celebration was a tragedy. He drowned in the canal, with all reports being that he had been shoved in by the revelers. To prevent future incidents, the Osaka city council ordered the construction of a new Ebisubashi bridge beginning in 2004, which will make it more difficult for fans to take the celebratory leap should the Curse of the Colonel be broken and the Tigers win again. Recovery of statue The Colonel was finally discovered in the Dōtonbori River on March 10, 2009. Divers who recovered the statue at first thought it was only a large barrel, and shortly after a human corpse, but Hanshin fans on the scene were quick to identify it as the upper body of the long-lost Colonel. The right hand and lower body were found the next day, but the statue is still missing its glasses and left hand. It is said that the only way the curse can be lifted is by returning his long-lost glasses and left hand. The statue was later recovered (with replacement of new glasses and hand) and returned to KFC Japan. As the KFC restaurant that the statue originally belonged to no longer exists, the statue was now placed in the branch near Koshien Stadium. In popular culture In the video game Sonic Adventure, a statue of an older man with a moustache stands outside of a fast food restaurant in Station Square. Making reference to the curse, a nearby girl sometimes warns the player not to throw it into a river. In episode 16 of the anime series Kill la Kill the statue can briefly be seen in the background with its head sticking out from the Dōtonbori River. The Colonel Sanders curse was the first clue in the Connections round of the Horned Viper wall in Episode 26, Series 17 of the popular quiz show Only Connect. The video game Yakuza 0 contains a reference to the curse in the form of a statue of a chef floating underwater in the river of Sotenbori (a fictional version of dotenbori). The statue can be seen underwater in the cutscene where Majima enters the bed of styx, with the camera lingering on the statue for a bit. See also Baseball superstition Curse of the Bambino – A similar superstition surrounding the Boston Red Sox (American baseball, ended in 2004) Curse of the Billy Goat – A similar superstition surrounding