Kotaku East

Final Fantasy Versus XIII Isn’t Out, But Here, Have Some Versus Perfume

One day, the years-in-development Final Fantasy Versus XIII will be out. For the time being, keep your hope alive with perfume. Perfume? Yes. Perfume. Square Enix’s Hidemi Matsuzuka, who manages the company’s figure brand, tweeted out the picture below, writing only, “Prince” (“ouji” or 王子) in Japanese. In the photo, you can see the words,…

This Lady Has Awful Timing for Buying Game Hardware

Hours ago in Japan, Sony slashed the Vita’s price tag. Good news for gamers who haven’t purchased a Vita yet! Bad news for gamers who just purchased one. After learning of the Vita’s price cut, Voice actress Hitomi Harada tweeted, “Wha…” This was followed by her writing, “I bought a Vita three days ago…” This…

The Art and the Beauty of Studio Ghibli

My Neighbor Totoro. Howl’s Moving Castle. Princess Mononoke. These aren’t only classics, they are stunning. Studio Ghibli is responsible for some of the most loved and best looking films in the past few decades. It’s no accident why. Here are some production drawings and watercolors from over the years, courtesy of BuzzFeed. They’re not new,…

These Aren’t Dragon Ball Space Pods, But Hell, You Can Buy Them Anyway

Japanese retailer Tokyu Hands has an array of interesting products. Its latest could be the most interesting yet: survival pods that look straight out of Dragon Ball Z Last fall, numerous tech sites, including sister site Gizmodo and Japan’s Gigazine, covered “Life Armour”, which are Japanese survival capsules for those worried about another devastating earthquake.…

New Chinese Movie Either Rips Off or Pays Homage to Asura’s Wrath [Update]

Stephen Chow, the guy behind Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle has a new movie out this month in China. It’s called Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, and part of it will look very familiar to gamers. Very. As numerous Chinese websites point out, a scene in Journey to the West: Conquering the…

Colonel Sanders Dressed in Dragon Ball Z, Doesn’t Unleash a Kamehameha

So good! In Japan, KFC is teaming up with the new Dragon Ball Z anime film, offering DBZ goodies when you order special meal deals. But that’s not all. As previously mentioned (here, here and here), Japanese KFCs usually have Colonel Sanders statues out front. And now, at seven locations across Japan, the Colonel is…

Dragon Quest X‘s Wii U version goes on sale March 30 in Japan.

How a Japanese Death Superstition Could Impact the Next PlayStation

Sony is working on a new PlayStation machine. According to the story Kotaku broke, it’s called Orbis. That could be a codename—it also might be the console’s final name. There are some reasons why Sony might not choose to call its machine the PlayStation 4. In Japan, four (四) can be read as “yon” (よん)…

Here’s a look at the Ice Silver hitting Japan on February 28. Yep, it’s silver!

It’s Full Body Pong, You Guys. Full. Body. Pong.

Perhaps the most creative game at this year’s JAEPO arcade game expo was e Sports Ground. Utilizing a series of motion tracking cameras and projectors, the game transforms the floor into the game screen and your body into the controller. In many ways, e Sports Ground is a retro game collection containing some of the…

The Russian Military. Marching to ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’.

Are ya ready, troops? According to English Russia, one of the most popular marching songs in the country’s military is the SpongeBob SquarePants theme. There’s video proof, too, of numerous troops marching to and singing the song, showing that this is definitely a thing. A delightful thing. [insert joke about how in Russia, SpongeBob SquarePants…

A Collection of Crappy Animated Images

Just as not every anime can be a winner, not every animated image can, either! With all those still frames to deal with, you can bet some stinkers are going to slip past quality control. They always do. In Japanese, horribly drawn anime stills are called “sakuga houkai” (作画崩壊). They’re not necessarily only mistakes, but…

Download title Pokémon Scramble U allows 100 Pokémon to fight at once. It’s slated for this spring in Japan.

In This Racing Game, You Shake a Pig

Monster Hunter is everywhere in Japan—including the JAEPO arcade game expo. However, this Monster Hunter arcade is not, as you might expect, a co-op boss hunting game. Rather it is an arcade style racing game titled Monster Hunter Diary: Oink Oink Pig Race As you may have guessed from the title, Monster Hunter Diary: Oink…

Watch the trailer for Lord of Vermillion III, Square Enix’s latest entry in its card-based arcade game series.

In This New Mario Kart, You Can Drive a Tank

Later this year, Nintendo and Bandai-Namco will release a new Mario Kart game, Mario Kart Arcade GP GX, in arcades across Japan. Today at the JAEPO arcade game expo, Kotaku East was able to get some hands-on time with the game. Mario Kart Arcade GP GX will feature at least one new character (Don from…

The Dreamcast, the Saturn, and the Genesis Have Returned! (…as Laptop Computers…)

Sega is back in the game console business! Well, sorta. Okay, not really. But this is pretty cool anyway. The Tokyo-based gaming company is licensing out its iconic consoles to be branded on laptop computers. The result is several Sega-themed notebooks: there’s the basic Sega motif, the Genesis Model, the Saturn version, and the Dreamcast…

Star Driver: The Movie Sucks You In and Leaves You Wanting More

Star Driver: Takuto of The Radiance is a 25-episode anime series that aired from 2010 to 2011. The show aired early evenings on Sunday, which allowed for a bigger budget and overall higher quality animation, but the show suffered from the fact that while it was geared more towards a young adult audience, it aired…

A Japanese tech journalist tweeted that his Sony email for the Feb. 20 event said “PS4 Meeting.”

This Week’s Pokémon Was Unexpectedly Sexy

Tonight, like every Thursday night in Japan, the Pokémon anime was broadcast across the country. This week, however, there was apparently some (accidental?) sexy time captured in this GIF and uploaded to 2ch for internet infamy. Gotta screw ’em all! 今週のポケモンエロすぎｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗ [2ch] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest…