Kotaku East

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: City Girl City Boy

A lot—a lot—of indie bands have passed through this column. I’ve never become quite so quickly enamored with any of them as I have fallen headfirst into The Night Of Seokyo. The Night Of Seokyo is a four-member band that debuted in 2016. Since then, they’ve built up a slow but steady discography of late-night,…

Young Buddhist Monks Win Esports Tournament In Thailand

This month, a group of young monks won an esports tournament at Khon Kaen University’s Nong Khai campus in Thailand. According to World of Buzz, the winners are seniors at Balee Sathit Suksa, a school in Thailand that trains monks.  “The novices wanted to try entering the competition, so we gave them that opportunity. However,…

Custom Toys and Figures Made for Wasteland Nightmares

Cute toys made terrifying. Traditional Japanese motifs reworked on rusted robots. The world of Fallout brought to life. This is the work of toy and figure modder Y_Nakajima Nakajima’s work excels at putting a creepy dystopian spin on figures and toys, bringing them to life in a nicely rusted and weathered way (Previously, Kotaku has…

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: Peppermint Chocolate

As I freshened up my familiarity with MAMAMOO’s discography while writing the column for Yes I Am several days ago, I stumbled upon 2014’s Peppermint Chocolate, one of their pre-debut songs, sung in collaboration with K.Will. K.Will is one of the more prolific and well-known solo artists in the Korean music canon, best-known for his…

Four Years Later, Star Wars Fan Isn’t Done With His Death Star II Diorama

On July 5, 2015, Star Wars fan and Twitter user C3poC3 started working on his Death Star II diorama. Now in 2019, he’s not done. As you can see, he is currently painting the Death Star II’s northern hemisphere. The level of detail is staggering. The model measures 50 centimeters in diameter. Here are some…

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: The Ocean Of Yours

We’ve barreled through a few straight days’ worth of mainstream K-Pop idol music, which means it’s time to take things down a few notches. Back to Korean indie we go. This song is subtitled The Song Good For Nighttime Listening, which is very to the point—and also 100% true, as I can attest while finishing…

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: Umpah Umpah

With Umpah Umpah, Red Velvet has completely redeemed themselves, in my eyes, for the underwhelming and monotonous Zimzalabim No, more than that: Umpah Umpah deserves a spot in the highest echelons of Red Velvet’s discography, right alongside Russian Roulette, Red Flavor and Ice Cream Cake—if only for the absolutely gorgeous pre-chorus, which can be heard…

A Complicated-Looking Way To Hold PlayStation Controllers

Years back, Kotaku reported on an inventive way to hold a DualShock and play From Software’s mecha game Armored Core. Now in 2019, it’s back. In Japanese, this grip style is called densetsu no AC mochi (伝説のAC持ち) or “legendary Armored Core grip.” This grip style is so legendary in Japan that it’s even made a…

Manga creator Konami Sonoda of ChocoMimi fame has passed away due to breast cancer. ChocoMimi debuted in 2003 and a live-action version followed in 2007.

Manga Artist Goes Back And Redoes Old Illustrations

When a manga first starts, the artist is still usually finding how the characters look. With time, that changes, and over the course of the later issues, their appearance evolves. But what if an artist went back and redid those old illustrations? That’s exactly what Soichiro Yamamoto did. Creator of Teasing Master Takagi-san, Yamamoto went back…

Square Enix Hit With More Death Threats, Cancels Game Tournaments

Starting this weekend, there were supposed to be events for mecha arcade game Starwing Paradox at four cities across Japan. Those events have been canceled due to death threats. According to an official Square Enix statement, there have been several death threats made against Starwing Paradox’s management team. Square Enix has reported the threats and…

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: Bangkok

Oh, will you look at that: I spend the majority of a column bemoaning the loss of Sistar’s summer songs, and bam, one of its former members comes out with a bangin’ summer song. Soyou has built up quite the solo discography since—and even prior to—Sistar’s dissolution in 2017, and songs like Some, All Night…

Anime Fans Visit Real-World Locations Of This Summer’s Hit Movie

Weathering With You is the hit anime of the summer. As with Your Name, the movie brings real-world Tokyo locations to life. Now fans are visiting those spots. This is what anime fans in Japan call seichi junrei (聖地巡礼) or a “pilgrimage to a sacred spot.” You can see the real-world versions of the Weathering…

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: Yes I Am

If there’s one thing I’ve learned to count on with MAMAMOO, it’s that they will always keep things interesting in K-Pop land. This four-member girl group has always marched to the beat of their own drum since their debut in 2014. A brief glance at their title tracks, from the jazzy Decalcomanie to the hip-hop…

Anime’s Bloody Nose Trope Isn’t Backed By Science

In anime and manga, when characters get excited—often sexually excited—blood dribbles or squirts out of their noses. But is this backed by medical science? Nope! The notion that arousal or excitement induces bloody noses (hanaji or “鼻血”) isn’t just part of anime or manga iconography. It’s also become an old wives’ tale of sorts. Well,…

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: Tiki-Taka

This year’s neverending summer seems, well, neverending. Maybe that’s why Weki Meki is releasing the season’s best warm-weather bop in the middle of August. I haven’t been very impressed with this year’s roster of summer songs thus far. To be honest, I’ve been in that mindset for a few years now, as it’s hard to…

Here is the trailer for Kyoto Animation’s Violet Evergarden spin-off anime, Violet Evergarden Side-Story: Eternity and the Auto Memories Doll. As previously reported, the movie will be released as planned next month 

Japan’s Most Famous Cosplayer Draws Huge Crowds

This is Enako. As Kotaku previously reported, she’s making some serious cash as a cosplayer. She’s also drawing massive crowds. Enako appears on mainstream Japanese television (here and here, for example) as well as in-game advertisements (below). She is making a name for herself as Japan’s most well-known cosplayer. During this and last year’s Comiket,…

3D Printing Makes Yu-Gi-Oh! Truly Spellbinding

One Twitter user has used a 3D printer to replicate the spell on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Polymerization card. The whole process looks rather complicated. And while the colors are slightly muted in the finished version, I think the result turned out extremely well. 

Watch A Dude Make Dragon Ball‘s Goku From Wood

Workshop Au Lac Wood Art does highly-detailed, traditional wood carvings in its native Vietnam. Instead of watching artisans carve a Buddhist deity, let’s watch one make a Goku! But first, take a moment to appreciate the artisan’s skills and dedication: Incredible, no? Below, those skills are brought to bear in creating this Goku wood carving.…