“I’m sorry. From now on, I won’t rush to board the train.”
“JR西日本 × ウルトラマン × エレキング” (c.1995–1996) – ORIGINAL JAPANESE B1 PUBLIC ETIQUETTE POSTER – “さわやかマナー” (RAILWAY-USE / 非売品)
Extremely Rare | Excellent Condition | Railway / Station Display (Not for Sale) | Mid-1990s Campaign Issue | 72.8 × 103 cm (B1)
This is an original Japanese B1 public-service / railway-courtesy poster from the mid-1990s produced for JR West’s celebrated 「さわやかマナー」 manners campaign. Featuring the classic Ultra kaiju Eleking (エレキング) alongside imagery of Ultraman, this extraordinary design functions as a humorous sequel to JR West’s earlier anti-rush-boarding poster.
Rather than simply repeating the original safety instruction, the campaign gives Eleking a narrative arc: the monster has learned his lesson.
The exact design is documented as a JR West station-display, non-retail B1 poster, confirming its original function as railway advertising rather than commercially sold character merchandise.
Campaign & issuing bodies (what it is)
The upper-left corner carries the familiar 「さわやかマナー」 campaign identity together with the issuing credits （財）交通道徳協会 (Japan Traffic Ethics Association / Kotsu Dotoku Kyokai) and JR西日本 (JR West).
JR West’s Sawayaka Manner programme used memorable visual concepts to encourage considerate behaviour in stations and trains. The Ultra collaboration was particularly ingenious, placing famous heroes and monsters into completely ordinary commuter situations and allowing the characters themselves to demonstrate correct—or spectacularly incorrect—railway etiquette.
This sheet is particularly interesting because it is not simply another independent manners image: it explicitly refers back to an earlier poster in the campaign, creating a miniature ongoing story.
The message (translation)
The enormous vertical headline reads:
「エレキングの改心。」
— “Eleking’s change of heart.”
or, more literally, “Eleking reforms.”
The accompanying quotation reads:
「ゴメンナサイ。コレカラハ
駆ケ込ミ乗車ヤリマセン。」
— “I’m sorry. From now on, I won’t rush to board the train.”
The deliberately simple, slightly robotic katakana phrasing makes the apology feel as though Eleking himself is solemnly promising JR passengers that he has changed his ways.
It is a wonderfully playful continuation of the earlier message 「駆け込み乗車はやめましょう。」 — “Please do not rush to board the train.”
Poster design (what you see here)
The composition is one of the cleverest designs in the JR West Ultraman series.
Against an enormous, almost completely white minimalist field, Eleking stands at monumental scale, one hand raised to its head in a sheepish, almost embarrassed gesture.
In front of the monster is a large reproduction of the earlier JR West railway poster showing Eleking attempting to rush aboard a waiting train while Ultraman physically grabs its huge tail and pulls it back from the carriage.
The previous campaign has literally become an image inside the new campaign.
The visual story is therefore instantly understandable:
Eleking remembers what happened. Eleking has learned his lesson. Eleking promises never to rush-board a train again.
That self-referential structure gives this poster considerably more personality than a conventional public-service announcement. It feels almost like the second panel of a comic strip or the follow-up episode of a television story.
The restrained composition is also exceptionally effective graphically. Eleking’s strange cream, brown and black costume occupies the centre, while the giant black Japanese typography runs vertically down the right side. The earlier full-colour station poster acts as an inset image and provides a second visual narrative within the larger design.
At lower left, a portrait of Ultraman flashing a peace sign introduces an additional period feature:
ウルトラ図鑑4「宇宙怪獣エレキング」
— “Ultra Guide No. 4: Space Monster Eleking.”
The accompanying text gives viewers a miniature character profile, explaining Eleking’s origins and powers, including its ability to wrap its long tail around opponents and deliver high-voltage electricity, as well as discharge electrical energy from its mouth.
The poster even prints Eleking’s transformation in scale:
20 cm → 53 metres
500 grams → 25,000 tons
It turns an etiquette advertisement into an official miniature Ultra character encyclopaedia, giving the sheet an additional level of appeal for tokusatsu collectors.
Ultraman & Eleking in Japan (why this works)
Eleking is one of the defining kaiju of the classic Ultra universe, originally appearing in Ultraseven, Episode 3, “The Secret of the Lake,” in 1967. Tsuburaya identifies the character as a space monster raised by the Pitt Aliens, notable for its long electrically charged tail and distinctive rotating horns.
Its extraordinarily distinctive silhouette—the long tail, bizarre crescent-shaped horns and pale body covered in dark markings—made Eleking instantly recognisable to generations of Japanese viewers.
That familiarity is exactly why the joke works.
The earlier poster exploited Eleking’s enormous tail by having Ultraman physically grab it to prevent the monster from rushing onto a train. This sequel then presents the monster after the fact, apparently embarrassed by its behaviour and promising to become a more considerate passenger.
Instead of defeating the kaiju with a special attack, Ultraman has successfully taught it railway manners.
Japan-only design & licensing
This is a Japan-exclusive railway-use promotional item (非売品 / not for sale) produced specifically for public-information display rather than retail.
The main image carries ©円谷プロ, identifying Tsuburaya Productions and confirming the authorised use of the Ultra characters.
Its combination of JR West railway history, official Tsuburaya character imagery, classic Ultraman-era tokusatsu and highly distinctive Japanese public-information design makes the poster significantly more unusual than normal commercial Ultraman merchandise.
About the B1 format (size & rarity)
Japanese B1 posters measure approximately 72.8 × 103 cm (28.7 × 40.6 inches)—twice the surface area of the more familiar Japanese B2 format.
This exact Eleking’s Change of Heart design is documented as a JR West B1 station-display poster produced as a non-retail item.
These sheets were created as temporary working advertising. They were intended to spend a limited period in railway stations before being replaced by the next campaign.
There was no commercial distribution system encouraging members of the public to preserve them, and there was little reason for railway staff to retain obsolete etiquette posters once their display period had ended.
Consequently, surviving original B1 examples are genuinely scarce.
Why this example is extraordinary (rarity & market)
The poster has several layers of collector appeal.
It is a large-format original JR West railway advertisement, an officially licensed Tsuburaya / Ultraman artefact, an Eleking character poster, and a wonderfully specific example of mid-1990s Japanese public-information graphic design.
More unusually, it is also a sequel poster.
The inclusion of the previous “rush boarding” campaign image means that the two Eleking B1 posters can be displayed together as a genuine pair:
Poster 1: Eleking behaves badly and Ultraman stops him.
Poster 2: Eleking apologises and promises never to do it again.
That continuing narrative makes the pair particularly compelling as a surviving group from the campaign.
Condition
This poster is in Excellent condition.
The huge cream-white field remains remarkably clean for an original railway promotional poster approximately three decades old, while Eleking’s costume, Ultraman imagery, inset railway photograph and bold black typography retain excellent clarity and colour.
There is only light age- and storage-related handling / surface character, including some very soft creasing and minor rippling visible principally within the large pale areas. These are modest and consistent with careful long-term storage of an unbacked B1 sheet.
There are no obvious major tears, no significant paper loss and no tape or adhesive residue visible in the supplied imagery. The principal imagery and typography remain exceptionally strong.
The verso is also very clean overall, displaying only minor handling / storage character consistent with age.
For an ephemeral large-format railway poster manufactured specifically for temporary public display, its preservation is exceptional.
Please refer to the front, reverse and detailed imagery, as this is the exact poster that is for sale. Once framed, the enormous B1 format, minimalist composition and wonderfully humorous Eleking “redemption” imagery will display spectacularly.
It is approximately 30 years old.
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.
A very rare mid-1990s JR West “さわやかマナー” B1 poster featuring Eleking’s comic change of heart after being stopped by Ultraman from rushing aboard a train—an exceptional Japan-only piece combining classic tokusatsu, railway culture, public-service design and genuine narrative continuity within the campaign.
“I’m sorry. From now on, I won’t rush to board the train.”
