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News from September 18, 2025

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Final Fantasy furniture, Monster Hunter pieces too, coming from Japanese houseware company
Technology

Final Fantasy furniture, Monster Hunter pieces too, coming from Japanese houseware company

Nitori wans to provide everything you could need for your home, including your gaming space. Nitori is one of Japan’s most popular affordable furniture and housewares companies. Loved for its combination of low prices and high quality, it’s sort of a like a more understated Ikea with less do-it-yourself assembly required. This week, Nitori’s official Twitter account teased an upcoming collaboration, posting silhouettes of its creative partners. However, it didn’t take long at all for fans to recognize one of them… 🎮今年も東京ゲームショウに出展します!!①そして今年はなんと複数コラボするらしいです…！弊社開発者にヒントを聞いたところ・・・1つ目のコラボ先は…「興味ないね」だそうです。つれないことをいいますね・・・🗡️ pic.twitter.com/Mge0EHOgky— ニトリ (@NitoriOfficial) September 16, 2025 …since that’s quite clearly Cloud Strife, the spikey-haired Buster Sword-wielding protagonist of Final Fantasy VII. Final Fantasy and furniture might not make for an immediately obvious mix, but in recent years Nitori has expanded its interior lineup to include gaming gear, and its newest batch of offerings will include Final Fantasy-themed gaming chairs, desks, and desk mats. Cloud’s chair takes its styling cues from the Final Fantasy VII Remake iteration of the game, with the character dramatically posing in front of a Shinra Mako reactor on the back. Mako energy is also the motif for the chair’s green stitching, and the adjustable back pad features a drawing of the Mako orb slots on Cloud’s sword. Of course, while Cloud is Final Fantasy VII’s main character, there’s an argument to be made that its most popular character is his nemesis, Sephiroth. From the front, Sephiroth’s chair’s styling is subtly but still recognizable to fans, as the color scheme and placement evokes the metal-plated long coat he wears. Even those who don’t pick up on that reference, though, will have no doubt who the chair is saluting when they see the back. ▼ The back pad bears a one-wing crest. In addition to seats for gamers, Nitori also has a Final Fantasy VII gaming desk. Functional highlights include a cable organizer box, headset hook, and drink holder, so you can stay hydrated and surrounded with the sounds of the on-screen action… …and to keep the surface from getting scuffed, Nitori is offering a Final Fantasy VII desk mat as well. Final Fantasy developer Square Enix isn’t the only game company Nitori is teaming up with, as they’re also joining hands with Capcom. 🎮今年も東京ゲームショウに出展します!!②２つ目のコラボ先のヒントは…「上手に●●●●●」あれ、なんかかわいい肉球のあとが・・・？ pic.twitter.com/bKh5UG2nei— ニトリ (@NitoriOfficial) September 16, 2025 This silhouette belongs to a Palico helper cat from Monster Hunter, which is also getting a pair of Nitori gaming chairs, one with a cheery Palico design… …and the other opting to be cool rather than cute with the help of Sea Wyvern Lagiacrus. The Monster Hunter desk is more compact than its Final Fantasy counterpart, making it a better fit for more modestly sized gaming spaces. And finally, Nitori didn’t bother with a silhouette teaser for the third game it has a tie-up with, since while Street Fighter is the most celebrated fighting game series of all time, Juri isn’t necessarily the member of the cast most quicky associated with the franchise. ▼ Not that that means the chair has any less sense of presence, mind you. The chairs are all priced at 29,990 yen (US$203), with the exception of the white Palico model, which is 39,990 yen. Final Fantasy’s desk and mat are 39,990 and 4,990 yen, respectively, while the Monster Hunter Wilds is 29,990 yen. Nitori is planning to have all of the chairs, except the Palico model, on display at its booth at the Tokyo Game Show later this month, along with the Final Fantasy desk. They can also all be ordered through the Nitori online shop here, with shipping of all the items scheduled for November, except for the Monster Hunter desk which ships in October. Source: Nitori via Hachima Kiko, PR Times Top image: PR Times Insert images: PR Times, Nitori (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Casey Baseel
Japanese viewers unsure what to make of comedian’s shirtless apology to Turkish people
Technology

Japanese viewers unsure what to make of comedian’s shirtless apology to Turkish people

Be careful when releasing potato chips, or this could happen to you too. We’ve long chronicled the misadventures of Japanese comedian Egashira 2:50. For those unfamiliar, his main schtick is appearing as a shirtless middle-aged man who makes lewd comments and does rather sexually borderline-explicit stunts like sticking his arm down his tights to simulate his own stimulation. But what really makes him an interesting figure in Japanese pop culture is that, by most accounts, he’s an extremely mild-mannered and generous person off camera, having participated extensively in charitable programs around the country. A few years ago, Egashira made the jump from television and brought nearly five million subscribers to his own YouTube channel, where he frequently posts a mix of gross-out stunts, personal reflections, and typical YouTube-style eating and travel experiences. A lot of the time, he still wears his standard costume of black tights and no shirt, but due to YouTube’s policy on exposed nipples for people like him, he must wear tape over them. However, when he goes on location shoots, you’ll likely see him wearing regular street clothes. Such is the case when he visited Türkiye recently to perform. It was a bit of a personal trip for Egashira as well, since this was the first time returning to Türkiye since he was arrested for public nudity after his fundoshi loincloth fell off and nearly triggered a riot among offended spectators in 1997. ▼ Eigashira’s return to Türkiye Luckily, this time his performance did not result in an arrest, but he unfortunately once again ended up offending the people there inadvertently. While in Türkiye, Egashira decided to offer people there some of his limited-edition kebab-flavored potato chips (which are sold exclusively through Family Mart convenience stores and can be seen at the top of this article) since in Japan kebabs are often associated with Turkish food. However, Eigashira and the people in this predominantly Muslim country were all unaware that the chips contained pork extract, which is in violation of the religion’s dietary restrictions. The video has since been pulled, and later, Eigashira posted an apology video about the incident. The spoken content of the video was very somber and sincere, with the team of a stern-faced Egashira and his sidekicks, the Briefs Gang, explaining that they failed to notice the ingredients of the chips both when filming and editing the segment. They make it clear that this is no excuse for what they did and they have already set up a compliance department to ensure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. They also read a statement of apology from Family Mart which states they will add explanations in Japanese, English, Arabic, Turkish, Indonesian, and Malay to product displays, warning potential buyers of the ingredients. ▼ The apology video But what struck a lot of people about it as odd was that everyone was in their typical performance garb, Egashira with taped nipples and black tights, and his sidekicks wearing wrestling masks, underwear outside their pants, and T-shirts with “bu” written on them, both as the first Japanese character in “burifu” (briefs) and a common onomatopoeia for a fart. I can only assume they discussed this beforehand and came to the conclusion that appearing in suits might come across as uncharacteristic of them and ironically seen more as a goof than if they wore their regular outfits. If so, I’m not sure it was the best choice, but there is a kind of logic to it at least. Comments on YouTube and elsewhere on the Internet were also conflicted about this wardrobe choice while making a serious apology for offending people’s religion. “Egashira is seriously insane.” “Who are they apologizing to? Surely it isn’t the people of Türkiye like this.” “I’m a Turkish Muslim living in Japan. I rushed to buy your chips when they came out, but saw they had pork, so I gave them to a co-worker. It’s great that you apologized, as I would expect from a Japanese person. There’s nothing to worry about.” “It would seem more like a joke if they wore suits.” “I asked a Muslim friend, and they said it’s OK as long as it wasn’t intentional. Still, you need to be more careful.” “You should dress properly to apologize. People who don’t know you think you’re trying to provoke them.” “It’s up to the Turkish people to forgive him. Hopefully the message reaches them.” “That’s not how you apologize!” “I’m Muslim and think it wasn’t done on purpose. Eating pork is natural in Japanese culture, so it’s only natural they overlooked it. I appreciate that they realized their mistake and apologized.” “Where are these angry Turkish people? I never see them.” Curious about that myself, I went in search of any Turkish language coverage of this incident and found next to none, aside from one Facebook post with a comment to the effect of, “It’s fine. I forgive him.” This would seem to suggest that no one in Turkey really seems to have noticed or cared about what Eigashira did, and that he probably wasn’t under much pressure to make a six-minute video to apologize for it either. One could argue that his appearance was half-assed because of that, but it really doesn’t come through in his words and non-wardrobe-related actions. Eigashira has always been about separating the character from the man, and this might just be another example of that. Source: YouTube/エガちゃんねる EGA-CHANNEL, Real Live, Itai News, Facebook/Japonya Postası Top photo SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Master Blaster