Kotaku East

Will Japan Finally Adore This Pacific Rim Star?

Pacific Rim is Guillermo del Toro’s big love letter to Japanese monster movies like Godzilla and anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion. Too bad Japan isn’t exactly in love with Kikuchi. Actress Rinko Kikuchi is Mako Mori, one of the film’s lead pilots to battle the dreaded kaiju in one of this summer’s biggest Hollywood flicks.…

Chinese Military Police’s Secret Training Involves Video Games

Normally, playing video games at work in China is frowned upon. Unless you’re working in the games industry or covering the games industry, gaming at work can lead to trouble. However, for one branch of China’s military, video games are just a part of their daily training regimen. Much like the armed forces in the…

Video Games Almost Blamed As Anti-Japanese Vandal Gets Just Deserts

Last year, Sin0-Japanese relations hit an all-time low. Protests that bordered on the brink of riots broke out in China over China and Japan’s tug-o-war over a little speckle of islands, called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan. During the worst of these protests, vandals and misguided people took advantage of the situation to…

The Bikini Isn’t the Only Thing Wrong with This Gaming PC Video

MSi, the Taipei PC gaming company, released a new video that shows how to build a MSi Z87-GD64 Gaming PC. Or something. Apparently, all you need is a Philips screwdriver, a bikini, and a bad English language dub. Oh, don’t forget the cheese ball pop music! Because that’s how you build a gaming PC, right?…

In Japan, McDonald’s Just Released a $10 Quarter Pounder

This is the “Gold Ring” Quarter Pounder. Priced at 1,000 yen, it was only available for one day, this past Saturday. The burger was inspired by jewelry. Because jewelry tastes delicious? McDonald’s always had yummy-looking hamburgers in its promotional images—and less delicious-looking ones in real life. But if you are paying ten bucks for a…

As spotted by NeoGAF member Dantis, Atlus registered a domain name for Persona 5 in Japan. Hopefully, that will further help to abate concerns over the future of Atlus. And hopefully, it means Persona 5 info is around the corner.

Asiana Airlines Headline Called “Racist” and “In Bad Taste”

This weekend, tragedy struck. Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed in San Francisco. Over 180 people are injured, and two are dead. Nineteen passengers are still hospitalized, with six still in critical condition. Two thirds of the passengers were Asian, which is why the Chicago Sun-Times‘s headline is angering some online. As pointed out by AsAmNews,…

Japanese Gamers and Retailers on the Next-Gen Consoles’ Pricing

This year’s E3 turned out to be one of the more interesting and exciting conventions in recent memory. Unfortunately for yours truly, I was stuck across that pesky barrier, commonly referred to in geography classes as the Pacific Ocean. But that didn’t keep me and other interested peoples here in Japan from checking in on…

Gargantia is Far Deeper than It Appears on the Surface

Around the middle of this past anime season, I called Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet one of the five anime you should be watching—and with good reason. While it’s not as action-filled or plot-heavy as some anime this season, it is filled with interesting themes and enlightening allegories for those willing to dive in. Good…

Pokémon’s Creator Talks French Inspiration, Reveals New Pokémon

In Paris, France, the Japan Expo, Europe’s largest public event related to Japanese pop culture, is currently taking place. Junichi Masuda, Game Freak founder and both director and composer for the Pokémon games, recorded a video message to mark the occasion. After introducing himself (in French, no less!), Masuda talks about his own travels to…

In This Game, You Date Slabs of Meat. Seriously.

The Bacon Lettuce Biographies (ベーコンレタス列伝) is, according to its tagline, a “school-based boys’ love, fairytale adventure.” However, this is a little misleading because it is actually a visual novel where you date meat. Big, giant slabs of meat. The Bacon Lettuce Biographies is a free visual novel about a boy—who believes he hears the voices…

Are These Twitter Images Awful or Awfully Funny?

It’s Friday! Time to relax. Time to unwind. Time to giggle. Online in Japan, a collection of “awful” or “terrible” pics are amusing and delighting internet inhabitants. Previously, Kotaku posted someinteresting Twitter images from Japan. Daily life in Japan is rather pedestrian and normal, but those Twitter images were anything but. Ditto for these! Some…

China Thinks Cartoons Need Ratings

Chinese television is pretty bad, being mostly propaganda mixed with some weird socially obnoxious reality shows, revisionist historical dramas and terribly butchered movies. But what seems to have drawn the ire of the Chinese State media this time around is the state of animation in China. Recently, China Central Television, AKACCTV (poor abbreviation choice or…

Neptunia PP is an Amusing Parody of iDOLM@STER

It’s looking to be a big summer for game industry parody series Neptunia—despite the worrisome event from a few weeks back. Not only is it getting its own anime and a remake of the original game on the Vita, but it also recently got a new spin-off game: God Dimension Idol Neptunia PP Good –…

World War II Battleship Game Angers Players in South Korea

At this year’s E3 gaming expo, Wargaming.net showed off its latest PC title, World of Warships. The game’s new trailer pissed off some gamers in Korea. Here’s why. In the trailer, you can see the Japanese Rising Sun Flag, which was flown during World War II. Obviously, because of what happened during the war, the…

Bandai Namco is thinking about charging 500 yen (about US$5) for one hour of play at its arcades in Japan. Currently, one play is 100 yen.

In Japan, Nintendo Was Hacked

Nintendo’s Kyoto-based HQ just announced that Club Nintendo, its member rewards site, has been hacked. This was discovered when a large number of access errors began appearing on July 2. That’s when Nintendo began investigating the issue. According to Nintendo’s investigation, there were 23,000 unauthorized log-ins (with 15 million attempts) between June 9 and July…

Why I’m Avoiding One of the Main Features of Valhalla Knights 3

After over ninety hours, I’m still uncomfortable with Valhalla Knights 3. “What is Valhalla Knights 3?“you ask. Valhalla Knights 3 is an RPG for the PS Vita. The basic gameplay is very much similar to an MMORPG, except without the Massively Multiplayer Online part. You have a central base of operations in a large map…

Here’s How JRPGs Are Like Cheese

Stilton Armor… The flying city of Grana Padano… These are just a few of the ideas for an RPG being posted on Japan’s major internet billboard, 2ch The title of the thread started out as little more than a musing, “Don’t you think a lot of names of cheeses sound like they’d show up in…

According to the official site, it looks like famed anime director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor, etc.) is involved with the live-action Patlabor movie. That’s good news! The movie is due out in 2014.