Twentythree

After Hello Kitty goes home for the day, some decidedly less cute characters will be taking over Sanrio Puroland.

June is the rainy season in Japan, so if you’re going to be traveling in the Tokyo area around that time, it’s probably best to have a few indoor ideas as part of your itinerary. For example, Sanrio Puroland is a Tokyo theme park dedicated to Hello Kitty and company, and it’s entirely indoors, meaning you can enjoy it to your heart’s content regardless of how wet or humid the weather is outside.

As you might expect, in addition to its regularly scheduled attractions and shows, Puroland often has limited-time events that put the spotlight on certain characters, and if you visit on one of two special nights in June 6 and 13, you’ll be able to play the Obaken Psycho Game with the Psykers.

If you’re having trouble recalling the Psykers from the last time you browsed through the plushies at a Sanrio store, that’s because they’re the creation of Obakeyashiki Obaken, a Tokyo-based haunted house design company. In one of the stranger partnerships in the theme park industry, Obaken and Sanrio team up on an annual basis to hold horror events at Puroland. These aren’t silly, gently spooky productions, either – children younger than middle school-age are barred from entry, and the regular Puroland crowd is cleared out in the evening before the event starts, to ensure no little tykes are traumatized.

As for traumatizing adults, though? That scenario is definitely on the table, as the above preview video shows. While previous Obaken Puroland events have had zombies, ghosts, and other supernatural entities stalking guests, for this year’s Psycho Game your adversaries will be the criminal organization Psykers, in keeping with the designers’ shift of theme to “human madness.”

The framing device for Psycho Game is that the Psykers, without making any explicit demands, have sealed the exits from Puroland and forcing those inside to play a series of seven “games,” set up in different areas of the facility. Play them well, and you’ll accumulate points towards your release (and some sort of commemorative merch for those who play exceptionally well). Play poorly, though, and you’ll be subjected to “terrifying penalty games.”

The Psykers will also be roaming the halls of Puroland, ambushing you as you attempt to make your way from one game to the next.

Obaken Psycho Game in Sanrio Puroland will be taking place from 7 to 10 p.m. on June 6 and 13, with a total of 1,000 tickets available for each date. Reserved tickets, available now through the event’s official website here, are priced at 7,480 yen (US$48), while at-the-door tickets, if any are left, will be 8,480 yen.

Related: Sanrio Puroland official website, Obaken Psycho Game in Sanrio Puroland official website
Source, images: PR Times
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Hero-turned-villain enters the celebrity endorser stage of his character arc.

Over the course of Final Fantasy VII and its associated spinoffs, Sephiroth goes on one of video gaming’s most iconic hero-to-villain arcs. He starts off as the most powerful and accomplished member of the organization Soldier, dispatched to cull dangerous monsters and idolized by the common people as a symbol of strength and protection, but descends into madness and becomes a self-fashioned would-be cleanser of the planet, willing to adopt some very violent methods to achieve his ambitions.

Honestly, the guy really needed to find a better way to blow off some steam. Like, maybe instead of trying to erase mankind, he should have just clocked out of work and cracked open a nice relaxing drink, like he does in this video.

Yes, Sephiroth is now Japan’s newest celebrity canned cocktail endorser. It makes sense. Since he’s no longer a member of Soldier, he’s not getting paychecks from Shinra Electric Power Company anymore, but he’s still got to earn a living, so why should he turn down an offer from Asahi and their Future Lemon canned cocktail line?

▼ The on-screen text here, “Please drink after chilling in refrigerator. Please be careful of spilling when opening the can” was likely added by Asahi, but we suppose it could also be Sephiroth’s internal dialogue as he knocks back his Future Lemon.

Future Lemon’s selling point is that it isn’t just made with fruit juice, it has an actual lemon slice floating inside the can. The video has some fun with that, showing Sephiroth using his famed Masamune sword to make the necessary cuts, accompanied by his narration of:

Slice through the lemon.
This is the real thing.
Not just drinking.
So happy.
Future Lemon, with real fruit.

▼ Yes, Sephiroth, one of the gloomiest video game characters ever, has found happiness in a canned cocktail. He also reminds you to enjoy alcohol in moderation and recycle your empty cans, as per the text here.

While the primary purpose of the sliced lemon is to add extra fresh flavor to the drink, Asahi also recommends eating the fruit from the Future Lemon, and makes sure to include some close-ups of Sephiroth’s lips in the video.

This isn’t Future Lemon’s only tie-up with Final Fantasy VII either, as there’s also a real-world version of Tifa’s Seventh Heaven bar set to open in Tokyo this week, though there’s no word on whether or not Sephiroth himself will show up or if he’s more of a drink-at-home guy.

Source: YouTube/アサヒグループ公式チャンネル via Denfaminico Gamer
Images: YouTube/アサヒグループ公式チャンネル
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Students let a local agricultural product shine by partnering with a 215-year-old sweets maker for a new take on a classic Japanese treat.

Hiyori Matsuo, Rine Yamaguchi, and Yuira Yamaguchi were students at Nagasaki Prefecture’s Isahaya Commercial High School when they dreamed up a sweet new idea for their business internship course in early summer 2025. Wanting to create something novel using local products famous to the area, they landed on partnering with Sugitani Honpo, a traditional Japanese sweets shop founded back in 1812, and Taki Carrot Farm, which grows Nagasaki’s Beni Tenjin brand of carrots that have a unique sweetness without a strong carrot smell.

▼ The three high school students (now alumni)

They began experimenting by incorporating the carrot into the sweets shop’s famous castella cake but were met with mixed results. Their final course presentation came and went this past January, along with high school graduation in March, but they still didn’t give up. Luckily, all of that hard work paid off as they were eventually able to develop the Beni Tenjin Carrot Nama Dorayaki.

Nama dorayaki is a slightly more modern twist on the classic dorayaki confection in which two pancake-like buns are sandwiched together with an anko sweet red bean filling–but with the addition of freshly whipped cream. Sugitani Honpo already offers a variety of nama dorayaki in its standard lineup with different combinations of cream and freshly sliced fruit slices as a bonus. The new Beni Tenjin Carrot Nama Dorayaki joins this series as a particularly unique offering.

The final perfected product consists of a moist outer dough baked by the castella artisans at Sugitani Honpo filled with whipped cream, ogura-an (mashed, chunky sweet red bean paste), and Beni Tenjin syrup.

The three developers have stated that finding the correct balance between the filling ingredients was the hardest part of the development process. However, after extensive testing, they’re confident that even people who normally don’t like carrots should be able to eat this nama dorayaki without any problem thanks to the sweetness and odor-free quality of the Beni Tenjin carrots.

In exciting news for the now-alumni and their families, the Beni Tenjin Carrot Nama Dorayaki was officially launched for sale on April 25 and can now be purchased at Sugitani Honpo’s main storefront in Isahaya, Nagasaki. The product’s label gives a sweet nod to all three of the entities that participated in its development, including “Isahaya High School,” in text and as a cute illustration of a rabbit wearing the school’s uniform.

It’s great seeing communities band together with local students for a variety of reasons. We can’t wait to see what creative new idea gains traction to encourage local interactions next!

Store information
Sugitani Honpo / 杉谷本舗
Address: Nagasaki-ken, Isahaya-shi, Yasaka-machi 6-10
長崎県諫早市八坂町 6-10
Open 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Website

Source, images: PR Times
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

The slow life isn’t always the easy life.

There’s an undeniable appeal to the idea of living in the Japanese countryside, to the slow-life rhythm of sipping tea while sitting on the tatami reed floor of your traditionally styled house, walking through rice paddies and bamboo groves on your way to visit the local shrine, and exchanging warm greetings and freshly harvested mandarin oranges or sweet potatoes with your neighbors.

However, the reality of living in the Japanese countryside doesn’t always match up with the idealized image of the lifestyle. Japanese real estate company AlbaLink recently conducted a survey of 458 people who’ve moved to the countryside, asking them what aspects of rural life in Japan they only understood the full drawbacks of after making the move.

The top answer, chosen by 35.8 percent of the study’s respondents, was “inconvenient transportation.” Yes, Japan has some of the world’s best urban public transportation systems, and outstanding rail and bus networks in many of its suburbs too. It’s a different story in the countryside, though, where the nearest train station might be an impractically long walk away. Bus routes are limited and service is often infrequent, with only a few buses each day potentially meaning an hours-long wait if you missed the one you wanted to get on, and the last bus of the day could be in the early evening. Taxis can be hard to come by too, as many communities don’t have enough residents to warrant their own local operator, and not all companies will be willing to dispatch a cab for a pickup two or three towns over, so in many parts of rural Japan, you’ll need your own car (and thus a Japanese driver’s license) to lead a full life.

▼ It might be a very, very long time until the next train comes by here.

The number-two complaint among those who’d made the move to the countryside was “annoying interpersonal interactions,” chosen by 29.7 percent. Having fewer people in the community often results in people having an especially keen interest in what everyone else is doing, and social boundaries and respect for others’ privacy aren’t always present to the same extent as in the big city, as shown by some of the survey participants’ comments.

“Rumors spread from house to house really quickly. There’ve been more than just a few times where totally untrue stories about me made their way around the entire neighborhood and people gave me cold looks.”
“I didn’t expect that I’d have so many close-contact interactions with strangers, and it was pretty hard on me.”
“People would just walk right into my property and casually ask private questions like ‘Are you planning on having children in the future?’ It was really bewildering at first, and almost felt like some strange form of harassment.”

Rounding out the top five tough parts of life in the Japanese countryside were “a lack of shopping facilities” (21.2 percent), “colder weather than I’d imagined” (10.7 percent), and “large amounts of snowfall” (10.3 percent). Regarding the weather-related ones, since most of Japan’s urban development is on the country’s coastal planes, living in the countryside often means living in the mountains, which have longer/more severe winters. That extra snow becomes a hassle, or even a danger, to deal with since the lack of public transportation results in more time spent walking or driving through icy conditions. Other grumbles included how often bugs manage to find their way into your home and the amount of time and effort needed to keep your property’s garden/vegetation maintained and trimmed, all of which become bigger issues the farther into the countryside you get.

Though the survey stopped short of asking participants if they overall regretted moving to a rural community, 26.4 percent of them did say that they wish they’d tried out the country lifestyle on some sort of trial basis first, and then decided whether or not to make the move. Considering what a large commitment making a permanent move is, giving yourself a preview through a homestay program or long-term house rental seems like a smart plan, since it’ll help you learn if you’d really enjoy living in the Japanese countryside, or if you’d be happier just visiting it from time to time.

Source: PR Times, AlbaLink
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: Pakutaso
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Both sides of the Pacific are getting new themed cafes with attached merch shops from the video game developer of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

In October of 2016, video game developer Square Enix, makers of the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises, opened the Square Enix Cafe in Tokyo’s Akihabara district. A space for themed food and merch celebrating both new and classic games, the Square Enix Cafe moved to a different location within the neighborhood in 2020, but sadly closed in the spring of 2025.

Now, though, Square Enix has announced that a brand-new Square Enix Cafe will be opening this spring in Tokyo, and also that America will be getting its very first permanent Square Enix Cafe, in Los Angeles.

The Officially Licensed Square Enix Cafe & Shop Shinjuku, to use the new Tokyo branch’s full name, won’t be in Akihabara, but will instead move into a space on the opposite side of downtown, in Shinjuku. Specifically, it’s going to be an expanded/permanent version of the Square Enix Pop Up Cafe that’s currently across the street from Shinjuku Station (and adjacent to the snack stand selling freshly-baked sweet bean Slime and custard Chocobo treats).

The Officially Licensed Square Enix Cafe & Shop Los Angeles, meanwhile, will be setting up on 1st Street in L.A.’s Little Tokyo neighborhood, on the same block as the Japanese Village Plaza (though not in the center’s central plaza itself). This doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a stripped-down version of the Tokyo branch, either, with Square Enix’s press release describing it as “the first time an official Square Enix cafe offering a full, authentic menu will open in the U.S.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean that the food will be a 1:1 match between the Tokyo and Los Angeles branches, though. The operator of the Tokyo Square Enix Cafe will be Tokyo-based Newton Corporation, which also operates the Pasela group of karaoke parlors, restaurants, and hotels. Pasela has been Square Enix’s go-to partner for restaurant ventures in Japan for some time, and has a pretty solid reputation for tasty, high-quality food. The operator of the Los Angeles Square Enix Cafe, however, is listed as J-Pop Culture Cafe Inc., and it’s currently unclear whether Newton/Pasela will be working with them to coordinate recipes and cooking procedures.

▼ The Akihabara Square Enix Cafe had some extremely tasty hamburgers on its opening-day menu.

As indicated by the shopping bag in the cafe’s logo, both the Tokyo and L.A. branches will have attached Square Enix shops stocked with video game merchandise. At the Akihabara cafes, even non-diners could access the shops to browse and make purchases, and hopefully the new branches will have similarly flexible policies.

Oddly, Square Enix’s English press release says that both the Tokyo and L.A. Square Enix Cafes will open in spring of 2026, while the Japanese press release says they’ll be open in early summer, but thankfully it’s not a very long wait either way. And if you absolutely need some video game-themed refreshments right away, there’s a real-world version of Tifa’s Final Fantasy VII bar coming to Tokyo this week.

Source: Square Enix (1, 2) via Anime News Network/Adriana Hazra
Top image ©SoraNews24
Insert images: Square Enix, SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Toei or not Toei? That is the question.

Earlier this week, long-established film producer Toei, the company behind classic films such as The Street Fighter, Black Rain, Battle Royale, and Tora! Tora! Tora!, made a surprise announcement that they were launching Toei Games, a new division specializing in video game production.

▼ The Toei logo is a classic on par with the MGM lion.

Part of the reason many were surprised was that, in addition to feature films, Toei also has very popular youth programming, such as Kamen Rider and Super Sentai. Meanwhile, Toei Animation has released some of the most popular series ever made, such as Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, and Pretty Cure, to name only a very few. And since many of these properties already have game adaptations, some thought that perhaps Toei was going to take control of their associated game franchises going forward.

However, Toei was clear in saying that Toei Games will release completely original games rather than base them on other Toei divisions’ films and programs. On 24 April, they gave everyone a look at three of these titles, all set for release on the PC via Steam.

▼ The Toei production logo was faithfully recreated in pixel art by the masters at Kairosoft.

First up is Killa: Kill the La, a dark fantasy game by Black Tangerine in which you assume the role of Valhalla, a young woman whose orphanage was burned down and mentor was killed, his last words to her being: “Kill the La.”

▼ The game is done in a very unique and eerie puppetry style.

Valhalla then makes her way to a mysterious island where she meets nine people named La, and has to use her powers of resonance to unlock their pasts and discover who her mentor was talking about.

Also, presented in stylish black ink artwork is Hino from UnGloomStudio. This game follows Hino and her Moni-Moni skeleton companion as they try to find a safe place in a world of darkness.

The gameplay involves overcoming highly unsettling monsters and eluding traps, while at the same time unravelling why you are even in this world and reaching one of the game’s multiple endings.

And on the brighter side of games, Toei is set to release, there’s also Debug Nephemee from Nephemee Studio. This game pits you against the entire world of Nepherum that is glitching all over the place in a bright pixel art style.

It’s inhabited by Nephemee, who are also suffering from bugs and will attack. The key to debugging them is understanding their unique personalities and responding accordingly. Rescuing them also involves playing four mini games at the same time, perfect for anyone who loves multitasking.

It’s a bit of a surprising move for a company that has released some of the biggest names in Japanese film, television, and anime to lead with a lineup of titles from indie game developers. Some comments online lauded their ambition and independence, while others felt disappointed Toei didn’t do more with what they had to work with.

“Toei Games… are a lot different from what I was expecting.”
“I thought they were just going to make games from their own stuff, but this is much more aspirational.”
“Killa is coming to Toei Games? Cool!”
“I’m really looking forward to Hino.”
“I don’t see the point in making these Toei productions. I wasted my time getting my hopes up.”
“All the titles sound so gloomy, though.”
“It feels beneath Toei to release indie games.”
“They said they weren’t going to use Toei IP, and the pixel art logo was a pretty good indication of where they were going. I don’t know why anyone is surprised.”

The simplest path to some easy cash would have been for Toei Games to start off with a bunch of Spider-Man, Dragon Ball, and Pretty Cure games, but video game rights to those series are tied up in deals with Bandai Namco and Sony. Instead, Toei Games is clearly planning to forge its own path from the ground up. Despite the risks, it’s an ultimately healthier way to establish an identity of the company’s own, and, if successful, could pay off very well in the long run.

It seems like a good start for now, with an interesting starting lineup of games, putting a cinematic focus on deep storylines and artistic presentation. Their release dates haven’t been determined yet, but they all look like they’re well worth the wait and can be wishlisted on Steam.

Related: Killa: Kill the La, Hino, Debug Nephemee Steam pages
Source: PR Times, Hachima Kiko
Images: PR Times
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Optimus kawaii.

Takara Tomy is the maker of the Tomica, Japan’s favorite brand of toy cars, basically the country’s version of Hot Wheels. However, while Tomica’s bread and butter is detailed recreations of real-world vehicles, they also indulge in the occasional side dish of whimsical fantasy transportation through their Dream Tomica line, which has taken inspiration from the anime of Studio Ghibli and Dragon Ball.

So it’s not a huge shock to see that Takara Tomy’s newest toy truck has a Sanrio theme, with “Hello Kitty Express” written on the side of its cargo compartment.

However, this isn’t part of the Dream Tomica line. There’s a hint to its true nature in the Japanese text accompanying the above preview image, アーマービークル, which translates to “armored vehicle,” because this Hello Kitty delivery truck…

…is also a transforming robot!?!

That’s because the Hello Kitty Express Truck actually hails from Takara Tomy’s Jobraver line of Transformer-style toys, in which work vehicles transform into awesome mecha.

▼ SUDDEN LINGUISTIC TANGENT!
Jobraver is a mashup of “job” and “braver,” with “braver” being an attempt to convey the idea of “person who is brave” in order to form a connection with the Japanese word for “hero,” yusha, which translates literally as “brave person.” Jobraver is not meant to be a combination of “job” and “raver,” as raves tend to be terrible places at which to try to get any work done.

So what kind of powerful mecha equipment does the Tomika Jobraver Carry Braver Hello Kitty Express Truck come with?

Attaching to its back is the ribbon-shaped Ribon Drone K-ET, and as delivery people in Japan are expected to wear white gloves as part of their work uniform, shielding the robot’s hands are a pair of GT Glove Type 3-LOs, which Kitty-chan uses to fire the Happy Shower, a series of heart-shaped energy blasts that do…something, presumably positive, to anyone in their path.

▼ SUDDEN LINGUISTICS TANGENT PART TWO!
K-ET, obviously, is meant to bring to mind the word “cute,” but 3-LO is a pun too. The number 3 in Japanese is san, and because of the languages lack of a native L, Ls are often pronounced like Rs, so 3-LO is a tip of the hat to “Sanrio.”

Included with the Hello Kitty mecha truck is a Ribbon, one of the Jobraver lore’s worker robots, decked out in a special Hello Kitty Express cap.

The Tomika Jobraver Carry Braver Hello Kitty Express Truck is priced at 4,180 yen (US$27) and will be available in July, with preorders scheduled to start on May 29.

Source: Takara Tomy via Japaaan
Top image: Takara Tomy
Insert images: Takara Tomu, Pakutaso (1, 2)
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!