Buffalo Bobs COWBOY
From that familiar looking mascot to all that leopard print, Buffalo Bobs does some genuine culture jamming with their Cowboy The Frontiers Man of Eros line...
(Not to be confused with "Playboy")
Buffalo Bobs YANKEE A GO GO
Yankee a go go FUCKING HEROES is like, my favorite Japanese brand name ever. Invoking cries of "Yankee go home!" from the locals and all the zombie-terror the word Yankii can muster, this is Buffalo Bobs "Artistic and Casual" (there's that word again) clothing line. It's not clear who exactly is doing the fucking, but the smart money is on the heroes...Golgo 13? Uchu Keiji Gaban, maybe?
About ten bucks.
Buffalo Bobs Desktop Wallpaper
Buffalo Bobs desktop wallpaper is available for download now at the official brand site. Much of the photography is by "Nobu Wenders" (Possibly sired by Wim during the making of 1985's "Tokyo-ga"? Must investigate). Hopefully someday, Buffalo Bobs will make *real* wallpaper to decorate the home with, but for now these will hafta do...
The liberal use of gaijin models washing down takoyaki with what looks like Old Crow gives me precisely two more reasons to go on living.
Ok. This shot above all others, seems to sum up Buffalo Bobs in a nutshell: "affluent" sex trash celebs invading the memory room at the end of "2001: A Space Odyssey". Far as I know, they don't even make women's clothes, but it's probably only a matter of time now...Gaze upon these works wild & sexy and despair!
Just like in Twin Peaks, coffee continues to be a baffling part of the Buffalo Bobs semantic set. What does it mean? Bonus points for the bananas and Egg McMuffin and then minus millions for the (boring) Starbucks in his paw there. I just hope things don't go too upscale in the wake of the recent ¥9.9 million payday at the Osaka store...
Here's an educational look at how exactly to sport those DONUT & COFFEE underpants...
Buffalo Bobs DONUT & COFFEE
DONUT & COFFEE is Buffalo Bobs’ “powerful design” line (which I take to mean 6% more "powerful" than usual) especially created to enhance the style of your “love scene.” So far, Bobs has rolled out DONUT & COFFEE jackets, jeans, and polo and long sleeve shorts like the one below.
Krispy Kreme donuts in Japan are exclusive and desirable. Savages wait in lines for hours for them. The trick should also work for you in this shirt, provided no one mistakes you for an employee and asks you to mop up a coffee spill.
But the big hit of the line so far are definitely the DONUT & COFFEE underwear sets which gives you “the glow of a strong personality”. Gorgeous shopping bag included with US$52.00 purchase. A cheap price to be able to tell the girls you know where they can get a quick sugar and caffeine fix...
Buffalo Bobs Caked Up Precious
New item at Buffalo Bobs: Ragland long sleeve T-shirts depicting what looks like a woman (update: that's no woman, that's Paris Hilton!) devouring a hamburguesa con queso. Details in rhinestones and embroidery add a luxurious finish. BB's is pushing "casual" printed T-shirts this season. So say hello to Buffalo Bobs' idea of "casual" at about US$80 bucks a pop.
Dazzling Foxy Lady
Made especially for the opening of the Osaka Hankyu building. The shirt in the middle came bundled with free Chupa Chups. About US$50.00. But of course, they're all sold out now...haw haw!
We gotta round up the Warriors
Welcome to Buffalo Bobs day...
Reasons why it's Buffalo Bobs day.
Progress Vanilla Perfect
And then God created…HOST KNUCKLE (full name: "Hard Core Men’s Nobility and Guynes Host Knuckle") a one-shot special “mook” from Million Shuppan, publishers of that perennial favorite Men’s Knuckle magazine. Sharing the same resources and models as it’s parent publication, Host Knuckle makes explicit the connection between Shibuya-based gyaru-o fashion and the host club workforce centered in Shinjuku, Kabuki-cho. While the average issue of Men’s Knuckle concludes with 10 or so pages of job recruitment ads for host clubs, Host Knuckle assumes you’re either already in the running for a coveted “King of Dandy” flower bouquet or just need that subtle push over the edge, lead on by visions of hot wimmins and wads of cash.
Host Knuckle kicks off with a spread of dudes standing around, modeling clothes at Shinjuku hot-spots, all of which are across the street from each other, ala the Taito game center (above), the gateway to Sakura-dori, and, of course, the outside of Don Quijote. How the photogs managed to put this together without even a single dasai gaijin tourist bumbling into the frame is something of a minor miracle.
It’s hard to believe these habitual street rats even HAVE places to live, but the “Host’s Room” feature adds a touch of reality, even as it builds up the dream to greater heights. Tiny single room apartments are decorated in monochromatic color schemes. Big ass TVs are common, as are miniature dogs and house cats. Conversation pieces include drawers full of nothing but instant food, fridges full of booze and stamina drinks (you better believe Our Man here is having an Ukon no Chikara), books about host clubs and entrepreneurship, a complete set of collectible Final Fantasy soda cans, assorted game systems, and in one guy’s case, an “Electric Personal Body Massager” (read: “vibrator”).
The “Host and Money” feature gives you some idea of how many 10000 yen bills you’ll be able to stick in your oversized Vuitton wallet once you get on-board the “one month – two paydays” system. There’s also a guide to where the money needs to go if you want to maintain the lifestyle…car payments, food, accessories, phone bills, suits from Shibuya 109-2, etc. It says, "Love is the triumph of the imagination over intelligence. MONEY IS LIFE" somewhere in that alphabet soup there.
But of course, there’s more to life than just counting cash. Hosts need love too! Which is why there’s a guide to drilling hot gals during off-hours. Before revealing your masterplan to take them to the “rabuho” (AKA Love Hotel), Host Knuckle first recommends buttering up the females with one of the following activities: dinner, karaoke (above, note subliminal message hidden in song lyrics), shopping, going to a movie, driving, and last but not least…reading manga together! There’s also a handful of “no goods” to be avoided, like offering the girl money straight up or "grabbin' them cakes" Junkyard Dog style in public. Good to know! Thanks, Host Knuckle!
“How to Host” is a fascinating verité day-in-the-life look into the inner workings of club AI$ and club AAA. Starting at 7pm, employees prepare by mopping the floor, unpacking crates of booze, and polishing up the tables and ashtrays. At 8pm, the doors open and the nightly regimen of welcoming female customers, lighting their cigarettes, handing them glasses, filling them up again, and emptying ashtrays begins. The timeline here say 10pm, but it could happen at anytime: a customer bravely orders the “Champagne Course” (above) which can cost them thousands of dollars in one fell swoop. The reward is having all the hosts gather around the table where they yell into a microphone and everyone guzzles some of the good shit. At 12:30, it’s time to get lost. Occupational hazard: a few of your fellow host employees will be totally shit-faced and piss drunk at closing time, if not earlier. Give them some water or something. The same goes for the customers, who also need to be shown the door and escorted to the elevators. Make sure they’ve don’t leave their Louis V. bag behind!
And then? World is yours, baby. Find an open spot near the entrance of Kabuki-cho and just stand around looking cool (like Ryoma, above). Maybe someone will take your picture for a Men’s Knuckle “street style” feature. Perhaps you can whistle while the girls pass by, or ruthlessly try to pick them up using assorted nampa techniques. Or you can fill out the questionnaire in the back pages of Host Knuckle about how you liked the magazine and get a chance at winning some great prizes (a jacket from Deadly Jester, some mahjong tiles, autographed pictures of the hosts from the AIR-GROUP, or a figure of Goku from Dragonball).
Repeat till fade or the first train home...
VANQUISH LOVE TIME WATCH
Marxy on the "wild and sexy" triumph of O-nii-kei on his clast blog. Buffalo Bobs is right behind Vuitton, at least in Osaka...
Kintama is burning
Oh yeah. Issue 100 of men's egg has just dropped. The oversized results look like a Sears Wish Book gone berserk on Mega Macs, Ukon no Chikara, and Don Quijote diamonds. Congrads to all my Tokyo homies at Taiyo Tosho publishing for doing right by their Center Guy Centennial. Pics and peeks once I get this new scanner hooked up...
Thank you for being so stupid and entertaining me
Special guest review of men's egg Core by "Tatsurou", age 16. I am not making this up.
Have you seen men's egg core? I haven't gotten the newest issue (7), but I did happen to find the last one (which would be 6) in New York CITY, and it is basically all about sex positions, girls in bikinis, asking the girls in bikinis if they would have sex with a dude who is 包茎/結婚した/ナルシスト/180cm/一重まぶた etc. Dudes having some gay lotion (semen) competition, true accounts of 忘れられないセックス, and an interview with a naked girl. For the girls who are reading (of which 52% prefer missionary position), it explains things that are NOT ATTRACTIVE, and some 出会い系 ads (if they're reading this magazine they might need them.)
All in all, a great read, A+, would read again. I don't know if the newer issue is more of the same stuff (http://eggmgg.jp/mgg/core.php -- seems a bit more about fashion.. and fuck buddy academy..), but seems like something you (at least your readers) would be interested in. Because I mean, who doesn't want to know how to treat a lady the right way? All for the low price of 450￥!
PM's verdict (on issue 7): Smaller, deadlier, more portable than the regular egg, and strictly designed for guys who never, ever leave the Shibuya axis; it's the Wolverine of the gyaru-o magazine pack. Content seems about 10% sleazier than the usual publication of it's type; complete with love hotel reviews, cutthroat nampa tips and tricks, and how to bust open the gal once you've got her. Despite what the cover says, fashion spreads take a backseat to such fun, but when you've got a guide to goukon binge drinking with the girls dressed like race queens (below), it's hard to complain, let alone stand up. Good for young readers like Tatsurou!
Why Don't We Talk About Something Else, So We'll Have Something Else to Talk About
Men’s Roses is published by Takarajimasha and covers the exact same “bad taste is glamorous” territory that Men’s Knuckle and men’s egg do. Strength Attributes include higher-than-normal star power (Leah Dizon and Mike Tyson are featured inside, the former with exclusive photos), appropriately raunchy coverage of “adult topics”, and scantily clad gal photo spreads. And man, I love the tiny cheap diamonds direction that graphic design is headed in Japan…but it’s the same brands over and over again (Jack Rose, Buffalo Bobs, VAROOSH). But consider all my doubts suddenly undone. This issue also comes packaged with a pair of sparkly “metallic silver pearl white” (plastic, actually) headphones...designed by FUGA, and what do you think I’m listening to my Outrageous Cherry with now with?
Merry Christmas from Men's Knuckle Magazine
And before you hit the Christmas lights displays (and love hotels), you might want to consider the following holiday products from Vanquish.
men's egg - the elements of style
In spite of my best attempts to continually promote Men’s Knuckle magazine, it’s clear that at least some of the people who come here via Google looking for center guy and gyaru-o coverage just really want to see more of men’s egg (500 yen, published by Taiyoh Tosho), the all-male version of monthly gal magazine egg. And who can blame them? So here’s a look inside the new issue.
The cover story is a “complete guide to outerwear” which - this being winter - means page after page of big puffy down jackets from brands with funny names like Varosh, Blutenblatt, Rise Rily, Buffalo Bobs, and Casva. These two pictured below are probably the most ridiculous and are made by Midas. Know ye now that everything they touch turns…fabulous!
The best part of this issue is an essential “Shibuya Styling Manual” where the center guy look gets broken down once and all for lost teenagers who might need some help in forming a stable identity. Everything you see, and a lot more, is on sale now at the Shibuya 109-2 store. No need to make up a grocery list. All you have to do is hold your head up high and tell the staff you'd like it “HARD”, “ADULT”, “GORGEOUS” or “CASUAL”.
men’s egg’s idea of “Hard” sort of differs from the Men’s Knuckle variant. The skin is more tanned, no one is wearing sunglasses, and they look more like kids just hanging out rather than stalking the streets like vampires in search of women to sexually harass and nampa. You may now shout “Freedbird” at the screen in honor of that middle guy's Skynard shirt, especially since someone is supposed to pay US$80 for it.
“Adult” means taking a few bold steps towards a full-on host club look, although their hair could stand to be much crazier and the prices, hovering around US$100-200, will make the little birdies go "cheap, cheap." Here in the US, I’m pretty sure “adult” means dressing like your dad, but I don’t think mine ever walked around Center Street with big white stains near the zipper on his distressed jeans.
“Gorgeous” is pretty close to the Men’s Knuckle base standard for what a proper gyaru-o should look like, clad in useless and eye catching textures like imitation snakeskin, fur, and fake jewelry. The editors claim it is a “simple style” designed for maximum impact. In other corners of the world, that would just mean cargo shorts and sandals. Only in Japan would rock-star-pirate-pimp qualify as "simple".
“Casual” is where I draw the line. The look goes back decades in Shibuya to a mix of surfer and preppy called “American casual”. Then as now, the look is redolent in letterman jackets, long sleeve shirts, un-ironic patches that say things like “Kiss me, I’m Irish”, and even denim overalls! The sad truth is that some Japanese kids are paying in the hundreds to dress like the people you hated in high school. But just because they’ve been doing this for a while now, still doesn’t make it right.
So what do you do once you’ve chosen your poison and maxed out your 109-2 credit card and even taken out a loan to finance your winter wardrobe? Find a girl, buy her some kind of ring, walk literally across the street to the front of Shibuya station, and try and get your brief courtship and fleeting moment of youth immortalized forever by becoming a top ranked "Street Couple". Based on the Pokemon style information helpfully provided, most of the guys are students, while their girlfriends self-identify as “freeters”. Are these lovebirds the future office drones and housewives of Japan? Let's hope so!
And so ends another exciting issue of men's egg, only slightly less exciting than Men's Knuckle because only the latter climaxes in a bunch of host club recruitment ads, while men's egg sails off into the sunset with ads for dodgy acne treatments, body hair removal, fake tanning mousses, miracle growth pills, and something called the "Beautiful Men Clinic".
Still not satisfied? Here is last year's post containing detailed instructions on how to have a very men's egg Christmas.
Heightened Reality Vignettes
Arriving 12/15...HOST KNUCKLE! A one-shot special from Million Shuppan examining host club fashion and "private style" for the discriminating readers of Men's Knuckle magazine. Can a Hostess Knuckle be far behind?
Wild Party - Limitless Quality
Ok. Another month, another issue of Men’s Knuckle, Japan’s number one “New Outlaw & Lifestyle Magazine” and the publication of choice for discriminating gyaru-o, center guys, host club employees, and their admirers. The cover model, as per usual, is Ryoma who is now insisting that everyone call him “DJ Ryoma” for some reason. More about him inside…
It’s finally winter (summer belongs to sister publication men’s egg), thank god, which means that it’s time once again for big down jackets with fur collars in addition to distressed dark wash jeans and pointy toe boots. “Tokyo Knuckle Style” has been pretty monochromatic since the beginning, but this year, the palette has been opened up to include a new color…GOLD! Spend the rest of the day marveling at Ryoma’s “Rider’s Down Jacket”, from Gennaro, priced around $321.90.
In a magazine filled with sneering people with crazy clothes, Naotaka’s jacket with its segmented bulb sleeves (by Slow Wear) gets my vote for outfit of the month. Goes well with mir and frankincense, I guess…the dusted-out Allman Brothers look on the right is cool too.
One of the big features this time out is “what have the models got in their designer handbags?” Let’s have a look inside…
Hairspray, styling water, two packs of Marlboro menthols, host club matches, sunglasses and shit, and Ozeki One Cup sake (also a favorite with homeless winos). Ryoma carries a full-on girly curling iron inside of his…
The usual club reports reveal that gals (of the female variety) often come to Men’s Knuckle sponsored events in Shibuya. News you can use.
But this issue soon takes a surprisingly domestic turn from the nampa-centric “love ‘em and leave ‘em” PUA philosophy espoused in the past. Take for instance this ad for a team up between Disney and Seil (part of the Silver Bullet cartel), which depicts a happy family of club rats and their progeny decked out in “goka na” Tinkerbell, Minnie Mouse, and Little Mermaid hoodies. (Click the links for a better look)
And later in the issue, “DJ Ryoma” shows us a collection of Family Print Club pictures that were probably taken in a game center in Shibuya at 3am.
Can you really “Age Age Every Night” and change diapers the next day? Is this the “New Outlaw & Lifestyle” that Men’s Knuckle is promoting to the readers?
For the sake of future generations, let’s hope so.
Why We Fight
From Men's Knuckle magazine
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