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Kotaku EastChinaGiant Gundam Statue Finished In China
A life-sized, one-to-one scale Freedom Gundam statue has been completed in Shanghai. The 59-foot Freedom Gundam went up in front of the Mitsui Shopping Park LaLaport Shanghai Jinqiao, making this the first official giant Gundam to go up outside Japan. This is not the first life-sized one to go up in China. Way back in…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 30, 2021 -
AnimeDragon Ball Composer Shunsuke Kikuchi Dies At 89
Famed composer Shunsuke Kikuchi has died from pneumonia, Oricon reports. He was 89. Kikuchi was born in Aomori Prefecture in 1931. He made his music debut in 1961 and went on to compose for an array of iconic shows, including the themes for Kamen Rider and Doraemon. His “Doraemon no Uta” (Doraemon’s Song) with lyrics…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 28, 2021 -
CultureEarth Defense Force 2 Coming To Nintendo Switch In Japan
This summer, Earth Defense Force 2 will be released in Japan under the title Earth Defense Force 2 for Nintendo Switch. Clever! The game is based on the PlayStation Vita’s Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders From Planet Space, which was a remake of 2005’s Global Defense Force. Soon, folks can shoot up giant insects on…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 28, 2021 -
AnimeWatch Anime Style Paint Jobs Bring Figures To Life
Over the years, Kotaku has featured the work of artists specializing in anime-style paint jobs (here, here, and here, for example). Now let’s watch as YouTuber MA-Man shows how it’s done. While the clips are in Japanese, even if you don’t speak the language, you can follow along as MA-Man does an anime paint job…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 28, 2021 -
Kotaku EastJapanJapanese Pop Star Teams Up With Square Enix For Some Fancy CG
Koichi Domoto, one half of the Japanese boy band Kinki Kids, has roped in Square Enix for his upcoming solo album Playful. It’s Domoto’s first standalone project in six years, and the album also comes with a bonus short movie. So far, there have been a handful of teasers released, allowing fans to see how…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 27, 2021 -
Kotaku EastChinaReport: Knife-Wielding Man Arrested At Genshin Impact Developer’s Headquarters
According to Sina, one of China’s largest news portals, a man was recently arrested at Mihoyo’s Shanghai headquarters. It is believed the suspect intended to stab the company’s founders and then take his own life. The man had purchased two knives and had researched Mihoyo’s founders online. He was arrested on the company grounds, and…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 27, 2021 -
CultureSuper Mario Party Finally Gets New Online Play In Free Update
After nearly two and a half years, Super Mario Party is getting new online play options in a free update When the game first launched in October 2018, it did have online—albeit in a rather limited form as only a small number of the mini-games could be enjoyed. With today’s update, Nintendo is beefing up…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 27, 2021 -
AnimeDespite R-Rating And Pandemic, Demon Slayer Sets Box Office Record In North America
Earlier this spring, when it was announced that Demon Slayer was getting a dreaded R-rating in the US, there was concern that this could impact the movie’s performance. Those concerns, it seems, were wrong. According to AFP, Demon Slayer earned $19.5 million in the United States and Canada during its opening weekend, which is the…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 26, 2021 -
Studio Ghibli Producer Says Hideaki Anno Wants To Make A Live-Action Nausicaä Film
One of Hideaki Anno’s earliest gigs was animating the seminal God Warrior sequence in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Now, according to Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki, he’s interested in making a live-action film. Considering how Anno has been working on a handful of feature films of late, including Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman,…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 26, 2021 -
Kotaku EastJapanOpening Osaka’s Super Nintendo World Last Month Seems Like A Mistake
On March 18, Shigeru Miyamoto appeared at the Super Nintendo World opening at Universal Studios Japan. For the photos, he seems to have briefly removed his mask, which was probably safe. However, in light of the ensuing state of emergency, the photos reflect poorly on the seriousness of the pandemic, especially now it’s been announced…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 23, 2021 -
AnimeDude Trains Like One-Punch Man During The Pandemic, Gets Buff
Back in 2019, in the before times, Kotaku reported that an investor named Sean trained like One-Punch Man for thirty days and got in terrific shape. Now, in 2021, another dude has trained like the character for a whole year. As Yutara reports, YouTuber Jigoku Dera Guren Maru started at 82.7 kilograms (182 pounds). But…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 23, 2021 -
CultureBehold, A Little Pikachu Photo Printer From Nintendo And Fujifilm
Nintendo and Fujifilm have joined forces for a small printer called Instax Mini Link for Nintendo Switch Smartphone Printer. As PetaPixel and the official release explains, the printer makes it possible to print out in-game images, and is based on Fujifilm’s Instax Mini Link smartphone printer, but with added Switch-themed red-and-blue accents. There’s also a…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 22, 2021 -
Kotaku EastJapanManga Artist Hiro Mashima Is Teaming Up With Square Enix For A Totally New RPG
Award-winning manga artist Hiro Mashima, best known for the smash hit Fairy Tail, is joining forces with Square Enix for an entirely new fantasy role-playing game called Gate of Nightmares for iOS and Android. Check out the debut trailer below: Mashima designed the characters and the game’s overall look, while Jin Fujisawa, a Dragon Quest…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 22, 2021 -
Kotaku EastJapanSquare Enix Launches A Photobook Service In Japan For Final Fantasy XIV
If photo books are good enough to revive your digital pics, then surely the same goes for your life in Final Fantasy XIV In Japan, Square Enix is rolling out a new service called Final Fantasy XIV Custom Order Photobook: Memories of Light. It works like Apple’s photobooks, but with in-game screenshots that customers lay…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 21, 2021 -
Kotaku EastJapanJapan’s Fraudulent Composer Returns Years Later With New Music
In 2014, it was revealed that Mamoru Samuragochi, who was called “Japan’s Beethoven,” was not actually deaf. What’s more, he also used a ghostwriter for his music. Before the news broke, the accepted story was that Samuragochi had a degenerative hearing condition that left him deaf by age 35. As I noted at the time,…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 21, 2021 -
Kotaku EastJapanA Pokémon-Themed Fossil Exhibit Opening In Japan
In what seems like an inevitability, a touring exhibition called Pokémon Kaseki Hakubutsukan (ポケモン化石博物館) or “Pokémon Fossil Museum” will open this summer in Japan. According to the official announcement, the exhibition will let visitors observe and compare fossils from dinosaurs and other creatures as well as extinct plants with Pocket Monsters, with the idea of…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 20, 2021 -
Kotaku EastJapanJapan’s Biggest Indie Game Event Will Be Held This September In-Person
BitSummit, Japan’s biggest indie game event, will be held this September in Kyoto. It will, however, not be open to international attendees, only Japan residents. Last year’s in-person event was cancelled due to covid-19 and held online. “In consideration of the coronavirus pandemic, we will be limiting the attendees to developers, publishers, media, and sponsors…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 20, 2021 -
AnimeThe Mysterious Girl On The My Neighbor Totoro Poster
On the original poster for Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro, as well as on the DVD and Blu-ray cover, there is a mysterious girl standing next to Totoro. She isn’t Satsuki or Mei, and this girl does not appear in the movie. Yet, there she is. Below is the scene that appears in My Neighbor…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 19, 2021 -
CultureOdds and EndsYou Don’t Want Resident Evil Village‘s Tall Vampire Lady To Step On Your Face
You really don’t! Clocking in at 2.9m (or 9’6″) tall, Lady Dimitrescu is probably the absolute last individual you’d want stepping on you. Previously, we saw how the character compared to real humans—she towered over them. In a sponsored clip, YouTuber Kyle Hill did the math to figure out what would happen if she actually…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 19, 2021 -
AnimeDrink Up This Ghost In The Shell Japanese Booze
Joining the likes of other geeky sake comes a line of Ghost in the Shell-themed stuff. Kanpai! Previously, there has been Pac-Man, Yakzua, and Final Fantasy branded sake. Now, three bottles, each with characters from Ghost in the Shell, will be released in Japan. According to Kurand (via Grape and PR Times), there is a…
By Brian Ashcraft Published April 16, 2021
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