Kotaku East

I Want More Sleeping Dogs

I know, I know, I’m late to the party. I finally beat United Front’s amazing Triad story, Sleeping Dogs. Our very own Tina Amini gave the game a glowing review and I’d have to agree; the game is spectacular, however upon completion I got to thinking. Why aren’t there more games like Sleeping Dogs, or…

Japanese TV Is Getting a Digital Lady Made from Crappy Graphics

Hatsune Miku proved that virtual idols could be big business. There are Miku video games, live concerts, and endless merchandising. So it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise that Fuji TV is rolling out its own virtual idol, a “digital announcer” named Lune Anri. Female announcers on Japanese TV don’t just read the news or…

The Wonderfully Weird World Of Chinese Oreos

My mother used to tell me not to play with my food, but the rule never applied to Oreos. It’s almost as if the cookie was meant to be played—you take apart the Oreo, lick the creamy center first and then eat the cookie as a whole. The Oreo (and the way to eat it),…

Japan, The Country That Isn’t FIFA Crazy

Ask your typical Japanese gamer what a soccer video game is, and he or she will immediately say Winning Eleven, or as it’s known in the West, Pro Evolution Soccer. That is the soccer game in Japan. One of the big reasons for this is that there is no national Japanese team in FIFA. The…

The Valhalla Knights 3 website is now open for your perusal.

Strict New Download Law Won’t Kill YouTube in Japan

If you think the internet is a place where information can be shared freely, a place where things like copyright law do not apply, and a place where you can do whatever you want, well, bad news. Starting today, a strict new download law ends your notion of the internet. At least in Japan, that…

Hardcore Gamer Lives In Net Cafe For Two Months, Claims It’s Training.

A Chinese man in Wuchang, Hubei Province, China has been living inside an internet cafe for over the past two months. When questioned as to why he was in the cafe, his answer was, “I’m training for gold.” The man, 23-year-old surnamed Wang, has been staying in a net cafe located on the corner of…

Close-Ups of Wax Steve Jobs’ Crotch Are Totally Creepy

Steve Jobs might’ve checked out before his time, but he left a legacy of innovation. Madame Tussauds Hong Kong is honoring Jobs with a wax figure, which website MIC Gadget recently checked out. The video tour of the figure is, to be frank, pretty creepy—complete with crotch pans, whisker zooms, ass shots, and John Lennon’s…

Don’t be surprised if Sony gives the PS Vita a price cut… next year.

How the Heck Does a Gun Work Underwater?

To the internet! The internet always has the answer—and it seems to for this question, too. The question arose after watching this clip, which Japanese site Gigazine posted. In the clip, a Glock 22 fires off a jacketed hollow point underwater, and a high-speed camera captured the whole thing. According to YouTube user VuurwapenBlog, there…

The next Metal Gear Online will be developed in LA, says Hideo Kojima.

Famed Japanese Anime Studio Turns to Kickstarter

Production I.G of Ghost in the Shell fame is launching a Kickstarter for a new production. Dubbed Kick-Heart, the anime short is about ten minutes long and is helmed by Masaaki Yusasa. Here’s the S&M themed plot: Kick-Heart is a love story between Romeo, a successful pro-wrestler, and Juliet, a nun who lives a secret…

The Art of Using Chopsticks Correctly

Chopsticks are a mainstay of dinner tables in Japan and throughout Asia. Japanese people have been using them since they were small children—that doesn’t mean, however, that they’ve been using them correctly. In fact, many have not. According to a Meijiro University study (via Nikkei), something like 30 percent of people aged 40s to 50s…

Hyperdimension Neptunia‘s Creator Dreams of a Fighting Game

This year at the Tokyo Game Show, Kotaku had the pleasure of sitting down with Mizuno Naoko, the creator of Hyperdimension Neptunia (and both of its sequels), to talk about the past, present, and future of the series. As we sat 47 floors above the game show proper, she told me about the origins of…

This Is the Most Disgusting Japanese Snack I’ve Ever Eaten

Some call Japanese snacks “weird”. That’s not fair—the vast majority is rather pedestrian. There are some Japanese snacks that are, how should I say, peculiar? Many of them actually end up tasing great, first repelling you and then pulling you in with unique flavor sensations—or as I like to say, flavorsations. Chocolat de Tomato is…

In This Gundam Game, You Are Models

Here’s the trailer for Gundam Breaker, the upcoming Gundam game that uses Gundam models of various scale (both large and small). It’ll be out on the PS3 and PS Vita next year. Gundam Breaker Crashing onto PS3 and PS Vita [Siliconera] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking…

Jesus and Buddha Living in Tokyo, Sharing an Apartment and Heading to the Big Screen

In the manga Saint Young Men, Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha are on vacation in Japan, doing their best to understand modern society—as well as hide their own identities. Sometimes they just hang out at home, eat noodles and blog, while other days they do things like going to amusement parks. The hugely popular manga…

Sword Art Online Is the Smartest Anime I’ve Seen in Years (And It’s Only Half-Done)

Sword Art Online is an anime based on a series of light novels which has just hit the midway point of its TV run. Twelve episodes in, it is the smartest anime I have seen in years—even including the recent Lupin III. But before we get into why this is the case, let’s take a…

Android’s Big in North Korea? First Look at the Country’s New Tablet.

North Korea doesn’t exactly scream cutting edge or progress or freedom or delicious burgers or a whole bunch of things. However, it does have an Android powered tablet. Earlier this week in Pyongyang, Chosun Computer showed off its new tablet, which seems to be running Android. It’s not clear, however, where the tablet is actually…

How’d That Black Burger King Hamburger Taste? Let’s Find Out.

Well, I guess there technically are words, but man. Just. Look. At. That. Previously, Kotaku posted how Burger King Japan was unleashing a “Kuro Burger” (“kuro” means “black” in Japanese) with black ketchup, made from squid ink and garlic. Japanese website Gigazine took one for the team and ordered the meal. How did it taste?…