So Many Memories! So Cute!!

Marmalade Boy, Neighborhood Story merchandise appears one after the other! Commemorative doods aimed at adult women to be released In commemoration of Ribon’s 60th anniversary

Founded in 1955, monthly shoujo manga magazine Ribon turns 60 this year! It’s been announced that Bandai will be successively releasing special commemorative products aimed at former readers of the magazine who are now adult women in their in their 20s and 30s.

Doorway to Memory No. 1: Reproduction of a Hugely Popular Toy Released in 1994!

Marmalade Boy (Author: Wataru Yoshizumi) was a smash hit manga serialized from 1992 to 1995. In conjunction with the TV anime adaptation which began airing in 1994, Bandai released a toy of the show’s key item, the Voice Memo, which sold over 400,000 pieces during the first year alone. Voice Memo is a robot used by Miki and Yu in the anime. Now being re-released, the toy will reproduce the original’s functions including the ability to play and record sound and will be the same size as before. Pre-orders for the Voice Memo toy will begin on June 18.

Doorway to Memory No. 2: You Can Recreate Mikako’s room?! Accessories and Other Small Items Reproduced

Neighborhood Story (author: Ai Yazawa) is a popular manga with a fashionable worldview which was serialized between 1995 and 1997. Accessories and items reproducing various illustrations will be sold.

The fashion label that the protagonist Mikako, who attends a fashion school, sets up has many common elements with the fashion of today even though 20 years have passed since the beginning of the manga, which is what drew the attention of the project’s organisers. Some of the wonderfully detailed clothing items from the show are going to be made into real products! They’re scheduled to be released from mid-June, so you can look forward to that!

Doorway to Memory No. 3: Replications of the Mail-in Products You So Anxiously Applied For!

Many readers of the monthly magazine will have memories of the experience of applying for the mail-in merchandise. Some people maybe even applied with their parent’s help too, right? Tightly packing in all those memories, the mail-in goods have been reproduced as merchandise too!



Three designs which proved popular from among the “Kuishinbo Bags” mail order items published in the September and October 1993 issues of the magazine will also be turned into merchandise. These are Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai, Marmalade Boy, and Hime-chan’s Ribbon. The design on the front is exactly the same, but the bags have been made a little bigger to take into account the needs of women in their 20s and 30s. The hanging mascot has been reproduced too, though. Beginning with these products, even more mail-in and bonus gift-themed items are expected to appear in quick succession.

Also, other than the aforementioned products the “Hime-chan’s Ribbon Parallel Goods Collection” line of capsule toys and other merchandise that will move the hearts of a generation of adult women through nostalgia will be released one after the other from mid-June 2015. Your youth is resurrected - all those manga you read back then may just reappear too!

Premium Bandai Ribon 60th Anniversary Commemorative Merchandise Webpage

© Wataru Yoshizumi / Shueisha Inc., Toei Animation Co. Ltd.
© Yazawa Manga Production Studios / Shueisha Inc., Ribon
© Wataru Yoshizumi / Shueisha Inc., Ribon
© Megumi Mizusawa / Shueisha Inc., Ribon
© Ai Yazawa / Shueisha Inc., Ribon
© Megumi Mizusawa / Shueisha Inc., NAS

Source: Otajo

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