So! You might have heard us mention Japanese New Year’s cards on our award-winning 8-4 Play podcast. …OK, more specifically, you might have heard us promise to scan some and put them up on our website–and so we (finally) have!
First, a little background: each year on the first day of January, these post cards (or “nengajō” 年賀状 in Japanese) are sent to friends, acquaintances, and business partners as a way of expressing gratitude and keeping in touch going into the new year, much like Christmas and holiday cards are in the West. One side of a nengajō has a picture or artwork, usually containing the Chinese Zodiac animal of the upcoming year (the rabbit, in the case of 2011), and a short message celebrating the previous year and commemorating the coming of the next. The other side is just for the address and name of the recipient. Below we have our 8-4 nengajō for this year, as well as some of the cards we received from various companies and friends in the Japanese gaming industry for 2011 (or Heisei 23 平成23年 in the traditional Japanese year counting system). You dig?
Special thanks to the amazing SuperBrothers for designing our card this year–why not leave a comment to let him, and us, know what you think (i.e. how awesome, on a scale of 1 to 10)?
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| 8-4, Ltd.
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| Microsoft
Prope
XSEED Games
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| Nudemaker
Platinum Games
Procyon Studio
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| SNK Playmore
Square Enix
Tango Gameworks
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| Vanpool
NanaOn-Sha
Sega (Sonic)
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| Sony Computer Entertainment
Vanillaware
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| Yumiko Miyabe
Sega (Yakuza)
SuperDeluxe
Supuroke (bar 16SHOTS)
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| Access Games
Bandai Namco Games
Basiscape
Climax Entertainment
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| Dog Ear Records
Grasshopper Manufacture
Inti Creates
Kyos
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| AQ Interactive
GEM Impact
Level-5
Creatures
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| Sarugakucho
Q-Games
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By 8-4 on 14 January 2011.
Leave a Comment
![8-4](http://i.imgur.com/Pbskj.jpg")
How do I get myself on 8-4′s Nengajo list? :p
Superbrothers’ art is rocking. I can’t wait for the S&S EP to come out.
Wow thanks for posting these! Yours is one of the best nice job.
Wow, 8-4 really does have the best one.
I like the Procyon card too; it looks like Okami.
Sonic’s wearing a suit!
Vanillaware’s is the best hands down. 8-4 and Nudemaker tied for 2nd and XSEED takes 3rd.
These make perfect iPad/iPhone screen savers. Thanks for taking the time to put them up!
They are all pretty cool. where is the inspiration for 8-4s card from?
Climax Entertainment is still around in a capacity official enough to be sending season’s greeting cards to game industry members? I am shocked. I thought they’d be a pachinko parlor POS software vendor or some such by now.