Source: Hanshin Official / Nikkan Sports
Well folks, it’s officially a new era for the Hanshin Tigers. Not only have they brought in a new manager (Akinobu Okada, who also managed the team from 2004-08), but they officially announced the new slogan on December 17, and yesterday (January 23), they unveiled their annual “Ultra Summer” special uniforms that they will wear for six home games in July. Here are the official notices and my comments/thoughts.
Many of you who are “in on the pun” know that Okada is famous for using pronouns that have no antecedent (except maybe in his mind). One of those is “あれ” or “that”, which has become the team’s codeword for “pennant” (優勝 = yusho in Japanese). So by spelling it out in English as A.R.E. it allows them to create an acronym that embodies three of the team’s major emphases this season:
Aim (Have a clear team goal and move towards it)
Respect (Give proper respect to the game itself as well as the players that came before you)
Empower (Take your individual game to the next level = “power up” in Japanese English)
Clearly, they did not use a dictionary or thesaurus for this exercise. I get the first two, but empower is kind of the opposite of what Okada is doing with this team. Former manager Akihiro Yano really gave the players a long leash and empowered them to make decisions for themselves about training and even in-game decisions at times. Okada’s wife apparently is fluent in English (as I am told from old anecdotes about how she helped Randy Bass feel more comfortable living in Japan), but it really makes me wonder who gave the green light on this as a slogan. It works, but it is far from perfect.
Now, the uniforms are mostly staying the same in 2023. Exceptions are as follows:
The 2022 road caps have been scrapped and they will use the same design for both home and away games this year.
The annual “Ultra Summer” (another play on words — ultra in katakana is ウルトラ or ウル虎 with the kanji being “tiger”) uniforms have been renewed. In case you missed the first 10 designs (this all started in 2013), here they are:
Crazy, I know. But as things tend to go in the world of design, there is no turning back and going for something less tacky or daring. So I give to you the 2023 version! (Not literally. I will give you one, though, if you give me some yen in return, though!)
Here is what Okada had to say about the design: “They’re flashy. They’re actually flashier when you put them on, compared with just seeing them. I felt we needed to go with something that had an impact. I am picky about uniform design. How we look changes a lot depending on the uniforms we wear.”
And since I have not yet decided if I like these or not (these things always need time!), I will let you, the reader, share your initial sentiments with me either in the comments section or elsewhere.
UPDATE: Today (January 24) they released photos of the uniforms they will wear for some of their games against the Yomiuri Giants this year. I say “meh.” Nothing special. Clean, yes. Iconic, no. (That said, the team claims they are based on the original 1936 unis, so what do I know?)