Attack on Titan Merchandise – Asahi Wonda Gold Coffee

Ugh, can you believe it’s actually the latter half of November? I can’t! Where does all the time go? 

Here in Tokyo we’re doing the ‘back-to-normal’ thingy even as Covid-19 cases are rising nationwide. But no one seems to be panicking because Japan (with total deaths still under the 2,000 mark, making it 2 per 100K people) doesn’t have it half as bad as {insert name of country here that has it real bad}. So we’re all pretending that everything will be just fine. Until we drop dead, I suppose. 

It’s amazing how the days fly by when there is an endless list of things to do at work. So that’s my sorry excuse for neglecting this blog. I had to kick myself to get on with the publishing of something because OMG December is just around the corner! 

So today’s topic is: Asahi Beverages’ collaboration with AoT, on a canned coffee product named 金の微糖 Kin-no-bitou, meaning gold with very small amounts of sugar. I completed the collection months ago but never got around to writing this article, so I’m quite late on the hot-new-product front.

Also, I must apologise for the cringe-inducing glare on the pictures. Took them with my ancient iPhone and the window in my flat takes up the entire wall and I simply couldn’t be bothered to make adjustments with a photo editing software. But I added a gold frame around the pics, so go easy on me?

The illustrations are all from the tankobon or paperback volume covers. Let’s have a closer look:

Here are the glorious Ackermanns. There’s Mikasa looking super cool, about to cut down a titan, and then there’s poor injured Levi grimacing in pain.

This one’s the ‘rare’ pair of cans, meaning they don’t appear as often as the others. It took me three grocery runs in three weeks to finally put these two together: a black-and-white drawing of the Attack Titan and Mikasa. 

The discovery of Grisha’s journals. Note how the two aren’t pawing at each other (unlike the anime version) in this picture. On the right, though, is Mikasa throwing her come-fuck-me-eyes at the handsome Eren, with Armin in the middle looking like a little schoolboy, and, as always, playing the third wheel.

Ah, love the illustration on the left. I miss the days when Erwin was there, and Levi had Eren under control, and Eren was being his adorable kill-all-the-titans self. It’s really mind-blowing how his mantra changed from that to kill-all-the-non-titans. Picture on the right is the gang looking cute while climbing over the walls. Armin’s nose is even cuter in profile, don’t you think?

Aaaand, here are the two cans where we finally see the rest of the 104th gang. I turned the one to the left so that Jean and Historia can be seen. Behind Eren is (not shown in pic) Mikasa stuck to his back like a barnacle, and then there’s a smiling Sasha. Connie has been completely removed from the design, unfortunately. Cover on the right is after the timeskip, and we see our babies in their new uniforms. There’s (finally!) Connie and Sasha clearly visible at the top. Love this illustration!

As for the taste, well, it tastes better than the Morning Shot version because it has less sugar. I like my coffee black in general, so the less sweet the better, for me, that is.

There’s a code you can use on the back of the cans to enter into an online raffle draw, the prizes being A3 posters of your choice. There were four designs to choose from: Hange, Eren, Levi and Mikasa. I joined the campaign and put in all the codes from the cans (with only one entry per day allowed), rotating my choice of design in hopes of getting something, anything at all. But alas! Nothing except はずれ hazure (boo-sucks-to-be-you) on my part. I would’ve liked the Levi poster especially, because while the others were simply blown up manga panels, Levi’s design was the most ‘poster ready’. 

Anyway, that is all for canned coffee. Think there’ll be another collab after the anime comes out? Not holding my breath. These days everything in Japan seems to be deluged with Kimetsu no Yaiba, including the food and drink manufacturing industries.

Because our topic is food/drink, Happy Thanksgiving on November 26 to readers in the USA. And Happy 勤労感謝の日 (kinrou-kansha-no-hi or ‘labour thanksgiving day’, celebrated on November 23) to readers in Japan. I’m especially grateful to medical personnel, hospital staff and other essential workers who have to function in a dangerous environment and face down the virus day after day.

Will you be celebrating something at the end of the month?

Thank you so much for reading! Please take a moment to share a thought or two in the comment section below. Your comments give me life and are a real source of encouragement. xoxo, hana

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