Brian Ashcraft

Japanese Factories at Night Are Magnificent

Plus, there’s a nice Final Fantasy VII vibe going on. For a while now, photographers have been tweeting photos of factories at night to the hashtag #工場夜景 (koujou yakei) or “factory night view.” Many of these appear to be refineries, and the resulting images are often futuristic and otherworldy.

Meet a Guy Who Checks 3,000 Kit Kats Per Minute

Making Japanese Kit Kats sure seems fun. Checking them, though, that looks hard, especially when thousands of them are rolling by every minute. A recent episode of Japanese TV program JobTune showed the inside of a KitKat production factory. To ensure that only decent wafers end up sold, a factory worker spot checks them. One…

Today, SNK announced that The King of Fighters XIV will be out in Japan on August 25, Dengeki Online reports. The KOF XIV website’s English pagecurrently has a “late August” release date for the Western world.

Hummingbird and cherry blossoms. Yoyogi Park, Tokyo, Japan. Update February 15 – 2:42 am: The name of the photographer was removed at his request. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

Track: This Could Be Us | Artist: Prince | Album: Art Official Age Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Adventures in Bad Anime Perspective

Sometimes in anime and visual novels, the perspective is spot on. But sometimes, it’s not. Via Nijipoi, GirlsChannel and OneCall, let’s have a look at when those backgrounds and viewpoints come up short. These kind of images appear to exist in a different dimension, because they don’t follow our universe’s basic rules of perspective. For…

Grasshopper Manufacture put up a new teaser site titled “Believe in the Internet.” Could this be for a remake of its 1999 point-and-click adventure games The Silver Case?

Tekken X Street Fighter Is “On Hold”

Street Fighter X Tekken came out in 2012. But Tekken X Street Fighter, which was announced at the same time, is still M.I.A. In a recent interview, Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada tells GameSpot that the game has been iced for the time being. When asked about the game’s status, Harada replied (via Tekken Team member…

Purple and Green. Saga Prefecture, Japan. By Colin Laycock. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

When You Accidentally Pull Off a Chun-Li Cosplay

It can happen. Just ask Florida-based fitness lover Natascha Encinosa. Back in February, Encinosa uploaded a photo to her Instagram, wishing everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day. That’s when folks noticed the Chun-Li similarities. The photo quickly went viral, and since then, Encinosa has netted over 190,000 Instagram followers and even caught the attention of Japan’s…

Track: Easy Money | Artist: Johnny Marr | Album: Playland Kotaku Soundtrack is a selection of the stuff we’re listening to – and gaming to – at the moment.

Kingsglaive Final Fantasy XV, the full-CG Final Fantasy XV spin-off flick, will be out in Japanese movie theaters on July 9. No word yet on its international release date.

The Game of Thrones Opening Credits Recreated with Paper 

Just time in for the upcoming season 6 premiere, here’s Moleskin doing a stop-motion version of the opening credits with paper cutouts. According to DesignBoom, this took 7,600 paper cutouts to complete. As far as online notebook ads go, this is pretty good. The making-of is also interesting to watch.

Is the Persona 5 release date coming soon? After getting delayed and being awfully quiet, Atlus has put up a countdown clock today, which at the time of writing, has over 300 hours left to go.

The Return of Japan’s Strangest English Textbook

Many Japanese think English is a difficult language. So why not make that linguistic grind enjoyable? That’s exactly what this odd little book does. A few years ago, Kotaku introduced English Words That Don’t Appear on Tests (here and here). It’s a wonderful English book filled with silly drawings and words and sentences that probably…

Fushimi Inari Shrine. Kyoto, Japan. By Christian Astorga. JPGs is a photo peek into wherever gamers might find interesting. If you’re a photographer and have images you want to share, drop us a line!

Dead or Alive Getting Mouse Pads with ‘Life-Size’ Boobs

Of course it is. Warning: This article contains content some readers might find objectionable. “Life-sized boob mouse pads” (等身大おっぱいマウスパッド or “toushindai oppai mausu paddo”) have been released in Japan for well-over a decade. Some people think they’re harmless fun, while others don’t like them. In the past few years, however, the these mouse pads have…

The First Trailer for Jason Bourne

After a hiatus, Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass are again teaming up on a new Bourne film. It’s titled Jason Bourne, features Tommy Lee Jones, and will be out this summer.

Cardboard Samurai Armor, Now for Adults

Brave warrior, the only thing that can defeat you now are sharp pointy things like pencils. And rough-housing. And sitting on the sofa funny. And rain. But behold, here is genuine made-in-Japan cardboard samurai armor. The dark armor is patterned after Date Masamune’s, while the red is designed after Sanada Yukimura’s armor. According to IT…

Report: Platinum Games’ President Steps Down

According to Japanese game industry site Game Business, the president of PlatinumGames, Tatsuya Minami, has stepped down. This comes as PlatinumGames began celebrating its tenth anniversary earlier this year. Platinum is the developer of games like Vanquish and Metal Gear Rising. Their most recent title, Star Fox Zero, launched in Japan for the Wii U…