Alternative Mindz

Welcome to the future H.A.L.
from Rob, March 4th, 2013 2:29 pm, Japan

A robot suit that can help the elderly or disabled get around was given its global safety certificate in Japan on Wednesday, paving the way for its worldwide rollout.

The Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL, is a power-assisted pair of legs developed by Japanese robot-maker Cyberdyne, which has also developed similar robot arms.

A quality assurance body issued the certificate based on a draft version of an international safety standard for personal robots that is expected to be approved later this year, the ministry for the economy, trade and industry said.

The metal-and-plastic exoskeleton has become the first nursing-care robot certified under the draft standard, a ministry official said.

Battery-powered HAL, which detects muscle impulses to anticipate and support the user’s body movements, is designed to help the elderly with mobility or help hospital or nursing carer-givers to lift patients.

Cyberdyne, based in Tsukuba, northeast of Tokyo, has so far leased some 330 suits to 150 hospitals, welfare and other facilities in Japan since 2010, at 178,000 yen ($1,950) per suit per year.

“It is very significant that Japan has obtained this certification before others in the world,” said Yoshiyuki Sankai, the head of Cyberdyne.

“This is a first step forward for Japan, the great robot nation, to send our message to the world about robots of the future,” said Sankai, who is also a professor at Tsukuba University.

This has been a long time coming in Japan. With less people having children and longer life expectancy elderly will need as much help as they can get.

Lets not forget what this can do for possible handicap and war vets.

Tags: hal, Japan, robotics, science

Become a Part of Japan Society’s Circle of Friends
from Bill, February 28th, 2013 9:43 pm, Japan

Spring is almost here, and Japan Society is brimming with unique and exciting exhibitions, performances and events!
Discover Japan Society’s Circle of Friends, a special group of individual members passionate about Japan, its arts and its culture! Get exclusive backstage passes to go behind the scenes with the artists, curators and creators of some of Japan Society’s most exciting cultural offerings. This spring:

Meet other Japan enthusiasts at the VIP opening of Edo Pop: The Graphic Impact of Japanese Prints and learn the curatorial choices behind the exhibition during a private walkthrough with Gallery Director Miwako Tezuka;
Watch star kyogen actor Mansai Nomura behind the scenes as he rehearses for Macbeth, a bold adaptation of Japan’s 600-year-old noh and kyogen traditions into Shakespeare’s 17th century Western classic;
Participate in private tours of The Armory Show, Christie’s New York Japanese and Korean Works of Art auction preview exhibition, and Guggenheim’s Gutai: Splendid Playground exhibition;
Focus your gift on the particular programs that interest you most, and have access to the creative and brilliant minds of our program staff; and
Receive exclusive offerings, free admission to the Gallery, complimentary tickets throughout the year and discounts on hundreds of box-office events, workshops and language classes.

Most importantly, your membership gift provides vital support that allows us to carry our mission, undertake important initiatives and serve hundreds of thousands of individuals of various backgrounds and ages worldwide.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN
Participation starts with an annual gift of $1,000. Visit www.japansociety.org/circle for more information.

Image: Deco Japan VIP opening reception © Alan Klein.

Unless otherwise noted all programs are held at Japan Society. 333 East 47th Street (at First Avenue) New York, NY 10017

Video game rating system
from Rob, February 28th, 2013 7:25 pm, Anime review

Anime review:Trigun
from Cas, February 28th, 2013 8:00 am, Anime review

By Cass Pineda

The genre of “space westerns” is still relatively young, but it is exactly what it sounds like: the transposing of Wild-West themes onto the wide-open frontier of outer space. While the wild west environment and lifestyle was a uniquely American experience, it is still captured perfectly in Yasuhiro Nightow’s Trigun.

Trigun, however, is not the only “space western” known to Western audiences. The more notable anime Cowboy Bebop, which Trigun predates by two years, showcases similar themes of lawlessness and moral ambiguity. The short-lived, cult favorite Firefly matches Trigun’s dirty, gritty aesthetics, but differs in that the show takes place on several planets instead of one.

The story of Trigun centers around a young man named Vash the Stampede, who somehow manages to cause enormous amounts of damage wherever he goes, so much so that he has been nickaned the Humanoid Typhoon. He has become such a problem that the Bernardelli Insurance Society sends two agents, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, to keep an eye on him and settle the claims left in his wake. Anyone who is familiar with Western films knows that often the driving force behind characters’ actions is something like revenge or greed, making the resulting relationships and stories of Vash, Meryl, and Milly unexpected and interesting. Meryl and Milly don’t even believe who Vash is when they meet him, since his goofy and lighthearted attitude is the opposite of the destructive and menacing man they had come to expect.

Vash is the archetypal tragic hero. Over the course of the series, audiences learn, though the eyes of Meryl and Milly, about Vash’s dark past. It becomes clearer that his behavior and actions, including his strict refusal to take the lives of others, is caused by his sense of guilt brought on by events long before. Unlike most protagonists, Vash’s core beliefs do not change through the show; but through him, characters like Nicholas D. Wolfwood, reach new understandings. Vash has the power to change those around him through his position as the “too-human non-human,” a caste he shares with such familiar faces as Astro Boy and Goku of the Dragonball series. While Vash is more powerful than a normal human, he empathizes with them, and instead uses his strengths and abilities to protect them, a path not chosen by his brother, Knives.

Serving as the main antagonist, Knives possesses powers similar to Vash, but very different viewpoints and attitudes. This is easily seen in a flashback in which the young pair are watching a butterfly trapped in a spider’s web. To Vash’s horror, Knives kills the spider in order to free the butterfly, believing that if one must live, the other must die. Vash, being kindhearted and opposed to killing, thought there was a way to save them both; these battle of ideologies is repeated throughout the show’s run, up until the final battle.

The brother-against-brother theme is nothing new, and recalls the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. It also harkens to something much older, the story of Romulus and Remus, the legendary brothers who founded Rome. Like them, Vash and Knives brought civilization to Gunsmoke, the desolate desert planet discovered by humans aboard gigantic space ships. These space ships housed people in cryogenic sleep, sent to populate the stars in a program called Project Seeds. The humans piloting these ships–including Vash’s friend and mentor, Rem–are akin to the shepherds that raised Romulus and Remus in the ancient story. And, like those brothers, Vash and Knives reunite to hash it out, once and for all.

Tags: anime, anime manga, knives, manga, Trigun, vash

Starting this Wednesday at Japan Society: Girls, Guns, Ghosts & Much More
from Bill, February 26th, 2013 7:53 pm, Japan, Japanese Culture

Globus Film Series Into the Shintoho Mind Warp: Girls, Guns & Ghosts

February 27–March 10, 2013

“A quality of urgency that has not diminished”—Nick Pinkerton, “Fast, Cheap, and Under Control,” ArtForum
“To be perfectly honest this is one of the year’s must-attend-can’t-miss series”—Steve Kopian, Unseen Films
“No joke: I’ve wanted to see this for more than a quarter century”—Peter Gutierrez, Twitch
Japan Society’s 2013 Globus Film Series Into the Shintoho Mind Warp: Girls, Guns & Ghosts from the Second Golden Age of Japanese Film offers rare screenings of eight Shintoho films—all New York Premieres and all unavailable on DVD in the U.S.—produced from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. The series launches Wednesday, February 27 with an opening night reception featuring Japanese soul band Neo Maki Blues. Tickets to each screening are $12/$9 Japan Society members, seniors and students. All films are in Japanese with English subtitles.
Often compared with Roger Corman’s exploitation-movie factory, American International Pictures, Shintoho started off in a more orthodox fashion with the holy trinity of Japanese cinema: Kenji Mizoguchi, Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu. But it went on to revolutionize and breathe new life into Japanese genre movies, populating it with bizarre ghouls and ghosts, unruly teenagers, vampires, werewolves and curvy girls in bikinis.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE:
In addition to this series, and in conjunction with Edo Pop, a special screening of Mizoguchi’s arch classic Utamaro and His Five Women has been scheduled on March 9. The program will also open the 3/11 commemoration with the New York premiere of Sion Sono‘s The Land of Hope on March 10, and screen the documentary Memories of Origin, about internationally famous contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, who will be there for an introduction and Q&A on March 26. (See the schedule below for more information.)

Globus Film Series Schedule

	FILM Ghost Story of Yotsuya 東海道四谷怪談 (Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan) Wednesday, February 27, 8 PM This adaption of a kabuki play by Tsuruya Nanboku (1825) is a Japanese Macbeth about a monstrous ambition whose fruits are murder. Followed by the Enka Ecstasy party. The party features live performance by New York-based Japanese soul music band Neo Blues Maki. TICKETS

FILM Ghost Story of Yotsuya 東海道四谷怪談 (Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan)

Wednesday, February 27, 8 PM

This adaption of a kabuki play by Tsuruya Nanboku (1825) is a Japanese Macbeth about a monstrous ambition whose fruits are murder.
Followed by the Enka Ecstasy party. The party features live performance by New York-based Japanese soul music band Neo Blues Maki. TICKETS

	FILM Ghost Cat of Otama Pond 怪猫お玉が池 (Kaibyo Otama-ga-Ike) Friday, March 1, 7 PM In 1960, Yoshihiro Ishikawa made his directorial debut with The Ghost Cat of Otama Pond. The story—a young couple caught in a web of ghostly revenge, with a black cat serving as a conduit between the worlds of the living and dead—is familiar from the era’s horror films TICKETS

FILM Ghost Cat of Otama Pond 怪猫お玉が池 (Kaibyo Otama-ga-Ike)

Friday, March 1, 7 PM

In 1960, Yoshihiro Ishikawa made his directorial debut with The Ghost Cat of Otama Pond. The story—a young couple caught in a web of ghostly revenge, with a black cat serving as a conduit between the worlds of the living and dead—is familiar from the era’s horror films TICKETS

	FILM The Horizon Glitters 地平線がぎらぎらっ (Chiheisen ga Giragira) Saturday, March 2, 3 PM A black comedy about a prison break gone horribly wrong, Doi Michiyoshi’s The Horizon Glitters is unlike anything else Shintoho was making at the time. TICKETS

FILM The Horizon Glitters 地平線がぎらぎらっ (Chiheisen ga Giragira)

Saturday, March 2, 3 PM

A black comedy about a prison break gone horribly wrong, Doi Michiyoshi’s The Horizon Glitters is unlike anything else Shintoho was making at the time. TICKETS

	FILM Vampire Bride 花嫁吸血魔 (Hanayome Kyuketsuma) Saturday, March 2, 5:15 PM In the film, Junko Ikeuchi plays Fujiko, a dance student with a horrific facial scar, seeks help from a sorceress in the mountains, who ultimately transforms her into a powerful monster. TICKETS

FILM Vampire Bride 花嫁吸血魔 (Hanayome Kyuketsuma)

Saturday, March 2, 5:15 PM

In the film, Junko Ikeuchi plays Fujiko, a dance student with a horrific facial scar, seeks help from a sorceress in the mountains, who ultimately transforms her into a powerful monster. TICKETS

	FILM Flesh Pier 女体棧橋 (Jotai Sanbashi) Saturday, March 2, 7:30 PM Ishii filmed his twisty story of evasions and betrayals in the back streets of Akasaka, Ginza and Shinjuku, in a semi-documentary style with an unblinking recognition of its sordidness, together with a winking acknowledgment of its pleasures. TICKETS

FILM Flesh Pier 女体棧橋 (Jotai Sanbashi)

Saturday, March 2, 7:30 PM

Ishii filmed his twisty story of evasions and betrayals in the back streets of Akasaka, Ginza and Shinjuku, in a semi-documentary style with an unblinking recognition of its sordidness, together with a winking acknowledgment of its pleasures. TICKETS

	FILM Death Row Woman 女死刑囚の脱獄 (Onna Shikeishu no Datsugoku) Sunday, March 3, 5 PM Death Row Woman, about a woman falsely accused of the murder of her wealthy businessman father, is closer in sensibility to the era’s “woman’s pictures,” whose typical themes were female suffering and sacrifice, than to the women-in-prison exploitation pics of the 1970s. TICKETS

FILM Death Row Woman 女死刑囚の脱獄 (Onna Shikeishu no Datsugoku)

Sunday, March 3, 5 PM

Death Row Woman, about a woman falsely accused of the murder of her wealthy businessman father, is closer in sensibility to the era’s “woman’s pictures,” whose typical themes were female suffering and sacrifice, than to the women-in-prison exploitation pics of the 1970s. TICKETS

	FILM Revenge of the Pearl Queen 女真珠王の復讐 (Onna Shinju-o no Fukushu) Sunday, March 3, 7 PM Revenge of the Pearl Queen‘s central plot is based on the true story of 19 Japanese men discovered on Anatahan, a tiny island in the Marianas Group, in 1951. TICKETS

FILM Revenge of the Pearl Queen 女真珠王の復讐 (Onna Shinju-o no Fukushu)

Sunday, March 3, 7 PM

Revenge of the Pearl Queen‘s central plot is based on the true story of 19 Japanese men discovered on Anatahan, a tiny island in the Marianas Group, in 1951. TICKETS

	FILM Yellow Line 黄線地帯イエローライン (Osen Chitai) Sunday, March 10, 4 PM In this film, more than any in his Shintoho period, Teruo Ishii was able to create his own special atmosphere, somewhere on the borderland between dream and reality, where the forbidden and unlawful thrill and threaten in equal measure. TICKETS

FILM Yellow Line 黄線地帯イエローライン (Osen Chitai)

Sunday, March 10, 4 PM

In this film, more than any in his Shintoho period, Teruo Ishii was able to create his own special atmosphere, somewhere on the borderland between dream and reality, where the forbidden and unlawful thrill and threaten in equal measure. TICKETS

Upcoming Films

	FILM Utamaro and His Five Women 歌麿をめぐる五人の女 (Utamaro o Meguru Gonin no Onna) Saturday, March 9, 6 PM Utamaro and His Five Women focuses on the life and work of a legendary 18th-century “floating world” artist caught between his fierce dedication to his art and a fiery storm of love intrigue. TICKETS

FILM Utamaro and His Five Women 歌麿をめぐる五人の女 (Utamaro o Meguru Gonin no Onna)

Saturday, March 9, 6 PM

Utamaro and His Five Women focuses on the life and work of a legendary 18th-century “floating world” artist caught between his fierce dedication to his art and a fiery storm of love intrigue. TICKETS

	FILM The Land of Hope (希望の国) (Kibo no Kuni) Sunday, March 10, 6 PM The Land of Hope, a fictional film about the 3/11-related nuclear power plant meltdown, recounts disaster and tragedy in two families. TICKETS

FILM The Land of Hope (希望の国) (Kibo no Kuni)

Sunday, March 10, 6 PM

The Land of Hope, a fictional film about the 3/11-related nuclear power plant meltdown, recounts disaster and tragedy in two families. TICKETS

	FILM Memories of Origin—Hiroshi Sugimoto (はじまりの記憶杉本博司) Tuesday, March 26, 7 PM Memories of Origin, which follows contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto for 200 days as he travels around the globe creating artwork, reveals his inner journey driven by everlasting curiosity. TICKETS

FILM Memories of Origin—Hiroshi Sugimoto (はじまりの記憶杉本博司)

Tuesday, March 26, 7 PM

Memories of Origin, which follows contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto for 200 days as he travels around the globe creating artwork, reveals his inner journey driven by everlasting curiosity. TICKETS

“Into the Shintoho Mind Warp” is made possible through the generous support of The Globus Family.

Further generous support is provided by Kenneth A. Cowin.
Japan Society’s 2012-2013 Film Programs are generously supported by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund.
Additional support is provided by David S. Howe, Omar Al-Farisi, Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Catanzaro, Laurel Gonsalves, Geoff Matters, and Dr. Tatsuji Namba.
Globus Series images: © C.E.C.-Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche; Utamaro and His Five Women © 1946 Shochiku Co., Ltd.; © 2012 The Land of Hope Film Partners; © 2012 Memories of Origin; TV MAN UNION. Inc., WOWOW Inc.

Unless otherwise noted all programs are held at Japan Society. 333 East 47th Street (at First Avenue) New York, NY 10017

DARK HORSE COMICS & HAPPYGIANT ANNOUNCE USAGI YOJIMBO GAME
from Bill, February 23rd, 2013 4:33 pm, comic book, Gaming, Japanese Culture

DARK HORSE COMICS & HAPPYGIANT ANNOUNCE USAGI YOJIMBO GAME

Award Winning Comic Brought To Life for Mobile, Tablets, Desktop

New York, NY, February 22, 2013 – HappyGiant, in association with Dark Horse Comics, announce “Usagi Yojimbo: Way of The Ronin”, a game now available for iPhones & iPads, and coming soon to Android devices and desktop PC’s (www.usagiyojimbogame.com).

In conjunction with the release of the game, Dark Horse Comics is announcing the first new Usagi Yojimbo collection after a year hiatus working on 47 Ronin. The first new book will be Usagi Yojimbo: A Town Called Hell, which will see release on July 17.

Usagi Yojimbo is the beloved character and world created by award winning author and illustrator Stan Sakai, following the tales of a ronin (masterless samurai), set in feudal Japan. This is the first videogame based on the property in over 25 years and will introduce the epic series to a new generation of fans.

“It’s been far too long since the last Usagi game, and I am so excited to be working with HappyGiant to bring Usagi and his friends back to these new platforms,” said Stan Sakai, “The game turned out great!”

“Happy Giant is thrilled to be working with Stan Sakai and Dark Horse to bring Usagi Yojimbo to the mobile and gaming worlds”, said Michael Levine, CEO of HappyGiant. “This is one of the most treasured properties in the comics world, and we are proud to be adapting it as a game for fans, and for a new generation of fans who will discover it for the first time. This is a real labor of love.”

The title is a “2D side-scrolling hack-and-slash game”, done in the comic’s art style, and in the vein of the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade game, to which Usagi is often linked, as the characters have appeared in each other’s comics and TV series over the years. The game features over 60 different enemies, over 13 boss monsters and several of Usagi’s friends who fight along his side as companions.

About HappyGiant

Founded by veterans of LucasArts and Pileated Pictures (Pileated.com), HappyGiant develops and publishes games for mobile, tablets and emerging platforms.

About Dark Horse Comics

Founded in1986 by Mike Richardson, Dark Horse Comics has proven to be a solid example of how integrity and innovation can help broaden a unique storytelling medium and establish a small, homegrown company as an industry giant. The company is known for the progressive and creator-friendly atmosphere it provides for writers and artists. In addition to publishing comics from top talent such as Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Neil Gaiman, Brian Wood, Gerard Way, Felicia Day, Guillermo Del Toro and comics legends such as Will Eisner, Neal Adams, and Jim Steranko, Dark Horse has developed its own successful properties such as The Mask, Ghost, Timecop, and SpyBoy. Its successful line of comics and products based on popular properties includes Star Wars, Mass Effect, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Conan, Emily the Strange, Tim Burton’s Tragic Toys for Girls and Boys, Serenity, Game of Thrones and Domo. Today Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent comic book publisher in the US and is recognized as one of the world’s leading publishers of both creator-owned content and licensed comics material.

About Usagi Yojimbo

Usagi Yojimbo is a comic book series created by Stan Sakai in 1987. In 2011 IGN ranked Miyamoto Usagi in the top 100 comic books heroes of all time. Set primarily at the beginning of Edo period of Japan (early 17th century), with anthropomorphic animals replacing humans, the series features a rabbit ronin, Miyamoto Usagi, whom Stan Sakai based partially on the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. Usagi wanders the land on a musha shugyo (warrior’s pilgrimage) occasionally selling his services as a bodyguard. Usagi Yojimbo is heavily influenced by Japanese cinema and has included references to the work of Akira Kurosawa (the title of the series is derived from Kurosawa’s 1960 film Yojimbo) and to icons of popular Japanese cinema such as Lone Wolf and Cub, Zatoichi, and Godzilla. The series is also influenced somewhat by Groo the Wanderer by Sergio Aragonés (Sakai is the letterer for that series), but the overall tone of Usagi Yojimbo is more serious and reflective.

###

Remembering 3/11: Film, Concert & Lecture Series
from Bill, February 13th, 2013 9:56 pm, Japan

Hope, Struggle & Rebirth in the Shadow of 3/11: Film, Concert & Lecture

March 10, 11 & 12

The Great East Japan Tsunami and Earthquake has had a profound effect on Japanese society that will be felt for many years to come. To mark the two-year anniversary of the disasters, Japan Society will host three special evening events to explore the impact and aftermath of 3/11 as seen through the eyes of an award-winning film director, an acclaimed pianist and visual artist, and a leading scholar on Japan.

Event Schedule

	FILM The Land of Hope (希望の国) (Kibo no Kuni) Sunday, March 10, 6 PM New York Premiere. The Land of Hope, a fictional film about the 3/11-related nuclear power plant meltdown, recounts disaster and tragedy in two families. TICKETS

FILM The Land of Hope (希望の国) (Kibo no Kuni)

Sunday, March 10, 6 PM

New York Premiere.
The Land of Hope, a fictional film about the 3/11-related nuclear power plant meltdown, recounts disaster and tragedy in two families. TICKETS

	MUSIC Nocturne: Reemergence Through Music Monday, March 11, 7:30 PM Created in the aftermath of 3/11, acclaimed Amsterdam-based pianist and visual artist Tomoko Mukaiyama brings her multimedia piano performance production Nocturne to New York. The evening also includes violinist Erika Mitsui, performing on an instrument crafted from driftwood found in the tsunami disaster areas. TICKETS

MUSIC Nocturne: Reemergence Through Music

Monday, March 11, 7:30 PM

Created in the aftermath of 3/11, acclaimed Amsterdam-based pianist and visual artist Tomoko Mukaiyama brings her multimedia piano performance production Nocturne to New York. The evening also includes violinist Erika Mitsui, performing on an instrument crafted from driftwood found in the tsunami disaster areas. TICKETS

	CORPORATE PROGRAM 3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan Tuesday, March 12, 6 PM Drawing on his new book, 3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan, Richard J. Samuels offers the first broad assessment of the effects of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown of March 11, 2011. REGISTER

CORPORATE PROGRAM 3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan

Tuesday, March 12, 6 PM

Drawing on his new book, 3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan, Richard J. Samuels offers the first broad assessment of the effects of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown of March 11, 2011. REGISTER

From Our Friends

	THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO ALUMNI CHOIR Japan Earthquake Benefit & Sandy Relief Concert Tuesday, February 26, 8 PM Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage Carnegie Hall This concert reflects the thoughts, hearts and minds of the people in both Japan and America involved in helping the survivors and remembering the victims of these two natural disasters. The evening opens with a contemporary piece inspired by an ancient Japanese Buddhist chant, followed by Japanese traditional flute and folk music. TICKETS

THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO ALUMNI CHOIR Japan Earthquake Benefit & Sandy Relief Concert

Tuesday, February 26, 8 PM

Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage Carnegie Hall
This concert reflects the thoughts, hearts and minds of the people in both Japan and America involved in helping the survivors and remembering the victims of these two natural disasters. The evening opens with a contemporary piece inspired by an ancient Japanese Buddhist chant, followed by Japanese traditional flute and folk music. TICKETS

Hope, Struggle & Rebirth in the Shadow of 3/11 at Japan Society marking the second anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunamis is generously supported by ITOCHU International Inc., Marubeni America Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas), Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc., and Sumitomo Corporation of America.

Unless otherwise noted all programs are held at Japan Society. 333 East 47th Street (at First Avenue) New York, NY 10017

Saban Brands And USAopoly™ Partner To Produce Power Rangers 20th Anniversary Editions Of Monopoly® And Trivial Pursuit®
from Bill, February 12th, 2013 9:55 pm, Japan, Toys

Saban Brands And USAopoly™ Partner To Produce Power Rangers 20th Anniversary Editions Of Monopoly® And Trivial Pursuit®

NEW YORK, Feb. 12, 2013 (Virtual Press Office) – Saban Brands and USAopoly today announced their collaboration for the upcoming Power Rangers Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit board games to celebrate the 20^th Anniversary of the iconic franchise. USAopoly has unveiled the first look of the box tops for the Power Rangers editions of each game this week at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

The Power Rangers 20^th Anniversary Edition of Monopoly will allow players to buy, sell and trade iconic locations spanning the entire history of the Power Rangers brand including The Command Center, The Power Chamber, Rita Repulsa’s Moon Palace and more. The game is for 2-6 players and recommended for ages 8+.

Saban Brands ran a poll last week on the official Power Rangers Facebook page where thousands of fans voted for which final game token they wanted to be included in the Monopoly game. Options included Goldar, Mighty Morphin boots or the Angel Grove Juice Bar cup with straw. The winner will be revealed on Facebook, along with the other 5 tokens in the game leading up to the release of the game this summer.

The Trivial Pursuit Power Rangers 20^th Anniversary Edition allows fans to show off their Ranger knowledge by acing over 1,800 questions from six categories spanning the two decades of Power Rangers. Questions about Power Rangers gear, villains, quotes, plot lines and more are included. This game is for 2-6 players and recommended for ages 12+.

For the Trivial Pursuit edition, Saban Brands engaged the Power Force, a select group of Power Rangers enthusiasts, to help develop the trivia questions for the upcoming game. Saban Brands received thousands of questions from these 20 Power Force members, and each participant will receive credit in the game.

“There is such a nostalgia factor not only with Power Rangers but with the history of Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit games as well,” said Elie Dekel, President of Saban Brands. “That’s why we thought it would be fun to get the Power Rangers fans involved with the creation of these games. With this year marking 20 years of the franchise, it couldn’t be a better time for this collaboration.”

The 20^th Anniversary Edition of Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit board games will be available at specialty retailers this summer for the SRP of $39.95.

For more information please visit www.usaopoly.com and www.powerrangers.com.

About Saban’s Power Rangers Saban’s Power Rangers franchise is the brainchild of Haim Saban, creator and producer of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers hit series that launched in 1993. Following its introduction, Power Rangers quickly became the most-watched children’s television program in the United States and remains the No.1 live-action kids series on television. The series follows the adventures of a group of ordinary young people who “morph” into superheroes and save the world from evil. It is seen in more than 150 markets around the world, translated into numerous languages, and is a mainstay in the most prominent international children’s programming blocks. The Power Rangers franchise is celebrating its 20^th Anniversary throughout 2013, which started with the launch of its newest season Power Rangers Megaforce on Nickelodeon and other broadcasters worldwide. Power Rangers LLC, which licenses and merchandises the Power Rangers brand, is an affiliate of Saban Brands. For more information, visit www.powerrangers.com.

About Saban Brands Formed in 2010 as an affiliate of Saban Capital Group, Saban Brands (SB) was established to acquire and develop a world-class portfolio of properties and capitalize on the company’s experience, track record and capabilities in growing and monetizing consumer brands through content, media and marketing. SB applies a strategic transmedia management approach to enhancing and extending its brands in markets worldwide and to consumers of all ages. The company provides full-service management, marketing, promotion and strategic business development for its intellectual properties including comprehensive strategies unique to each brand, trademark and copyright management and enforcement, creative design, retail development, direct-to-consumer initiatives and specialized property extensions. SB is led by a superior management team with decades of experience in media, content creation, branding, licensing, marketing and finance. For more information, visit www.sabanbrands.com.

ABOUT USAOPOLY USAopoly, Inc., (http://USAopoly.com) is a leading game manufacturer in the specialty market offering the world’s best-known games (under license from the Entertainment & Licensing Division of Hasbro) and an innovating game developer of party games like Telestrations.