I’ve written posts before about the numerous unique flavors that Pepsi Japan has offered.
(Click here to see them.)
Starting on October 6th, for a limited time, Pepsi Japan will offer 「ペプシゴースト」 (“Pepsi Ghost“) for Halloween.
「ペプシゴースト」 (“Pepsi Ghost”)
They will be sold in a bottles with various original monsters on the labels. And, most interestingly, the bottles say that they’re 「ミステリーフレーバー」 (“Mystery flavor”)!
Would you (will you) try these once they go on sale?
Next Wednesday (2012 October 12th), the new KISS album “Monster” will be released in Japan.
Album cover of KISS “Monster”
The track listing is:
‘Hell Or Hallelujah‘
‘Wall Of Sound‘
‘Freak‘
‘Back To The Stone Age‘
‘Shout Mercy‘
‘Long Way Down‘
‘Eat Your Heart Out‘
‘The Devil Is Me‘
‘Outta This World‘
‘All For The Love Of Rock & Roll‘
‘Take Me Down Below‘
‘Last Chance‘
‘Right Here Right Now‘
The Japanese version of the album will include a bonus track (as many Japanese pressings of albums do), which will be the live version of ‘King Of The Nighttime World‘.
The video for the single ‘Hell Or Hallelujah‘ is here:
And the November 2012 issue of the Japanese heavy metal magazine called “Burrn!” went on sale today and Paul Stanley of KISS is on the cover.
Also…the iconic Japanese character Hello Kitty teamed up with KISS and a huge variety of products showing Hello Kitty‘s face painted in KISS make-up is now available in Japan.
Anyways, please take my poll and also leave a comment to tell me what you think of the rock band KISS and whether or not you’ll buy their new album:
Have you ever heard of the Japanese アニメ (cartoon) called 「妖怪人間べム」 (“Monster Man Bemu”)?
It’s basically about three kind 妖怪 (monsters) who want to be human. They learn that they can become human if they protect humans from other evil monsters.
The three kind monsters, 「べム」 (“Bemu”), 「ベラ」 (“Bera”), and 「べロ」 (“Bero”) are frightening-looking monsters but they are able to assume a humanoid form…but even so, they still look like monsters.
And for that reason, they aren’t accepted by most humans. Most people judge them by their physical appearance rather than their character. That is an underlying theme of this series.
This series originally aired on TV in Japan in the late-60’s…before my wife and I were born but we’ve seen re-runs of it.
A well-known line from this show is 「早く人間になりたい！」 (“I want to be a human soon!”)…it can even be heard in the show’s opening theme song.
Here is a YouTube clip of this show’s opening and closing theme songs:
KISS has announced that they will release an album of all new songs sometime next year (2012) titled “Monster“.
KISS...still the hottest band in the world!
Ever since I was a kid I’ve always liked monsters.
When I watched the Disney cartoon “Peter Pan” as a child, for example, I didn’t care for Peter Pan or any of his friends. They were too “regular”.
Unlike Peter Pan with his pansy outfit and little knife, Captain Hook had a sword and a sharp hook instead of a hand.
(Admittedly though, Peter Pan could fly, which would be fun and Hook didn’t dress much better than Peter Pan.)
Captain Hook was the first movie character that frightened me…and even at that young age I enjoyed being frightened a bit.
Who cares about a practical prosthetic when you can have one that puts the fear of god in people?!
When I was a bit older, I saw Star Wars for the first time. I was only seven years old when the first movie in the series was released, so I was a bit too young to fully understand the story. But I still enjoyed it a lot. Especially when “Darth Vader” made his entrance!
Luke Skywalker was the hero…but Darth Vader stole every scene in was in.
The "Dark Side"
And of course I’ve always like the “traditional” monsters…Frankenstein’s Monster, The Werewolf, and Dracula.
And when I came to Japan, I learned about 妖怪 (Japanese monsters).
"Ge-ge-ge Kitaro" is Japanese cartoon inspired by traditional Japanese monster and ghost stories.
Even my favorite superhero character has always been “The Incredible Hulk“. He’s anger-incarnate. A huge pissed-off monster! The coolest of the superheroes.
Hulk will smash even Superman
Even the music I listen to reflects my interest in monsters.
I like heavy metal music. There’s a reason that the soundtracks to many horror movies are full of heavy metal music…heavy metal is to music as horror is to movies.
If you’re not interested in heavy metal, you may not know that that genre of music is further divided into sub-genres.
The sub-genre of metal music that I like the most is “Shock Rock“. It’s just as visual as it is musical. Shock Rock artist—such as KISS, W.A.S.P., Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie and Lordi—often look like monsters.
Alice Cooper
Anyways, as I mentioned at the top of this post, KISS will be releasing a new album soon. The last time they they released a new album was about two years ago…it was titled “Sonic Boom“.
As I mentioned, KISS‘s new album will be titled “Monster“. It’s an excellent album title…I can’t believe they haven’t used it before!
So far only five song titles have been confirmed by the band. They are: “Hell Or Hallelujah”, “Born To Be A Sinner”, “Out Of This World”, “Are You Ready?”, and “Wall Of Sound”.
I’m looking forward to getting this album.
A 21-year old English woman named Lisa Courtney has recently been entered into the Guiness Book Of World Records for the “World’s Largest Pokemon Collection”.
「ポケモン」 (Pokemon) is a Japanese abbreviation for 「ポケットモンスター」 (Pocket Monster).
It’s a Japanese franchise of characters used in cartoons, movies, comics, games and toys.
Lisa Courtney said that she was severally bullied in school due to a physical handicap and she began collecting Pokemon toys since she was about eight years old to cope with the bullying.
In the thirteen years that she has been collecting, she has acquired over 13,000 Pokemon items…which qualified her for the world record.
Lisa Courtney and her huge Pokemon collection
She has even been to Japan a few times and bought some “only-in-Japan” Pokemon items. She said that she plans to come to Japan for another visit sometime this year.
I think 13,000 toys is too much personally…but it’s her hobby and it helped her feel better from being bullied (which, by the way, is unbelievable that a child would get bullied because of a handicap!).
When she visits Japan this year, she should order the “Kids Pokemon pizza” from Dominos Pizza in Japan.
I’ve mentioned before that I like the Japanese manga and anime titled 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」 (“Gegege-no-Kitarou“).
It’s about a group of 妖怪 (ghouls) who help humans.
I have a few of the manga, I watch the anime on TV sometimes, and my family and I went to see both of the live-action movies at the theater.
I also like the artist, 水木しげる (Shigeru Mizuki). His life story is fascinating.
I wrote a bit about him and the 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」 (“Gegege-no-Kitarou“) on another post.
Click here read it.
Anyways, 田の中勇 (Isamu Tanonaka), the 政友 (“Seiyuu“)…”voice actor”…who did the voice of one of this show’s main characters–「目玉おやじ」 (“Medama-oyaji“) died last Wednesday.
He was 77 years old.
田の中勇 (Isamu Tanonaka), R.I.P.
I wrote a post last September about the death of the artist of another popular Japanese manga…Click here to read it.
A new remake of the movie “The Wolf Man” is set to be released in America soon (the Japan release date hasn’t been announced yet).
I never cared much for the 1941 version.
Movie poster for 1941's "The Wolf Man"
But I thought the 1994 movie “Wolf” starring Jack Nicholson was pretty good. (But I almost always like Jack Nicholson movies).
Movie poster for 1994's "Wolf"
But this 2010 remake of “The Wolf Man” looks like it’ll be quite good.
Movie poster for this year's "The Wolf Man"
It stars Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro as the “Wolf man”.
Lon Chaney Jr.’s 1941 “Wolf man” has become a pop culture icon…but with modern special effects and make-up, Benicio Del Toro’s 2010 “Wolf man” looks so much better.
Lon Chaney Jr as the "Wolf Man" in 1941
Benicio Del Toro as the "Wolf Man" in 2010
Anyways, it was reported that when making this 2010 remake of “The Wolfman”, the director wanted the best werewolf howl possible, so he auditioned many people to record them howl…and he finally decided to use the wolf howls of David Lee Roth (of the American rock band “Van Halen“) and Gene Simmons (bassist of the American rock band “KISS“).
***
Another excellent remake of a classic horror film is the 1994 version of “Frankenstein” starring Robert DeNiro.
Have you seen it?
Movie poster for 1994's "Frankenstein"
Boris Karloff as "Frankenstein's monster" and Robert DeNiro's version.
But I was disappointed with the 1992 remake of “Dracula” starring Keanu Reeves.
Movie poster for 1992's "Dracula"
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