New Studio Ghibli Uniqlo T-shirt line coming to the U.S., Japan left out once again【Photos】
Eight Ghibli anime movies inspire new collection of tees and sweatshirts.
Uniqlo has announced some pretty big-name collaborations with the anime/manga world this summer, including new partnerships with Pokémon and Ai Yazawa. But the casual clothing chain isn't done adding anime flare to fans' wardrobes yet, as they've now announced a brand-new line of Studio Ghibli apparel.
However, as has become oddly the norm for Uniqlo Ghibli collections, once again these items won't be offered in Japan. Instead, they appear to be exclusive (at least for now) to Uniqlo U.S.A.
As with the previous Uniqlo Ghibli items, these designs were created by Thai artist Kanyada Phatan, who contributes photography and poetry to Neppu, a monthly magazine published by Studio Ghibli.
The new collection consists of both short-sleeved T-shirts and long-sleeved sweatshirts, featuring characters from eight Ghibli anime films, including, of course, My Neighbor Totoro, with the Catbus hanging out near the nape of your neck on this shirt.
While some of the designs take their illustrations directly from their source anime, others are original creations, like on the Totoro sweatshirt, which has some Soot Sprites congregating near the left cuff.
The Howl's Moving Castle design uses pretty much the entire front of the shirt as a canvas for the titular mobile architecture…
…and there's no missing No Face, blazingly emblazoned in triplicate across the front of the Spirited Away sweatshirt, which also bears the film's Japanese title, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi.
▼ This time there's a Radish Spirit hanging out on the sleeve.
Some of the designs are double-sided, with graphics on both the front and back, like with the Princess Mononoke sweatshirt.
Set in a forest green field on the front is monster princess San, accompanied with raised text of the film's promotional poster tagline in Japan, 'Ikiro' ('Live' or 'Survive').
San appears on the back as well, underneath Ashitaka, with the movie's Japanese-text title, Mononoke-hime, overlapping them.
There's more princess-related attire with the The Tale of the Princess Kaguya T-shirt…
…and another Ghibli anime that doesn't get a lot of merchandising attention, Pom Poko, is here too.
Along with the movie's Japanese title and the kanji character for tanuki (狸), the text on the back identifies the wearer as a member of the human-observing tanuki research team, while the front graphic is, as far as our analysis can tell, the first-ever depiction of testicles on a Uniqlo T-shirt.
▼ Though these are culturally relevant testicles.
A less ballsy option is this Kiki's Delivery Service sweatshirt, which is both dual-sided and bilingual.
Rounding out the single-movie designs, The Boy and the Heron gets two pieces, a T-shirt with the Gray Heron unnervingly saying 'My Dear' on the front while the back reminds you of who made the movie as the scene-stealing Warawara remind you of just how adorable the little marshmallow-like creatures are.
The sweatshirt flips their positions around, with the Warawara on the front and the Gray Heron on the back.
And finally, rounding out the adult-sized collection is an overarching Studio Ghibli T-shirt, with illustrations of Porco Rosso's protagonist, Nausicaa, Ponyo, Castle in the Sky's Dola, and The Wind Rise's Ka-14 aircraft, which would eventually evolve into the Imperial Japanese Navy's World War II Zero fighter plane.
The T-shirts are all priced at US$24.90, and the sweatshirts at US$39.90. The entire collection will be available on July 10 at Uniqlo stores in the U.S. and through the chain's U.S. online shop here.
Source: Uniqlo via Yahoo! Japan News via Game Watch
Top image: Uniqlo
Insert images: Uniqlo (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Metropolis Japan
an hour ago
- Metropolis Japan
The best Japanese mystery novels of all time
When it comes to mystery fiction, Japan is one of the world's references that fans of the genre keep coming back to. From locked-room mysteries and whodunnits to decades-long murder tales and psychological thrillers, Japanese crime literature presents a vast range of subgenres that suit all tastes. Here's a compilation of indispensable novels to read this year. Crime fiction is a particularly beloved genre by many, and for a good reason. After a rollercoaster of breathtaking twists and turns, they provide us with closure — the villain gets caught and justice is served. Sadly, in real life, we can't always expect that. As harsh and cold as the world may seem, many of us can relate to having escaped from our realities a few (or many) times and found comfort in a detective story or TV series. A few must-reads in this category are Seicho Matsumoto's 'Inspector Imanishi Investigates' and Seishi Yokomizo's 'The Honjin Murders,' two early modern classics of the Japanese mystery genre. A dead body is found under the rails of a train in the early hours of a cold 1960s Tokyo morning. Possessing no documents and with a face so brutally damaged that the police find it impossible to identify the victim, the assigned detective to the case, Inspector Imanishi, is left with only two clues to follow: the distinctive accent of a young man who was last seen with the victim and the word 'kameda.' After months of following wrong leads and not a single solid suspect, the case is closed, unresolved. Imanishi, dissatisfied, cannot take the case out of his mind, but then a series of strange but coinciding events lead him back to square one. Credited with popularizing the mystery genre in Japan, 'Inspector Imanishi Investigates' is one of Seicho Matsumoto's most famous novels and a classic Japanese detective story. Inspector Imanishi isn't your typical eccentric, gifted detective with impressive deductive skills, but a laid-back, quiet bonsai lover who enjoys spending his free time writing haiku and folding paper cranes. With the perfect combination of a down-to-earth detective and a seemingly unsolvable crime, 'Inspector Imanishi Investigates' is the best company for a stormy, indoor summer afternoon. A spine-chilling scream cuts through the peaceful winter night after a long day of wedding festivities at the village of Okamura. Eerie music follows and soon after, the bride and the groom are found dead in their bed; their bedroom locked from the inside. A bloody katana sword, now thrust into the fresh snow outside, is the only clue left by the murderer, who escaped without leaving a trace. How was this impossible crime committed? If you are the kind of reader who enjoys reading between the lines of a story and recalling the particulars of the crime, you may already be able to guess what I am about to write next . Another classic but only translated in 2019, Seishi Yokomizo's massively popular 'The Honjin Murders' won the first Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1948 and was later turned into a movie in 1976, under the title of Death at an Old Mansion . 'The Honjin Murders' is a prime example of honkaku , a literary genre of Japanese detective fiction that emerged in the 1920s that focuses on 'fair play' — no unexpected twists or villains show up right at the end of the plot, but all necessary clues are laid out to the reader, giving them an equal chance to solve the riddle as the detective. Thus, a most thrilling journey is crafted, where the entertainment stems from pure logical reasoning. Think you got a Sherlock Holmes knack for crime puzzles? Then have a try at Yokomizo's clever mystery riddle. Famous for his crime sagas, including the highly acclaimed 'The Devotion of Suspect X,' Keigo Higashino is one of Japan's current masters of mystery storytelling, having won several major Japanese awards and with nearly twenty of his books being turned into films and TV series. He also served as the 13th President of Mystery Writers of Japan, which awards the Mystery Writers of Japan Award to writers every year. Reading Higashino is mandatory for fans of modern Japanese crime literature. When Yasuko Hanaoka's abusive ex-husband appears at her door to extort money, the situation quickly takes a dark turn, and he ends up strangled by Yasuko and her daughter. After witnessing the incident from the apartment next door, math teacher Ishigami decides to help his neighbors in covering up the murder. Assigned to the case is detective Kusanagi, who grows increasingly suspicious of the mother and daughter despite not identifying any holes in their alibi, so he goes to seek help from his physicist friend Dr. Yukawa who often assists in police cases. What follows is a competition between two geniuses trying to outsmart the other. With the murder and the culprit already laid out from the beginning, 'The Devotion of Suspect X' focuses on the how and the why, leaving readers immersed in a competition of the highest stakes and two questions to be answered: Can there be such a thing as an unsolvable puzzle and how far would someone go to create one? One of the most popular modern Japanese thrillers to date, Higashino's 'The Devotion of Suspect X' is drowning in awards, which include the coveted 134th Naoki Prize and the sixth Honkaku Mystery Award, one of the most prestigious awards for mystery novels in Japan. The novel's enticing plot is remarkably translated to English by Alexander O. Smith, having been nominated for the 2012 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel. In Osaka, 1972, a man was found murdered at an abandoned building. Detective Sasagaki, assigned to the case, soon finds himself out of leads when two of the main suspects are found dead and no more clues are discovered. Two kids, however, catch his attention throughout the investigation: the gloomy son of the victim Ryo, and the alluring daughter of the main suspect Yukiho. In a tangled web of characters and events, follow detective Sasagaki in this epic 20-year riddle as he relentlessly attempts to piece together strange misfortunes, sudden twists and unexpected connections. Equally thrilling as 'The Devotion of Suspect X,' Higashino's earlier bestseller 'Journey Under the Midnight Sun' is one of the best examples of the author's sleight of hand. With an episodic plot, a long list of minor characters, and references to major historical events of 1970s Japan, 'The Devotion of Suspect X' might be challenging at first for the inexperienced reader. However, the complexity of the epic allows a deep dive into the psyche of the era and the hearts of the characters. A crime told from multiple points of view is a familiar feature of the mystery genre in Japan with one of the earliest examples being Ryunosuke Akutagawa's 'In a Grove,' which inspired Akira Kurosawa's renowned 1950 film, Rashomon. However, it's not every day that you come across authors who can skillfully bring fresh air to this writing style without making it seem forced. Riku Onda's 'The Aosawa Murders' and Kanae Minato's 'Penance' are two such examples, consisting of a series of vignettes (or short stories) that, working like puzzle pieces, gradually reveal clues about the culprit and their motive. 1970s Japan. A freak mass murder takes place in a remote town on a stormy day. 17 people were found dead at a birthday party, including elderly and children. The police are puzzled — how will they catch the murderer if the only present witness and survivor of the massacre is a blind, sickly girl? A few different individuals are suspected at first, but soon all suspicion lies on a single person. You see, it's a very simple story. If there are ten people in a house and nine die, who is the culprit? However, proving their guilt is a lot harder than it seems since people's memories are faulty and their perspectives are biased. As much as you try to make the pieces fall perfectly in place, Onda takes you on a swirl of events and findings that contradict each other, but will leave you glued to the book until the end. In this dark, tantalizing journey that challenges the norms of the mystery genre, Onda gives voice to all of those involved in the crime and dives deep into their psyche, exploring their innermost fears and darkest secrets. Don't like a crime novel with an ambiguous ending? Then this book isn't for you. One afternoon, five girls were playing volleyball at the school's grounds when they were approached by a stranger, who tricked them into leaving one of their friends by herself with him. Hours later, she's found dead. To the frustration of the policemen and the despair of the victim's mother, the remaining girls cannot remember the perpetrator's face. Filled with rage and profound sorrow, the mother curses her daughter's surviving friends, vowing that they will pay for their classmate's death if the murderer is not caught before the statute of limitations is up. Written by the critically acclaimed author of 'Confessions' and queen of iyamisu (Japanese for 'eww' mystery novels), the popular mystery-turned-TV-series 'Penance' is equally shocking and gut-churning. Pulling you into a disturbing account of murder, vengeance, obsession and manipulation, Minato adds a new twist to the story as each girl, now adults, retell their journey in atoning for the girl's murder. In a series of contradicting and intersecting stories, each presented in a different format, Minato shows her skill and versatility in weaving a tale of murder that will leave you holding your breath until the end. Originally published June 17, 2021, updated on June 7, 2025.
The Mainichi
2 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Editorial: Japan needs bold new policies as births fell below 700,000 for 1st time in 2024
Japan's population decline is accelerating much faster than predicted by the government. The nation cannot afford to ignore this inconvenient truth. The number of births among Japanese citizens in 2024 stood at 686,061, falling below 700,000 for the first time since record-keeping began. The figure had dropped below 800,000 just two years earlier. The total fertility rate, defined as the average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime, also hit a record low of 1.15. Japan has spent the past 30 years implementing policy measures to tackle the falling birth rate. Yet, far from stopping, the decline continues to accelerate -- progressing about 15 years ahead of what the government previously considered a realistic scenario. At this rate, the country faces a shrinking workforce and consumer base, threatening to sap the vitality of society. The number of marriages has also dropped sharply, falling 40% from approximately 800,000 in 2001. Anxiety among young people about their futures is cited as one contributing factor. While overall employment conditions are improving, there remain significant wage disparities depending on company size and employment status. Additionally, rising housing costs in urban areas are straining household budgets. Improvements in wages and working conditions are urgently needed. The current situation in which domestic chores and child care responsibilities fall disproportionately on women must also change. Many women view marriage and childbirth as obstacles to building their careers. The administration of former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida introduced what it called "unprecedented measures to reverse the declining birth rate," including expansions in child allowances and childcare leave benefits. While up to 3.6 trillion yen (about $24.8 billion) has been allocated, these policy initiatives largely remain extensions of previous ones, making their potential effectiveness uncertain. More fundamentally, the government must carefully reevaluate whether these moves meet the actual needs of the younger generation. Public perceptions regarding family and work have significantly evolved. Some young people feel a fundamental disconnect with Japan's marriage system, which effectively requires women to change their surnames, and with employment practices that assume long hours and frequent job relocations. Policymakers must begin by identifying these structural issues. If the current pace of population decline persists, the number of working-age people in Japan will drastically decrease, threatening the sustainability of public pensions. This could lead even more individuals to hesitate over life decisions such as marriage and having children, creating another vicious cycle. Policies based on outdated assumptions will undoubtedly fail to resolve these challenges. The government must adopt a sense of crisis and urgently take up bold new ideas and approaches.
Asahi Shimbun
2 hours ago
- Asahi Shimbun
Japan-U.S. tariff talks still draw a blank at fifth meeting
Ryosei Akazawa, right, Japan's chief tariff negotiator, meets with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington, D.C., on June 5. (provided by U.S. Department of Commerce) WASHINGTON--Japan and the United States failed to find common ground in their fifth round of talks on Washington's high tariff policy, according to Japan's top negotiator Ryosei Akazawa. 'We confirmed once again the position of Japan and the U.S., and further progress was made in discussions toward the realization of an agreement,' said Akazawa, minister in charge of economic revitalization, after meeting with U.S. Cabinet members here on June 6. 'But we have not found any point of agreement.' Akazawa was visiting the United States for the third consecutive week. This time around, he met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for 45 minutes and then with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for 1 hour and 50 minutes. Akazawa also met with Lutnick for 1 hour and 50 minutes the day before. After the latest talks, Akazawa told reporters that he had again called strongly for the elimination of the Trump administration's tariff policy. He said the discussions focused on trade expansion, nontariff measures, and economic and security cooperation. Akazawa added that both sides confirmed they 'will coordinate vigorously to reach an agreement that is beneficial to both the U.S. and Japan.' Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump are scheduled to hold face-to-face talks on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Canada on June 15-17. 'The timing of the summit was much on our minds during the negotiations,' Akazawa said, He said the two leaders will be given an update on the progress of the talks before their summit meeting. His remarks were seen as an indication that the G-7 summit is being considered for an announcement on a de facto agreement. Akazawa noted that the Japanese economy continues to take a battering from Trump's tariffs. He added, 'If the tariff measures can be reviewed, we have no intention of waiting until the summit.' In reality, however, with only a little more than a week to go before the talks are held, it remains to be seen how both parties can get closer. (This article was written by Chinami Tajika, and correspondent Ken Sakakibara.)
