2009/07/07|
Today is Tuesday. It means it is my turn to write the blog. Hi, I'm Roku. I may have written this before but my pen name "Roku" is a Japanese word for "six". I picked this up for no particular reasons other than that it is my favorite number. This is just an aside but six is the number of years we Japanese spend in the elementary school, followed by another 3 years in junior high school, and usually, not always, followed by yet another 3 years in high school. Now, let me talk about something that is fascinating many Japanese elementary school kids, and even preschoolers. It is an NHK anime series called "Nintama Rantaro", a story set in a Ninja elementary school where ninja art is taught to children aspiring to be one. Broccoli has released a string of character goods related to this animation, the latest ones being compact mirrors.  The cover of each of the mirrors is colored based upon each grader's ninja outfit. Some characters from the grade are also painted there, as you can see. The blue cover of the mirror of Ichinen-sei, or the first graders, has Rantaro, Kirimaru, Shinbe and Mr. Doi, the classroon teacher, painted on it.  The boy on the left with the glasses is Rantaro and the one in the middle, with the energetic eyebrows, is Shinbe. The one on the right side is Kirimaru and the tall guy in the back is Mr.Doi. The 4th grader version of the mirror comes with a pinkish, purplish cover with four 4th graders  The one at the upper left is Mikiemon, next to him is Takiyashamaru. Below there are Takamau and Kihachiro from left to right. They are all given oldish-sounding names suitable for ninjas. "Takiyashamaru" is horrendously difficult even for Japanese to pronounce! The 5th grader's mirror has a blueish, purplish cover as shown below.  If memory serves me right, they are Saburo, Raizo, Hachizaemon and Heisuke. And here is the 6th grader's version.  A total of six 6th graders are painted in dark and light greens. Well, how about second and third graders? Actually they are presently in a pre-order status. expected to be released some time in September. This is the second grader's version...  and this is the third grader's version.  Actual ninjas are believed to have had tremendous physical abilities and there are numerous ninja stories that intrigue just about everyone, old and new, east and west. Some of them may have been true and others, I would presume, are mere legends. According to one story I heard as a kid, ninjas could jump up as high as 1m. They acquired the capability, so the story goes, by jumping over a bamboo sprout every day. Bamboos are known to grow extremely fast so that jumping over one each and every day, as it grew taller and taller, gave the would-be ninja a jumping ability that's nearly humanly impossible. Could this have been true? Nah, don't think so, but it does stimulate my imagination. See you around! |
 Customer Evaluation
 
This item scores 4.36. Tweet11 customers have submitted their Satisfaction Ratings. |
|
![Search for [ARTFX]](http://www.1999.co.jp/images/hb/20110116_batman.jpg)
![Search for [EX-Alloy]](http://www.1999.co.jp/images/hb/20120116_ex.jpg)
