Another update so quick? If you like pendants and Jumi, gj Character G (whatever that is) has designed some pendants reminiscent of Elazul, Pearl, and Florina. Prices range from about $100 to $150 on these. Sales open up March 4th, and they also have some little acrylic charms which I’m sick of seeing. These pendants may go fast, they’re made with real stones and they only have a limited quantity.

Elazul’s pendant has designs of feathers, the Sword of Fate, and his clothing.

Pearl’s pendant has designs of shells, pearls, and seafoam.

SOLD OUT 11:00am day of release. Florina’s pendant is shaped like Pandora’s Box from the game, with a very delicate apearance.

First up, just to follow up on the Jan 2023 Merch Sightings, I got my hands on some of the Flammie and Rabite plushes mentioned there. I’ve got to say, they’re really good and I recommend them to any fans of the series. You can find countless of them on Japanese auction sites, and the prices aren’t bad at all.

The Flammmie plush is a lot higher quality than I expected, Taito did great on these. The Rabite plush is ridiculously soft, and looks a million times better than the one that Taito put out back in 2018.

Next up, the Shiloh and Serafina POP UP PARADE statues are up for pre-order now, between Feb. 28th and March 30th, 2023.

These are looking pretty great, I love how they went with the classic poses for the two.

Less than a year since its release, we are already hearing about the closing of Echoes of Mana (SquareEnix notice, Twitter posts: English, Japanese). What a strange time to announce this, on the day the director’s cut of the LoM anime’s final episode airs.

The game will stay up for another few months, but will finally shut down on May 15th this year. They will finish out the story and add some new characters before then. You can check out that timeline here.

This was not the Mana Series’ first foray into mobile games, but it was certainly the shortest. The first was Friends of Mana, which you can read about over at the Archive of Mana, which lasted from 2006 to 2011. That’s a lifetime compared to the rest of the games. Then there was Circle of Mana, which lasted from 2013 to 2015. Finally, Rise of Mana made it from 2014 to 2016.

While I didn’t particularly like the game, I can’t help but feel a little sad by this news. I actually haven’t played much since early December, just jumping in once to see the Legend of Mana Manga crossover story. The stories were great, it was great to see the same familiar faces, but the game itself was just not that fun in my opinion.

Hopefully we hear about the next Mana game soon.

It’s from Secret of Mana, but I had Jammin’ Sam Miller’s most recent remaster playing when I read this news, and it just seemed fitting to add here.

The official site for the anime has set the release of the director’s cut of episode 12 to be Monday, February 13th. This is through ABEMA, which likely doesn’t mean much to anyone reading this. It will release to other streaming services on February 17th.

January came and went without much information posted about the director’s cut for the final episode of the anime, and I realized later that they had removed the note that it would air in January.

The official website was recently updated to include some more information about this (but not much).

Essentially, a new COVID-19 outbreak got in the way of both the completion of the original episode 12 and the director’s cut of episode 12.

The director’s cut is scheduled to be completed in early February now.

More information is forthcoming about where it will be distributed.

Here is something really cool. The youtuber Jammin’ Sam Miller has apparently taken to restoring the soundtrack to Secret of Mana. Essentially what he does is recreate the entire soundtrack using the original samples from all sorts of sources from when the game was made. We’re talking keyboards, drum machines, sample libraries, etc. This guy finds them and does the best he can to remaster the entire soundtrack. If you have not seen his Donkey Kong Country pieces, you’ve gotta check him out. Anyway, here is his “Fear of the Heavens” restored:

Did you ever think you’d hear those whales so clear? Apparently they come from “OMI Universe of Sounds Vol 1” and are entitled “SFX_Animals”. Really wild stuff. You can check out the information on where samples came from here.

The project has an anonymous sponsor, and will result in a vinyl release in the end. I might have to get this.

Preorders for the Serafina Nendoroid are being taken between January 20th 2023 and March 1st, 2023.
She comes with a Greenball Bun.

Don’t forget about the Shiloh Nendoroid, you have until February 1st, 2023!

I’m going to make various merchandise sighting updates when I can, but only when I think things are fairly interesting (Like the SoM and LoM SuperGroupies merch drops). Today I’ve got a handful here that I think are really cool. If you really want to, though, you can dig deep for all sorts of knick-knacky Legend of Mana: The Teardrop Crystal merch. There are little tins (with marshmallows), keychains, acrylic stands, keychains, acrylic stands, some keychains, and even more acrylic stands if you’re interested in them. For me they are a bit too many and a bit too uninteresting for me to go after all of them, but if you’ve got a favorite character they’ve probably got something out there.

The first items I want to point out are a Rabite Plush (currently out) and a Flammie Plush (not yet released) that are found in Taito UFO machines in Japan. These are pretty great. The Rabites look quite good, better than the 2018 big plush version if you ask me. It’s also really cool to see a Flammie plush. You’ll have to pick these up on eBay (expensive) or through Japanese auction sites (a bit cheaper) if you want them.

The second items are in the realm of strange Legend of Mana merch. I don’t know who decided there need to be necklaces for Bud and Lisa’s weapons, but hey here they are. They’re produced by Goodsmile and you can look into preordering them in Japan here. Now you too can hold onto the memories of Bud and Lisa’s parents, but I can’t say I’d recommend these as Mother or Father’s Day gifts.

On the twelfth day of Rabite Christmas the Seikens gave to me…

Twelve more Rabite things,

eleven more Rabite plushes,
ten Rabite charms,
nine Rabite kings,
eight Rabilions,
seven more Rabite plushes,
six Rabites peeping.
Five Rabite things!
Four Rabites sleeping,
three Rabite fans,
two Rabite mugs,
and a Rabite in the Mana Tree

Finally, we have two totes, three cloths (one from Children of Mana), a Heroes of Mana muffler, a Legend of Mana Card Duel trading card, a 30th anniversary charm, a Children of Mana screen cleaning plushie, a Trials of Mana card case (nearly impossible to see at this angle), a Black Rabite UFO prize plushie from the Trials of Mana remake, and a promotional hat from Dawn of Mana.

And just so you can get a good look at everything, I’ve got some zoomed in shots for you!

On the eleventh day of Rabite Christmas the Seikens gave to me…

Eleven more Rabite plushes,

ten Rabite charms,
nine Rabite kings,
eight Rabilions,
seven more Rabite plushes,
six Rabites peeping.
Five Rabite things!
Four Rabites sleeping,
three Rabite fans,
two Rabite mugs,
and a Rabite in the Mana Tree

Today we have Rabite UFO prize plushies from the Trials of Mana remake.