Kotaku East

Gamers Hit With Criminal Charges Allegedly Made Tons Of Money

Yesterday, Nexon announced that charges were being pressed against three Sudden Attack gamers for allegedly cheating online. Today, new reports reveal that the teens’ apparent underhanded gaming tricks supposedly earned them $80,000. According to a report published today by Yomiuri, one of Japan’s largest newspapers, two of the suspects, a 17 year-old high school student…

Two Men Fall in Love. One Is a Motorcycle

Following Japan’s trend of anthropomorphizing stuff, Japanese publisher Kadokawa is releasing a 2-book series involving romance between a man and a motorcycle and a car. Wut? Titled Zokkon, the books are paving the way for a new niche genre. A very niche genre. A very, very niche genre. The first story of Zokkon revolves around…

This Must Be the Strangest Exercise Video of 2014

This week, delivery company Sagawa Express is releasing an exercise DVD that features men in delivery uniforms. Dancing. In front of delivery trucks. No, I am not joking. Yes, you can buy it for around the equivalent $30. It is an actual product. For sale. Once again, I am not joking. If anything, this looks…

The Biggest Obstacle in Hotaru no Nikki is You

When I first saw the promotional video for Nippon Ichi software’s upcoming game, Hotaru no Nikki, I was instantly captivated by the overall aesthetic. It had the feel of a game like Ico, but with less action. And that’s pretty much what I got. Good – Atmospheric Hotaru no Nikki is atmospheric as hell. The…

Soon, You Can Walk Under the Giant Gundam’s Crotch

Is this a dream? No! This is very real. Soon, people in Tokyo will be able to walk between the giant Gundam’s legs. Until now, a perimeter has kept people from standing directly underneath the huge mecha’s most important unit. But, as IT Media reports, between July 19 and September 25, folks will have a…

Hell Yes, I Want to Destroy Cities as Godzilla

I still haven’t seen the movie, thanks to Japan being one of the last areas to premiere Godzilla in theaters, but I hope it’s even half as awesome as the monster lizard’s latest upcoming game looks. Slated for release this Winter from developer Bandai Namco, in Godzilla players will control the iconic unstoppable destructive force…

More Crappy Animated Images for Your Amusement

Making anime is difficult! There are all those frame to animate. There are deadlines. It’s rough work. And sometimes, the end result isn’t quite up to par. Previously, Kotaku showcased bad animated images, which are called sakuga houkai” (作画崩壊). As mentioned before, not all these types of images are accidents! Some are drawn this way…

Zelda’s Quite The Warrior Princess In Hyrule Warriors

Yesterday we got to see Impa in action. Today, it’s Princess Zelda’s turn to show off her ass-kicking ability in the upcoming Zelda hack & slash game, Hyrule Warriors In one minute, we get to see the Hylian princess take on a small army using quick, acrobatic swordfighting and devastating magic alike. Really, lose the…

Do You Think the Lupin Movie Will Be Terrible?

This isn’t the first Lupin The Third trailer, but it’s the longest one to date. It also gives us a good look at the live-action version. Well, whaddaya think? Will it suck? The movie opens in Japan on August 30 and will be directed by Ryuhei Kitamura of Azumi and Godzilla: Final Wars fame. Kitamura…

Listen up, composers and music lovers: Following last year’s KORG M01D, Detune will be bringing the new KORG DSN-12 synthesizer to the Nintendo 3DS eShop in September. Check out the official website for some specifications, and give the trailer a watch above to see the new 3D oscilloscope in action.

Japan’s Prime Minister Accidentally Tells Women To Die

Yesterday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe launched a new blog to support women. The wording on the blog is most unfortunate. Above, you can see the top image for the website with Abe’s grinning face. In English, “shine” means to sparkle and glitter. In Japanese, “shine” can be read as 死ね (literally, “shine” written in Roman…

Two Japanese Vending Machines Brutally Murdered

When you think of vending machine robberies, you probably think of folks sticking their arms up into it and swiping a drink. You don’t think of a heartless bastard ripping out the machine’s heart. Well, maybe you do! That’s what recently happened at Samukawa High School in Kanagawa, Japan. Two vending machines, stocked with Kirin…

Persona Q is a Mixture of Old School Gameplay and Fanboy Joy

I love Persona 3 and Persona 4. They are easily among my favorite JRPGs. So a game that mixes together the characters of both games in an all new adventure seems right up my alley—which it is for the most part. But when it comes down to it, Persona Q lives or dies based on…

NASA Concept Aircraft Looks Like a Flying Vegetable

NASA dubbed this futuristic aircraft concept the “Supersonic Green Machine.” Online in Japan, it’s being compared to a vegetable. A flying vegetable. Twitter user K0ZiR0 created the above image, comparing the NASA aircraft to the negi, or what’s known as a Welsh onion in the West. The negi is the flying object at the bottom…

One Week Friends Teaches You All You Need to Know About Friendship

There are a lot of anime out there about falling in love, but rare are the series that are willing to spend 12 full episodes doing nothing but exploring the growth of two people’s friendship. And still rarer are those that do it even half as well as One Week Friends Good – Real-world Exploration…

In Japan, a Fast Food Chain Is Selling $12 Burgers Until Next Spring

Like Japanese beef? Burger chain Lotteria is rolling out a series of pricey wagyu burgers, costing between $12 to $15 a piece. Yes, this is fast food! On the 29th of every month until next March, select Lotterias will have expensive burgers made from a different type of high-grade Japanese beef. The number “29” is…

The World Cup of Iffy Japanese and Chinese Tattoos

Some of the best athletes in the world are facing off at this year’s World Cup. Shame that a couple of them are sporting some rather interesting, if not unfortunate, Japanese and Chinese tattoos. Previously, Kotaku profiled the perplexing tattoo of Greece’s Theofanis Gekas that was baffling people in Japan. As noted on Mixi News,…

A Diary of My First Day at Pokémon Art Academy

Dear Diary, after Mom kicked me out of the house because of my radical views on the role of Pokémon in our society, I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. Everything in our world seems to rely on Pokémon slave labor—from construction work to farming! Heck, even photography seems to…

This Boring 7 Star Hotel Wants To Be Removed From Transformers 4

Earlier last week, Chinese property company Pangu holdings abruptly canceled their sponsorship of Transformers: Age of Extinction. Pangu holdings, which owns and operates the Pangu 7 Star Hotel in Beijing, now wants to have its image removed from the movie. The Pangu hotel is huge Chinese and Western outlets such as Variety have reported on…

​College Women Mysteriously Collapse in a Tokyo Street

Students getting drunk and passing out is part of the university experience. But this weekend, something strange and quite possibly sinister happened in Tokyo. Note: This article might contain content some readers find objectionable. On Twitter and Instagram (via 2ch), photos of a group of young women passed out in the middle of the street…