Pac-Man sake lineup celebrates video game legend’s 40th anniversary

Japanese roots

Although it gained international fame and turned into a cultural phenomenon, some people forget that Pac-Man is a Japanese creation, developed in 1979 by Toru Iwatani at Namco and released 40 years ago in May 1980. Fun trivia fact: The legendary maze chase game was apparently called Puck Man at first (パックマン in Japanese). However, due to the fact that the Japanese spelling of the first word パック is the same for both "puck" and "pack" (or "pac"), Midway Games changed the name accordingly when they released an American version to prevent would-be pranksters from scratching off part of the letter P on the arcade cabinets! Not only a smart move but one made possible by the flexibility of katakana!

Product collaborations have sometimes played up Pac-Man's Japanese roots. For example, we previously introduced a series of Pac-Man design wallets and cases made in the traditional craft of inden 印伝, in which lacquer is painted on deerskin. And then there were the Pac-Man rickshaws which showed up in Tokyo streets in 2016.

40th Anniversary Pac-Man Sake

Now, to celebrate Pac-Man's 40th anniversary, Tiers Co., Ltd. and NAVIO Co., Ltd. are releasing an exclusive sake lineup in five colorful metallic bottles as part of their GAME LEGENDS SAKE SERIES. In addition to Pac-Man, Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde also have their own bottles.

While Pac-Man fans may be mainly interested in the collectible bottle designs, sake aficionados will also appreciate the contents since each bottle contains excellent junmai sake, brewed only with water, rice, yeast, and koji, with no sugar or other additives, provided by the venerable Hiroshima-based sake brewery Sempuku, founded in 1856.

These sake bottles will go on sale on July 4th, 2020, and will be available from Miyake Honten online store as well as the TOWER RECORDS online store (see links below).

Let's take a look at these gorgeous bottles, each one coated in the same kind of durable color metallic paint used in the automotive industry: