Sketch cards are unique pieces of art impressively created on extremely small workspaces. The Marvel comics related subset of these collectibles features a wide variety of styles from a great number of artists, and one of the very best is the phenomenal Lydi Li.
Lydi’s been a longtime favorite artist of mine. There’s something about her work that jumps out and leaves a lasting impression. Her cards are incredibly popular in general and are often prized possessions for those able to get them.
The subtle variety in her art of the same subject over multiple sets is a delight. Differing little touches depending on the theme and mood to be expressed make each masterpiece unique. The bold, saturated coloring on her Mystique from Throwbacks is stunning and perfect for the set.
In contrast her portrayal of the same character for Black Diamond features more muted tones. It’s almost reminiscent of Juri Chinchilla’s work (another absolute favorite of mine). It’s striking in a different way. Both cards are incredible, made even further captivating by their differences.
In general Lydi’s style is a wonderful balance of softness with vibrance. It’s eye catching and immediately recognizable, conveying the essence of the chosen character in a distinct way.
From great depictions of fun secondary characters like Armor to a vivd four card puzzle of powerhouses Scarlet Witch and Rogue every piece I have of hers demands immediate attention. A couple of recently acquired particularly cherished additions to the collection include a gorgeous triple panel of the White Queen Emma Frost and a jaw dropping Thanos framed by his beloved Mistress Death.
There’s a delicate touch to Lydi’s art that makes it evocative, with a sense of atmosphere and emotion simmering just below the surface. Her versatility makes seeing her cards side by side as fascinating as they are beautiful.
I’m extremely lucky to have so many of Lydi’s cards, and greatly appreciate the beauty and depth they add to my collection.
More information about Lydi’s wonderful art can be found on her instagram.
Today I’d like to talk about one of the most unusual and unique trading card related collectibles: the printing plates used to generate the images on the cards.
Printing plates are thin metal sheets used in the printing process of the card they represent. Generally there are four plates for a card corresponding to four basic component colors: black, cyan, magenta and yellow. When distributed plates usually have a sticker affixed to the back with publisher, set, card, and copyright information.
Different colored variants of a card won’t have different plates (changing ink saturation levels produces these versions) but variants with different background patterns, text or logos, etc will. Whether these other versions, or any plates at all, are distributed depends on the manufacturer, set, and distribution method.
Printing plates are extremely unique as a collectible. While many of them are still in great shape, given their nature they are also often imperfect as they may contain smudges, printing lines, blurred images, scratches, or other after effects of the printing process. How much these imperfections affect someone’s desire to collect a particular plate generally depends on the extent and of course personal preferences.
Also certain ink colors may have been practically unused in creating an image and that corresponding plate could be largely blank or an otherwise incomplete image. While rare, this phenomenon is a risk and particularly pops up comic and other art based cards (as opposed to photo based cards, where underlying colors are generally present across the image).
In certain circumstances printing plates may also be distributed with autographs. Actors or athletes depicted, or creators or voice actors of shown characters, sometimes have their autographs on the front of the plates. Usually it’s done via affixing a signed sticker, but direct signatures aren’t unheard of. This is an added layer of collectability and reward for the person who draws the plate.
Peni Paker collection
In addition to printing plates being randomly inserted into packs of their card sets, they are also commonly used as special distribution prizes. Upper Deck often has certain plates set aside to be used as rewards for completing collection goals in their online buying and trading platform ePack.
Sometimes plates used for these purposes are grouped together as sets, occasionally even being collected in connecting booklets. This can be convenient for completionists, as trying to collect all four color plates for a particular card when the plates are separately randomly inserted is a daunting task.
Metal Universe X-men printing plate booklets in custom display cases by Hardball34.
My personal affinity for collecting plates evolved from getting several wonderful booklet collections from the Metal Universe X-men set, as well as drawing some for my favorite characters from Marvel Annual sets and my favorite wrestlers from WWE and AEW sets.
From there I started more proactively chasing/trading for/buying plates and they’ve become a cornerstone of my collections all around. I adore the way the underlying color images look, and there’s just something cool about having a piece of the process.
The lion’s share of my plates are Marvel related from Upper Deck (UD), featuring a dazzling array of comic book characters and MCU actors.
However I also heavily collect joshi wrestling cards, and plates of certain wrestlers from UD’s AEW sets as well as Topps WWE sets form an additional, smaller centerpiece of my collection.
AEW’s Riho, Hikaru Shia, Nyla Rose, and William Regal and WWE’s Asuka and Iyo Sky.Riho plate displayed with AEW 1/1s in a custom frame by Dion Divens.
Chasing plate “rainbows” (a complete color collection of plates for a given card) is a case by case basis for me. For certain images, characters, and wrestlers I collect everything of theirs I can find. In other cases a particular color plate for a particular card jumps out at me and I’m happy just to have that.
Occasionally a plate I’d otherwise want to keep just doesn’t look great to me in that color and/or with its particular imperfections. And of course as with any card related collectible rarity, availability, popularity with other collectors, and luck all greatly influence what actually ends up in the collection.
These little pieces of metal have become some of my favorite collectibles. I love monochrome art in the first place, and the fact that these are essentially art and photos broken down into that format appeals to me greatly. I’m sure I’ll be expanding their numbers for a long time to come.
I hope everyone’s enjoyed the look at my collection of these unusual inserts. Best of luck with wherever your personal collecting tendencies take you.
Five and a half years ago I saw a phenomenal close-up magic show called Six Impossible Things by the incredible Joshua Jay. So the announcement of his new show that adapted that kind of magic for a larger audience was extremely intriguing.
The idea behind Look Closer is rather daring. Using technological advances to present parlor/close up magic in a larger space opens up effects often meant to be quickly observed at limited angles to closer scrutiny. Jay further pushes the theme by revisiting his opening tricks again later in the show from different conceptual angles.
Six Impossible Things was an intimate affair. Performed in series of small rooms in front of a group of just twenty people, a real sense of wonder evolved as the show progressed. While the new show stands entirely on its own and is completely accessible, it was also fascinating to see how Jay echoed some of the ideas and tricks presented there in this new hybrid format. In some ways Look Closer’s structure formed an even stronger payoff to that sense of wonder, which is amazing given I was watching everything from further away in an audience several times larger.
The most interesting thing about Look Closer is that it’s a journey as much as it is a magic show. There’s a narrative structure to everything with breathable moments where Jay presents personal stories illustrating what the mysteries of magic mean to him. It adds an incredible depth to the evening, which is as much a masterclass in storytelling as it is in magic.
The tricks and stories Jay presents also fold back on each other as things progress, and a heavy customization aspect ties everything directly to the particular audience watching. Things that happen early in the show come roaring back at the end in mystifying fashion. The concept is unique and captivating, and the execution top notch.
I was at the final NYC performance, but the show will continue on in Chicago in April. I encourage anyone who has an opportunity to attend this wonderful experience to do so. “I was at the final NYC performance, but the show will continue on in Chicago in April. I encourage anyone who has an opportunity to attend this wonderful experience to do so.
Time for everyone to don their thinking caps. Suspects follows early 20th century adventurer Claire Harper in playable classic style mysteries.
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 Takes the Stage includes three separate cases.
Each case has a couple extra things to go with the deck of cards to help direct and unravel the mystery. There’s usually some type of list of suspects as well as a a map to show the locations you can look at which gives a nice mental image of the crime scene. Anyone and anything that can be investigated has a number next to it, and you can take the card of any visible number (unless a restriction tells you otherwise).
I really like the system. It’s a great way to handle a somewhat free investigation with a deck of cards. The production quality is excellent and the oversized cards are great for this type of game. Specific mechanics range from evidence links where lines on the various cards will line up if related to certain cards only being available if a set number of identical symbols has already been revealed. The former is great, the latter not so much. The idea’s interesting but which cards would reveal the symbols seemed arbitrary at times and as such was more of a stumbling block than something to puzzle out.
The goals are stated up front in the form of questions the players are trying to answer. The rules explain that there is some meta information in the questions, (for example: if it asks who the murder, singular, is there will be no accomplice) but for me this was a plus not drawback. It prevented things from being too ambiguous to solve. Which is good, because these were quite challenging.
Some of the questions were open ended with room for interpretation on whether answers are right “enough,” but it didn’t detract much from the experience.
The main hurdle in this cases is the overabundance of information. For a game based on what can be fit into a deck of cards, the stories are fully formed and well fleshed out. Numerous suspects have compelling motives, and it’s easy to be led astray by what feels like the strongest. There’s a need to focus on small contradictions and/or method conjecture in order to catch on to what actually happened.
I adore mysteries and am fairly good at these types of games, but didn’t completely solve any of these. I don’t feel cheated at all though. The game is difficult and requires reading things extremely carefully, but the cases are solvable. I left each wanting to do better in the next one, determined to be a little more thorough. Some of the clues and deductions to be made are extremely subtle, but the information is all there to be found.
Which leads to an aspect where I made things more challenging unknowingly: I played all three of these cases solo. While I usually enjoy this type of game equally on my own or with a few friends, this is one of the rare examples where I think it’d play much better with 2 or 3 people. A second set of eyes on cards and someone thinking differently to bounce ideas off of is almost necessary to fully solve the cases. That said, personally I still really enjoyed trying to puzzle these out and will probably attempt the second set solo as well.
There’s a solid, interesting scoring system based on the number of cards seen before answering each question correctly (although there’s a bit of thematic disconnect with the descriptions of the end game tiers – they’re a little more negative in outcome at times than seems appropriate). There’s luck involved in what the player chooses to investigate first, but there are often little hints that point at the most important stuff.
Claire is a decent point of view character for these cases. She has just enough backstory to drive things, but at the same time is enough of a cipher to feel like the player is the one doing the investigating.
The instructions recommend playing the cases in order. While one character does repeat in a later case it wouldn’t spoil much to play these in any order you choose. There really isn’t increasing difficulty across the cases or anything like that. They’re different but roughly equivalent in challenge. But while it’s not really necessary here to play the cases in order, there’s no reason not to either.
As is expected with “solve a mystery” type games there’s no real replayability here, but three cases is a good amount and the game’s fully resettable and can be passed on to others.
Overall I had a great time with Suspects and am looking forward to the subsequent games.
I’ve written a lot about art I collect of several of my favorite professional wrestlers from a variety of artists. A couple years ago, in Another Wonderful Way Pro-Wrestling is Art 3, I briefly talked about an unusual case: one of those wrestlers is a wonderful artist herself. Yappy has done a number of pieces of her coworkers (as well as self portraits) and today I’ll be spotlighting more of her work.
Yappy has been wrestling for a women’s wrestling company in Japan named Ice Ribbon for nearly five years. She has a naturally upbeat and energetic personality that translates into engaging ring charisma and fun matches. She’s a huge part of Ice Ribbon’s interactions with foreign fans, from explanatory videos to spearheading their international store, and has appropriately nicknamed herself Ice Ribbon’s Bridge to the World. Her soon to return Weekly Ribbon Unravel YouTube show highlights general happenings in Ice Ribbon in English for a foreign audience.
Ice Ribbon’s ace Tsukasa Fujimoto.
Yappy’s larger pieces are wonderfully dynamic, with a strong sense of style and motion to them that beautifully captures the personality of her subjects. The above rendition of Ice Ribbon’s ace Tsukasa Fujimoto is also carefully accentuated by metallic highlights that really bring it to life.
Yappy has also done pieces of (now former) regular guest participants such as former ICE Cross Infinity Champion Saori Anou and former multi-time International Tag Ribbon Champion Maika Ozaki.
I adore playing card style art, and Yappy’s Queen of Foxes illustration of Anou is so creatively done. The regal pose is perfect for the concept, and it’s finished with the same type of great shimmering metallic highlights as the Tsukka piece.
Maika’s piece is adorable and colorful, showing the cute side of one of joshi wrestling’s strongest powerhouses.
One of my favorite illustrations Yappy’s done is Ice Ribbon’s Totoro Satsuki with their mascot Ribbonne in a tribute to the wrestler’s namesake, Studio Ghibli’s animated classic My Neighbor Totoro.
Totoro Satsuki and Ribbonne.
One of the coolest things about Yappy’s art is her willingness to experiment and the resulting variety of styles she can work in. Her joyous black and white illustration of Saran feels quite different from her colored work, but is just as engaging.
Another great example of this is her playful, comic strip style depictions of her interactions with former Ice Ribbon wrestler Nao Ishikawa.
Yappy and Nao Ishikawa.Tequila Saya illustration by Yappy for Charles Short’s second Ice Ribbon book.
Yappy did a series of illustrations for Charles Short’s second book about Ice Ribbon, titled Wonderland. These portrayals show off her range, as the chibi influenced versions still capture the essence of the wrestlers’ likenesses and charisma.
Tsukina UminoKaho Matsushita
The last batch of art I’ll spotlight here is Yappy’s art nouveau pieces. Three pieces in total (more on that to come), they are extremely striking and pop with color to make an immediate impression.
Yappy incorporated wonderful detail into these. Ice Ribbon’s Mugendai (“infinite potential”) Girl Kaho Matsushita’s has an infinity motif, and Tsukina Umino’s other job as a murder mystery game GM heavily inspired the theme for her piece.
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More information about both Yappy’s art and her wrestling can be found on her social media.
There’s one more wonderful art nouveau piece to discuss, left to last because there’s unfortunately some sad news that now goes along with it. In early February 2024 Actwres girl’Z reported a 21 year old wrestler named Asahi had unexpectedly passed away. Asahi started her career in Ice Ribbon and was a dear coworker and friend to Yappy. She was also a personal favorite of mine, being a joy to watch in the ring and an inspiring presence in general. Yappy’s incredible rendition of the Sunrise of Hope that originally started her art nouveau series is cherished momento of someone gone far too soon.
It’s always exciting for me to discover new artists whose work jumps out and appeals to my personal artistic preferences. Today I’d like to highlight the striking art of Miki Okazaki.
Ghost Spider and Gwen Stacy sketch cards from Upper Deck’s Into the Spider-Verse set, and a recently pulled Rokurokubi sketch card from Iconic Creations’ Yokai Parade set. All by Miki Okazaki.
The first time I saw any of Miki’s art was on sketch cards for Upper Deck’s Into the Spider-Verse card set. It made an immediate impression and had an air of whimsy, and when I followed her on Instagram and found out she was open for commission at the time I jumped at the chance to add more of her work to my collection.
Among the various subjects I collect art of, two of the biggest are joshi pro-wrestlers and Marvel’s Mystique mid-transformation. In my first batch of commissions from Miki I was able to add wonderful pieces to both collections.
For the incredible Mystique as Silk sketch cover she did for me I specified only the subject. The composition and other specifics were left up to Miki, and she knocked it out of the park with a great dynamic pose and overall awesome general feel.
Miki’s Mystique/Silk cover on display with Silk sketch cards by Effix, Fred Ian, Marcia Dye, and Ash Gonzales in a custom light up frame by Dion Divens.
It’s a great example of her general style with coloring that really pops and a bunch of cool small details, like the exact way things are split between Mystique and Silk around the face and hair, that enhance the overall effect.
I am a huge fan of Japanese women’s professional wrestling, and have an extensive collection of personal sketch cards (PSCs) I’ve commissioned of many of my favorites, including quite a number from Juri H. Chinchilla (whose art I’ve discussed extensively in Beautiful Dreams, Beautiful Dreams 2,Beautiful Dreams 3, and Beautiful Dreams 4).
I was thrilled that Miki was open to doing some of these for me, and my first requests were a combination of wrestlers I’d planned on having done for quite a while in Ice Ribbon’s Kyuri & Maika Ozaki, AEW’s Hikaru Shida, and Marvelous’ Mio Momono & Maria, a perennial favorite in WWE’s Asuka, and even a brilliant up and coming rookie in Gatoh Move’s Miya Yotsuba.
She did an outstanding job with the unfamiliar subjects, and this became just the first of several batches of joshi PSCs I would get from her over the course of 2023. The joshi cards really illustrate Miki’s ability to apply her personal style to her art while still really capturing the essence of the subject.
The next batch included Yappy & Banny from Ice Ribbon, Momo Watanabe from Stardom, Emi Sakura and Best Bros (Mei Suruga & Balliyan Akki) from Gatoh Move, and TJPW’s announcer Sayuri Namba. These are all excellent and the coloring and highlighting really stand out in this group. The backgrounds are masterfully vibrant in a complementary way that doesn’t overwhelm the wonderful depictions of the wrestlers.
Finally around the end of the year I had cards done of TJPW’s Free Wi-Fi (Hikari Noa & Nao Kakuta), and Daisy Monkey (Suzume & Arisu Endo), another up and coming Gatoh Move rookie Nonoka Seto, WWE’s reigning Women’s Champion Iyo Sky (formerly Io Shirai), Stardom’s Yuna Mizumori (formerly of Gatoh Move), and freelancer Momoka Hanazono.
The detail on these is particularly fantastic, and it’s was really cool to see how Miki’s style evolved over such a short period. I know I’m repeating myself to the point of sounding like a broken record, but once again the coloring is impeccable and perfectly spotlights the subjects.
The Nonoka Seto card is particularly special from a few reasons, from the awesome way Miki captured her pointed finger pose in shadow even though the arm is out of frame to the fact that it’s a companion piece to the card Miki did for me of her sister, fellow Gatoh Move wrestler Miya Yotsuba.
I greatly appreciate all the art Miki has created for me and I hope to continue collecting her work in the future.
More information about Miki’s wonderful art can be found on her socialmedia pages.
Disclosure: The author of this book is a friend of mine and introduced me to Ice Ribbon years ago. This has had no influence on the opinions in this review, although obviously my status as a fan of the promotion does affect my appreciation of the subject matter.
This is Charles Short’s second book about Ice Ribbon. Please also check out my review of the first, Be Happy.
Ice Ribbon is a women’s professional wrestling company based in Tokyo, Japan that approaches wrestling in an accessible way to be fun for both the audience and performers.
Wonderland opens with a foreword from Ice Ribbon’s ace Tsukasa Fujimoto herself and a solid section of bios with pictures for all of the Ice Ribbon roster members during the covered time period, before heading into the results section that comprises the majority of the book.
The results section is an incredibly detailed chronicle of match outcomes that picks up immediately after last book and goes 5 years and change through Ice Ribbon’s 15th Anniversary show in early August 2021. It not only covers results for all Ice Ribbon events, but also every match members of their roster participated in for other companies.
The amount of specific information provided and the meticulous record keeping it entails is incredibly impressive. Extensive context is included from match times to attendance figures and even things like when originally scheduled matches were changed (due to injury/illness/etc).
The time period covered in Wonderland is particularly interesting to me as I was attending a lot of Ice Ribbon shows live during this period. It’s really cool to revisit a snapshot of this particular time in the company’s existence.
A number of major moments in Ice Ribbon’s history are covered, including Tsukushi’s re-debut and Giulia’s departure. Short approaches everything without sensationalism or rumor, covering things in detail but appropriately keeping to the factual happenings known to the public.
The book features a number of wrestlers who have gone on to wrestle for other companies, which may be of particular interest to those familiar with their later work and wanting to learn about those wrestlers’ history.
Ease of reference and reading is incredibly important when presenting the sheer amount of data contained a volume like this. Like with Be Happy, and perhaps to an even greater extent, the careful formatting, interesting ancillary information, and inclusion of a variety of pictures keep everything accessible and engaging.
There are also several wonderful little touches that make the book special. One of the coolest is stylized section illustrations by Yappy, who is a talented artist in addition to being one of Ice Ribbon’s own wrestlers.
Tsukasa Fujimoto illustration by Yappy.
ThoughWonderland covers five years of the company compared to the first book’s ten, it ended up being longer (including over 150 more pages of content after the results section, compared to Be Happy’s 40). This is due to more context and detail added to returning information sections like title histories, as well as greatly expanded pictorial sections.
A huge variety of event posters, banners, wrestling gear, and merchandise is displayed with explanatory context notes as appropriate. As with Be Happy all of the pictures are in black and white, but that does not diminish the treasure trove of stuff to look through.
The book wraps up with a section featuring career summaries for wrestlers and staff that retired during the subject time period. Like the rest of the book, these are thorough, well presented, and quite informative.
At its heart Wonderland and its predecessor are reference books, and milage will vary with an individual’s interest in this unique little joshi wrestling company. But for anyone with even the smallest bit of curiosity about Ice Ribbon or the wrestlers who worked for it during this time the book is so well done and so overflowing with carefully assembled and interesting information it’s really a must have.
In May of 2019 I was lucky enough to see a special showcase show of Emi Sakura’s casual training program DareJyo. It was a wonderfully fun display of training drills and exhibition matches. What no one knew at the time was five of the participants would go on to train as as full wrestlers and debut just a few months later as part of Gatoh Move’s Generation 4.
For many years in the early portion of Gatoh Move’s existence, Riho (now of AEW) was their ace and star. In Spring of 2019 it was announced that she would be leaving to go freelance in early July. The landscape of the promotion looked dramatically different after her departure and the subsequent debut of six rookies from DareJyo at Gatoh’s August show (the five previously mentioned that appeared on the 5/1/19 showcase show, plus Chie Koishikawa).
However as of the original announcement in July only four wrestlers would be debuting. The last trainee to decide to make the jump was the woman who eventually become Gatoh Move’s resident lovable ninja.
Sayuri’s DareJyo showcase exhibition match was against eventual fellow Gen 4 member Rin Rin (now the recently retired Yukari Hosokawa of Ganpro). Her debut match was against Mitsuru Konno.
Sayuri is the ultimate underdog and pitting her against the tough-as-nails, fierce Mitsuru in her first official match was perfect (the entire show was a masterclass in playing to their rookies’ strengths and presenting an incredibly entertaining slate of debuts). Even in this first match there were hints of the perseverance and personality that would draw fans to her.
Sayuri has incredibly unique charisma that continually emerged and evolved as she gained experience. Sakura once jokingly gave her an award for there being nothing remotely unique or interesting about her, but Gatoh’s founder couldn’t be more wrong in this case. There was an endearing goofiness to her mixed with a fiery determination that made it impossible not to cheer for her.
One of her most memorable series of moments revolved around her stubborn insistence to complete a bodyslam despite failure after failure to do so. She turned the cry of “Let’s bodyslam!” into a beloved rallying point for her fans (whom she named “Sayurists”). They were thrilled when she finally hit one on the 5/4/21 show.
Sayuri eventually fully embraced a ninja role, using tactics and antics such a shuriken style chops, awesome wall run headlock takedowns, and ninja vanishing techniques (hiding behind numerous environmental elements in Ichigaya Chocolate Square to later surprise her opponent). A perfect mix of skill and silliness, Sayuri’s matches were always captivating.
Sayuri and Sayaka PSC by Juri Chinchilla.
Gatoh’s 12/29/19 show turned out to be the last time I was able to attend a show Sayuri wrestled on. I missed a number of Gatoh Move shows during the remainder of that trip due to coming down with the flu, and once I recovered and could attend again Sayuri herself was out sick (along with many other wrestlers, it was a rough season).
However, there is something quite fitting that my final live memory of seeing her wrestle ended up being a singles match against her trainer, Emi Sakura. The legend spent the early match trying to run through and bully the overmatched ninja. But as usual Sayuri’s persistence created openings and allowed her to give her opponent much more fight than expected, even in defeat.
Sayuri’s career spanned just under 90 matches, and she never won a singles contest. But she never gave up and her Sayurists were certain her moment would come.
In 2021 Sayuri formed a regular tag team with 17 year veteran Choun Shiryu called Dragon Ninja. They had fantastic chemistry as a team, and Sayuri clearly evolved as a wrestler under Choun’s influence.
Dragon Ninja was a successful team with several wins, but always with Choun gaining the decision. They fought and won as a team, but the elusive pin or submission that evaded Sayuri in singles competition continued to do so in tag matches.
Until ChocoPro 264 on 10/23/22. In an incredible culmination of her wrestling journey she pinned Chie Koishikawa to give Dragon Ninja a huge win over Chie & Masa Takanashi. Her moment had arrived.
The victory seemed to herald big things ahead for Dragon Ninja and Sayuri, but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. She would wrestle two more matches after that before going on hiatus due to chronic health issues. In late 2023 it was announced she was not returning and would be retiring from wrestling.
Sayuri had remained involved in Gatoh Move and Chocopro in non-wrestling capacities in the meantime and ChocoPro 347 was her farewell show. She accompanied Choun against Otoki, and while not officially part of the match she had some involvement including traditional retirement spots. It was a great way to say farewell within the confines of her not being able to return for a full retirement match.
She gave a goodbye speech after the show and was sent off with smiles.
Sayuri had unique presence and style and was a breath of fresh air in wrestling throughout her short career. Wishing all the best to her in whatever’s next for our darling ninja.
Full Gatoh Move 6 card PSC “puzzle” by Juri H. Chinchilla.
Heartbreaking news is not how I intended to return to blogging (and my previously planned posts will be coming soon). But tragedies are all too often completely unexpected, and I feel compelled to share some words of personal remembrance of a wrestler who meant a great deal to me as a fan.
Actwres girl’Z has shared that one of their performers, 21 year old Asahi, has unexpectedly passed away (no other details have been shared: please respect the privacy of her grieving family, friends, and colleagues).
Asahi debuted for a promotion named Ice Ribbon in August 2017. The then 14 year old faced wrestling legend Manami Toyota in her debut match. I was lucky enough to attend that show live, and was impressed with the sense of determination and resiliency Asahi showed.
The wrestler who would eventually be nicknamed The Sunrise of Hope became an absolute favorite of mine, and it was a joy to see her evolve and grow as her career progressed. She put her heart into her matches, was technically skilled, and most importantly was just flat out fun to watch.
One of my favorite memories of the emotion she put behind everything is a bit of an odd inclusion here, as it never really made tape. But it’s such a vivid memory to this day I’d like to share it.
At a show in early 2019 Asahi was part of a P’s Party themed team, alongside fellow rookies Tequila Saya and Giulia, going against then Ice Ribbon veterans Risa Sera, Maya Yukihi, and Akane Fujita. It was an elimination match with special stipulations, and by the end P’s Party had the unlikely advantage as it was down to Asahi and Giulia against Akane. Asahi had Akane on the verge of elimination and was slowly grounding her senior down, only to be shoved away at the last second by a partner who wanted the glory for herself. P’s Party won, but Asahi was betrayed all the same. What followed was intense, and only a tiny snippet made it to the video of the event.
“Asahi stares a HOLE through her so called partner, and then goes CRAZY trying to claw and scrape her way to attack Giulia requiring three others to hold her back until finally Tsukka comes in to calm her down. Fantastic fire from Asahi here, and there was more story and character conveyed in these 30 seconds than I’ve seen in entire shows.”
No matter what type of moment, Asahi always vividly conveyed her emotions with captivating charisma.
Another special memory for me was getting to see her wrestle another of my favorites, Misaki Ohata, at a P’s Party show in a great match seeing Asahi throw everything she could at her vastly more experienced opponent.
I have not been able to return to Japan since before the pandemic, so the final times I was able to see Asahi wrestle live were Ribbonmania 2019 and one dojo show a couple weeks later. Her being victorious in the tag team gauntlet and then later part of Tequilia Saya’s retirement match in the main event are happy memories.
In Spring of 2023 Asahi left Ice Ribbon to go to Actwres girl’Z, a company with a more theatrical based approach to wrestling related entertainment. She was a good fit and I recommend checking out her work there as well.
It’s heart wrenching to try to process the loss of someone so young, with a seemingly bright future ahead of her. Farewell, our dear Sunrise. You will be remembered, and missed.
During my first several trips to Japan, starting at the end of 2015, Gatoh Move became (and remains) one of my favorite promotions. It’s a wonderfully engaging experience built around a core roster of diverse wrestlers all fully embracing their own uniqueness.
And that’s been true throughout all the changes and transformations the company and roster has endured. Wrestlers that were there when I started watching like Kotori and Gatoh’s former ace Riho have retired and moved on to other opportunities (with occasional reappearances) respectively. In the wake of Riho leaving the company doubled in size with the debuts of Gatoh Move’s fourth generation. I’ve experienced the entire careers of Aasa Maika and Mitsuru Konno.
So it’s perhaps a little odd to realize that for me a certain wrestler has become such a core part of what Gatoh Move is today that her imminent departure might have the greatest impact of any change thus far.
In spring of 2018 I was lucky enough to catch Gatoh’s annual Go Go Green Curry Koppun Cup mixed tag tourney show. In the (non-tournament) opening contest I’d get my only look that trip at their new rookie, as just two months into her career Yuna Mizumori faced visiting reigning Pure-J Champion Hanako Nakamori.
Yuna immediately impressed as a great addition to the Gatoh roster. She had such an exuberant personality that was already apparent and integrated in her rapidly developing wrestling style. Her particular blend of speed and power was already on display and to this day remains striking and distinctive. I couldn’t wait to see more of her in the future after her strong showing against another company’s top competitor so early in her career.
The tone set by that first impression would continue when I was back later in the year, particularly in a very special elimination match on SEAdLINNNG’s 12/28/18 show.
It was Gatoh Move’s Emi Sakura, Yuna, & fellow rookie Mei Suruga against freelancer Sae, the reigning Regina di Wave champion Ryo Mizunami, & SEAdLINNG’s own champion (and founder) Nanae Takahashi.
The match was a blast, and seemed headed to a perfectly acceptable formula finish of Gatoh’s powerhouse rookie putting up a good fight in defeat against overwhelming experience and odds.
Instead Yuna, still within her first year of wrestling, overcame a 2-on-1 disadvantage to eliminate BOTH of the opposing reigning champions to secure the win for Gatoh Move (an achievement that would earn her a title shot at Nanae a couple months later).
As I wrote at the time: “Yuna is a wrecking ball in the ring in the best possible way, and her digging deep and powering her way through the odds was captivating, as well as totally believable.”
Yuna became an absolute favorite of mine and was always a treat to see. She was put in important positions and given big opportunities to show what she could do and always delivered. Yuna & her TropiKawild partner Saki would hold and defend the Asia Dream Tag Team Championships for nearly a year during their second reign starting in March of 2019.
During Gatoh’s Golden Week shows that year she semi-main evented in great singles contests against TJPW’s Mizuki and visiting freelancer Hiroyo Matsumoto.
A couple of other matches of hers that stick out (among the many I was lucky enough to see live) that I particularly loved include her participation in a special “Old Gatoh Move” vs “New Gatoh Move” variation on the the annual Gatoh roster 6-woman tag match they ran (available here), and a hard hitting battle she had against Yasu Urano.
The previously mentioned TropiKawild tag team title reigns meant that when Yuna hit her second wrestling anniversary she had been a reigning tag team champion for nearly half of her career. Between that, some of the things I’ve mentioned above, and other opportunities Yuna had a truly special start to her wrestling career.
Yet the dichotomy of Yuna being extremely strong and successful but still often seeming and feeling like the underdog would be a recurring theme and lead to some incredibly compelling stories and rivalries.
One place this is vividly apparent is in early ChocoPro.
ChocoPro is Gatoh Move’s twin promotion and arose out of Emi Sakura’s desire to do something specifically tailored to streaming when Covid hit and prevented them from continuing shows as normal in their small home base venue.
Yuna’s struggles, feelings, and insecurities explored and enflamed by her trainer, boss, and occasional partner Emi Sakura would be a driving force for the early seasons of ChocoPro. Yuna participated in the first ever intergender “ironman” match on ChocoPro 11 against Minoru Fujita (an incredible match itself well worth watching).
Sakura tore Yuna apart emotionally in an interview leading up to the match with Fujita, kicking off what I still believe is one of the greatest stories and feuds I’ve ever seen in wrestling (see The Ballad of Yuna and the Oni for full details).
One last thing that certainly has to be mentioned is Yuna’s camaraderie and rivalry with the only other member of her generation of Gatoh Move, Mei Suruga.
Mei debuted almost exactly three months after Yuna and the interplay between the two has always been interesting. Yuna has achieved more faster in traditionally measured ways and has been more successful overall in their singles encounters. She’s held the tag titles twice to Mei’s once, won them earlier on in her career, and holds a 6-3 victory advantage in their singles encounters.
But Mei has more unusual or intangible edges. She holds singles victories over high profile opponents like Hikaru Shida and Emi Sakura herself, she’s wrestled internationally, and her victories over Yuna came when it mattered most. She won a number one contendership tournament by beating Yuna in the finals and is up 2-1 when they faced each other in tag team title matches.
This is best encapsulated in Yuna’s comments after she defeated Mei in a fantastic 30-minute “ironman” match and wondered why she still felt like she lost.
The mutual respect, parallel yet wildly different careers they’ve had and the rivalry that goes with it, and captivating chemistry they have together all built to an absolutely phenomenal encounter they had headlining Gatoh Move’s 10th Anniversary show. As the last singles match they’ll have against one another in the foreseeable future, they went out on a hell of a high note.
In a few short hours Yuna will wrestle Emi Sakura 1-on-1 one last time in her final match before “graduating” from Gatoh Move (the term used in Japan when someone leaves a company to move on, whether it’s for retirement or a case like this). Can Yuna finally topple the Oni as she bids Gatoh farewell?
Yuna, Mei, Kotori, and Aasa by Shining Wizard Designs
I’ve barely scratched the surface of everything Yuna has meant to Gatoh Move and ChocoPro. She’s an amazing performer and though it seems like she’s been around forever her career is incredibly still under 5 years old. While her absence will be noticeable I wish her all the best and look forward to seeing what’s next for her in wrestling elsewhere.
Derailments of Thought 