations in recent months, there is something I like to make a quick post about today.

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日本のことは、マンガとゲームで学びました。by Benjamin Boas – The Power of (Pop-)Culture, Benjamin’s COOL JAPAN!

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English Title: Everything I know about Japan I learned from Manga and Video Games

Publisher: 小学館

ISBN-10: 4093883955
ISBN-13: 978-4093883955

Language: 日本語・Japanese
Pages: 143
Price Tag: 1188 JPY

While in preparation for a next extensive research project of mine, I took the time to check out another COMIC ESSAY. It is the one of BENJAMIN BOAS, which I announced in my previous post of NORDIC GIRL ÅSA DISCOVERS THE MYSTERIES OF JAPAN VOL. 2 ・北欧女子オーサが見つけた日本の不思議 2, in which he has a quick entry.

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