Bandai Namco seems to be slapping Tekken 8 on just about anything right now. There's the jean jacket, the skateboard deck, the horrifically ugly $250 Nike Airs, the Uniqlo t-shirts, the PUBG collaboration, the DJ Max collaboration (which is actually pretty good) and now… designer sunglasses.
The fighting game is collaborating with luxury eyewear brand Gentle Monster to bring some flamin' hot protection for your retinas. I have to admit, I do really dig them in a sicko sort of way: the red mirror lenses are framed by chrome flames with the arm's inspired by Kazuya Mishima's horns when he's in his devil form. They even come packaged in a fist wearing Kazuya's signature red studded glove along with a Tekken 8-branded sack, all for the low price of $500 / £410.
My favourite thing about all this, however, is the marketing that's come along with it. There are some real-life models sporting the sunnies in a couple of advertisements, of course. But Bandai has also pushed out a couple of rather thirst trappy animations of Kazuya wearing the sunglasses and doing super manly things like crushing whiskey glasses while lightning flashes and heavy metal rips in the background. All while his shirt is wide open, of course. Another short animation shows Kazuya taking some hilariously fuckboy-esque photographs of himself—shirtless once again—in the mirror before switching to his devil form… and taking more fuckboy snaps.
GENTLE MONSTER × TEKKEN 8 INFERNO launching on September 28th 11am(KST).The special TEKKEN Pop-up will be held in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Beijing.Get notified at https://t.co/B46HHpvB8C⠀#gentlemonster #tekken#gentlemonsterxtekken#tekken8 pic.twitter.com/qz876DvUYySeptember 26, 2024
There's something very funny to me about taking one of the main baddies of the game and parading him around shirtless like a sexy supermodel. I suppose it does fit into his personality somewhat—I feel like gaudy sunglasses are the natural progression from being a total sneakerhead, a thing that Kazuya canonically is.
I also think stupid, sexy Kazuya might be working on me? If I was far more financially irresponsible than I already am, I'd definitely be tempted by Gentle Monster's sunnies. They've got that wraparound goggle shape that feels very early 2000s while still somehow leaning into that kinda cool Matrix gothy vibe. Could I pull them off? Absolutely not, but I like living in my deluded world where I think I could.
I won't be getting my hands on them in real life, but the collaboration also sees the sunglasses making their way into the game as a free customisation item from October 1. At least this way I get to save $500 and whack them on my main Claudio Serafino instead, who is undeniably far cooler than I could ever hope to be.
