entertainment

Japan’s phenomenally handsome gorilla getting nationwide DVD release

20 Comments
By Casey Baseel, RocketNews24

A DVD of Japan’s “hottest primate” is set to go on sale nationwide in December.

Last summer, women across Japan had their hearts stolen by the newest handsome face to be discovered by the Japanese media. That sort of thing happens a couple of time a year, as a celebrity’s visual image is critical to his success in Japan, but the new heartthrob, and it’s not just that he goes by the single name Shabani.

No, what truly sets Shabani apart is that he’s not a singer, actor, or professional athelte. He’s a gorilla at Nagoya’s Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Garden. Even through he’s been living at the facility for eight years, it wasn’t until recently that he rocketed to fame as an "ikemen" (a Japanese term for hot (ordinarily human) guys), and with fame in Japan comes endorsement deals. 2016 is the Year of the Monkey in the Chinese Zodiac, and with more and more people in Japan designing their own New Year’s Cards using their PC, Adobe thought Shabani was the perfect choice to promote the company’s image editing software.

If that short one-minute video didn’t satisfy you desire to gaze upon Shabani’s manly mug, you’ll be happy to know that the 19-year-old western lowland gorilla also has his own DVD coming out, titled "Ikemen Sugiru Gorilla. Shabani," or "Shabani, the Gorilla Who’s Just Too Hot."

Produced by the Higashiyama Zoo, the DVD can be preordered through Lawson and Mini Stop convenience stores, and officially goes on sale at Lawson branches on Dec 22. We’re assuming the video includes plenty of close-ups of Shabani’s strong, stoic eyes, and the above images seem to indicate at least one sequence where viewers can appreciate the shapely buttocks of “the hottest primate,” as the zoo is billing the DVD’s star.

The disc isn’t a complete solo project though. Also included are scenes of Shabani spending time with his children and two female mates. While the news that Shabani is romantically involved no doubt comes as a shock to a segment of his admirers, they can at least take heart in the fact that he and his wives are apparently receptive to the idea of open relationships.

Source: IT Media

Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- Revealed! Japan’s top 10 handsome samurai -- TV program featuring hot men visiting hot springs to release DVD and photobook this month -- Earthquake rocks Japan, but zoo’s gorilla pulls a honey badger and just don’t care

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20 Comments
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Poor guy, living out his years in a concrete jungle.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Silly women swooning for a gorilla...

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Releasing a DVD? I'd rather hear they were releasing the gorilla and his family.

Born in a primate park in the Netherlands, raised in Australia, incarcerated in Japan... the poor chap has never known freedom.

Still, it could be worse... in Japan I suppose there's little chance of him or his family ever being shot in the head, dissected in front of a group of schoolchildren and fed to the lions as entertainment for the paying public. He's well out of the Netherlands.

And he is a handsome beast.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Fact 1: gorillas have the habit of eating their own crap. Fact 2: gorillas are great apes, not monkey.

2016 is the Year of the Monkey in the Chinese Zodiac,

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Maria and Cleo....I prefer he live in wild also but poachers do kill gorillas and the natural habitat grows smaller and smaller everyday. Just as tigers, zoos may be the species only survival habitat for their survival.

Blame human greed and selfishness.....

0 ( +1 / -1 )

It's a rubbish zoo, I won't go there any more. It panders, as everything does nowadays, to the cute and colourful. Those cages are cared for, the others are horrid. This guy is benefiting from his good looks, otherwise he'd be even worse off.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Cleo, I think you must be meaning Denmark.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

In fairness, Higashiyama Zoo is currently updating its facilities. A lot of them are still those depressing/ disturbing 1960s era concrete prison types but the newer ones at least look more humane (to the extent that keeping some of those animals engaged can be considered humane at least). Compared to some of the horror show Zoos I have seen elsewhere in Japan, Higashiyama isn't bad.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yea, some zoos have 'livable' enclosures and some zoos need to be shut down. Same as circus's using animals.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

WTF?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@MarkG Blame human greed and selfishness.....

Good point. I'd add gun huggers, too.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

'... Japan’s “hottest primate”' As human beings are primates, does this article suggest that this gorilla is considered to be more handsome than any person in Japan? Now that is really rude!

2 ( +3 / -1 )

All hail our new simian overlords. I for one welcome the change.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Japan’s phenomenally handsome gorilla getting nationwide DVD release

Gorgeous gorillas, premium noodles and indulgent chocolate!

We've never had it so good!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

forzaducati - You're right. I apologise to the Netherlands and to Apenheul Primate Centre, and hang my head in contrition.

MarkG - Shabani has spent his whole life in captivity, he probably wouldn't last very long in the wild; if the poachers didn't get him, other gorillas/wildlife/starvation would. I feel sorry for him and others like him. Small mercy perhaps that he's not a bovine - he'd have been hamburgers before his second birthday.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Women. Its not his looks, but rather his popularity that has them enthralled. They say its his looks in an attempt to hide their shallowness. Love Shibani for what he truly is? Forget it.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

What?? I look just like him but the ladies don't find me attractive!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Try beating your chest and grunting and one less than a few too many maybe you can score.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Great comedy show on TV a few weeks ago where two people dressed up in gorilla suits and sat in a cage waiting for gawpers to come by. Probably based on the popularity of Shabani. J Candid Camera.

Little by little the two gorillas started to do unusual things, llike dancing, humming and tossing basket balls around, but it took some time for gullible members of the public to twig.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

just says a lot about Japanese men when J women find gorillas attractive, see guys the herbivorous man isnt the type there after. they want the macho Alpha male.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

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