By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)
President and CEO of Starbucks Coffee Japan Co., Ltd., Takafumi Mizuguchi, announced the 2017 line of sakura themed products to mark Japan’s celebration of cherry blossom season. Products such as tumblers, mugs and Starbucks cards will be available for a limited time through Starbucks Japan stores nationwide (excluding some stores) and through online ordering.
Continue reading “Starbucks Japan Announces 2017 Lineup of Sakura Drinks and Drinkware”
By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)
The group formed by EXILE’s Takahiro, GLAY’s Hisahi, Losalios’ TOKIE, and The Mad Capsule Market’s Motokatsu Miyagami can be seen in the upcoming release of High & Low the Live. The huge movie spectacle staged at four locations in Japan with over a million people in attendance will finally hit store shelves in DVD and Blu-Ray format.
The film that contains elements of car and bike stunts, drama, samurai warriors with swords, and musical performances. Over 450 performers were used in the making of this movie. Some of the artists who took part were EXILE, J Soul Brothers III, PKCZ, JAY’ED, E-girls, and EXILE TRIBE.
Continue reading “Wind Up Geek’s J-Music Quick Fix – February 5, 2017”
By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)
Baby Star Ramen’s mascot, Bei-chan, is to be retired by the Oyatsu Company Ltd. and new mascot, Hoshio-kun will be gracing the packages of Japan’s popular snack food which has sold nationwide since 1959. Announced at a press conference, Hoshio-kun’s first commercial (CM) appearance will be with fashion model and pop singer Natsume Mito advertising Baby Star’s newest snack food, Baby Star Panmen. The commercial will be broadcast nationwide in Japan from February 6th.
Continue reading “Pop Singer Natsume Mito Appears in Baby Star CM with New Mascot”
By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)
One of anime’s biggest names is coming to the Seattle and will be found at Sakura-Con 2017, the Pacific Northwest’s largest anime convention. Celebrating 20 years, it is only fitting character designer, writer, and manga artist Kenichi Sonoda will be one of this year’s guests.
Sonoda’s career started in the mid-80’s at studio Artmic, where he became a character designer for some of Artmic’s best titles such as Bubblegum Crisis (where he produced the original look of the Knight Sabers team), Riding Bean, and the Gall Force series. Sonoda was also designer on long-time fan favourites Otaku no Video and the super-deformed special Scramble Wars: Tsuppashire! Genom Trophy Rally.
Continue reading “Character Designer & Manga Artist Kenichi Sonoda Announced for Sakura-Con!”
By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)
MUJI, a major Japanese retailer and brand, will be expanding to Vancouver, British Columbia with the opening of two locations. MUJI Canada announced earlier today that they will be opening a storefront location on Robson and another in Metropolis at Metrotown shopping centre. Both locations are to be approximately 10,000 square feet and will open sometime in late 2017.
MUJI sells minimalist products ranging from small appliances and stationary to clothing and cosmetics. The company has currently over 400 store locations within their home country of Japan and another 400 stores across Asia, Great Britain, Germany, and the United States. Three of those locations in Canada are in the greater Toronto area.
Until the store locations open, shoppers can visit MUJI’s pop up shop within the JAPANESE UNLAYERED exhibition at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel in downtown Vancouver. To avoid long line ups for customers at the pop-up store, MUJI asks that shoppers register online with their company. The shop will be open from 11am to 7pm from Friday, January 27 to Sunday, January 29, then Monday to Friday through Tuesday, February 28, 2017.
Another Japanese retailer, UNIQLO, is expected to announce their first Metro Vancouver location later this year.
Source(s): MUJI Canada, Kenneth Chan, Chuck Chiang, Vancouver Sun, and Daily Hive.
Photo Source(s): MUJI Canada.
By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)
Sunrise’s animated series Panzer World Galient (機甲界ガリアン) is being released in Japan on Blu-ray for the very first time. The 25 episode series that originally aired on Nippon Television from 1984 to 1985 and spawned 3 original video animations (OVA) will be sold as part of a 5 double-sided disc box set. Galient has been previously released on DVD, first in 2008 as part of the “Anniversary” release and again in 2011 as part of Emotion’s “the best of” series. But this is the first time Galient episodes will be taken from the source tapes and remastered in high definition. All 25 episodes of the series plus the three OVAs (Earth Chapter, Sky Chapter and Crest of Iron) will be included in the Blu-ray box set.
Galient was directed by Ryōsuke Takahashi (Ozuma), written by Sōji Yoshikawa (Cyborg 009) with mechanical designs by Yutaka Izubuchi (WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3). Both Takahashi and Yashikawa worked on the Armored Trooper VOTOMS series that premiered the year before. Galient‘s opening and ending themes were composed and performed by EUROX, a progressive Japanese rock band formed in 1984.
