CLOTHE THAT MANGA-READING FREAK

As part of Shonen Sunday Magazine's 50th anniversary celebration, Uniqlo will be releasing limited edition manga t-shirts! Uniqlo, a Japanese clothing retailer that's like the GAP but not lame-- or H&M but not totally chinsy, has released the firs 12 or so shirts so far, with the release dates of new designs meticulously scheduled through the rest of 2008, until March 2009. The shirts retails for 1500YEN each, and according to what I've heard are already selling out briskly.

The Ge!Ge!Ge! no Kitaro! shirt!


Both Chris (thanks for the above image!) and Dylan at Rumic World have posted details and images of some of the first batch of shirts. I had actually heard about this last week on Umezu's site, but wasn't clear what I was reading about. Turns out the next limited edition shirt is a Makoto-chan shirt scheduled to come out on Wednesday!


Whoa! Just in time for my vacation to Japan! I've heard from Chris that the shirts are only on sale at the new Uniqlo shop in Harajuku right now, and no word yet if they'll make it over to their NYC branch. With dozens more shirts on the way over the coming year, I'll keep an eye out for any especially cool series getting the special treatment. Hell, maybe I can fit a few extra in my bag and give them away as the prize in a Same Hat contest? (Although the brutal exchange rate makes me shudder at the thought)... Here are some of the coolest of the initial batch (link to the Mainichi Shinbun article via Dylan)

Kyojin no Hoshi (巨人の星)

Ashita no Joe (あしたのジョー)

TIGER MASK (タイガーマスク)


UPDATE: It's now 3/26 in Japan, and the Makoto-chan shirt has been added to the Uniqlo site! Now we'll see if they still have it next weekend when I get to Japan...