Since Buck-Tick's Fish Tankers Only Tour 2017 ended almost as quickly as it began, we've had precious little news from Buck-Tickistan, but for the following two strange announcements.
1. Between February 8th and February 10th, the Astro Boy x Buck-Tick collaboration goods (shown in the photos below) were exhibited in the Tezuka Productions general exhibit room at the 83rd Tokyo International Gift Show, held at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center. Since this is a trade show, it was not open to members of the general public, only to persons with business-related invitations, and at the time this announcement was made, pre-registration had already been closed. Therefore, it's a mystery why they bothered to put the announcement on their site. Was it an invitation to Buck-Tick fans who happened to be attending the gift show to come on over? Or was it simply a necessary bragging opportunity, since let's face it, Buck-Tick hardly ever get general exposure anymore? Either way, we're glad these Tezuka nerd goods are still hanging out in public where people can see them, because we don't think that the stares our tote bag attracts as we putter around our neighborhood grocery store really count.
2. On March 8th, Higuchi Yutaka will participate in a talk show sponsored by the music magazine Ongaku to Hito and hosted by Kanemitsu Hirofumi, one of Ongaku to Hito's senior writers who has covered Buck-Tick since around the time of their debut. Entitled "Just Before The Curtain Rises! We're Musicians Who Love Pro Baseball!", this talk show will, you guessed it, feature a bunch of musicians who love baseball, talking about baseball. Yutaka's been writing a monthly baseball column for Ongaku to Hito for years now, so this is really no surprise, especially given that his buddy Kanemitsu is involved. The performers announced so far are:
Ueno Koji (The Hiatus, Ka.F.Ka) - supporting the Hiroshima Toyo Carp
Okamoto "Moby" Takuya (Scoobie Do) - supporting the Chicago Cubs
Great Maekawa (Flower Companies) - supporting the Chunichi Dragons
Higuchi Yutaka (Buck-Tick) - supporting the Hanshin Tigers
Oh yeah, and it say in the announcement that Kanemitsu also supports the Hanshin Tigers. Is this going to be biased talk? Just maybe.
Amazingly, the tickets for this event are only 3500 yen plus at least one drink, but the thing is happening at Loft Plus One, which between you and us is a VERY small venue, so good luck getting tickets in the first place. Tickets go on sale from 10AM on February 15th through eplus. A disclaimer on the announcement reminds potential attendees that though the participants in this event are all musicians, they will NOT be talking about music UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, so don't let that get your knickers in a twist. But if you're aroused by the though of hearing Yutaka talk about some Serious Hard Ball, well, this is the event for you.
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