I spotted this interesting tid-bit last night and thought I would post it to kick off the week. Ruffy, the protagonist of the popular manga series ONE PIECE, will be gracing the cover of the January 2010 issue of Men’s Non-No, which is, according to Mekas, the sales leader of all Japanese men’s fashion magazines. The article goes on to explain that this is the first time a manga character will be featured on the cover in the mag’s 24-year history.
It’s actually part of an interesting trend that we’ve see gain steam over the year. The blurring of boundaries between manga and real-life probably hit a high-note back in September when you had a group of wives step forward into the public to complain about their husbands who were cheating on them with girlfriends who resided within the Nintendo DS video game Love Plus. The husbands were sleeping, taking baths, and basically doing everything aside from having illegitimate children, with their virtual mates.
The new issue of Men’s Non-no, which hits stands on December 10th, looks like it may be setting us up for another year of combat in which we must fight to protect our homeland from those thieving virtualists. We will not forget the moments of silence and days of mourning as wives watched their husbands disappear with 20-somethings in short skirts and binary code. Nor will we forget the magazine models who now face extinction. We have been awakened to danger and called to defend our freedom from those who seek our occupations and our societal standing.
December 10, 2009 at 1:44 am
The romanization of the protagonist is preferably spelled Luffy in the english manga community.
December 9, 2009 at 9:44 pm
The romanization of the protagonist is preferably spelled Luffy in the english manga community.
December 9, 2009 at 10:40 pm
ah, good to know. I am obviously out of touch with the english fan-base.
December 28, 2009 at 6:15 pm
I’m a One Piece fan from Sweden an here we do actually spell it as Ruffy. I preffer this spelling over Luffy since it sounds totally ridiculous in Swedish, as well as any other language for that matter, and seeing as japanese has no actual kana for ‘L’ and the seiyuu’s also pronounce it with an ‘r’…
The Americans also butchered Zoro’s name and changed it to ‘Zolo’ since they thought it would create legal issues with the people behind ‘Zorro’, even though Zoro’s name mean something entirely different to the Japanese as it is a play on words and have nothing to do with the character ‘Zorro’
The article is an interesting piece as to how some people get so caught up in their fantasies and let the lines between imagination and reality get so blurred.
If you lack an imagination you can’t escape reality. If you lack reality you can’t escape the imagination.
Too bad there aren’t any pictures of the five models dressed as the crew inside the magazine. I would have loved to see it. ^^
//Joe
December 28, 2009 at 2:15 pm
I’m a One Piece fan from Sweden an here we do actually spell it as Ruffy. I preffer this spelling over Luffy since it sounds totally ridiculous in Swedish, as well as any other language for that matter, and seeing as japanese has no actual kana for ‘L’ and the seiyuu’s also pronounce it with an ‘r’…
The Americans also butchered Zoro’s name and changed it to ‘Zolo’ since they thought it would create legal issues with the people behind ‘Zorro’, even though Zoro’s name mean something entirely different to the Japanese as it is a play on words and have nothing to do with the character ‘Zorro’
The article is an interesting piece as to how some people get so caught up in their fantasies and let the lines between imagination and reality get so blurred.
If you lack an imagination you can’t escape reality. If you lack reality you can’t escape the imagination.
Too bad there aren’t any pictures of the five models dressed as the crew inside the magazine. I would have loved to see it. ^^
//Joe
December 28, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Joe, are there really models dressed as the characters? I’m going to try and get my hands on a copy!
December 29, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Yes, there are models dressed up as the crew. I would love to go and get a copy myself, but it’s a long way to travel for a magazine XD
Hopefully you can show the pictures if you find a copy ^__^
“The first eight pages of the magazine will be devoted to photographs of five models who resemble the characters Luffy, Nami, Robin, Zoro, and Sanji. The models donned clothes with the motifs of the sea and pirates for the magazine. ”
Quote from Anime News Network.
Here’s the url for the entire article: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-12-07/one-piece-luffy-adorns-cover-of-men-fashion-mag
December 29, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Yes, there are models dressed up as the crew. I would love to go and get a copy myself, but it’s a long way to travel for a magazine XD
Hopefully you can show the pictures if you find a copy ^__^
“The first eight pages of the magazine will be devoted to photographs of five models who resemble the characters Luffy, Nami, Robin, Zoro, and Sanji. The models donned clothes with the motifs of the sea and pirates for the magazine. ”
Quote from Anime News Network.
Here’s the url for the entire article: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-12-07/one-piece-luffy-adorns-cover-of-men-fashion-mag