Kotaku East

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is at its Best When it Connects to the Series

In the West, Cowboy Bebop is one of the most popularly acclaimed anime of the past two decades with its space western plots, intense action, and memorable soundtrack. The Cowboy Bebop movie is really just more of the same—only in widescreen and with a bigger budget. Good – Dreams and Death Cowboy Bebop: The Movie…

Japanese Star Wars Book Covers are Awesome

I love me some Star Wars—so much so that I have read every single post-A New Hope book that has come out (and more than a few of the comics, too). A lot of the novels have come out in Japan as well, but with one major improvement: the awesome covers. American Star Wars book…

Take a Virtual Tour of Cowboy Bebop‘s Iconic Ship

Ever wanted to explore the ship where Spike, Faye, Jet, Ed, and Ein spend their downtime? Back in 2005, the Cowboy Bebop video game, Cowboy Bebop: Serenade of Reminiscence, was released on the PlayStation 2—nearly seven years after the anime’s release. Set during the show’s run, the game is a 3D brawler with its own…

Wanna-Be Japanese Celebrity Arrested for Stealing 22 Leotards

In Japan, there are some people who are famous simply for being famous. They are called “tarento” (タレント) and appear on variety shows and talk shows. Misaki Hashigawa isn’t one of those people. But as of today, she’s famous online! According to Jiji and Sankei News, this “self-styled tarento” was arrested for stealing twenty-two leotards.…

It’s The Snacktaku Fried Insect Special

I seriously hope you’re not eating breakfast while reading this post. In fact, if you are, I apologize. Now… On with the show! Er… article. China’s known for a myriad of things. Communism, pandas, Chinese food. On that last thing, Chinese food—it covers literally everything. With over 5000 years of history, China’s culinary culture is…

Chinese Internet Slang May Destabilize Country, Says One Official

Internet slang for the most part is, well, meaningless but interesting slang. In China, one phrase from the giant internet lexicon that is Chinese slang has been called out as a phrase that may cause the social apocalypse, at least according to the vice-president of Guangzhou’s Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The phrase in question,…

Angry White Guy Confuses Chinese Gamers

Recently a video appeared online across Chinese social media creating a buzz among Chinese gamers. The video, features a Caucasian speaking fluent Mandarin angrily at Chinese gamers. That’s right, an angry white man shouting at Chinese gamers in Chinese. In the video, the man opens the by swearing at C.G.P, Chinese game players. He then…

Dumb Japanese News Show Falls for Angry German Kid Video

Last night, a weekend news show hosted by Beat Takeshi covered the dangers of internet addiction. To illustrate that, the program, called Jouhou 7 Days News Caster, showed a clip from the infamous Angry German Kid video. For proper context, you can see the whole segment below, which is on “internet dependence.” Note the ominous…

Talented illustrator Hyung-Tae Kim, who previously worked at NCSoft, is setting up his own studio in South Korea called Shift Up. The studio is already working on a new mobile game. [Thanks for the tip, Sang!]

One Piece and Dragon Ball Destroy Tokyo Street

The front of department store Shibuya Parco in Tokyo is a mass of rubble! One Piece’s Luffy threw a massive punch into the pavement. Just wait until Goku unleashes that kamehameha! This sculpture will be on display until March 23 and was installed to promote manga fighting game J-Stars Victory Vs. Check out the photos…

Skimpy Flight Attendant Uniforms Called “Dangerous”

From the end of May, Japanese budget airline Skymark is rolling out a new Airbus A330-300 addition to its fleet. To mark the occasion, the airline is also introducing new uniforms for its female cabin crew. Very, very short uniforms. Today, one of the largest papers in Japan, Mainichi, reported how the country’s labor union…

Awkward: Nintendo Video Family Forgets Wii U Games

Sometimes using real people in your advertisements makes things more real. Sometimes, it makes things more awkward. The following is a video from Nintendo on how a regular family makes use of their Wii U. Say hello to the Kato family from Chiba. For them, the Wii U is about more than just playing video…

Whoever Made This Anti-Weed Poster Must Have Been High

Those who grew up in America during the 1980s might remember those “Just Say No” posters. They were anti-drug propaganda, and Japan has them, too. Though, this particular poster looks like it was made by people stoned outta their minds. Recently, uploaded by Twitter user Xxtakoxx, this anti-drug poster reads, “Bad. Definitely. Marijuana.” The image…

After Thirteen Years, I Gave Cowboy Bebop A Second Chance

A few weeks back, I mentioned in an article that I had started Cowboy Bebop over a decade ago and dropped it because it bored me. To anime fans, this is about the same as saying, “I really love the Bible but I am not keen on this whole God character.” However, I mentioned that…

You Need a Big Garage to Fix Giant Mecha

At Japanese theme park Nasu Highland, there is a new Gundam exhibit called “Zaku Repair Shop.” The exhibit houses an enormous MS-06S ZAKU II bust that measures around 6.5 meters tall. While it’s not the full mecha, it is one-to-one scale. It’s big. This isn’t a first for the theme park, which has also exhibited…

First Look at the Persona-Branded 3DS XL

Upcoming spin-off title Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth is getting its own emblazoned 3DS XL. This is it. Well, the back of it, anyway. As you can see, it reads “3DS LL” because in Japan, “XL” is called the “LL.” And here is the front, courtesy of Famitsu: I like how you have to…

You Will Never Guess Who Created This Game

I’m pretty confident that if you just watched the trailer for this game, you would have no clue who made it. Here’s a hint: One of the creators is a Japanese developer you’d never imagine involved with a game like this. This is Colors: Break Bricks, an Android app in which you destroy blocks. Here’s…

Digital Distribution Could Learn from Nintendo’s Disk Writer Kiosk

A few weeks ago, I saw the Retro Game Master movie, half of which took place in 1986 Japan. In the film, the characters are often seen visiting a game store—a store complete with one of the coolest things Nintendo ever created, the Nintendo Disk Writer Kiosk. In 1986, Nintendo released an add-on to the…

Why a One Yen Coin Just Sold for $27,500 in Japan

This is a typical one yen coin. In today’s exchange rate, it worth less than one U.S. cent ($0.0098, to be exact). But recently, a one yen coin sold in Japan for the price of a car. Why? Well, it was anything but typical. As you can see below, the coin that sold for well…

Get Drunk with Kaiju at This New Japanese Bar

You know kaiju, right? Those Japanese-style monsters now have their own watering hole, which serves booze and eats. There’s an important rule, though: No superheroes allowed. Don’t you dare break it! This is “Kaiju Sakaba” (怪獣酒場). Located in Kawasaki, Japan, it’s filled with kaiju from the popular Ultraman series, such as crab-looking monster Baltan Seijin…