-
Kotaku EastOverwatch‘s Mei Is Becoming A Symbol Of The Hong Kong Resistance
After Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai called for the liberation of Hong Kong, Blizzard suspended the Hearthstone player and withheld his prize money. The decision has been widely criticized. Fans have now started posting images of Overwatch hero Mei supporting the Hong Kong protests as a show of solidarity. In Overwatch, Mei hails from Xi’an, China.…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 9, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanPuma Is Making One Piece Sneakers
This isn’t the first pair of One Piece shoes from Puma. The first collab was based on the Straw Hat Pirates ship the Thousand Sunny. The latest one, pictured, is treasure hunt themed. The Thousand Sunny-themed Cell Endura do look like the ship, I guess. The latest shoes are very shiny! And there are jingly chains…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 8, 2019 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Wuthering Heights
As we slide our way into October, and the true beginnings of fall begin to coalesce, it feels only right to listen to a moody track today. Enter Wuthering Heights Lucia (real name Sim Kyu Seon) is a long-running artist who debuted in 2010 with Cat Waltz. She might be most familiar to mainstream K-Pop…
By Seung Park Published October 3, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanMario & Luigi RPG Developer AlphaDream Has Gone Bankrupt
Founded in 2000, AlphaDream was originally known as Alpha Star and was staffed with people who had formerly been at Square, including former Square President Tetsuo Mizuno. The studio is best known for the Mario & Luigi RPG series. It was announced today that AlphaDream has gone bankrupt. According to Yahoo! Japan, revenue was sluggish…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 2, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanHayao Miyazaki Turned Down Hollywood But Allowed Kabuki Version of Nausicaä
Don’t expect a Hollywood version of Nausicaä. As NHK reports, Hayao Miyazaki has turned down that offer. But you can look forward to a kabuki adaptation this December. Announced last year, the kabuki version will star Onoe Kikunosuke as Nausicaä and Nakamura Shichinosuke as Princess Kushana. Keiko Niwa, who has written several Ghibli films, is…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 1, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanArtificial Intelligence Is Creating New Art From The Work Of A Deceased Manga Great [Update]
One of Japan’s greatest, if not the greatest, manga creators is having his work tapped into with the power of AI. Osamu Tezuka died in 1989, but next year, artificial intelligence will create new art based on Tezuka’s work. Update Oct. 1 – 3:10 am: The name of the company has been updated. Tezuka is…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 1, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanJapan Marks The End Of Pagers With A Funeral
Remember pagers? Maybe not! If you were around in the 1990s, you might’ve carried a pager in case someone wanted to get in touch. Mainichi reports that today in Japan, service for pagers finally ended after first being introduced 50 years ago. Tokyo Telemessage Inc., the country’s last pager service, began shutting down radio signals…
By Brian Ashcraft Published October 1, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanNew Brain Age Announced For Nintendo Switch In Japan
In 2005, Brain Age first went on sale in Japan for the Nintendo DS. The game, which had players solve math problems and more to judge the age of their brain, became a national sensation in Japan. Brain Age was one reason why the DS became a must-have handheld. Now, in 2019, it’s back. The…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 30, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanPokémon Anime Stars A New Protagonist And Ash
The brand new Pokémon TV anime will star not one, but two trainers as the main protagonists. According to My Navi News and Famitsu, the new main character is named Go (ゴウ or Gou), a 10-year-old who dreams of catching all them all with Scorbunny as his partner. Go will be voiced by Daiki Yamashita, who…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 30, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanTerry From Fatal Fury Is Being Compared To A Macho Pokémon Trainer in Japan
If you are steeped in SNK fighting game lore, then you are more than familiar with Terry Bogard. If you’ve never played Fatal Fury, you might not know who he is. If you like Pokémon, he might look familiar. The announcement that Terry was coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with met with puzzlement among…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 27, 2019 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Beginning
If you asked me to pick two Korean artists who could produce a duet together, I’d be listing off names for nigh on a year before I landed on Soyou and Rain. But it’s the year 2019, the world is crazy, and here we are. Soyou, of course, is well-known for her impressive lineup of…
By Seung Park Published September 27, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanHow Anime Has And Hasn’t Changed, According to Shoji Kawamori
Shoji Kawamori’s career in anime has spanned four decades. While still in his teens, Kawamori joined the industry in the late 1970s. Since then, some things have changed. Other things have not. Besides co-creating Macross and designing some of the anime’s most famous machines, Kawamori has also worked on the early Transformers iterations and has…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 26, 2019 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: How Can I Love The Heartbreak, You’re the One I Love
Akdong Musician is back, and not a moment too soon. K-Pop just hasn’t been the same without this dynamic duo. One of the unintended minor side effects of South Korea’s mandatory military service system is that idol group fans often have to swallow years-long absences while the members head off to the army. Akdong Musician…
By Seung Park Published September 26, 2019 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Clown
Five years after their disbandment, I’ve yet to find a Korean hip-hop artist that pulls me in so deeply as Leessang had managed to do, so many years ago. Clown is a 2005 release under their Library Of Soul album, widely considered by their fans to be one of their best. This album is stacked:…
By Seung Park Published September 25, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapan89-Year-Old Grandma Says Video Games Keep Her Mind Sharp
This is Hamako Mori. At 89, she’s not new to video games. She has been playing them for nearly four decades. In an interview with GameSpark, the Tokyo native says the first console she played was the Cassette Vision, which was released in 1981. After that, she was into the Famicom and played The Legend…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 24, 2019 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: 1.2.3.4
A lot of K-Pop stars’ vocals are described as “soulful,” often a product of a public relations team short on English and long on imagination. Lee Hi is one of the few artists whose voice actually lives up to that descriptor. She debuted at a relatively young age, having made her first broadcast appearance on…
By Seung Park Published September 20, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanThe Art of Writing JRPGs
If there’s one thing Yoshitaka Murayama knows better than most people in the world, it’s how to bring Japanese role-playing games to life. While at Konami, he created the Suikoden series, and more recently did the scenario for The Alliance Alive. During the Tokyo Game Show, I sat down with Murayama and asked him how…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 19, 2019 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Deja Vu
Dreamcatcher is back again, and once more, they’ve taken a page from the Japanese Anime Opening School Of Music. Not that I’m complaining. I say once more, because Deja Vu is just the latest in their long line of songs that come from the same pedigree. See also: Chase Me, Good Night (especially this one)…
By Seung Park Published September 19, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanWhy The Most Recent Tales Game Is Taking So Long
Between 2002 and 2012, Bandai Namco released a mainline Tales game almost every year, save for 2006 and 2010. After 2012, there was a two-year gap before Tales of Zestiria. The following year, Namco Bandai released Tales of Berseria. But since then, there hasn’t been another Tales game. The next one, Tales of Arise, won’t be…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 18, 2019 -
Kotaku EastJapanThe Sega Genesis Turned Tiny For Capsule Toys
The Sega Genesis Mini is small, but these capsule versions are even smaller. Sure, they don’t play games, but they’re tiny and cute. Over the years, numerous game consoles have been miniaturized for capsule toys. As IT Media points out, what makes this latest line so interesting is how extensive the peripherals and add-on versions…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 18, 2019