Outer Senshi join their anime/manga magical girl sisters on the streets of Minato Ward.
Sailor Moon features some pretty fantastical settings, with much of its mythos involving ancient kingdoms on the moon and antagonists hailing from even farther reaches of the cosmos. However, most of the series takes place in Minato, one the actual wards of real-world Tokyo, where Usagi and her friends live, go to school, and fight many of the manga/anime’s monsters of the week,
So a while back, Minato Ward
Outer Senshi join their anime/manga magical girl sisters on the streets of Minato Ward.
Sailor Moon features some pretty fantastical settings, with much of its mythos involving ancient kingdoms on the moon and antagonists hailing from even farther reaches of the cosmos. However, most of the series takes place in Minato, one the actual wards of real-world Tokyo, where Usagi and her friends live, go to school, and fight many of the manga/anime’s monsters of the week,
So a while back, Minato Ward decided to celebrate the connection by installing Sailor Moon manhole covers featuring artwork of Sailors Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus. As fans will be quick to point out, though, that’s actually only half the series’ roster of magical girls. As time went on, creator Naoko Takeuchi added new heroines to the cast, and now Minato Ward is adding new Sailor Moon manhole covers to its streets.
Out of the first five covers, four featured the Inner Sailor Senshi (Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus), while power couple Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask shared the fifth. The two new designs will both once again feature the Inner Senshi, but they’ll be joined by the Outer Senshi, Sailors Pluto, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn, as well as disruptive and divisive time-traveler Sailor Chibi Moon.
The first of the new manhole covers has the fully assembled Senshi standing amidst the branches of a cherry blossom tree with the sakura in full bloom. It was installed towards the end of March in Minato Ward’s Roppongi district, specifically on the Roppongi 7-4-2 block, not far from the Tokyo Midtown shopping and entertainment complex.
The second new Sailor Moon cover, the seventh overall, will also show all 10 Sailor Senshi, this time with a pastel rainbow color scheme to the background. But while we know what it’ll look like, Minato Ward is keeping its location a secret for now, and will only be publicizing where to find it after it’s been installed.
Minato Ward is keeping the exact timetable under wraps too, but the Sailor Moon official website says that the rainbow Sailor Moon cover should be in place by the end of this month. And if you’re looking for even more crossovers between anime artwork and public infrastructure, don’t forget about the new Pokémon manhole covers in a part of Japan that’s looking to bounce back from a natural disaster.
Ikebukuro Pokémon superstore and Pikachu dessert cafe won’t be reopening until nearly half a year after murder.
In late March, the Pokémon Center superstore in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro neighborhood, also known as the Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo, became the scene of a tragedy as a 21-year-old worker was stabbed and murdered. The store, as well as the Pikachu Sweets cafe located a short distance away within the same shopping center, were immediately closed down for an indefinite period of time, and a num
Ikebukuro Pokémon superstore and Pikachu dessert cafe won’t be reopening until nearly half a year after murder.
In late March, the Pokémon Center superstore in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro neighborhood, also known as the Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo, became the scene of a tragedy as a 21-year-old worker was stabbed and murdered. The store, as well as the Pikachu Sweets cafe located a short distance away within the same shopping center, were immediately closed down for an indefinite period of time, and a number of events scheduled for April were cancelled at all other branches of the Pokémon Center chain, which has locations across Japan.
Initially, it seemed as if the Ikebukuro Pokémon Center might be reopening in early May, to coincide with the resumption of in-store events as well as Japan’s Golden Week spring vacation period. Golden Week came and went with the store’s shutters still closed, however, and they’re going to remain shut for several months more, as the Pokémon Company has announced that the Ikebukuro Pokémon Center will not be reopening until “around September.” The same timetable has been announced for the reopening of the Pikachu Sweets cafe, which has also remained closed since the incident.
▼ Pikachu Sweets is located on the same floor of the Sunshine City shopping mall as the Ikebukuro Pokémon Center, with the two stores less than a minute’s walk away from each other, but there is no indication that either the victim or murderer was at the cafe on the day of the stabbing.
No statement has been made about whether there will be any changes to the stores’ physical layouts, admission procedures, or any other aspects of its operations. With the murderer of the victim being an ex-boyfriend who was stalking her, the stabbing hasn’t been perceived as a sign of violence related towards Pokémon Center employees or Pokémon fans themselves, but the stabbing was still a shocking demonstration of vulnerabilities in the store’s security protocols, and with Pokémon Centers regularly being packed with customers, many of them children, on weekends and holidays, the Pokémon Company is no doubt feeling a need to rethink and retool how it handles guest safety issues.
New tie-up with hit anime comes with anti-scalper strategy.
Fast food and anime figures are two of the reliable simple sources of joy in life, and yet there was some trepidation about combining the two of them as McDonald’s Japan launched a collaboration with the Chiikawa franchise last week. Chiikawa Happy Meals went on sale on May 15, but there was worry that the promotion would be marred by the same sort of ugly behavior from scalpers that’s taken place in some of the chain’s previous high-
New tie-up with hit anime comes with anti-scalper strategy.
Fast food and anime figures are two of the reliable simple sources of joy in life, and yet there was some trepidation about combining the two of them as McDonald’s Japan launched a collaboration with the Chiikawa franchise last week. Chiikawa Happy Meals went on sale on May 15, but there was worry that the promotion would be marred by the same sort of ugly behavior from scalpers that’s taken place in some of the chain’s previous high-profile partnerships.
And you know what? The rules seemed to achieve their purpose, at least at the branch where we got our four Chiikawa Happy Meals. There were no massive lines, no one walking out with a dozen orders just for themselves, and no one just taking their toys and leaving uneaten food on the restaurant counter or littered on the street outside.
Each Happy Meal comes with one of four figures of the Chiikawa cast dressed in McDonald’s uniforms, so we ordered four meals, keeping our fingers crossed that we’d be lucky enough to get the full set.
▼ We got ourselves two Chicken McNugget Happy Meals and two cheeseburger ones, each priced at 540 yen (US$3.50), so we were pretty much set for lunches for the next few days.
And to our great joy, as we opened up the four figure boxes one by one, each of them had a different figure waiting for us inside!
Not only are they adorable, there’s even a bit of inspiration from Chiikawa lore in their designs. For example, Rakko, seen on the far right in the photo above, is depicted in the Chiikawa manga and anime as owning a car and being a skilled driver, so he’s dressed in the uniform of a McDonald’s Japan delivery person, as is Hachiware.
Also part of our set of four is Kuri-Manju (second from the lest in the above photo), the alcohol-loving character with a head shaped like a chestnut dumpling (Chiikawa can be a very unique franchise). Perhaps due to his regularly inebriated condition, Kuri-Manju is not part of the delivery team, and is instead dressed in the uniform of a McCafe by Barista crew member, in charge of McDonald’s Japan’s fancier dessert and beverage subdivision, which sometimes even has its own order counter inside the restaurant. Finally, there’s Chiikawa, who, fittingly for the series’ protagonist, is dressed in a McDonald’s manager’s uniform.
Each of the figures is about eight centimeters (3.1 inches) tall, compact enough to easily find space for on a shelf or your desk, but big enough to still provide a palpable Chiikawa aura.
▼ McDonald’s figures are quite a bit bigger than the ones beef bowl chain Matsuya gave out in their most recent Chiikawa collaboration, as you can see here.
In addition, the figures have holes on the bottom so that you can use them as pencil/pen toppers too.
As is becoming increasingly common with Japanese Happy Meals, McDonald’s is releasing its Chiikawa ones in two waves, with the first lasting until May 28, then a new set of four figures coming in as a second batch from May 29 to June 11, and hopefully the anti-scalping strategies continue to be effective in round two.
Renovations wrapping up in Tokyo, new menu items on their way to Osaka too.
If you’re a Pokémon fan, heading to Japan’s Pokémon Cafe as soon as possible probably seems like a no-brainer. However, if you can hold out for a few more weeks, you’ll be rewarded for your patience, as there’s a slew of brand-new, incredibly adorable new items being added to the menu.
The arrival of the new entree, dessert, and drink options coincides with this month’s grand reopening of the Pokémon Cafe Tokyo. At th
Renovations wrapping up in Tokyo, new menu items on their way to Osaka too.
If you’re a Pokémon fan, heading to Japan’s Pokémon Cafe as soon as possible probably seems like a no-brainer. However, if you can hold out for a few more weeks, you’ll be rewarded for your patience, as there’s a slew of brand-new, incredibly adorable new items being added to the menu.
The arrival of the new entree, dessert, and drink options coincides with this month’s grand reopening of the Pokémon Cafe Tokyo. At the time of its opening in 2018, Japan’s first permanent Pokémon restaurant was already an awesome place to visit, and the newly redone interior will feature even more species of Pokémon in its art and decorations.
Among the menu items making their debut is the Chocolate and Berry Pikachu Parfait, a mixture of sweet, fruity, and creamy flavors topped with strawberries and a Pikachu made of mousse with chocolate facial features.
Continuing with the sweet treats, there’s also the Eevee Colorful Fruit Pancake, which gives a nod to Eeevee’s many possible evolutions with a rainbow of dried fruit pieces and recreates the Pokémon’s tuft of fluffy fur with Mascarpone cream.
We’d be the last ones to criticize fans for ordering double dessert, (our independent research has found that it’s the most important meal of the day), but we’d highly recommend saving room for some savory stuff too, like the Pikachu and Pichu Friends Curry Plate, with a Pikachu-shaped serving of saffron rice and a Poké Ball-style hamburger steak.
The sleepiest Pokémon couldn’t be bothered to wake up for the Napping Snorlax Teriyaki Burger, but he does at least let you use his tummy for the top bun of this teriyaki chicken and scrambled egg sandwich, and he contributes some carrot Zs to the accompanying veggie mix.
Rounding out the new entree choices is the Mimikyu Disguise Omelet, recreating the mysterious Ghost/Fairy-type’s covering in egg form, with a salad and cup of corn chowder, with Pokémon-shaped pasta, on the side.
And last, to wash everything down there’s the new Go! Greninja! White Peach Smokescreen Drink. Floating in the glass is a gelatin Water Shuriken, and the Pokémon Cafe promises that the drink also shows off Greninja’s Smokescreen ability, which could mean that it has some sort of foamy or cotton candy-cloud creating effect.
The visual appeal of dining at the Pokémon Cafe isn’t limited to the food on your plate or the art of the walls, either. Seatings are done in set time blocks, and each of them includes a visit by some species of Pokémon. To celebrate the debut of the new Pikachu parfait, there’s also a new show, Let’s Make a Pika Pika Parfait, a 10-minute performance featuring a trio of culinary Pikachus.
▼ From left to right these are Waitress Pikachu, Chef Pikachu, and Patissier Pikachu, but they also look like they could be the panel of a Pokémon-themed Iron Chef reboot (which someone should make immediately).
▼ The same three also appear on special Pokémon 30th anniversary stickers given out randomly with drink orders.
Prices for the above items range from 1,375 yen (US$9) for the Greninja drink to 2,090 yen for the desserts and 2,530 yen for everything else. The new menu items will be available at both the Tokyo and Osaka Pokémon Cafes starting June 17, which is also the grand reopening date for the renovated Tokyo branch, which has been closed since late March.
Theme park prohibition strangely opens the door to a new kind of creative freedom.
When you visit Ghibli Park in Nagakute City, Aichi Prefecture, you’ll find a vast array of attractions, including life-sized buildings that look like they’ve jumped straight out of a Studio Ghibli film. However, if you research the park beforehand to see what the rooms inside these buildings look like, you’ll notice something else: there isn’t a wide variety of interior photos on social media.
That might sound
Theme park prohibition strangely opens the door to a new kind of creative freedom.
When you visit Ghibli Park in Nagakute City, Aichi Prefecture, you’ll find a vast array of attractions, including life-sized buildings that look like they’ve jumped straight out of a Studio Ghibli film. However, if you research the park beforehand to see what the rooms inside these buildings look like, you’ll notice something else: there isn’t a wide variety of interior photos on social media.
That might sound odd, given Ghibli’s worldwide fame and loyal fanbase, but the lack of photos doesn’t mean there’s no desire to share them online. Rather, it’s because photography is strictly prohibited inside most of the buildings. Instead, the park limits interior photos to the Becoming Characters in Memorable Ghibli Scenes exhibit inside Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse, where visitors can step into life-sized dioramas depicting 14 famous film scenes.
All of this came as a surprise to our Japanese-language reporter Saya Togashi when she visited the park for the first time recently. Unaware of the photography ban in the large majority of the buildings, her initial disappointment turned into an eye-opening experience both literally and figuratively, so she decided to share some thoughts on the ban and the surprising effect it had on her visit.
▼ Saya with her Ghibli Park entry band.
1. People don’t linger to take photos
The most obvious benefit to come from the ban is the fact that it prevents people from lingering too long in an area while trying to capture the perfect shot. Every exhibit presents a perfect photo opportunity, as each display creates an ideal backdrop that makes visitors look as though they’ve stepped into an anime world, and the attention to detail in the objects inside the buildings is so impressive that you could take hundreds of photos and it still wouldn’t be enough, which is why the ban feels necessary.
With so many small rooms inside, there isn’t much space to move around – even if one person stopped to take a picture it would cause a huge holdup for visitors. The photography ban ensures the crowds move smoothly through the exhibits, creating a more pleasant environment for everyone to enjoy what they’re seeing.
Another advantage is the absence of live video streamers. Even when they aren’t being intentionally disruptive, live streaming can cause anxiety for people nearby, as not everyone wants their face broadcast around the world without consent. In a country like Japan, where publishing identifiable photos of people without permission may violate privacy or image rights, the absence of cameras creates a sense of ease and safety that allows everyone to relax.
2. Visitors can concentrate on what’s in front of them
When you can’t take pictures, or when you don’t have your smartphone in your hand, something beautiful happens: you naturally start to focus on what’s in front of you. Though photography may be prohibited, visitors are allowed to touch many of the exhibits, engaging the sense of touch and creating a multi-sensory experience that benefits from full attention. This gesture of goodwill by the park, which prioritises the visitor experience over concerns about theft or damage, helps nurture an environment of care and respect that you might not find in other amusement parks.
In Mei and Satsuki’s House, for instance, opening a closet door reveals bedding and pyjamas belonging to the Kusakabe family, who star in the film My Neighbour Totoro. The dresser contains the father’s clothes, which carry a faint smell of mothballs. You can search for the stairs leading to the second floor, just like in the movie, and even find Mei’s hat. It’s a continuous stream of discoveries that gives you a great sense of satisfaction in finding things for yourself.
Without the scrutiny of a smartphone screen, our senses become sharper. The small size of Mei’s clothes and the way they feel in your hand, the creaking of the closet, the sense of everyday life emanating from the old dishes in the kitchen – these are now vividly etched into Saya’s memory as real lived experiences.
In the documentary Until Ghibli Park is Finished, director Goro Miyazaki told his staff, “It’s good to touch the house as much as possible, like refolding clothes as if you were actually living there.” That sense of bringing the house to life is clearly evident, and it allows visitors to appreciate just how impressive it is that Satsuki and Mei’s House is built to be fully functional, with features such as a wood-fired stove for boiling water and a hearth for cooking rice. If God is in the details, so is Studio Ghibli.
3. There are no spoilers
In this era where everyone is a photographer, any place and any event can be easily experienced virtually through the Internet. Although we might know there are things that can only be understood by being there and experiencing them firsthand, videos and images can have a huge impact on our perception.
At Ghibli Park, however, very little prior information is available beyond officially released details about the different rooms and exhibits. Since photography is prohibited indoors in many areas of the park, visitors experience the spaces with almost no spoilers beforehand.
Because you encounter the actual settings and objects without prior exposure, everything feels fresh and surprising. Saya felt this especially strongly in Howl’s Moving Castle, where she had goosebumps after stepping into the dimly lit castle from the bright outdoors. Once your eyes adjust, you’re overwhelmed by the sheer volume of cluttered everyday objects and magical items laid out in front of you, appearing just as it was in the movie.
Although it’s an area visitors can’t touch, Howl’s bedroom, meticulously recreated with small objects, sounds, lights, and movements, is a must-see. It’s truly moving to witness something you’ve only ever seen in the 2-D anime world come to life before your eyes, complete with weight, scent, and texture.
Sure, Ghibli Park might not have big rides with elaborate special effects or dazzling shows, but that’s actually its charm. The dedication to creating special spaces and the sheer scale of its construction surpasses those of many world-class theme parks, and it’s something you can sense in every area.
After visiting the park, Saya came to realise the merits and demerits of modern theme parks that rely on social media sharing. Keen to update their operational policies to keep pace with the times, theme parks are shifting from being places where visitors immerse themselves in carefully crafted worlds and becoming platforms for sharing experiences, primarily through social media.
Saya has felt the tide turn firsthand at Disney Resorts, where she used to attend the New Year’s Eve countdown event every year. Although getting tickets was always a bit of a struggle, once you were inside the park, you could easily enjoy all the events, like watching shows, enjoying limited-edition food and drinks, and buying New Year’s items, without the need for any special strategy or plan. Of course, there were lines, but as long as visitors waited patiently, they could achieve their theme park goals, especially as visitors wandered the grounds discovering things along the way.
However, one year things changed. Even immediately after opening, the shelves for New Year’s items were empty, special menu items were all sold out, and the atmosphere at events became tense, with staff shouting to control crowds as people scrambled to secure prime viewing spots. This was around the time when the social media culture of sharing one’s own experiences and the business of profiting from reselling began. It created a world of competition and anxiety, where people have to work harder to buy the things they want and experience the things they want to experience — things that once felt much simpler before the age of social media.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the theme parks themselves; the spread of information on social media and the increased rarity of merchandise are simply the result of fans’ enthusiasm. However, it does have an impact on the visitor experience, and after visiting Ghibli Park, Saya walked away with her eyes opened to what can be possible when visitors are prioritised over financial profit. By creating sensory worlds that can’t be fully captured in photographs, Ghibli Park encourages visitors to engage with the world around them, fostering face-to-face communication and a sense of adventure that lies at the heart of every Ghibli film.
Tokyo’s new video game/anime eatery has a lot to love (and eat).
June 12 is the grand opening of the brand-new Square Enix Cafe in downtown Tokyo’s Shinjuku neighborhood, and the eatery has released a sneak peek at what’s going to be on the menu. As you might expect, food and beverages inspired by the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises will be on offer, but there’s one other dark-horse candidate for your dining and drinking attention, and an anime/manga mega-hit too.
Beginning with Fina
Tokyo’s new video game/anime eatery has a lot to love (and eat).
June 12 is the grand opening of the brand-new Square Enix Cafe in downtown Tokyo’s Shinjuku neighborhood, and the eatery has released a sneak peek at what’s going to be on the menu. As you might expect, food and beverages inspired by the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises will be on offer, but there’s one other dark-horse candidate for your dining and drinking attention, and an anime/manga mega-hit too.
Beginning with Final Fantasy, the entrée options are the Chocobo and Moogle Spice Curry, milder Moogle Kids Curry…
…Chocobo and Friends Burger Plate (with a special appearance by Cactuar on one of its mini buns), and Chocobo Balanced Salad, designed as a for-humans equivalent of the Gysahl Greens so loved by the avian steeds.
And for dessert, Final Fantasy fans can look forward to the FF Version Purin Parfait, a Japanese-style custard pudding served in a classy cocktail glass with toppings including a marshmallow Chocobo and ice cream.
The “FF Version” part of the name suggests the existence of other pudding parfaits as well, and the DQ Version, of course, stars Dragon Quest’s adorable Slime.
The DQ mascot monster also appears in the Slimes Draw Near Jiggly Sweets Plate…
…and there are savory Slime plates too, such as the Healslime Burger Basket, in which the restorative creature’s tentacles are represented by a sliced sausage, and the Taco Rice-Style Hamburger Plate with Bubble Slime On Top.
Getting back to that third video game inspiration we mentioned, it’s none other than Nier: Automata, whose version of the purin parfait gives you a triple dose of Emil marshmallows…
…and his smiling (?) face is also present in the Lunar Tear Milk Tea Float plate.
Things get a little abstract with the 2B YoRHa Skirt-style Crepe Salad (with edible bamboo charcoal the most likely ingredient giving it its color), and things get really abstract with the On-Site Procurement Bullet Hell Pasta, meant to evoke memories of the enemy bullet barrages in the game’s shooting segments.
Now we come to the anime/manga part of the menu, which is saluting Fullmetal Alchemist.
Though Square Enix is most famous for video games, the company is also a major manga publisher, and within Japan handles the tale of brothers Al and Ed Elric, who are featured in a purin parfait, plus steamed buns with sweet custard and savory stew fillings. Fellow alchemist Roy Mustang also contributes to the menu with a Flame Alchemist shrimp pasta topped with shredded chili for extra heat.
Drinks come in two tiers, with the fancier ones consisting of a Final Fantasy Potion, Dragon Quest Traveler’s Healing Herb Set, and Fullmetal Alchemist Dwarf in the Flask.
The lower drink tier is made up of standard soft drinks such as coffee, tea, cola, orange juice, and melon soda. The cold drinks come with your choice of illustrated cup sleeve…
…while hot drinks let you pick one of two latte art designs per series.
The Square Enix Cafe has a service charge of 1,200 yen (US$7.60) per person, but that price does include one lower-tier drink of your choice, plus an illustrated placemat (you can pick which title you want, but the exact design is random).
▼ In keeping with Nier’s unabashed weirdness, its placemats are vertically oriented.
And as anyone who’s been to one knows, you can’t have a proper themed cafe in Japan without art coasters, and you’ll receive one at random when ordering any of a series’ associated food items or premium drinks.
Prices for the premium drinks and desserts are generally in the 1,000-1,500 yen range, with most of the main dishes priced between 1,500 and 2,200 yen (though the Fullmetal Alchemist steamed buns are just 770 yen each).
Again, the Square Enix Cafe’s grand opening takes place on June 12, and while walk-ins are allowed if space is available, reservations can be made through the restaurant’s website.
Goodbye (again), Gundam.
Seeing Tokyo’s life-size Gundam statue is an amazing experience, but also surreal one. Sure, Japan is the land of anime and all, but even then, a 19.7-meter (64.6-foot) tall mecha feels like something too awesome to be standing outside of the Diver City entertainment complex in the Odaiba district.
And sadly, it’s not going to be standing there much longer.
Both the official Gundam franchise website and the site for Tokyo’s life-size Unicorn Gundam statue have posted
Seeing Tokyo’s life-size Gundam statue is an amazing experience, but also surreal one. Sure, Japan is the land of anime and all, but even then, a 19.7-meter (64.6-foot) tall mecha feels like something too awesome to be standing outside of the Diver City entertainment complex in the Odaiba district.
And sadly, it’s not going to be standing there much longer.
Both the official Gundam franchise website and the site for Tokyo’s life-size Unicorn Gundam statue have posted notices that the 1:1-scale recreation of the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam will be removed. They’re not giving fans much advance notice to make one last visit either (or one first visit, if you haven’t been able to fit Tokyo into your travel plans yet), as the Unicorn Gundam will be gone at “the end of August.”
It’s a sad turn of events for what has become both a symbol of the neighborhood and a mecha mecca for anime fans from around the globe. The Unicorn Gundam was completed in September of 2017, meaning that it won’t quite make it to a full 9 years. I went to go see the big guy as soon as I could, and on my most recent visit just this month, the Unicorn was still looking great, as you can see in the photos in this article.
Gundam rights-holder Bandai hasn’t said why the Unicorn Gundam is being removed, and with it still drawing huge crowds, to the statue itself and to the two Gundam specialty stores inside Diver City, the decision comes as a shock to many fans.
The blow of the Unicorn Gundam’s departure is softened by Bandai’s promise that it will be starting a project it calls the “Gundam Landmark Concept,” creating a new Gundam facility/attraction that “fans from all over the world will want to come visit.” No further details have been released yet, but with Yokohama’s moving life-size Gundam having been sent off in the spring of 2024 to Osaka for the Expo 2025 world’s fair, the removal of the Unicorn Gundam will leave the Tokyo area with no life-size Gundams at all.
That seems like a vacuum Bandai would want to fill as quickly as it can, and this actually isn’t the first time for Odaiba to lose a life-size Gundam, either. Prior to the Unicorn Gundam’s installation, a life-size version of the original RX-78-2 Gundam stood in the same spot for several years, until it was removed in March of 2017, followed by a Gundam-less period of roughly six months before the Unicorn Gundam, was completed.
So hopefully this doesn’t mean Tokyo will be saying goodbye for good to Gundam so much as goodbye to this particular Gundam, and then hello to a new one. Still, there’s been no official word that a replacement mecha is one the way, and while Bandai says it will have special events to send the Unicorn Gundam off in style, there’s very little time to waste if you want to see it.
Bleach, Yu-Gi-Oh, Spy x Family, and more come to Uniqlo’s continuing celebration of a century of manga/anime hits.
Uniqlo is no stranger to the T-shirt collaboration game, having previously partnered with such major franchises as Pokémon and Tamagotchi. Their current partnership, though, gives them possibly their biggest pool of inspiration ever to pull from, thanks to the involvement of Shueisha.
As the publisher of Weekly Shonen Jump and numerous other manga anthology magazines, Shueisha is
Bleach, Yu-Gi-Oh, Spy x Family, and more come to Uniqlo’s continuing celebration of a century of manga/anime hits.
Uniqlo is no stranger to the T-shirt collaboration game, having previously partnered with such major franchises as Pokémon and Tamagotchi. Their current partnership, though, gives them possibly their biggest pool of inspiration ever to pull from, thanks to the involvement of Shueisha.
As the publisher of Weekly Shonen Jump and numerous other manga anthology magazines, Shueisha is one of Japan’s biggest manga companies, and also one of its oldest. 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of Shieusha’s founding, and part of the century-mark celebration is the ongoing Shueisha 100th Anniversary UT T-shirt line from Uniqlo. The first two batches of designs arrived in stores this past spring, but there are still plenty of great series to salute, and now Uniqlo has unveiled the third batch of Shueisha anniversary, featuring five series from the Jump manga family.
First up we have supernatural sword fighting saga Bleach.
Creator Tite Kubo is well known for his penchant for stark-contrast monochrome artwork, which translates to a pair of striking T-shirts featuring protagonist Ichigo and a host of other friends and adversaries from the series’ sprawling cast.
Moving on to lighter and brighter fare, Spy x Family shows up four times in Uniqlo’s Shueisha collab.
Precious and precocious Anya gets a lot of the attention here, with shirts showing her playing with psychic pet Bond, shooting a withering glance at stuck-up classmate Damian, or plopped in front of the TV, but the entire Forger family gets together on one of the designs, and there’s also a shirt featuring Yor with red hair.
▼ Backside of the Anya/Damian shirt
Switching back to a darker tone, we come to a quartet of Yu-Gi-Oh shirts, one of which is a double-sided design where Yugi poses dramatically with the Dark Magician on the front.
A different dual-sided design places the Millennium Puzzle on the chest with more monsters on the back…
…and a third is for fans of the Toon Summon Skull, or “Toon Demon” (トゥーンデーモン), as the entity is named in Japanese.
The final Yu-Gi-Oh shirt is the only one with artwork on just the front, perhaps because the designers realize that Blue-Eyes White Dragon would be a hard act to top.
Also part of the new round of Uniqlo Shueisha shirts is Black Clover, with a pair of designs.
Neither of them has artwork on the back, but in both cases you do get an embroidered clover on the sleeve.
And finally, there’s a shirt for fans of Mashle, also known as Mashle: Magic and Muscles, with main character Mash repeatedly intoning “I can use magic.”
All of the shirts will be priced at 1,990 yen (US$13) and available through Uniqlo’s online store here in August.
Famed anime house isn’t worried about losing relevancy by limiting access to its films.
Studio Ghibli has a reputation for preferring to do things the old-fashioned way, and so fans weren’t really shocked when the famed anime production house was initially reluctant to licensing its works for online streaming. The studio eventually softened its stance, striking deals with HBO Max in 2019 and Netflix the following year, and while the Netflix agreement has since expired, HBO Max still offers the
Famed anime house isn’t worried about losing relevancy by limiting access to its films.
Studio Ghibli has a reputation for preferring to do things the old-fashioned way, and so fans weren’t really shocked when the famed anime production house was initially reluctant to licensing its works for online streaming. The studio eventually softened its stance, striking deals with HBO Max in 2019 and Netflix the following year, and while the Netflix agreement has since expired, HBO Max still offers the Ghibli catalog for streaming…but not if you’re in Japan.
On-demand online streaming may not dominate the video entertainment landscape in Japan to quite the same extent as it does in many other countries, but things are moving in that direction, especially with Japan’s physical media rental stores fading away at an accelerating pace. It’s getting to the point where one could question whether Ghibli’s attitude about making its anime available for streaming in Japan has gone from being quaintly old-fashioned to detrimentally outdated. That was the sentiment one attendee alluded to at a regular press conference held by Hiroyuki Fukuda, president of Japanese television broadcaster Nippon TV, which acquired Studio Ghibli as a subsidiary in 2023. At the press conference, held on May 25, the attendee asked Fukuda:
“Ghibli’s works remain unavailable for streaming within Japan, which limits their audiences…Concerns have been raised that without opportunities to view these titles, some of them may become forgotten [by the public], so is there any chance of Ghibli’s anime becoming available for streaming on your company’s Hulu service?”
As alluded to in the question, Hulu Japan is a subsidiary of Nippon TV, which would make it the natural, and theoretically easiest to negotiate with, online host of the Ghibli catalog. Users shouldn’t go typing “Ghibli” into the Hulu Japan search box just yet, though, nor that of any other streaming service in Japan, as Fukuda answered that there are no plans to put Ghibli’s films online, because Nippon TV and Studio Ghibli want to preserve the relevance of the TV broadcasts of Ghibli anime.
“Presently, Studio Ghibli and Nippon TV are of the shared belief that we want to preserve the specialness of Ghibli’s films appearing on broadcast TV through our Friday Roadshow program. We are of course aware of the various requests for and different opinions regarding streaming, and this is a matter we intend to continue discussing moving forward.”
Friday Roadshow, or Kinyo Roadshow in Japanese, is Nippon TV’s Friday night movie block, in which it shows a different classic, popular, or family-oriented film each week. Ghibli anime are featured several times per year, with mega-hits like Totoro often saved for dates during summer or other vacation seasons, becoming appointment television for fans.
▼ Hurry home, Chihiro! Friday Roadshow is about to start!
Still, not every Ghibli anime airs every year, and even those that do usually do so only once annually. Nippon TV and Ghibli aren’t currently worried about that lessening the relevance of the studio’s films, though. In his press conference response, Fukuda went on to say that permanent facilities like the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo and the Ghibli Park theme park near Nagoya help build interest and excitement for Ghibli’s anime, as do celebratory events like Ghibli’s art exhibitions that travel around the country. Though Fukuda didn’t mention them, Ghibli’s kabuki stage play adaptations, like the one for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and the upcoming one for Princess Mononoke, also help to spark interest in their source material, and even if there’s no Friday Roadshow broadcast of them in the near future, Ghibli’s anime are always readily available for purchase on physical media in Japan.
Occasional overseas events and London’s My Neighbor Totoro stage play notwithstanding, the average overseas Ghibli fan has far less access to these kinds of Ghibli touchpoints than fans in Japan do, which in turn makes easier access to the anime movies themselves, though online distribution, a greater necessity outside Japan, which would explain why Ghibli has come around to the idea of streaming its works in foreign countries. And the day may come when Ghibli shrugs its shoulders and says “OK” for streaming inside Japan too. Nippon TV and the studio aren’t at that point just yet, though, and Fukuda’s treatment of Ghibli as a partner, as opposed to just a subsidiary, in the matter is probably a wise call, considering how committed Ghibli is to presenting its creations in the way it feels best conveys their vision.
Scooby, Scooby-Doo, where are you? Ah, you’re in Japan!
Over the past few years, Japan has become one of the world’s most popular destinations for international travelers, with everyone from overseas otaku to major celebrities putting it on their travel itineraries. And soon Japan will be adding a few more high-profile guests, with the announcement of a new Scooby-Doo animated series that’s not only set in Japan, but animated by a major anime studio.
Warner Bros. has unveiled Yokoso Scooby-Doo
Scooby, Scooby-Doo, where are you? Ah, you’re in Japan!
Over the past few years, Japan has become one of the world’s most popular destinations for international travelers, with everyone from overseas otaku to major celebrities putting it on their travel itineraries. And soon Japan will be adding a few more high-profile guests, with the announcement of a new Scooby-Doo animated series that’s not only set in Japan, but animated by a major anime studio.
Warner Bros. has unveiled Yokoso Scooby-Doo, a new series starring the famous mystery-solving pooch, describing the premise as:
“While visiting Japan on the ultimate foodie adventure, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy unwittingly unleash hundreds of mythical monsters that are causing trouble across the country. With the help of Scooby’s uncle, Daisuke-Doo, along with new friends, a magical girl Yume and gadget whiz Takumi, the group embarks on an all-new mystery filled with monster chasing and fun chaos.”
— カートゥーン大好きトゥン子さん@海外アニメ紹介！ (@newofcartoon) May 18, 2026
While Warner Bros. Animation is listed as the series’ producer, the company has announced that the visuals will come from OLM. Originally named Oriental Light and Magic, OLM is a Tokyo-based anime studio that was founded in 1990, and whose credits include work on Berserk, Inazuma Eleven, and Yo-kai Watch. They’re most famous, though, as the studio that’s been animating the Pokémon anime, all the way since its beginning in 1997. Yokoso Scooby-Doo will also be directed by Itsuro Kawasaki, director of the Pokémon Origins anime.
▼ Yokoso Scooby-Doo (meaning “Welcome, Scooby-Doo”) appears to be a reworking/retitling of the Go-Go Mystery Machine series that Warner Bros. originally announced in 2024.
2024年に発表された 日本を舞台にした「スクービードゥー」の新作「GO GO MYSTERY MACHINE」が 『YOKOSO SCOOBY DOO！』色々と変わって発表
Looking at the preview visual for Yokoso Scooby-Doo (or maybe we should call it the “key art,” in keeping with anime industry jargon), the goofy-grin Shiba inu is, ostensibly, Scooby’s uncle, Daisuke-Doo. The series’ version of the Mystery Machine sports a cherry blossom design on its fascia-mounted spare tire cover (although in orange instead of sakura-pink), and the van even sports a yellow license plate of the type used by Japan’s kei jidosha class of sub-compact cars.
Yokoso Scooby-Doo will stream exclusively on Tubi in North America, while international distribution will be through Cartoon Network. Frank Welker and Matthew Lillard will reprise their roles as Scooby and Shaggy, respectively, and there’s been no word yet about a Japanese-language dub. There’s also no announced release date yet, but if you’re in the mood for anime takes on classic American cartoon characters right now, there’s the new Looney Tunes anime series to watch.
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry conducts study to estimate damage to producers of anime and other Japanese media.
With Japanese entertainment media growing in popularity around the world, the Japanese government’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is also growing more concerned about the effects of media piracy overseas. In its latest study of the situation, the ministry claims that damage from piracy has been rapidly increasing, but one of its proposed countermeasures might not
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry conducts study to estimate damage to producers of anime and other Japanese media.
With Japanese entertainment media growing in popularity around the world, the Japanese government’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is also growing more concerned about the effects of media piracy overseas. In its latest study of the situation, the ministry claims that damage from piracy has been rapidly increasing, but one of its proposed countermeasures might not really do much to solve the problem.
For its study, the ministry conducted surveys in six foreign countries, including the U.S. and China, regarding “content piracy,” “content” here being a loose term used for entertainment media including anime and digital manga. Based on the results of the surveys, the ministry estimates that 5.7 trillion yen (US$37 billion) worth of Japanese content was pirated overseas in 2025, roughly three times the amount estimated for 2022, the previous iteration of the ministry’s study.
For the 2025 investigation, the ministry also added a new category, estimating the amount of pirated “character goods” that were sold online outside of Japan, such as knockoff and unlicensed figures, posters, plushies, and the like. For this category, the ministry arrived at an estimate of 4.7 trillion yen, brining its total figure for pirated content and knockoff merch to 10.4 trillion yen.
The ministry is framing this as the amount of “damage” caused to the legitimate Japanese media/merchandising industry, which invites consideration of whether pirated media always directly correlates to lost sales revenue. Those of a more lenient viewpoint could argue that if someone pirates content which they weren’t going to pay for anyway, no actual damage has been done, and similar logic could be applied to pirating of Japanese content not available in the country of the pirating party. On the other hand, it’s naive to think that no one is pirating content they would have paid for in the absence of an illicit way to get it for free, and with such a significant amount of Japanese entertainment media now being distributed in major foreign markets in a fairly timely matter, it’d be disingenuous to try to frame piracy as strictly an issue of availability either.
As such, while the actual damage to Japanese rightsholders is likely less than the full 10.4 trillion yen that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is claiming, it’s also not like there are no negative effects from piracy, and so it’s not surprising that the Japanese government would want to look for ways to address the problem.
However, one of the ideas being floated by the researchers is to promote the use of AI in production to lower costs and secure profits. In addition to sidestepping the root causes of piracy (insufficient legal enforcement and/or local availability), a reliance on lower costs also ignores that a major reason Japanese content, particularly anime, has become so popular around the world is that many foreign fans see it as having a mix of high quality and unique narratives, neither of which are things that AI is particularly good at producing. Leaning on the technology as a method by which to address piracy could end up as a sort of monkey’s paw if, by eroding what makes Japanese entertainment content attractive to audiences in the first place, AI simply turns Japanese-made media into something that’s not worth watching.
Totoro and friends want to keep you cool and smiling this summer with these traditional non-folding fans.
Summer presents a bit of a conundrum in Japan. On the one hand, it’s not a matter of if the weather will be hot and humid, but whether it’ll be extremely or just very hot and humid. At the same time, summer is full of festivals, fireworks shows, pop culture events, and even beautifully blossoming flowers, so there’s tons of fun to be had if you can find a way to cope with the heat.
And if
Totoro and friends want to keep you cool and smiling this summer with these traditional non-folding fans.
Summer presents a bit of a conundrum in Japan. On the one hand, it’s not a matter of if the weather will be hot and humid, but whether it’ll be extremely or just very hot and humid. At the same time, summer is full of festivals, fireworks shows, pop culture events, and even beautifully blossoming flowers, so there’s tons of fun to be had if you can find a way to cope with the heat.
And if you have a fun way to do so, all the better, right?
Filling that role nicely are these fans from Studio Ghibli specialty store Donguri Kyowakoku. This type of fan is called an uchiwa, and because they have an easy-to-grip handle, it’s easier to generate a cooling breeze with uchiwa than with than sensu (folding fans), making them a classical summer lifesaver.
The Ghibli uchiwa are made from bamboo frames and textured paper. A total of four designs are available, representing two of Ghibli’s greatest hits and with unique artwork on each side. On the fan above, we see Spirited Away’s Chihiro riding through the sky on Haku in his dragon form on the front, and when you flip the fan over, you can see Mouse Boh and Haedori having a somewhat less elegant flight.
Also here from Ghibli’s Oscar-winner is No Face, which is fitting since uchiwa are said to be shaped like koban, Japan’s traditional oval gold coins. The back of the No Face fan bares the kanji for Abura, as in the Aburaya bathhouse of the gods where most of the movie takes place, along with illustrations of some of the establishment’s more prominent patrons.
No Ghibli movie captures the vibes of a carefree summer day like My Neighbor Totoro, though, and so it’s also part of the lineup, with one of its designs featuring sisters Mei and Satsuki along with the Catbus.
▼ The back of the fan reveals that the Catbus leaves adorable pawprints behind as it scampers around the countryside.
And finally, the fourth fan shows a gathering of all three Totoros, big, medium. And small, with them dancing under fireworks and the kanji for matsuri (“festival”) on the back.
The fans are all 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) in width and 37 centimeters in length, with the exception of the Catbus uchiwa which is just a bit longer at 37.5 centimeters. The long handles make them easy to tuck into a tote bag or slide into the sash of a summer kimono, and since uchiwa don’t fold up, they also work great as interior decorations, since they’re essentially little mini posters that you can also use to make a breeze. All four of the fans are priced at 880 yen (US$5.70) and recently restocked at Donguri Kyowakou, with online orders available here.
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