Kotaku East

Kenji Eno Speaks His Mind In This Unpublished Interview

Last week, Japanese game designer Kenji Eno passed away at the age of 42. Eno was well known for his survival horror games, D, Enemy Zero, and D2, as well as his unique and sometimes eccentric opinions and behavior, like the development of the Sega Saturn game, Real Sound, a video game that features no…

Hong Kong watchdog group says some Apple suppliers in China treat employees “like slaves”. More on MIC

New Smash Bros. Could Be Impacted By Designer’s Bad Arm

“I wonder what games I can play with just my left hand?” writes Masahiro Sakurai, designer of the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. series, in his Weekly Famitsu column. Get your mind out of the gutter; this is serious. Over the past several weeks, Sakurai has written in his column about his condition which has…

Here’s What You’ll Want To Know Before Watching Gundam Unicorn

Brace yourselves. I’m about to give some people a migraine from rolling their eyes too hard. I am a massive Gundam fan. So much so that I probably straddle the line of “geek” and go straight into “nerd” territory. Heck, I even know why Char chose to take on the name “Quattro Bajeena” for the…

Sorry China, This Pig-Faced Fish Is Not Real

I’m no marine biologist, but I’m pretty dang sure that fish don’t have pig faces. There are hogfish and pigfish. But little pig eyes? Pointy pig ears? Nah. That’s bunk. Call it a hunch. Yet, this photo has become a hot topic on uber popular Chinese bulletin board, TT.mop. With river pollution a serious problem,…

Ninja Boobies and a Price Cut Help the PS Vita in Japan

The PS Vita isn’t dead in Japan. Yet. Kidding! (Well, sorta.) Earlier today, the PS Vita’s Japan-only price cut went into effect. Along with the cheaper portable, Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus (and its limited edition pack) also went on sale. Thus, there was a line at the Yodobashi in Tokyo’s Akihabara. Granted, this doesn’t mean…

Some of the Best Pranks from Japanese TV

On Japanese TV, there are lots of comedy shows. And on those comedy shows, there are often pranks. And, boy, Japanese pranks can be so cruel, but also so epic. Japanese comedy shows typically aren’t centered around pranks. They are often elements of the shows, as are the games known as “batsu geemu” (罰ゲーム). These…

North Korea Doesn’t Need Instagram to Look Retro

Instagram, with all its hipster filters, can make anything look retro. But you know what, North Korea really doesn’t need Instagram. It’s already as retro as you can get. Still, Associated Press photographer David Guttenfelder is in Pyongyang, uploading photos to his Instagram page, points out TechInAsia Explains Guttenfelder on his Instagram page: “…the local…

The Coolest Mecha In Japanese Video Games

Besides mecha anime, video games also feature some of the most awesomely-designed armoured fighting vehicles. Japanese games—mostly shooters—tend to dominate this field (sorry MechWarrior), so narrowing down our selection to Japenese mecha was an obvious decision from the beginning. Deus (Xenogears) Federation Assault Suit (Cybernator) GEKKO (Metal Gear series) The First Boss in Assault Suit…

Fashion Model in Trouble After Claiming Samurai Heritage

You ever see Kagemusha? It’s that terrific 1980 samurai flick Akira Kurosawa made. The movie centers around Shingen Takeda, an iconic feudal lord in Japanese history, and according to fashion model Anri Takeda, a relative. Takeda recently appeared in Koakuma Ageha, a magazine that focuses on nightclub hostess fashion and that has lent some of…

In Japan, Business Cards Matter. And This Business Card Is One Tough Bastard.

This isn’t the most beautiful business card. Folks like Goichi Suda (No More Heroes) or Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid) have much better looking cards, but certainly not more amazing than Nihon Falcom’s seemingly indestructible cards. While it’s unlikely that these business cards will ever experience rough treatment, they are bound to be impressive in…

The Wonderful and Charming World of PaperChildren

Somewhere between comics, cartoons, and real life, PaperChildren exist. These are 2D drawings, thrown into 3D space. And they’re often adorable. Paper children have been around for a while now. They first appeared in South Korea way back in 2004 when an illustrator uploaded images of the first “PaperChild” online. The motif spread from there,…

Two New 3DS Colors for Japan

On March 20, Japan is getting two new 3DS colors: Light Blue and Gloss Pink. They are priced at ¥15,000 (US$163) and come with 4GB SDHC memory cards, instead of the standard 2GB ones. Note that the new memory cards don’t make these handhelds cost more. ニンテンドー3DSに新色2色を追加 [Nintendo] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian…

Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals is a Lot Worse Than I Remember

Anime and games are intimately tied together in Japan: popular games tend to get anime adaptations and popular anime tend to get game adaptations. Thus, over the years there have been a myriad of game-inspired anime—some good, others borderline unwatchable. I saw my first game-inspired anime right at the dawn of my anime watching career.…

How I Fell in Love With JRPGS

Almost as far back as I can remember, I’ve been a gamer. At the age of four, my family got an original Nintendo with the Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, and the World Class Track Meet combo game—light gun and power pad included. Until I was in middle school, that Nintendo (and the aging Atari…

Famous Anime Girls Brawl in This Fan-Made Game

Guardian Heroes is often considered one of the best of the Sega Saturn library. It is an excellent brawler complete with a robust story and branching paths. But you know what it needed? Famous anime heroines. That’s where Guardian Heroines: Final comes in. This fan-made game gathers girls from popular visual novels like Kanon, Tsukihime…

Make a Gummy Snack of Yourself. Because That’s Romantic.

March 14 is a special day in Japan. It’s White Day. On White Day, men are supposed to give chocolates to the women who gave them chocolate on Valentine’s Day. But why give chocolate when you can make a gummy version of yourself? As website Spoon & Tamago points out, Shibuya’s FabCafe is doing a…

Japan’s Advice for the Next Xbox

Japan loves foreign products—Apple, BMW, and even Red Wings shoes are popular here. Yet, there’s the Xbox 360. Gathering dust on store shelves in cities like Tokyo and Osaka. Unloved. People in Japan just don’t care! Poor Xbox. The original Xbox was a failure in Japan. The Xbox 360 was a failure in Japan. Microsoft’s…

Famed manga artist Mari Yamazaki is doing a biographical manga series on Steve Jobs (via ANN).

Delight in How These Photos Totally Look Like Anime and Video Game Characters

Sometimes, people look familiar. You know you’ve seen them before. Maybe they look like a friend from college. Or an animal. Or an electrical appliance. In the West, there are websites such as Totally Looks Like that compare images which… totally look like each other. On web forums, Japan does the same thing, finding images…