Kotaku East

Super Sonico‘s Theme Song Sounds a Bit Familiar

This morning as I sat on my exercise bike—peddling madly while watching the new anime Super Sonico—I was struck by the sudden realization that I had heard part of the anime’s theme song somewhere before: in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The opening song from the first episode of the anime (the second episode uses…

Man Paralyzed After Playing an Arcade Game

Two months ago, a 29 year-old man visited a game center in Foshan, China, while waiting to get his phone fixed. To pass the time, he tried a boxing arcade game. Three days later, he woke up, unable to speak or move his body. According to Shenzhen Satellite Television, the man, given the alias “A.…

Japan’s Latest Photo Trend: Hair Smiles

Forget duck face. And sparrow face. The latest photo trend to hit the streets of Tokyo’s Shibuya is to look down when someone snaps a pic. Kinda defeats the purpose of taking photos, no? The latest photo trend to hit the “gal” (ギャル or gyaru) subculture was recently covered by Japanese television and has become…

Sasuga Minami, the kid’s show host with bad words on her costume, has issued an apology Minami said the language on the outfit was “not on purpose,” adding that she didn’t know or recognize what was written. “I am truly sorry,” Minami wrote, adding, “The onus for this is entirely on me.”

Can Huawei’s Android Console Play PS3 Games? Chinese Media Think So

Last week during the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Huawei, Chinese hardware maker and subject of international security concerns, showed off their newest toy — the Huawei TRON. According to the Chinese media, the TRON can supposedly play PS3 games. PS3 games that have been set for the Huawei TRON. The Ouya-esque Android-based…

Chinese Fans React to Japanese Anime Character’s New Haircut

Chibi Maruko-chan, one of Japan’s longest-running animated shows, has had a slight change recently. The titular character, Maruko-Chan, got a haircut, and Chinese fans are having a field day. That’s right, Chinese fans, in China, are reacting to a Japanese anime character getting a haircut. In the recent-ish 936th episode of Chibi Maruko-Chan, Maruko-Chan changed…

Is Japanese Society Ready for These Adults? Are You?

Brace yourself Japan! You have some new, fully fledged members of society with truly outrageous fashion. Today is Coming of Age Day (成人の日 or Seijin no Hi) in Japan. It is for all of the country’s youth who turned 20 years old in the past year. They are now officially adults and fully-fledged members of…

Not Everyone Is Thrilled with This Sailor Moon Parody

Last month, Korean pop group Sistar transformed into “Sailor Star” for a commercial to promote online Korean shopping site 11st. Some aren’t happy about that! Online in neighboring Japan, online commenters wondered if the online shopping site got permission to use the Sailor Moon imagery. “I thought [Korea] hated Japan?” wrote one commenter on 2ch,…

Crack Down on Chinese Government Corruption… With a Flash Game

The People’s Daily, the de facto mouthpiece of the Chinese communist party, has recently put a flash game on their site. This particular flash game, despite its cartoony nature, depicts a particularly sensitive subject matter in the People’s Republic—fighting government corruption. Ever since the new leader of the Chinese communist party came to power in…

One of Japan’s Oldest (and Most Hardcore) Gamers Passed Away

On January 11, famed actress Keiko Awaji passed away in a Tokyo hospital from esophageal cancer, reports Nikkan Sports. She was 80 years old. And she loved JRPGs. Awaji has acted in over 160 feature films, including Akira Kurosawa’s 1949 classic Stray Dog. Later in life, she became well-known online as a hardcore gamer—so much…

Oh God, They Are Making Another Tekken Movie [Update]

You remember the last one, don’t you? A movie so bad that the games’ lead developer actually apologized. If you haven’t wiped that from your brain, there’s apparently another live-action Tekken happening. According to Cinema Today, actor Kane Kosugi (Godzilla: Final Wars, DOA: Dead or Alive) announced that he’s starring in an upcoming Tekken film…

Hong Kong Candy Commercial Is “Surprisingly” Sexual

I bet you’ve never seen a commercial like this one for Hong Kong’s Rio Burgundy Grape Mints. Can’t get enough of these grape mints? Well, here’s almost forty seconds of outtakes. Enjoy! Rio Mints HK [YouTube] To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft Kotaku East is…

Your Complete Winter 2014 Anime Guide

With the end of the year, we have come to the end of the fall season and are beginning the winter one But with 47 new anime in the pipeline, how do you know which ones to watch? Check out the trailers and brief blurbs about each to see which of them catches your interest.…

You Got Your Magical Girls in my Earth Defense Force!

Recently, Japan saw the release of a new Madoka Magica video game on the Vita. As I was playing, I decided to look around for other Madoka games—and the fan-game Homura Combat really caught my eye. When it comes down to it, Homura Combat is similar in concept to the Earth Defense Force series: You…

Dude Clears Zelda: Ocarina of Time With…His Feet

For a while now, gamer Wakou has been playing video games with his feet. Today, let’s watch him play through The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This is a small sample of a twenty-five minute foot playthrough on NicoNico. There are actually, twenty parts of the playthough, with each clip running about thirty minutes.…

Log Horizon’s First Half Goes from Cliché to Captivating

From the creator of last year’s Maoyu—an anime among the best last year had to offer—Log Horizon is an anime that takes the idea of being trapped in an MMO and uses it to explore the implications of such a setting on the people involved and the world they are forced to inhabit. It’s unfortunate…

Stroll Down One of the Fakest Streets in China

H&N? Hugo BGSS? And SFFCCCKS Coffee? Welcome to Wuxi city, which might be home of the phoniest shopping street in all of China. The signs are located on a shopping street at Shimao Skyscrapers. Instead of Apple, there’s “Appla.” Instead of Zara, there’s “Zare.” H&M is “H&N.” These don’t appear to be actual shops (though,…

A Truly Spectacular Cosplay Evolution

You’ve seen the evolution chart, right? The one that starts with a monkey and ends up with a human. Imagine something kind of like that, but with cosplay. This is Mel Kishida. He’s an illustrator best know his work on anime Hanasaku Iroha and the Atelier video games. A few years ago, he posted this…

The new Sailor Moon anime, which marks the franchise’s 20th anniversary, begins airing worldwide this July on NicoNico Douga.

The Chair You Can Wear on Your Head

Many offices in Japan have helmets in case of natural disasters. But helmets might be stored in inconvenient locations. That’s why some Japanese designers have created a new helmet that can be kept in an easy to find spot: Under your butt. Dubbed “Mamoris” (“mamoru” or 守る means “to protect” in Japanese), this emergency helmet…