Kotaku East

The official Japanese Pokémon website teases an “important announcement” for January 8—next Tuesday. What could it be?

Foreign Cosplayers Are Welcome In Japan

Cosplay: the amalgamation of the words “costume” and “play”, and the act of dressing up as a character from comics, manga, movies, anime… Pretty much anything from popular culture or a subculture that people like. For Japanese cosplayers, the culture of cosplay can be a world of fun, photos, and sometimes bitter and petty rivalry.…

Threats Against Manga Artist Lead To Empty Tables At Comiket 83

Kuroko’s Basketball has been having it rough. The popular basket manga, or rather its creator, has been continuously threatened since last October, which has led to the cancellation of all Kuroko’s Basketball-related events, including a stage event at Jump Festa. More recently, Japan’s biggest independent doujinshi event, Comic Market (better known as Comiket), announced that…

Inside Comiket: I Didn’t Have To Line Up To Get Into Comic Market 83

Comic Market, better known among the subculture in Japan as “Comiket,” is currently a bi-annual 3-day event that takes place in Japan. This past December 29th to 31st was the 83rd Comiket, and Kotaku East had a chance to delve into the underbelly of what is currently the largest comic pop culture convention for the…

Fake Online Romance Leads To Real-Life Manhunt

Online games in China are a big business—so much so that every now and then a company will put out lavish rewards to get gamers to either register for a game, or to play a game for a certain period. These gifts range from limited items to use in-game to sometimes pretty good real world…

Father Hires In-Game “Hitmen” To Deter Son From Playing

Sick and tired of his son playing video games and not listening to him, a father in China decided to take matters into his own hands… well, sort of. Instead of sending his son off to addiction camp or stripping him of internet and gaming rights, Mr. Feng (冯先生) chose to hire an online “hitman”…

Btooom! is an Explosion-Filled Cross Between Hunger Games and The Last Star Fighter

This year, anime that focus on games and game-related culture have been quite numerous. One of these, Btooom! (the onomatopoeic sound effect for a bomb exploding) ended its television run last week in Japan. Like Hunger Games and Battle Royale, Btooom! follows a group of people stranded away from civilization and forced to fight in…

A Chinese Toy Company That Specializes In Making American Soldiers

Toys coming out of China have long had a bad rap. There’s often talk of lead paint, dangerous and sometimes exploding parts, but the overall argument against Chinese toys is that they’re boring and low quality (not Western branded toys made in China). Despite all it had going against it, a small Chinese toy company…

The Japanese PS2’s Last Game Gets A Release Date

A couple of months ago, I wrote about how the Japanese PlayStation 2 has one unreleased game left. For the longest time, this title, Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin, had been simply labeled as “Release date: 2013.” Now, at last, it has an official release date. Seekers of Adoulin is in fact the first…

Ixion Saga DT is One of the Funniest Anime I Have Ever Seen (And It’s Only Half Done)

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: A teenager from our world is magically transported to a fantasy world where he/she is the key to saving the kingdom—or perhaps the entire world. Of course you have. Ixion Saga DT is an anime built around this most common of themes, seeking to deconstruct it piece…

Here’s What Solo Gameplay Is Like in Lightning Returns: FFXIII

By now, most fans have seen the trailer for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and are at least partly aware of the new game system that will involve a limited time of 13 days in which Lightning must save the world. Video from the trailer shows Lightning in her new outfit running, fighting, climbing and…

Sony’s DVR System Goes Portable On The Vita… Only In Japan

“Torne?” “Nasne?” If you’re wondering what the Hell these terms are, don’t worry. Sony’s PS3 compatible DVR systems currently have no announced release outside of Japan. Just for an overview, torne (pronounced “TOR-neh”) and nasne (pronounced “NAS-neh”) are Sony’s digital recording systems to record HD TV. torne is the name of the interface software, while…

Sword Art Online‘s Second Half Isn’t Quite as Brilliant as Its First

Earlier this year when Sword Art Online hit its halfway point, I called it the smartest anime I had seen in years because of its in-depth look at the long-term effects of being trapped in a virtual reality world. This last week Sword Art Online finished its run on Japanese TV. And while the second…

Villagers Accidentally Beat Up Mobile Gamer

Lots of people play mobile games in China. The mobile game market has exploded in the last two years into a multimillion dollar industry. According to iResearch, in 2012, mobile games raked in a profit of $197 million in China, so it’s almost baffling to hear something like a young man playing on a mobile…

Chinese Man Fooled By Infomercial

China has infomercials, a heck of a lot of them at that too, covering everything from breast enlargements to helping Chinese parents make their kids taller. Every now and again, in between the snake oil remedies, an ad will run selling electronics such as tablet computers and cell phones. If you are in China don’t…

The Year in Kotaku East

It’s been a long year! Can you believe it? Time has flown by. Let’s take this opportunity to look back at 2012, Kotaku East style. Reporting to you live from Asia, Kotaku East is a look at games, subculture and more—much more. Here’s a smattering of the most memorable (and interesting) stories Kotaku East ran…

The 3DS Remake Of Dragon Quest VII Looks Pretty Solid So Far

While at Jump Festa 2013 this weekend, I had the chance to check out the 3DS remake of Dragon Quest VII. This is a remake of the seventh Dragon Quest game—which was originally released for the PlayStation back in 2000—seems to fit the console’s format very naturally. The graphical upgrade is very pretty and allows…

The New Dynasty Warriors… It’s Fun For Guys And Girls Alike

Jump Festa is a yearly event hosted by Shueisha, the publishers of the Jump line of comics, where Jump-related paraphernalia and games are put on display as well as stage events and announcements. It’s also a good event for companies that have Jump-related things out to display some of their own non-Jump-related things. Tecmo Koei,…

The Figures and Other Loot of Jump Festa 2013 (Giant Luffy Balloon Not Included)

Jump Festa, Shonen Jump’s own convention, is a mix of manga, anime, video games, and card games. There are various events, art galleries, game booths, card tournaments, Jump-themed food stalls, and endless amounts of stage shows. But no matter where you look, there is one thing that permeates the entire show floor: an unending sea…

One Piece Pirate Warriors 2 Looks To Be More Upgrade Than Sequel (Not That That’s A Bad Thing)

I guess you could say that I’m a fan of One Piece. I don’t follow the magazine on a week to week basis in Shonen Jump, but I’ve read all of the manga books. I haven’t seen much of the anime, but I’ve watched a good deal of the movies, including the latest one. I…