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!
Continue reading

Sanei Boueki Plush Dolls – A Fluffy World

20171021_Super Mario All Stars New
 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.
..
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!

Continue reading

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

20170112_amazon-otaku-store-new
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🏃💨!

Continue reading

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

amazon-co-jp-1

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.

Continue reading