Kotaku East

From Nerdy Bikini Model to Japanese Politician

Politicians with, let’s say, interesting backgrounds are nothing new. People have entered politics from acting, modeling, and, yes, even hardcore pornography. Jobs are jobs. Politics, however, is a calling. Rie Sasaki is answering that call. What makes Sasaki so noteworthy is that she could be Japan’s first elected official that has gone from Akihabara street…

Half Way Through, The Cartoon Suddenly Turned to a Porno

Japanese animation is loved all over the world. From Cleveland to China, there are anime fans everywhere. But one unlucky young anime fan in Guangdong didn’t watch just anime. She saw something she never should’ve. Earlier this month, an eleven-year old girl in the Guangdong region of China asked her mom to buy a Puella…

Japan’s most often delayed console game, Daisenryaku Perfect, has gotten its seventh release date: Spring 2013

Inspired by The Matrix, This Live-Action Video Game Is Now…a Video Game

Call it going full circle. Back in 2004, a Japanese game show called Run for Money appeared on FujiTV. The show had flourishes of The Matrix and a central premise that seemed more like a video game than a game show. Now in 2012, Run for Money has finally been turned into a hit 3DS…

For Three Hours, These Ladies Will Do Your Bidding

Making it in the Japanese entertainment industry ain’t easy. You need to stand out! And being cute is no longer enough. Just ask BiS. The group’s name stands for “Brand-new Idol Society”, and the girls have been doing an array of publicity stunts to build a fan base. Their latest? Auctioning themselves off to be…

7th Dragon Getting Another Sequel. It’s for the PSP.

According to the unpublished issue of this week’s Famitsu, Sega is launching a sequel to last year’s role-playing game 7th Dragon 2020 (pictured). The game will be out next spring. The sequel is apparently called 7th Dragon 2020-II and is set in the year 2021. The PSP game will feature a new job class (idols!)…

Further Proof that Rush Hour in Tokyo Sucks

The morning commute in Tokyo (or Osaka, or Yokohama, or any other huge Japanese city) can totally bite. As if you already didn’t know that. Photographer Michael Wolf documents that in his latest volume of Tokyo Compression. For years now, Wolf has been snapping photos from a train platform, capturing the cramped conditions of the…

This Is the Most Inappropriate PS Vita Game Yet

It’s called Monster Monpiece, and it’s a card-based game. That’s fine and all until you realize that it’s from Compile Heart, the folks behind Hyperdimension Neptunia. Oh, and that you have to stroke your PS Vita to play it. Developer Compile Heart loves making deliciously subversive games, and Monster Monpiece looks to be no exception.…

Square Enix’s Galaxy Dungeon is a new iOS/Android card battle game that features female mecha.

Evangelion 3nd Impact is (Not) Quite the Music Game You’ve Been Hoping For

Even over a decade and a half after the release of the anime that started it all, the Evangelion franchise is one of Japan’s most lucrative properties. Each year, it floods the market with accessories, spin-off manga, and action figures—and I mean tons and tons of action figures. On top of this, a year can…

How Louis Vuitton Just Screwed Up Japan’s Biggest Virtual Idol

This is apparently virtual idol Hatsune Miku. Other than the pony tails and blue eyes, the drawing looks nothing like Hatsune Miku. It does look like Louis Vuitton’s 2013 spring collection, though. At least they got that right! Hatsune Miku originally debuted as a character for Vocaloid software, but has since gone on to become…

Level-5’s Boss Makes One Handsome Manga Dude

Akihiro Hino, the guy who runs game maker Level-5, usually looks like he does in this Game Watch Impress photo. Or sometimes, he looks like complete hell. That’s why Hino was quick to jokingly ask for forgiveness because his manga counterpoint looks “way too handsome”. He also added that he was “a little happy” about…

See the Evangelion Music Game in Action

When you think of Evangelion, what comes to mind? Giant robots? Angsty teens? Massive amounts of religious imagery? A complete mind-fuck ending? But what about the soundtrack, does that leap to the forefront of your mind? Well apparently it did for Grasshopper Manufacture—the creators of No More Heroes, Shadows of the Damned and Lollipop Chainsaw—when…

Beautiful Manga Artist Sounds Truly Ugly

This is Mimei Sakamoto. She’s a manga artist, a model, an author, a singer, and an awful-sounding person. Sakamoto, best known for her Rapunzel manga, is opinionated. Back in 2006, she blasted otaku for idolizing young girls. It was a fair argument to make, and one worth making. Her latest rant, however, seems insensitive and…

In Japan, Thugs Sit Like They’re Taking a Crap

In years past, you’d always see them outside convenience stores and in parking lots, coping a squat next to their Subarus and Hondas, smoking cigarettes. They were tough looking. They were thugs. And they’d sit like they’re squeezing out turds. In Japan, there’s a style of squatting called “yanki zuwari” (ヤンキー座り) or “Yankee sitting”. Here,…

PS Vita Gets Its Big 2.0 System Update

PS Vita’s 2.0 System Update hit, adding PC style email, PlayStation Plus, WiFi transfers with a PC, better browser functions, weather for Maps, and easier usability, among other features. Above is a Japanese promotional clip for the update, which should be hitting all Vitas. PS Vitaシステムソフトウェア2.00アップデート [YouTube] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet…

3DS game Inazuma Eleven 1・2・3!! has been delayed from late Nov. to “winter” in Japan.

Evangelion 3.0 is (Not) the Film You Were Expecting

Over the past few weeks, we here at Kotaku East have been taking a look at the previous Rebuild of Evangelion films as we eagerly awaited the release of the third in the series: Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo Well, this past weekend, the long anticipated film was released in theaters across Japan. But…

Few Anime Get as Pretentious as This

When the latest Neon Genesis Evangelion flick hit theaters this weekend in Japan, the next Evangelion film was revealed. And at first look, its title appears annoyingly pretentious. It is. But it’s also interesting. The teaser webpage this appears on has the world “final” in the URL. The text says, “Next time, a new Evangelion…

Sega is teasing its latest, unannounced game with this site. Full reveal later in the week.