This weekend, the 2012 Anime Contents Expo kicked off in Chiba, Japan. Sister site Kotaku Japan was in attendance to check out the cosplayers, the itasha, the Neon Genesis Evangelion smartphone, and the enormous Maken-Ki! boob pad. The Anime Contents Expo was originally created after anime creators joined forces to protest strict anime and manga…
Kotaku East runs from 4am to 8am Eastern. For more info about Kotaku East click here
The characters of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy—both ally and enemy—come from across all thirteen Final Fantasies. Yet instead of mixing and matching art styles, Square Enix Japanese graphic designer Monster Octopus to re-create all these Final Fantasy characters in their own cute, doll-like style. This is far from the only time Monster Octopus’ art style has…
Dust is from the folks at Ember Lab, who worked on the very cool student film Turbo. The trailer looks quite nice, and the filmmakers are looking for some extra scratch to help finish their project. Dust [Official Site]
Crystal Conquest! Just as was foreshadowed. And it’s a browser game. It’s a large scale action battle game—-up to 20 players can face off against 20 other players. Social games are big money makers for Square Enix of late, so don’t expect this to be a one-off thing. Crystal Conquest [Official Site]
This week in Osaka, 23 year-old Eriko Tashiro and her boyfriend Daigorou Umezaki, 31, were sentenced to prison for 13 and 14 years respectively. In Sept. 2010, both savagely beat Eriko’s younger sister, Yuriko, to death. The two regularly bullied and abused Yuriko. Both Eriko and her boyfriend were on welfare; but, teenage Yuriko had…
Soon where I live in Osaka, Japan will be bathed in cherry blossoms. The plum blossoms are blooming, but the cherry blossoms haven’t quite started yet. The cherry blossoms bloom at differnet times in different parts of the country. I was talking to a fellow ex-pat the other day who said this is his favorite…
The Final Fantasy series as a whole has the best original soundtrack in gaming. While many series have a standout song or two, Final Fantasy has thirteen games—and many spin-off titles—brimming with instantly recognizable tunes. Whether written by Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu, or other composers, these memorable scores have captured the souls of gamers for…
Sega Sammy revealed that its expecting lower than predicted revenue, leading to some in-development games getting cancelled and a corporate reorganization. [Edge]
In Tokyo Jungle, animals try to survive and procreate in Japan’s capital. The game has an array of animals (from dogs to dinosaurs), funny outfits, decaying urban sprawl, and apparently panda sex—or rather, panda mounting each other to have panda sex. Tokyo Jungle will be out this June in Japan. Tokyo Jungle [PlayStation]
Above is a quick commercial for Tokyo Disney Resort. It doesn’t look very Disney! There’s a reason for that: Disney roped in Japanese anime studio Madhouse to create this spot. Madhouse is known for Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust It’s interest to see Disney greenlight something that diverges stylistically from its own animation…
There’s a set iconography. Costumes or accessories that immediately evoke imagery and associations. For countless idol groups, the go-to iconography is the Japanese schoolgirl and all the youthful associations she entails. Not the Sexy All Sisters. They largely eschew schoolgirls in favor of superheroes, juvenile delinquents, and waitresses. The group was born out of low…
In Batt-ambang town, Cambodia, Sok Thoeun got angry at his 13 year-old son after catching him in an internet cafe, playing computer games. The elder Sok forcibly removed his son, Khorn, from the net cafe and beat him brutally. “As well as beating his son, he put chains around the boy’s neck and legs and…
Japanese role-playing game Persona is getting a porn parody. It’s called Perofella, and it’s coming later this spring. Check out that logo! They really nailed that. TMAによるペルソナ4のAV『ペロフ○ラ』パッケージが公開!ロゴ頑張ったwwww [トー速]
Japan is getting Gundam MS-06 Zaku II shaped tofu. It’s green! It’s actually edamame flavored—hence the green color. And supposedly, it tastes pretty good. Sister site Kotaku Japan previously detailed the side dish, and Japanese website Gigazine did a Zaku tofu…unboxing? Unwrapping? Whatever—you can see pictures in the gallery above. How about that awesome spoon,…
Hello Kitty has an array of products—plush toys, stationary, underwear, and, yes, that infamous vibrator. According to website Hello Kitty Universe, there are also Hello Kitty tarot cards. Has the Grim Reaper ever looked so adorable? Put done that scythe and give me a hug! A hug OF DEATH. Hello Kitty Tarot Cards [Hello Kitty…
The Idea Channel poses this question, and boy is it an interesting one. Watch the above video and decide for yourself! Is Miku Hatsune A More Authentic Pop Star Than Lana Del Rey? [YouTube]
The latest game in their Atelier series, game developer, Gust has announced that Atelier Ayesha will be released in Japan on June 28th on the PS3. A series spanning back to 1997, the Atelier series are JRPGs with a bit of alchemy to them. Players go on adventures to gather ingredients to make items that…
As the release date for game developer Crispy’s Tokyo Jungle approaches, more details of the game have been released. The latest info is survival points and a costume feature. Survival points, as they are aptly named, are obtained by surviving the environment. How long your animal avatar has survived, how many calories they’ve consumed, how…
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