Kotaku East

Ten Anime Openings and Endings from Winter 2015

Long before I spoke my first coherent sentence in Japanese, I was already rocking out to Japanese music thanks to anime. And with this season’s 35 new anime—not to mention returning anime—there are a ton of excellent new theme songs. Here are 10 of my favorites for your listening pleasure. Anime: Aldnoah.Zero Song: “&Z” Artist:…

PS Vita Game Allegedly Traced Japanese Comedians

It’s not that uncommon for video games to seek inspiration from a variety of places. But the usual suspects are other visual mediums like movies, art and photos. But Japanese comedians? Now that’s unusual. Magical girl anime Yuki Yuna Is a Hero got a PS Vita game late last month in Japan. As Twitter user…

Nintendo issued a statement saying it was ramping up Amiibo production for the Japanese market. In particular, there has been a shortage of Little Mac, Captain Falcon, and the Animal Crossing Villager Amiibos. Remember this is for Japan and no word on how it impacts other regions.

Dragon Quest Gets a Facelift

Much like last year’s Hyrule Warriors, Dragon Quest Heroes has taken characters from its classic titles and given them an updated look for some good old hack n’ slash action on current gen systems. And while the design changes are often minor, I’d argue they’re definitely for the better. Check out the gallery below to…

Frieza’s New Look Divides Dragon Ball Z Fans

There’s a new Dragon Ball movie coming out. Dubbed Dragon Ball Z: The Resurrection of F, the movie features the return of Dragon Ball’s greatest villain, Frieza. A new trailer reveals the character’s new form—something that is dividing Dragon Ball fans. The new form is being called “Golden Frieza.” Design-wise, it looks similar to white…

The Up All Night Stream Plays Dragon Quest Heroes [Stream Complete]

What happens when Dragon Quest meets Dynasty Warriors? Let’s find out together as I stream new PS4 title Dragon Quest Heroes live for your enjoyment. Update: The stream is now complete! Check out the full four-and-a-half stream below. Watch live video from BiggestinJapan on Twitch Part 2 (An additional 4 hours) Dragon Quest Heroes was…

Detective Conan Has His Own Airport in Japan

We’re not just talking about an airplane, but an entire airport that’s named after the famous manga and anime character Detective Conan. The character appears in the series known by the same name (though, in North America and the UK, the manga and anime are called Case Closed). [Photo: singo0822] Websites AnimeAnime, Natalie, and ModelPress…

The World’s Most Advanced Hug Pillow

Technology! It does good things like make our lives better. You know, like making things such as computers, smartphones and talking hug pillows possible. As noted on Japanese site Weekly ASCII, a researcher named Kouchi Uchimura pitched his idea for a talking hug pillow platform called Itasupo on crowd-funding site Makuake (think Kickstarter), with the…

Google’s Street View Car Stopped by the Japanese Police

Google Street View is filled with all sorts of strange things. But one of the less odd things is the Google car getting stopped by the Japanese police. If you’ve ever driven in Japan, you’ll know that the speed traps often include unmanned radar guns stationed somewhat away from the actual police. There will be…

This is One Violent Game of Pool

When I think of violent sports, pool is not one that immediately comes to mind. Of course, when the stakes are life and death like in the anime short Death Billiards, a bit of violence is understandable. Death Billiards is a 2013 anime one-off episode that served as the prototype for Death Parade—one of this…

Why Ash from Pokémon Isn’t Dead Yet

On last night’s episode of Pokémon XY, Ash Ketchum was electrocuted by Pikachu’s 100,000 volts. He should be dead, right? Not exactly. [Photo via Story_terror] Just look at how Ash withstands Pikachu’s electric shock. This isn’t new. Over the years, Ash Ketchum has been electrocuted numerous times. It’s a running gag. But, as asked by…

The New Tales Game Plays Differently Than You’d Expect 

Since Tales of Symphonia, combat in the console Tales games has been largely the same (though with a few admittedly unique features in each one). But the newest game, Tales of Zestiria, has several changes that, while small, alter how the battles work on a fundamental level The most major change is the abandonment of…

These Swords Will Mess You Up

The martial art Kalaripayattu is elegant and beautiful. Those flexible swords the two men are wielding? Goodness, they’re scary. In the below video, via Boing Boing, you can see whiplike swords called urumi in action. The weapons, apparently, are difficult to master as they can accidentally cause serious injury. I can’t imagine how difficult—or dangerous—it…

Listen to Japanese Voice Actors Talk to Themselves

The complaint often arises with anime that the voices all sound the same. So how does it sound when you have one voice actress having a conversation with themselves? The anime Kantai Collection, based on the game of the same name, features anthropomorphized battleships. Each of the characters that appears in the series is based…

The Japanese Birdman Poster Looks Dumb

This is (part of) the U.S. poster for Birdman. It’s a rather simple poster. Surely, there’s no way you could screw this up, right? Right? Well, actually… Here is the rest of the poster—in case you don’t live in North America or, if you do, haven’t been near a movie theater. Not bad! I mean,…

School Attracts Students with Manga-Style Uniforms

Usually it’s the other way around. Manga artists either take inspiration from real uniforms or draw fantasy uniforms they wish they wore. Not this time. Manga artist Zakuri Sato, known for Otona Pink and Taihen Yoku Dekimashita, designed these uniforms, which might look normal for an anime, but real uniforms aren’t always this stylized—or cute.…

Smash Bros. Creator is Totally Impressed with Steam

But aren’t we all? Yes, yes, Steam is a pretty decent online store. At least Smash Bros. creator, Masahiro Sakurai, thinks so. Maybe he could, you know, make a game to sell there. “It’s become mandatory that each platform has its own built-in [digital] shop.” Sakurai reflected in his semi-weekly column in Weekly Famitsu. “So…

Pokémon Coloring Books Make for Terrifying Doodles

You’d think that if a talented artist got ahold of Pokémon coloring books, the result would undoubtedly be beautiful pictures. You, then, would be wrong. Twitter user Saru recently showed off some drawings he did in Pokémon coloring books. So, here is the original page: And after Saru got ahold of it. [Photos: Saru] The…

Dude Mixes $475 Worth of Soft Drinks and Then Barfs

YouTuber Hajime spent 56,365 yen (US$475), buying every kind of non-alcoholic drink his local convenience store sold. Then, he mixed them together to make “infinity coffee.” Oh dear. As pointed out by Twitter user Tim Hornyak, Hajime’s video shows the huge collection of beverages amassed. There were milk drinks, various types of canned coffee, soda,…

Fans Do Dragon Ball Z Better Than Hollywood Ever Could

Hollywood, you really blew it. Real-life Dragon Ball Z fights can be incredibly cool. Dubbed Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope, this fan-created webseries is based on DBZ’s Trunks’ backstory. The pilot starts slow, and yes, some of the acting is dodgy, but stick with it. Light of Hope gets good. The big set piece…