Interest
Eagle Talon Pokes Fun at New Japanese Era Name in Flash Anime Short
posted on by Kim Morrissy
The Japanese government announced on Monday that the new Japanese era name when Crown Prince Naruhito accedes to the Imperial Throne will be "Reiwa" (令和), meaning "auspicious/excellent peace." The new era name will take effect on May 1, when Crown Prince Naruhito becomes the new emperor, after Emperor Akihito's abdication takes effect on April 30.
Thanks to the multiple interpretations of the word "Reiwa," the new name has already inspired plenty of jokes on social media. For example, many Twitter users wondered if the 18th year of the Reiwa era will be abbreviated as R18 (restricted to minors), causing the phrase 令和18年 (Reiwa 18th year) to trend on Twitter. Others have pointed out that "Reiwa" sounds like "Rei wa" (meaning "Rei is..."), and Rei could refer to many things, including an Evangelion character (as the Eva store Twitter account pointed out) or a Star Wars character.
The Eagle Talon flash animation series weighed in on this with an animated short posted on Monday. The video shows a reporter asking the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga for a hint about the new era name. Although Suga tries to avoid the subject, he keeps saying "rei wa" multiple times throughout the video, and on each occasion "rei" means a different word. For example, he says the words "example" (例), "ghost" (霊), and "zero" (零), all of which are pronounced "rei." Eventually, Suga officially announces the era name, to which the reporter reacts in a dead-pan manner: "Didn't you totally leak that?"
Eagle Talon is a flash animation project produced by DLE. The original Eagle Talon Flash anime centers on the titular secret society and its bumbling attempts to take over the world. The production company DLE Inc. launched the first Eagle Talon television series in 2006, and the series spawned several films. Artist Frogman serves as the "director/writer/character designer/sound Recording Engineer/Flash animator/editor/voice actor."
