A senator’s daughter has died mysteriously in prison, and you’re the lucky one in charge of figuring out what happened before giving a press conference to a gaggle of reporters after a long night of investigation.
The Guilty series is a new entry into the ever expanding genre of games that try to capture full fledged mystery investigations in board game form. The short, short version is it’s got the weight of a Detective case in a box closer to the size of the Exit series.
The setting is perfect for this type of game: it’s within a contained area of investigation with believable constraints and reasons for time pressure. The atmosphere is well developed, and the economical descriptions befitting a game confined to cards are on point. The box advertises the game as “immersive,” and I agree wholeheartedly. More than any other mystery game I’ve played that doesn’t use external elements this really felt like conducting an investigation the players are in control of.
The time deck mechanic is really well done. Cards are flipped from a separate deck representing the passage of time as the player chooses which leads to investigate. At different points in the deck game affecting events happen. It presents ongoing pressure and twists without making the game feel too short and is really well implemented.
Guilty thrives via its design and setup. The board that grounds the display and organizes the numerous investigative choices available really helps present the overwhelming options in an accessible manner. The progression of the investigation is completely open. The player is in control, and most uncovered cards/information feel interesting if not always vital.
This game consists of one case, but it’s a DENSE, meaty one. This takes 3-4 hours and as mentioned feels more equivalent to a round of Detective than other stand alone mystery games or even a round of Suspects (which I found weighty and challenging itself, but this is on a different level). That they accomplished this with a system that’s completely contained in the box (ie no internet component like Detective, etc has) is impressive.
There’s an overload of information to sift through throughout, but it’s by no means a negative. The case is compelling and it was extremely engrossing. There are important minute details, so players should be ready to read and observe carefully. However there really wasn’t one key piece of information that derails everything if missed. This has a mix of several visual and textual clues and figuring out how it all comes together is the goal.
Two players is probably the sweet spot for this series. Even for veteran gamers be at peak concentration level when soloing. I overlooked a couple vital points and was a bit off in my solution. That said in was still a blast as a solo experience.
The scoring system is a little odd, but good enough. It’s forgiving in a way I didn’t expect. I didn’t really solve the case (I got twisted around in my own head and picked the wrong killer), but figured out enough of everything else to get best evaluation. I have mixed feelings on that, as on one hand it seems like getting the criminal wrong should be disqualifying but on the other being recognized for solving a majority of the questions and piecing together all the other details is nice. Like I said: a bit odd but still fine.
There were a couple of red herrings I found mildly frustrating, but most of them connect to ancillary things to figure out if you dig enough so it’s not the issue it could be.
Nothing gets destroyed so the game is resettable and can be passed on to other players (the box insert isn’t great for storing the cards once they’ve been unwrapped, but that’s a minor quibble).
Overall this was excellent, and one of the best of this type of game I’ve played. Looking forward to future entries in the series.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
“The toughest thing about a case is never the case.”
Sherlock Holmes who isn’t stumbles into a web of murder and political intrigue in early 20th Century San Fransisco.
I feel like I was peripherally aware of the series Detective Chinatown 1900 reimagines, but I’ve never actually seen any of it. And as this is a new take set in a different time period no prior knowledge is necessary.
The film is a blend of political commentary regarding a period of high racial tension and straight up comedy all tied together with a murder mystery central plot. It sounds like an absurd mix, but the melding of genres is really well done. It descends into complete farce at moments without ever having trouble reestablishing gravitas when the plot or themes need it.
The movie as I saw it in an NYC theater was presented with both English and Chinese subtitles. It’s a Chinese film largely set in San Fransisco and the dialog ends up being roughly half Chinese and half English, with some other languages mixed in. So a vast majority of viewers will need at least one of the sets of subtitles at times.
I’m a regular watcher of foreign films (usually in Japanese), so am used to reading subtitles. But even for me, the speed of the Chinese dialog and the resulting quickness that the subtitles flew by was a bit challenging at times. But key plot information was always presented somewhat slower (as it tended to land during dramatic moments) so I had no trouble following the story overall.
The mystery itself is reasonable and compelling, the humor juxtaposition masterfully done, and the societal commentary and historical aspects well presented and easily accessible even to those unfamiliar with the time period.
As far as criticism goes the film felt a little long in the tooth at times, a couple things strained credulity (beyond the things that were supposed to be absurd), and I’m not certain they completely stuck the landing. But I’m largely nitpicking here.
Overall I found Detective Chinatown 1900 to be a thoroughly engaging and entertaining movie. Definitely worth a watch.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Was lucky enough to be in attendance for a stacked NXT show at the smaller Theater venue within iconic Madison Square Garden.
Due to health constraints/limiting factors towards travel and live events this was my first live wrestling show of any kind in a couple years. Was thrilled to attend and looking forward to seeing Ethan Page and the women’s double title match in particular.
This was a fast paced, breezy watch and I’m going strictly off memory so this’ll be more impressions than any kind of full recap.
1) TNA Tag Team Championship: Matt & Jeff Hardy (c) vs Nathan Fraizer and Faxiom
As always the NYC crowd was over the moon for the Hardy’s, making this a super hot opener. They seem to be in good form, and played the hits while Fraxiom supplied their usual high octane offense. Straight forward, crowd pleasing tag team wrestling.
Which titles were on the line made this a forgone conclusion, but that didn’t detract from the fun.
2) Roxanne Perez vs Jordynne Grace
Standard “put over the next big NXT star on your way out to the main roster” encounter. Roxanne showed great ability to work a body part dissection match, going after Grace’s leg incessantly. Grace sold it well, with it affecting her offense at key moments. Always nice to see psychology done properly. Grace eventually overcame, making this a well done, textbook heel vs face story.
3) NXT Championship: Oba Femi (c) vs Moose
Moose is TNA’s reigning X-Division Champion, so this is the second NXT champ vs TNA champ contest of the night.
Never been much of a fan of Moose to be honest, but he seemed motivated here and played his role well enough. Oba looked like a monster putting him down. This was two big men throwing bombs and showing wild strength, which is exactly what everyone wanted from it. Could have been a touch shorter, but that’s mild criticism at best.
4) NYC Street Fight: Je’Von Evans vs Ethan Page
Page had been a favorite of mine since his Evolve days and was super excited to see him live again.
He’s been tormenting Je’Von for months, ever since he turned from heel to even bigger evil douchebag heel at Je’Von’s expense when Je’Von tried to reach out to a despondent Page and paid for his empathy with a broken jaw.
Had everything the crowd wanted from a street fight, including a couple of big table spots. In a nice callback Ethan got a close two off countering a Je’Von backspring with a hard punch to the injured jaw, which won Page their last encounter.
Ending was suitably insane, as Je’Von hit a cutter on Page with the latter’s head wedged in a chair. This was all about Je’Von getting revenge on the asshole who’s hurt him and beat him at every turn until now, and it hit all the right notes.
5) NXT Women’s Championship/Women’s North American Championship Double Title Match: Giulia (c) vs Stephanie Vaquer (c NA)
Lots of rumors about the possibility of injury or others reasons for this happening so soon. Vaquer just won the NA title last month, and with Wrestlemania weekend and NXT’s big Stand and Deliver show coming up many expected this match to happen then.
To be clear, this was not a unification match. Both were on the line and the winner would hold both titles, but they are still separate titles.
Huge fan of Vaquer, and this was my first time seeing her live.
Last time I saw Giulia wrestle live was a couple lifetimes ago when she was still in Ice Ribbon, so it was downright surreal getting to see her wrestle in MSG.
I’ve heard complaints about the length and pacing from TV viewers, but live this came off great. Yeah it might’ve gotten more time if there wasn’t a hard out on the broadcast, and it was technically the shortest match of the night by a few seconds (I looked that up post show, wouldn’t have guessed it otherwise), but live it was an engaging sprint between two wrestlers just straight up trying to put the other down. If Giulia’s banged up as rumored she still worked a great match here.
I was half expecting Meiko Satomura to come out to challenge the new champ for Stand and Deliver (Meiko was rumored to be in attendance and she has a conspicuous gap in her announced retirement schedule WrestleMania weekend), but it didn’t happen. Show closed with and extended confetti celebration for the new double champ.
Amusing subtle moment happened when the ref clearly had to give Vaquer a heads up to turn around and do some of her celebrating for the crowd. The way the venue is set up when she was celebrating towards the hard cams her back was to 90% of the audience.
Prior to the show I was afraid this card was too packed for two hours and something would get short changed, but instead it was a really well crafted show with everything between 11 and 15 minutes and nothing really feeling too short or too long. Sure the main could have been longer and Giulia and Vaquer certainly have an epic in them, but the sprint we got played well live and was great in its own right. Just a fantastic show to have had the privilege to see live all around.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Suspects is a card based mystery game that involves visiting locations, speaking to suspects, and examining items to try to unravel the secrets behind a crime. Claire Harper, Eternal Investigator is the second collection in this series and includes three separate cases.
I enjoyed the first Suspects game, Claire Harper Takes the Stage, despite not doing particularly great solving its cases. They required catching little details, and were generally harder than other games of this type I’ve played. But it was still a well crafted game and quite fun and I was looking forward to the sequels.
Eternal Investigator provides a deeper look at the protagonist introduced in the previous collection. She’s the thread tying the cases together and this group features different times in her life.
The game plays extremely similar to the first with a deck of cards driving the gameplay with information to uncover as the cases proceed. Each case has a couple extra things to go with the deck that help frame the investigation and present initial leads to follow. Things that can be investigated are numbered and drawing the corresponding cards is how the game proceeds. It’s extremely open in letting the players decide what order to poke at things at, although at times certain mechanics hold parts of the investigation back a bit until certain progress has been made.
With the mechanics out of the way the main question is how good the cases are. In the end it’s rather hard to compare this to the first set. I again played solo, did a little better, and for the most part enjoyed these. But while one of my favorite cases in the series was here, my absolute least favorite case in any of the Suspects series was here too (including the third collection, review to come). I won’t get into spoilers but I felt it just didn’t come together and unlike all the other cases relied a bit on educated guesses (which mysteries never should).
Playing the cases in order makes sense as it progresses through Claire’s life, but they most definitely ARE NOT in progressing difficulty. The game’s fully resettable and can be passed along to others after playing.
Overall I enjoy and recommend the series and with one really good case and one solid one out of three the good still outweighs the less so in this collection. Far from perfect but still well worth checking out if you enjoyed the first batch.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
While the core attraction of any wrestling promotion is of course the wrestlers, there are a variety of other people involved in various necessary supporting and production roles. One of the most visible of these is the ring announcer, who introduces match participants, announces results and winners, and conveys other information as needed to the audience.
An enthusiastic, skilled announcer adds significantly to the experience of attending or watching a wrestling show, and one of the very best in recent memory is Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling’s (TJPW’s) Sayuri Namba.
Sayuri Namba PSC by Miki Okazaki.
Since 2018 Namba’s been an integral part of TJPW’s presentation. Her pre-show instructions to the crowd is part of the ritual of attending and TJPW often starts their livestreams early so viewers get the whole experience. (For those who don’t know, pre-show instructions include information about post-show merchandise sales and meet and greets, as well as rules about permissible photography, behavior, etc.) She’s as much a part of the roster as the wrestlers, and participates in meet and greets and merchandise.
Namba is charisma personified, occasionally odd in endearing ways, and able to convey gravitas when the situation demands it. She’s always excited about the shows and portrays that excitement well, which makes it contagious and gets the audience excited too. Her presence makes already fun TJPW shows even more enjoyable.
This is where I’d normally talk about my first time seeing Namba at a live event, but I have no specific recollection because there’s no specific moment to recall. No debut match to point at in the way there would be with a wrestler. Namba is a perfect announcer in that regard. She knows how to engage and entertain the audience while remembering that her task is to shine a spotlight on the competitors. No one moment stands out or draws attention away from the matches, but she’s completely memorable overall because of the enthusiasm and uniqueness she brought to her duties.
She’s also become so integral that it feels like she’s always been a part of TJPW, even though I started watching a couple years before she joined.
Namba puts her all into everything she does. A particularly great example of this is the amount of effort she put into TJPW’s costume chekis (small polaroids), particularly the annual Halloween ones. She did multiple costumes each year and they were always fantastic.
Wonderful picture in which Namba decided to mimic the pose of a character on my t-shirt.
Namba is incredibly friendly and always excited to meet fans. I was fortunate enough to meet her several times during my pre-pandemic trips to Japan. She made serious effort to communicate with foreign fans and her English has gotten quite good.
On June 22 at TJPW’s Ryogoku KFC Hall show Namba will be “graduating” from TJPW (the term is used in Japan when someone leaves a company to move on, whether it’s for retirement or a case like this). There will be a special event entitled “Sayuri Namba’s Dream Come True Special” on June 14th. I hope everyone has a great time in the next few months giving Namba an enjoyable sendoff.
She’ll be moving to Vancouver, due to both it’s proximity to America and hearing good things about the area itself.
Namba will be missed in TJPW, but wishing her all the best abroad whether she continues with wrestling announcing or finds a new path.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Perhaps the best comic book hero one could ask for is one who isn’t bound by the rules of the very comics he inhabits. Such a hero might truly be invincible…
MiSTER iNViNCiBLE: Local Hero collects Mister Invincible #1: Justice and Fresh Vegetables and Mister Invincible #2: Local Hero as originally published.
Pascal Jousselin’s everyday adventures of an extremely unusual superhero takes a creative core idea and runs with it to great effect.
Mister Invincible’s powers are simple in concept: he alone is aware he’s in a comic and can transcend the framework everyone else is trapped in. He can see and act into other panels, across pages, and so on.
It’s Jousselin’s incredible use of the premise that makes the comic shine. From Mr. Invincible helping himself fight in other panels, to explaining to confused police that he needs to wait for the page to turn before he can solve their current problem, to many other endearingly absurd page breaking situations everything is fascinating and amusing at the same time. There are times when things get surreal, but it’s captivating to unravel what’s happening more than confusing.
The true genius of it all is how Mr. Invincible uses his powers as a part of his everyday life just as often as he does for fighting crime. The mundane uses are just as interesting, such as a great page where he uses a paper airplane traveling up the page to “remind” himself to add something to his grocery list before he’s told to get it.
I can’t speak to the original French version, but the translation seems quite good. Everything flows well and sounds natural and I’m pretty confident I’m getting as close to the full experience as a translation can provide.
Mr. Invincible is light and fun while also being mind-bendingly clever. It’s as enjoyable for an adult reader as it would be for the publisher’s noted middle grade target demographic (with an older reader perhaps more likely to catch more of the genre bending subtleties). Highly recommended.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Yuka Sakazaki is a longtime favorite wrestler of mine, and since her departure from TJPW in December of 2023 to move to the US and be a full time member of the AEW roster I’ve been waiting for her to be spotlighted properly.
She was out with injury for a while in the middle of 2024, but came back last Fall in a short feud with AEW Women’s Champion Mariah May. Her absence on AEW programming since is odd as it’s not due to lack of availability, but regardless it’s nice to see her back and in a high profile match that might allow her to really remind the AEW audience what she’s capable of.
Mercedes Moné is of course the former Sasha Banks and has had a strangle hold on the TBS Championship since winning it last May.
Super excited for this matchup and glad it’s getting the main event slot it deserves. Going to try a live reaction, so away we go…
TBS Title Match: Mercedes Moné (c) vs Yuka Sakazaki
No one going into this has any illusions that Yuka can win here (although I think she should – a surprise shakeup on that level could create a lot of interest). So it’ll be interesting to see if they can get the audience into things enough to bite on near falls. They’re both certainly capable of it if this gets proper time.
Not looking good for that off the bat though as AEW plays a seemingly endless stream of recaps and promos before finally starting the main event at 10 minutes to the hour. Then they recap Yuka’s contendership match victory over her entrance, really diminishing her status as a challenger.
Counter wrestling to start, which is completely talked over by commentary to hype a Death Rider match on Collision.
Mercedes does her CEO dance taunt after a shoulder tackle, so Yuka returns the favor on both counts. Her mimicking the dance was amusing got a nice pop.
Announcers convey a 20 min time limit and say they’ll stay with it past the show end time if need be.
Yuka does a truncated rolling cradle for two after just a couple spins. Mercedes seemed a little off and didn’t roll with it quite right.
Mercedes NAILED Yuka with a Meteora on the floor after moving out of the way of an intended Yuka dive. Nice sequence showing the champ’s intelligence, but they really should have Yuka hit her big dive at some point.
We go to a commercial break 4 minutes in, that lasts as long as the match had been so far. Lousy way to let the main event build.
After a solid strike exchange Yuka counters a powerbomb into a hurricanrana.
A Meteora in the corner is dodged, and just as they’re starting to heat up momentum stalls as it takes Yuka two tries to do her springboard. Looks like the ropes might have been looser than she expected. Mercedes sold being dazed well and Yuka recovered quickly and hit a nice springboard on try two.
Yuka nails a brainbuster and her sliding elbow for 2.
The announcers try to sell possible ring rust for Mercedes as she “doesn’t have ring reps in” since she hasn’t wrestled since January 5th, but Yuka only had one match in that same timeframe so it doesn’t really track.
Moné hits the Three Amigos for 2. Then generates big time boos for walking back and forth across on Yuka. Yuka catches her on the turnbuckles with elbow strikes when she goes up though and hits a superplex for 2.
Magical Merry Go Round countered into a Moneymaker attempt, which is countered and Yuka level Moné with a kick. Magical Merry Go Round gets 2.
Mercedes comes right back with a backstabber into the Statement Maker, but Yuka survives by countering into a rollup for 2.
Big rolling elbow from Yuka dazes the champ. Shortly afterwards she catches Mercedes in the full body rollup that beat Deonna in the 4-way. Mercedes escapes at 2.
Mercedes gets tied up in the ropes and Yuka nails a SPIDER GERMAN to make the crowd start to come alive. Magical Girl Splash eats the knees however and the champ gets 2.
Powerbomb followed by the Money Maker retains for Moné.
Ends at 7 minutes past the hour (as per me watching on Max). Six minutes post commercials for about a 14 minute match total with 10 shown.
Solid if unremarkable match overall. Wasn’t bad and I was getting quite into it by the end, but it wasn’t what it could have and should have been. The highlights were fun and I always enjoy watching Yuka wrestle but it didn’t all quite feel properly connected. I’m harping on the time but a few more minutes to let things breath and allow for proper transitions between big moves would have made a huge difference. It ended up as glimmers of a great 20-25 minute outing shoved into 10 minutes of air time.
This was Yuka’s challenge to Mariah all over again where AEW didn’t do much to really get the crowd buying Yuka could win. And again a heel beat her squeaky clean. That said getting the main event spot at all does mean something. She did get a good reaction to her signature stuff too, so hopefully she earned a few more fans. I also hope AEW won’t forget she’s on the roster for four months again. Fingers crossed.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Everyone has their own preferences and favorites when it comes to wrestling. Style, presentation, and other factors vary greatly among the large number of wrestling companies in the world and are all a matter of taste among fans.
While in general I tend towards a more athletic event, intensely competitive style of wrestling what I care about most is enjoying what I’m watching. May seem like an obvious statement, but worth explicitly mentioning as in my case it means a wide range of wrestling genres appeal to me. Both nail biting intensity and well done comedic moments can really draw me in to a match when done well.
As I often say in reference to an old favorite, TJPW’s August 26 2017 show: sometimes I want to see my two favorite wrestlers in a promotion tearing the house down for a title…
…and sometimes I want to see Maki Itoh chasing idol lumberjacks around the ring with a squeaky toy hammer.
When any promotion can give me both in the same show and have it feel natural and cohesive I’m as happy as can be.
For me wrestling is at its best when its a mix of light heartedness and intense competition. I want my humorous elements woven into the general framework of wrestlers competing and trying to win, but can go for pretty absurd match premises and gimmicks when internally consistent and done well.
Ice Ribbon and ChocoPro (formerly Gatoh Move) have been always great places for this combination, which is a large reason why they’re two of my absolute favorite promotions.
This year’s Ribbonmania from just a couple weeks ago was a great example of a well paced, thoroughly enjoyable top to bottom show with a variety of aspects to it. ChocoPro’s holiday shows were likewise a blast with a little bit of everything sprinkled throughout.
All of which brings me around to what prompted this particular deep dive into the happy aspects of wrestling: ChocoPro’s most recent roster addition Kaho Hiromi.
Emi Sakura is excellent at developing wrestlers within their own ways to really highlight what they can do while letting them be wholly unique. I’d argue no other environment or trainer could have given us Lulu Pencil, the wonderfully goofy ninja Sayuri, etc.
Over her near 30 year career Sakura has trained a large number of children, including AEW’s first ever Women’s Champion Riho who started at age 9 and is a 18 year veteran at age 27.
Sakura’s most recent wrestling prodigy, reigning Super Asia Champion Mei Suruga, is following in her mentor’s training footsteps as well with similarly excellent results. With Sakura living in the US as part of her participation in AEW, Mei has been the primary teacher for several of the recent roster additions.
Mei runs their casual training program DareJyo in Sakura’s absence, with Sakura being heavily involved as well whenever she’s back in Japan. DareJyo recently shared one of its showcase events on YouTube. It’s a great watch and provides insight on how ChocoPro approaches introducing people to the world of wrestling.
DareJyo is open to women and girls of all ages. Several DareJyo participants have continued on into full training and later officially debuted as professional wrestlers, including Mei herself as well as the energetic and cheerful grade schooler Kaho Hiromi.
The imposing multi-time champion 20 year veteran powerhouse was a mismatch for Kaho is just about every way imaginable. But that was the point. The match was about Kaho’s effort, perseverance, and attitude. She showed all in spades. Her charisma and determination shined and the crowd was behind her even against the super popular Mizunami. The outcome was never in doubt, but I was invested in Kaho’s efforts all the same. She eventually fell to Mizunami’s leg drop, but Ryo carried the little warrior to the back on her shoulders in a show of respect.
Her matches in the months since them have been likewise engaging, but it was specifically her matches around the holidays that brought all this to the forefront in my mind and made me want to write this post. This year was rough for me and I was stuck home alone for the holidays. Being able to watch and enjoy various wrestling shows from my favorite promotions halfway around the world helped my mood a lot. And it struck me how often watching little Kaho do her best with a smile on her face against opponents bigger, stronger, and older than herself was bringing a smile to mine.
ChocoPro’s approach with Kaho has been excellent. Again the company has a lot of experience over the years with wrestlers of vastly different ages, sizes, and experience levels and knows how to showcase people within their limitations as well as the proper tone to establish.
Kaho generally wrestles with veterans and/or her trainers in the matches. If you watch carefully you’ll notice she doesn’t take heavy strikes or generally anything high impact. But you have to watch carefully to notice, as her matches are just plain too much fun and enthralling to be thinking about stuff like that.
And that’s what matters. Sakura’s companies have always been built around the idea that wrestling should be fun for both the wrestlers and fans, and the fun Kaho has in her matches is both obvious and contagious. She’s a plucky underdog trying her best, and her matches are a lighthearted blast to watch. They’ve developed a moveset and strategy that suits her, such as crossing her arms in front of her and charging opponents as a strike instead of traditional chops that would have no impact at her size.
She’s doing great. She moves well, gets the crowd excited, and is naturally incredibly easy to get caught up cheering for. Emi Sakura is one of my top favorite wrestlers in the world, yet I still can’t help but to cheer against her as she smugly taunts Kaho.
While some people may instinctively recoil from the idea of a child in a wrestling match (and/or intergender wrestling, another cornerstone of ChocoPro), there are a lot of great in ring stories to be told involving an opponent completely out of the realm of what a veteran would normally expect. It doesn’t have to be everyone’s thing, there are plenty of other companies and styles to watch, but again it all speaks to me personally as a fan.
Kaho often confounds her opponents a bit with her quickness and size. She’ll counter holds by wrapping herself around their legs in ways others can’t. She can jump around, dodge, and generally frustrate them in ways only a kid can. Usually unfortunately she gets caught and someone like Sakura leverages Kaho’s own attempted holds to force a pin (the boos Sakura has gotten when she essentially sits on Kaho for a victory are huge).
Recent highlights include ChocoPro 314’s triple threat that saw her face Sakura & Sayaka and her participation in the Christmas show’s battle royal. The latter saw her first encounter with DDT’s Chris Brookes, which was a riot (and cemented Chris being evil). She’s also had several fun mixed tag matches recently giving people like Hagane Shinno a new challenge.
Kaho’s been a wonderful addition to the ChocPro roster, and I really just wanted to take the opportunity both to spotlight her and to reminder everyone how important it is just to straight up enjoy wrestling. Whether your thing is desperately wanting a heel vanquished, deathmatches, sports-like presentation, comedy, or like me a mix of several approaches find companies that do what you like well, and have fun experiencing them.
Some other great currently active young and/or rookie wrestlers to watch include, but aren’t limited to, Ice Ribbon’s Kirari Wakana, TJPW’s Uta Takami, SEAdLINNNG’s Miria Koga, and the recently freelance Saran. I hope to keep watching all of them and Kaho for however long wrestling continues to be viable and fun for them all.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Ribbonmania is Ice Ribbon’s big annual year end show, which I’ve been watching since I became a fan of the company in 2015 and haveattendedseveraltimes in the past (pre-pandemic when I could travel).
It’s been ages since I got to sit down and watch much wrestling and longer since I’ve written up thoughts on a show, so I’ve really been looking forward to this one. A lot of the wrestlers here are either new to me or I’ve only seen them a couple times.
In the wake of management changes this is the final show for a good portion of the roster before they move on to other things. I’ll be mentioning some specifics throughout the review (and will recap the remaining roster at the end).
Two roster members who are staying are not on this show: Ice Ribbon ace Tsukasa Fujimoto is on maternity leave, and Infinite Potential Girl Kaho Matsushita is out due to injury.
With all that said, away we go.
1) Kirari Wakana vs. Miria Koga
Miria, a rookie from SEAdLINNNG, has wrestled in Ice a few times but this is my first seeing her. She faced Kirari singles and tag action previously, with both matches ending in draws.
Kirari debuted last July (with an unusual debut win). I’ve seen a bit of her here and there, and she’s come across as a charismatic rookie with sound basics and excellent potential. She reminds me a bit of Asahi in both look and energy (which is of course bittersweet considering Asahi’s untimely passing in early 2024).
Kirari was sporting awesome new gear here.
This was pretty polished for a match between two wrestlers with under a year and a half combined experience. They made the most of what they were capable of and had several tense exchanges. Determination was absolutely dripping from both and the tangible feel that winning the match is important to them came across well. Was engrossed in this one for the duration.
To my delight Kirari won by rolling Koga up super tight following an extended series of attempts and reversals. Overall Ice Ribbon’s newest roster member showed the heart of a lion.
Great way to open the show. Kudos to both rookies. I’m becoming a huge fan of Kirari, and I also hope Koga keeps coming back.
The wrestlers in this match were the six participants of the Challenger: Ring of Hope series that made it through and ended up debuting as professional wrestlers. They all debuted on August 26, 2023 at Ice In Wonderland 2023.
Minami left Ice Ribbon to go to Marigold in early 2024 and was making a special appearance. This was the final Ice Ribbon roster appearance for the other five. Koike and Hanaya are retiring. Mifu, Grizzly & Nanae seem to plan on continuing elsewhere, with their destinations unknown at the time of the show. (Mifu has since announced she will be joining TJPW and debuted on their big annual January 4th show.)
It was nice to see Minami appear for this match, giving us one last trios contest with all of them involved. She’s had a complete look overhaul in her new company. This is the first time she’s wrestled here since leaving, and the first appearance of anyone from Marigold in Ice Ribbon.
Mifu is a former International Ribbon Tag Team Champion (with partner Kyuuri) and as such the most accomplished of the six thus far.
Nanae and the returning Minami got in slap fight right away with everything devolving into a brawl, nicely setting the tone of all six having something to prove.
After the hot start there was a little bit of a styles clash / roughness in this at times. Minami seemed to have a little readjusting to do after being retrained in a different company’s style, and they are all still relatively early in their careers. That said they all fought hard and made things work. Minami busted out an awesome, vicious looking arm trap guillotine choke at one point.
Grizzly vs Mifu was the backbone of the match and the two have good chemistry. Highlights included Mifu’s Cutie Special on Grizzly and Grizzly later absolutely wiping Mifu out with a short arm clothesline.
The match came to a surprising end as Nanae tied Mifu in absolute knots and got the submission win. As I mentioned Mifu’s the only former champ of the group and I wouldn’t have bet on her taking the loss.
Hanaya never tagged in, but was involved in multi person team moments, breaking up pinfalls, etc (including a wild spill to the outside when she took a shot on Grizzly from the apron and went flying from the recoil). Both she and the other retiree Koike only ever wrestled sporadically, with under ten matches each for their careers. It was nice to see them involved one last time and get a nice sendoff with the rest of their compatriots.
The match was somewhat rough around the edges at times but I’m really just mentioning it because I noticed it. Nothing detracted much from this fun outing with a lot of energy and some really awesome moments. Overall it clicked was a really good farewell for the Challengers in Ice Ribbon.
They all took a bow together afterwards. Wishing them the best in whatever’s next for each of them.
3) Kyuuri & Yuna Manase vs. Arisa Shinose & Kaori Yoneyama vs. Bad Butts (Yappy & Ancham)
Arisa will be going to Asuka Pro-Wrestling, but seems likely to continue appearing as a guest in Ice Ribbon.Yappy and reigning Triangle Ribbon Champion Kyuuri are staying.Yoneyama, Manase, and Ancham are guest participants.
Bad Butts coming out to Sir Mix A Lot had me dying of laughter. So great.
They brawled all over the place to start, highlighted by Yappy threatening people with the ever present Bad Butts warning sign, and things never really settled down from there. Having a proper, unapologetic, “we’re villains and proud of it” heel team is a nice addition to Ice Ribbon. Good contrast too as Kyuuri leans heel at times as Triangle Champ in more of an impish, faux innocent way. It all adds an extra dimension to things and additional depth to matches like these.
The other teams eventually had enough of Bad Butts and taped them to a ring post outside, neutralizing them for the rest of the match. Things got crazy at the end as Kyuuri accidentally took out her own partner with her attempted shortcuts, and Yoneyama intentionally rammed Kyuuri into Arisa to set up Yoneyama getting the win.
I expected a Bad Butts win, but Yoneyama pinning Kyuuri and the winning partners arguing over who gets to challenge her for her singles belt makes sense too
Not much to say here, but I mean that extremely positively. This was just straightforward chaotic fun.
The live feed became unwatchable due to buffering here and I stopped watching live. Until this point it had frozen about once a match and refreshing quickly corrected things. Ice Ribbon PPVs are usual stable on this platform, so no idea what was going on. Watched the rest from here later on replay.
The semi-retired Mio Shirai and perpetual thorn in her side Unagi Sayaka have been feuding on and off for a bit. Unagi’s a freelance guest, Ibuki is staying with Ice Ribbon, and Mio and Saran are making their final appearance (future plans for both unknown). Extremely curious about where Saran ends up, as she’s really finding her style and has a huge upside for whatever company she works with.
This was the planned last show of a temporary return from maternity leave for Ibuki (although she’s now decided to wrestle for a bit more before returning to hiatus).
As usual for anything involving Unagi and Mio this was extremely antics heavy. Add in the mischievous Saran and hard hitting Ibuki to anchor things and this was exactly what it needed to be. Light and entertaining match with good pacing, amusing undertones, and wild action when they got down to it. Presented at the perfect place in the card to boot.
Saran fought tooth and nail, nearly stole the match a couple times, and kicked out of a lot of close calls. But Ibuki finally put her away with a great crucifix bomb.
Saran was visibly emotional after the match. Looking forward to cheering for her wherever she goes. Really glad Ibuki got to come back a little earlier than expected to be able to wrestle here.
Ice Ribbon vs T-Hearts tag match. Both members of the Ice team are staying on the roster (although Umino was unfortunately injured days later with a broken collarbone and will be out for a while).
Umino debuted in April 2021 as Shizuku Tsukata in Wave, went on hiatus around the end of that year, then redebuted as Umino in Ice Ribbon in December 2022. She’s grown a lot in the last couple years and is really finding her style and persona.
Totoro was sporting her annual year end rainbow braid extensions, which always look awesome.
Never saw Miku wrestle before. She’s really good and I hope to see her more in the future.
This was on formula in best way possible for a match with larger power based veterans teaming with outmatched but resilient less experienced partners. Umino and Miku both showed great fire, both against each other and when they were fighting uphill battles against the vets.
When Totoro and Hotta were in against each other the dynamic completely changed and it became the less experienced Totoro trying to prove something against Hotta in a good old fashion power fight. At one point Totoro hit an unbelievable Finlay Roll on Hotta.
Down the stretch this was all about Umino throwing everything she had at the imposing Hotta until she just couldn’t fight anymore. Hotta finished her with a palm strike after Totoro accidentally wiped her out with a clothesline.
I really dug this. Probably my favorite match on the card up to this point, and it’s all been extremely good.
6) Manami Katsu vs. YuuRI
Manami Katsu returned to wrestling to join Ice Ribbon a few months ago after a three year hiatus. She’s a 13 year veteran formerly of JWP/Pure-J. I never watched a ton of Pure-J but have been to a few shows and had seen her wrestle there. This is my first real look at her in Ice.
YuuRI is a regular guest wrestler from GanPro, and a former ICE Cross Infinity Champion.
Manami went straight at YuuRI from the jump and this was pretty much 12 minutes of them throwing bombs (and occasionally trying to squeeze the life out of each other) and suffering the effects. It fit well into increasing match intensity throughout the show, which of course is exactly what should happen.
Late match YuuRI survived a tombstone driver, but Manami finally kept her down with a gorgeous straightjacket German suplex for a big win. Respect shown with a big hug between the two afterward.
A hard hitting affair that made Manami look tough as hell to have defeated YuuRI. Completely different than anything else on the card, and all the better for it.
7) International Tag Ribbon Title Match: Hamuko Hoshi & Makoto (c) vs. Yuko Sakurai & Sumika Yanagawa
This is Hamuko & Makoto’s third reign with the tag titles, and both have also held them with other partners as well. Hamuko had an additional six reigns with other partners and Makoto had an additional two.
Sumika is a former International Ribbon tag champ with Misa Kagura, who we’ll see in the main event. She is also the reigning Queen of JTO champion.
Yuko just recently won her first championship and is half of theWave Tag Team Champions with Yuki Miyazaki. Thrilled for her as Yuko’s a wonderful, sometimes underrated wrestler who’s easy to cheer for.
Makoto is a freelance regular guest (who originally started her 18 year career in Ice Ribbon). Hamuko is staying on the Ice Ribbon roster. Yuko is from COLORS and Sumika from JTO.
The challengers jumped the champs in lieu of handshakes for another appropriate quick start.
Hamuko was in wrecking ball mode, which is when she’s at her most awesome. Makoto has become a fun bully type vet primarily focused on trying to kick her opponents face off.
Sumika’s developed into a great submission wrestler and busted out some wild holds here. Yuko applied one of the most vicious looking dragon sleepers I’ve seen as well. Yuko gave as good as she got throughout. She hit a beautiful bridging suplex and a nice sitout facebuster for close near falls late match.
The champs’ hard hitting double teams ended up being the difference maker. They eventually retained with Makoto nailing a firman’s carry Michinoku driver on Yuko followed by a big top rope splash from Hamuko for the pin.
Yuko & Sumika are a good team and fought with ferocity that had the crowd pumped. This was all about the champs weathering the storm from a team giving them more fight than they might have expected. Excellent semi-main.
The champs strapped each others’ belts on afterwards. It’s a little touch that shows their pride in retaining them and support as a team.
I adored Yuko & Sumika together and definitely need to revisit numerous matches of theirs as a team I’ve missed. Would love to see them have a reign with these titles someday.
8) ICE Cross Infinity Title Match: Yuki Mashiro (c) vs. Misa Kagura
Reigning champion Mashiro is participating as a freelancer (as of the end of October), and her challenger Kagura is from JTO.
Mashiro has had an incredible transformation over her career, and every stage has been something special. From the rookie who howled in pain when she chopped opponents, to the lovably goofy Gacha King, to the technical wizard who captured Ice Ribbon’s top prize she’s always been one to watch. Mashiro retired from wrestling in 2022 after a year and a half, but came out of retirement in early 2024.
I’ve always been a huge fan of Mashiro and was thrilled to see her return, and am equally thrilled she’s been continuing to appear in Ice Ribbon freelance. She’s also starting appearing in other companies such as Marigold.
Misa has been in tournaments for this title in the past, but this is her first time directly challenging for it. I haven’t seen her much, but remember her being solid from what I have seen of her. She’s one of those people with an infectious smile, and she came out with it beaming for this title match.
They went AT each other right away with a wild forearm exchange. All the matches have started hot without anything feeling repetitive, and the show has been an engaging breeze to stay invested in as a result.
A hilarious moment early on saw Mashiro try to double eye poke Misa, But the latter caught her arm and countered by stuffing Mashiro’s fingers back into her own mouth.
I hadn’t consciously noticed until a really cool shot in this match of Mashiro choking out Misa in the corner, but the camera work had some particularly good work all show. The mentioned low camera angle from the corner was great. They did occasionally cut to/away from it too quickly in succession making it overly noticeable and a bit distracting, but overall it was well done.
The challenger excelled when using her power and slight size advantage for devastating tackles and grinding away at the champ with leveraged submission holds. A brutal sitout spine buster delivered to Mashiro at one point looked absolutely devastating.
In contrast the champ used her explosiveness to create openings, and relied heavily on being tenacious and smart counter wrestling.
Either outcome felt possible, which I appreciate greatly in a main event. In the end Mashiro hit her cross legged suplex with a bridge to retain.
Happy Mashiro will apparently be sticking around.
Hell of a match that had a little bit of everything: heavy strike exchanges, submissions, power wrestling, brawling outside, and so on. Fantastic way to cap off the show.
Katsu came out post match and there’s Mashiro’s next challenger. That’ll work. Intense exchange and they have to be pulled apart. Match set for January 13th.
I see the post show crowd handshakes are back. Mixed feelings watching that from afar as someone dealing with chronic illnesses in a post-pandemic world. But it was always a fun thing and a cool way to show appreciation, and its absence was felt for the years they couldn’t do it.
Overall
This show was everything I like about Ice Ribbon and pro-wrestling in general. Well balanced and paced with a variety of styles done right and the lighter stuff in the undercard giving way to fraught battles for championships to end the show out. Everyone’s commitment and effort was plain to see, and this was an extremely enjoyable watch all around.
As promised here’s a list of the remaining ten woman post Ribbonmania Ice Ribbon roster: Tsukka, Hamuko and Ibuki Hoshi, Manami Katsu, Kyuuri, Totoro, Yappy, Tsukina Umino, Kaho Matsushita, and Kirari Wakana.
Looking forward to seeing what lies ahead.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page.
Last November I got a simple text from a close friend that would end up having a pretty significant effect on me: “Hey, do you want to go to a concert tomorrow night?” And thus a new music obsession was born.
My friend was going to see Atarashii Gakko no Leaders (“New School Leaders,” now commonly shortened to Atarashii Gakko) and someone had to cancel, leaving an available ticket.
I had never heard of the group before, so did a quick search and checked out the first video that popped up. Thirty seconds into Nai Nai Nai I messaged back that I was in. The second video I saw was their performance of Otonablue on First Take, and I was completely blown away and hooked on their music from there.
I made it to the concert the next day, and was lucky to do so. I deal with a variety of chronic health conditions and my ability to function is highly variable day to day. Plans with me are always tentative until they happen, and I’ve had to cancel on a great number of events including many planned months in advance. On the flip side, my friends often check in with me when last minute opportunities arise as there’s a chance it falls on one of my good days.
Atarashii Gakko always seems to catch me on my good days, a quirk of fate I’m extremely grateful for. That show was the first concert I’d managed to attend since pre-pandemic, and it was a treat.
The concert was just as the extremely talented group was starting to grow in popularity. Among other things it happened a month before their appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live aired.
The Music Hall of Williamsburg is a small venue, and the sheer presence of Suzuka, Mizyu, Kanon, and Rin filled the space. I was in the balcony with a partially blocked view so didn’t get the full effect of their dancing, but what I did see and more importantly their fantastic vocal performances and catchy music blew me away and made me a permanent fan. I had a blast.
Late in the concert Suzuka ventured out into the audience (appropriately accompanied by staff, although keeping up with her was a task). A couple of her stops included directly below me at the audio station, and a couple people down from me when she came up to the balcony.
Considered to a point to be anti-idols, Atarashii Gakkko embrace elements in both their songwriting and performances that buck traditional idol trends and embrace their individual styles. Their songs and performances have a touch of indescribable uniqueness and feel extremely genuine. They do their own choreography as well, and everything comes together in a captivating manner.
Suzuka generally sings lead, but all four have amazing voices and a variety of their songs highlight each member at different times. I’ve grown to adore their music and the way it touches on several different styles, and listen to them regularly.
My second fortuitous opportunity to see them perform live came in a vastly different situation six months later. They appeared at the Head in the Clouds Festival in NYC in the open air venue Forest Hills Stadium. They killed it, and received an excellent reception particularly for being one of many performing acts. Also poor Rin was thankfully fine after tripping over an unfortunately placed speaker and playing dead for a few moments.
Back indoors for my most recent stroke of luck, last night I saw them perform at Terminal 5. I got a ticket months ago when the concert was announced, and despite an extremely difficult day for a variety of personal reasons I was thankfully able to attend in the end.
This was a chance to experience Atarashii Gakko at full power, with stunning multimedia visuals backing them up in a venue that holds 3,000 people. The experience was fantastic. Their shows are just pure fun, and with the possible exception of hearing a couple of my favorite songs that were absent I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
The atmosphere was electric. The crowd was already super hyped to see them, and they know how to pump the audience up even more into a frenzy. Suzuka in particular showed a phenomenal ability for crowd management in a foreign language. She also continued her venue exploring tendencies during their designated main concert ender, the previously mentioned Nai Nai Nai.
She went all over the place (with a small group of support staff in tow), including singing in the balcony again and later ending up right next to me for a moment at my spot behind the audio station. Wild, awesome experience.
Atarshii Gakko are charisma personified, and I highly recommend anyone that gets a chance catch them live. Wishing them the best of luck on the rest of their world tour.
Derailments of Thought 