Kotaku East

This Simple Animated Film Might Make You Cry

Tekken, the Japanese comedian who named himself after the Namco fighting game, is back again with another animated short. It might make you all weepy. Maybe not! Previously, Tekken released an anime short called “Furiko” (or “Pendulum”), which featured a Muse track and even led to the comedian working with British rockers on a music…

How to Identify Popular Japanese Character Types

In Japanese games and anime, there are often character archetypes you will see again and again the more you watch. And when it comes to characters, there are no more commonly used archetypes than those known as the “deres”: tsundere, kuudere, dandere, and yandere. To start with, the term “dere” itself comes from the Japanese…

Japanese Banana Art Is So Damn Appealing

Darth Vader. A Xenomorph from Aliens. Attack on Titan. That’s not mentioning the various other characters as well as animals, too. They’ve all been brought to life in amazing banana sculptures. This is the work of Keisuke Yamada, a banana artist Kotaku first profiled in 2011. To make these sculptures, Yamada, an electrician by trade,…

Bunny Island Is Cute, Furry, and Depressing

Earlier this summer, photos of “Bunny Island” popped up on English language sites. The island, officially named Okunoshima, has been internet fodder in Japan for years. But usually, people only focus on the cute rabbits—and not, you know, the disheartening history bit. Recently on 2ch, Japan’s largest web forum, commenters uploaded photos of Bunny Island…

These Anti-Cheating Hats Make Me Sad

A university in Thailand offered a novel way to prevent students from sneaking peeks at classmates’ tests: Anti-cheating hats. Depressingly humiliating anti-cheating hats. They’re not only ridiculous, but they’re so depressing! Students at Kasetsart University’s agriculture school were photographed wearing the hats, and the photo was uploaded to the university’s Facebook page. That’s… embarrassing! According…

China’s Top Cosplayer Talks About The Meaning of Cosplay

Standing at about 5 foot 11″ and wearing a black t-shirt with sweatpants, A. Xiu Lan takes a long draw from his cigarette. Looking at A from afar, one would see a skinny young Chinese man with disheveled hair and deep sunken eyes standing aimlessly while smoking. However, beneath A’s simple exterior is a beast…

Missed the Pokémon Game Show? Well, here are two clips that might show you what the experience was like. Looks as though kids had a great time.

McDonald’s Chinese Black and White Burgers Are… Okay, I Guess

Around this time last year we brought you images of McDonald’s Black and White Burgers—two small “half burgers” that come in a tiny box. Originally a limited one-time deal (like so many of McDonald’s China’s usual offerings), these tiny round bi-colored sandwiches of weird meat, flavourings, sauce and veggies are back again. The verdict on…

There’s a new Dragon Quest browser game. It’s a “Real Time Adventure Parade” title (your guess is as good as mine) called Dragon Quest Monster Parade. Powered by Yahoo Games, DQMP is launching in Japan later this week. There’s also a trailer which you can check out over here

Sure, Eat Ice Cream from a Toilet

This might be the least appetizing ice cream I’ve ever seen. And if the toilet wasn’t enough, there’s a bug hovering above the soft, brown swirl. But it’s a paper bug, you say! And that’s not real poop. This is “Ku-Sofuto”, a word play on the Japanese for “soft serve ice cream” (ソフト or sofuto)…

007? Spider-Pig? Nope, it’s GG Bond, China’s Super Pig

Pigs are god’s gift to earth. There, I said it. In terms of food, nearly every part of the pig is delicious porky goodness, and nowhere else in the world is the pig held in higher esteem than in China. It’s no wonder that one of China’s longest-running 3D animated television shows is a show…

The New Yakuza Game Takes You Back in Time

Sega unveiled a new Yakuza game. It’s called Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin. Here’s a first look. “Ryu Ga Gotoku,” of course, is the original Japanese title for the Yakuza games. “Ishin” (維新) means “restoration” as in the Meiji Restoration. This led into the Meiji Period, an era of rapid modernization and industrialization in Japan. It…

China’s Illegal Rooftop Lairs Trade Safety for Spectacle

Why stop at the penthouse when you can put something on the penthouse? Something like a traditional Chinese pagoda, an American style suburb, or even a mountain? Time to scale China’s unusual—and often illegal—high rise structures. Building on buildings is not a new thing in China—or in many cities with tall buildings. For years now,…

New Studio Ghibli anime dated! Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya) was originally supposed to be out this summer, but it was delayed to fall because the storyboards weren’t finished. Now, according to IT Media, the anime finally has a release date in Japan: November 23.

Persona 4 Arena Update: According to Famitsu (via Siliconera), there’s a new version of arcade fighter Persona 4 Arena for Japan. Good news: it adds Yukari Takeba and Junpei Iori from Persona 3.

The Five Anime of Summer 2013 You Should Be Watching

When the summer 2013 anime season started early last month, I told you a little bit about each anime and where to watch them. However, with 36 new anime available to watch this summer, that raises the question: Which of them should you be watching? Now, as we hit the half-way point of the season,…

I Cannot Believe This is a Sidewalk Drawing

This isn’t a boy in Beijing playing with crickets. No, it’s a sidewalk drawing. Make that, an incredible sidewalk drawing. Over the years, I’ve seen tons of sidewalk drawings. The best ones are amazing, but they’re usually, but not always, giant holes and images of similar ilk. The one above is a standout. Recently in…

Gundam Breaker Lets You Build and Pilot the Gundam of Your Dreams

Over the years there have been some great (and terrible) Gundam games. But while many games let you pilot a Gundam, Gundam Breaker takes it one step further and lets you build your own dream Gundam as well. Good – Build Your Dream Gundam Gundam Breaker is centered around building “Gunpla” Gundam models and then…

Pure Mannequin Nightmare Fuel Will Keep You Up at Night

In the past mannequins just showed off clothes. You know, they gave you an idea of what you, the shopper, would look like in a particular outfits. But now, it seems like they’re just frightening the hell out of everyone. During the past few years, there’s been an increasing number of scary-looking mannequins, especially in…

I Created the Most Hideous Gundam Ever

Gundam Breaker, the newest Gundam video game, is all about building your own custom Gundam. More often than not, though, they turn out to be completely hideous. In the game itself, your character builds Gundam models. You can then take these models you make to the Gundam arcade and pilot them in a VR game.…