For the next few months, Saga will be teaming up with Sagat and the rest of the Street Fighter II crew.
Saga Prefecture is no stranger to teaming up with video games such as Pokémon and Splatoon in the past with aggressive tourism campaigns. You might even say they have a fighter’s spirit, and are the kind of prefecture that would shout, “Visit me if you dare, I will crush you…with hospitality!”
So it’s no surprise that this time they are joining forces with the 2-D fighting classic of the 90s, Street Fighter II for a new promotional super combo: Street Fighter Saga.
At the core of the Street Fighter Saga campaign is the appointment of conflicted Muay Thai master Sagat as the tourism ambassador of Saga prefecture. Now, surely you must be thinking, “Sagat… “Saga” with a “T” at the end… Uh, cute…” but there actually is another reason for this designation.
▼ No, it’s not his welcoming demeanor…
Apparently, Saga prefecture is something of a popular travel destination for tourists from Thailand because it was the filming location for some movies and television shows shown there. So, naturally Saga selected the highly relatable heavily-scarred seven-foot-five Emperor of Muay Thai to help bridge the rest of the cultural gap.
While this is all good and fun, the real gem of this campaign are some of the limited-edition SFII swag available, lending the game’s aesthetics to some of Saga’s regional goods. For example, Saga is home to Japan’s oldest porcelain, known as Aritayaki.
It’s a historically significant and exquisite form of craftsmanship, and now it can be yours, decorated with the original Super Famicom (SNES) Street Fighter II box art, altered to have Sagat in Ryu’s place, for 8,000 yen (US$72).
▼ Actual original box art
If that’s too rich and far removed from the original box for your liking, then there’s always the Street Fighter Saga Super Famicom box of dried seaweed. For 900 yen ($8), this replica game cartirdge box contains seaweed harvested from the Saga coast of the Ariake Sea by San Nori.
For the fighters who still haven’t had their sweet-tooth knocked out, Saga-based Takeshita Confectionary’s Black Mont Blanc ice cream bars will team up with Blanka for the metaphorically electrified Black Mont Blanka bars for 200 yen ($1.80).
And perhaps the pièce de résistance of this collection is the loser face pack of band-aids available in each of the eight original World Warriors and Sagat. They are manufactured by Yutoku Pharmaceutical in Kashima City, Saga, and can be yours for 900 yen ($8). It’s a bit steep for six band-aids, but lets face it, we’re not buying them to treat paper cuts.
There are 14 items in total, including a special tea endorsed by Dhalsim and two bottles of sake that are nearly identical except that one is red and the other is white.
Of course, to get these items you’ll have to head over to the Balloon Museum in Saga City between 13 February and 31 March. However, since that can be hard to reach for some, the shop named “Sagat Shouten” will also open for a very limited time in the Ginza area of Tokyo from 22 January to 28 January.
The Ginza location will have have visits by a Sagat yuru-kyara mascot character, which alone makes Sagat Shouten well worth a visit.
So strap on your Street Fighter sneaks and hurricane kick it over to Ginza or Saga over the next few months. Either that, or go home and be a family man…even if you’re a woman.
Store Information
Street Fighter Saga Sagat Shouten / ストリートファイター佐賀 佐賀ット商店
Ginza Place 3F / 銀座プレイス 3F
Tokyo-to, Chuo-ku, Ginza 5-8-1
東京都中央区銀座五丁目8番1号
22 January, 3 p.m. – 9.pm.
23 – 28 January, 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Sagat Shouten / 佐賀ット商店
Saga Studio in the Saga Balloon Museum / 佐賀バルーンミュージアム内 佐賀工房
Saga-ken, Saga-shi, Matsubara, 2丁目2−27
佐賀県佐賀市松原2丁目 2-27
13 February – 31 March, 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Source: Street Fighter Saga, PR Times, Kai-You
Images: PR Times