This week was a big week of comebacks especially where entertainment is concerned. While we continued to keep Akira Toriyama in our thoughts, Saudi Arabia took us by surprise when they announced the first Dragon Ball theme park in the world. Over on the manga side, a thrilling alien manga by the name of Terra Formars resurrects itself after a 5 year hiatus. But if you’re after something fresh, Hoyoverse’s latest game Honkai Star Rail gets a brand new collaboration with Lawson that’s perfect for fans of the mobile game. And while these have already completely sold out, you need to check out the Meiji “Kinoko no Yama” wireless earphones in case they do a restock.
A Dragon Ball Theme Park is Coming to Saudi Arabia
It’s not all doom and gloom for the Dragon Ball community. One piece of news that dropped recently that might perk everyone up is the announcement of the very first Dragon Ball theme park.
A recent conference by Toei Animation just shared news of the theme park. Set to be constructed in Qiddiya, Saudi Arabia, the large attraction is planned to occupy over 500,000 square meters and will feature thrilling rides and interesting features across seven zones. According to Toei Animation, each zone is themed on a different part of the Dragon Ball universe. The announcement trailer on YouTube showed “Kame House” and “Capsule Corporation.” However, these are only digital renderings for now.
“Visitors will be able to enter the world of Dragon Ball and enjoy the adventures of Son Goku while becoming one of the other characters of the anime,” said Toei Animation President, Katsuhiro Takagi.
Restaurants, gift shops and a hotel will map out the entire experience, on top of more than 30 planned attractions. The jewel in the crown is expected to be a 70-meter tall roller coaster built in the likeness of Shenron, the titular dragon who grants a wish to anyone who collects all seven of the dragon balls. No opening date has been announced just yet.
The Dragon Ball theme park is part of a tourism megaproject in Riyadh. Aside from the Super Saiyan facility, other planned spaces include a Qiddiya circuit for Formula One and MotoGP races and a Six Flags Qiddiya (mirroring those in North America and Mexico).
Lawson Has a New Honkai Star Rail Collaboration
Trailblazers, this one’s for you. The role-playing gacha video game Honkai: Star Rail has just announced its latest collaboration with the popular convenience store featuring merchandise galore. Here are all the details about what will be available and what you have to do to get your hands on the goods.
Interested in picking up a slick Honkai Star Rail clear file? Swing by Lawson from April 2 and purchase eligible products from the sweet section to receive one for free. On offer are files featuring members of the original crew, including Dan Heng and March 7th. However, those who want to see newer characters can check out the remaining three. These have designs depicting the Penacony cast of Sparkle, Aventurine and Acheron.
There are also mini-posters on offer of the aforementioned characters, except the designs are best on their signature Light Cones (in-game weapons that boost characters). To get these, you’ll have to purchase a Yunker energy drink of your choice. These are health drinks backed by herbal remedies that can help relieve fatigue after gaming all night.
For more unique merchandise, there will also be Honkai Star Rail badges (¥1,320 for a set of 3), acrylic key chains (¥1,100 each) and sticker sets (¥1,100 including the sticker can). These can be bought outright without having to purchase any snacks or drinks.
Look out for the red machine that looks like an ATM at most Lawson stores. This is the Loppi terminal where you can purchase character canvas boards (¥3,630 each), towels (¥4,400) and folding tables (¥4,950). We’re particularly fond of the classic designs of the tables that have the adorable game mascots, Pom-Pom and Clockie.
Things are expected to sell out, fast. If your favorite character is a particularly popular one, we encourage you to stop by a Lawson as soon as you can. The best course of action is to go on the first day of the collaboration (April 2).
Meiji Chocolate Introduces Their First Mushroom-shaped Wireless Earphones
Yes we checked, but April Fool’s Day is not for a few more days so this is very much real. Meiji Chocolate have just launched “Kinoko no Yama” wireless earphones, inspired by the well-known mushroom-shaped chocolates themselves.
These confectionery-themed earphones were first released on the crowdfunding site Makuake on March 26, 2024. However all 3,500 units were sold out within minutes. We will keep an eye out for updates on unit restocks in the future.
A standard box of Kinoko no Yama chocolate typically costs around ¥200 to ¥300, while these earphone counterparts appear to be selling for ¥29,800 including tax. So you might be wondering, what is the secret ingredient? Aside from looking fly and fashionable, these earphones are said to have automatic translation that supports 144 languages around the world.
The design of the buds themselves are such that the average passerby will definitely be fooled into thinking you’ve stuck chocolate in your ears. You might even freak them out a little more when you pull out the charging case to put them away. These quite accurately resemble the box that their chocolate counterpart comes in.
With this ultra cool limited item, it seems that Team Kinoko no Yama has finally pulled ahead of Team Takenoko no Sato. All we can hope for now is for some chocolate bamboo shoot headphones to be released to even out the competition.
After 5 years, the Terra Formars manga is back
Nothing could be more painful than obsessing over a manga or anime only to find that it’s gone on hiatus – usually almost indefinitely. Rare occasions will see a title or two escape the manga graveyard and this time we’re rejoicing because Terra Formars has returned.
The big news was dropped by Shueisha on March 28. The serialization of Terra Formars will resume in the Weekly Young Jump magazine on April 4. To celebrate this comeback, all previous chapters will be available for free for a limited time on the Young Jump app. This is a great perk for old fans to refresh themselves on where they last left off and for new fans to get stuck into this intense and thrilling series.
Terra Formars is a science fiction seinen manga about what happens after humanity attempts to colonize the planet Mars. Written by Yu Sasuga and illustrated by Kenichi Tachibana, the manga begins at a time where a Mars terraforming experiment has gone wrong and resulted in the planet being populated by giant mutated humanoid cockroaches, known as “Terraformars.” The story then follows a series of expeditions made hundreds of years later in a bid to find out more about the Terraformars, collect samples and, ultimately, defeat them.
Prior to the hiatus, Terra Formars had 22 volumes with a total circulation of over 22 million copies. It won multiple prizes and finished second in the coveted Manga Taisho Awards for 2013. The official reason for the 2018 hiatus was due to Sasuga’s poor health. We’re hopeful this means he’s managed to recover well.
