Who Respects Batman?

Japan respects Batman. The Land of the Rising Sun™ has its share of pop culture. Heck, the sheer volume of it makes America pale in comparison. You haven't seen true fandom until you've been to a store that sells Gundam accesories. And yet, the Japanese still find a way to devote whole sections of their stores to Batman:



But the true test of whether or not the Japanese consider something noteworthy is trading arts. Trading arts are little figurines packaged randomly in boxes and sold for 500-600 yen a pop (approximately 5-6 dollars American).

As far as I can tell (and I spend a lot of time in stores that sell geeky stuff). Batman is the only bit of American pop culture that has earned a set of trading arts. In fact, he's got two sets. Japan respects Batman.

And so do I, by spending my hard earned yen on these little toys. Here, for your consumption is my favorite so far (I have not been that lucky. Still trying for the Azrael figure!).



That, of course, is Nightwing. As you can see, the quality on these things is pretty high. I'll share pictures of my other Batman trading arts in the future.