Famitsu Issue 1365 (February 12, 2015)

I had a certain song playing through my head while flipping through this mag, looking for my random "about this file" comment.  The version on Youtube is from an older version of the 5th grade elementary school English textbooks, and has been updated for the newer ones with new music and lyrics (same refrain and melody, though), but the newer version isn't on Youtube, so far as I know.  But it's ironic? fitting? that the song (Yokoso! Welcome to Japan) was stuck in my head when I came across a page featuring this toy:

A twin-barrel battleship gun emplacement...that couldn't be more Japanese if it tried.  I think foreigners who have never been to Japan watch some anime or some wacky Japanese commercials or whatever and think that Japan must be some zany place fully of quirky people doing quirky things like they saw once on a game show or in a video of an idol concert in Akihabara or something.  But it's actually a really quiet, ordinary place.

Except for the cuteness.  Everywhere you look, CUTE CUTE CUTE.  The kawaii aesthetic is everywhere.  Please observe exhibit A, a collection of roadside construction barriers.

So why not make cute anthropomorphic guns?  If you absolutely positively HAD to be shot out of the sky, wouldn't you prefer it be by something adorable?