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Kotaku East
She’s Not Just the Tekken Lady. She’s a Bowler.
To promote Street Fighter X Tekken, Capcom roped in a handful of women to cosplay as the fighting game characters. Dubbed “Miss St. X”, the women are bikini models and starlets. One, however, stands apart when wearing funny shoes and throwing big, heavy balls. See, Rina Ohtsuka, who is cosplaying as Tekken‘s Nina, is a…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 13, 2012 -
Kotaku EastThis RPG Teaches You Japanese
As a game journalist living and working in Japan, the question I’m most commonly asked is, “What game can help me learn Japanese?” The answer: Slime Forest Adventure. Set up like a traditional JRPG, you go around the world, battle monsters, and try to rescue a princess. The story is simple and the graphics are…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published March 13, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Snowboarding Gets All Nerdy
No wonder a former Japanese Olympic snowboarder is so into otaku (“geek”) culture. It seems there a whole group of snowboarding otaku, decked out in unabashedly nerdy attire. These photos are from the ski slops of Nagano Prefecture. Besides the cosplaying snowboarders, there are geeked out snowboards, called “ita-board”. They feature anime and video game…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 13, 2012 -
Kotaku East
The Art of Outselling Skyrim (…in Japan)
Western games are getting increasingly popular in Japan. But they’re still a small slice of the pie. Just ask ZeniMax Asia’s Tetsu Takahashi. ZeniMax Media, of course, owns American developers id Software (Doom) and Bethesda Softworks (The Elder Scrolls) as well as new Japanese studio, Tango Gameworks, with Shinji Mikami (above). Mikami, best known for…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 13, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Underpants! Beer Mugs! Badass Superhero Goes Retail Crazy.
It’s a period of time in nearly every Japanese boy’s life. Sometime before preschool starts and shortly after it ends, kids become enamored with Ultraman. Some never outgrow their fascination with the towering superhero who flies to earth to kick monster butt. I don’t blame them. Ultraman is badass. Ultraman debuted in Japan during the…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 13, 2012 -
Kotaku East
At This Chinese Video Game Bar, You Drink
There are many arcades in China, some are shopping arcades, others are video game arcades. But Arcade, in Shanghai isn’t an arcade in any sense of the word, it is instead a bar. While there are many video game bars in the US and Japan, there aren’t too many in China. There are arcades that…
By Eric Jou Published March 12, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Junior High Kid Arrested in a Great Condom Caper
Earlier this year, four junior high school students apparently broke into a shuttered love hotel. Love hotels are the Japanese equivalent of “no tell motels”, where couples can meet for trysts. They typically offer complimentary condoms. These four junior high students supposedly stole a huge amount of unused rubbers from a shutdown love hotel. One…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Is This the World’s Youngest FPS Player? He’ll Snipe Your Ass. Maybe.
Don’t you hate it when you’re online playing a first-person shooter and the person on the other end that kills you is a young kid. Well, in China, that player could be younger than you’d ever imagine. In a video posted last December, an unnamed 2-and-a-half year-old, is shown playing a Counter Strike clone, Mercenary…
By Eric Jou Published March 12, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Japan’s Greatest Manga Artists Offer Encouragement
This Sunday was the one year anniversary of the Tohoku Earthquake. Around the country, people paused at 2:46pm—the moment the quake first hit. On Saturday, I noticed a display at a shopping mall of manga art from some of Japan’s most famous manga artists. Each of them drew pictures and wrote encouraging messages. The result…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 -
Kotaku EastTurns Out Siri Isn’t Fluent in Japanese
Apple has the personal assistant Siri. DoCoMo, a major mobile service provider in Japan, has the Syabette Concier. With the Japanese version of Siri being recently introduced, one man on YouTube tested the two voice controlled assistants to see how they differ. The man speaks out in Japanese to both Smarthphones at the same to…
By Toshitaka Tachibana Published March 12, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Will Apple’s iPad Trademark Become China’s?
Just last week, Apple announced a new iPad. It’s already become an object of desire in China. But, unfortunately for Chinese Apple fans, Apple has not announced a launch date for the Mainland market. Even if Apple does announce a Mainland launch date, its on going legal troubles with Chinese tech company Proview might hinder…
By Eric Jou Published March 12, 2012 -
Kotaku East
A Truly Bizarre Metamorphosis. This Female Character Looks Totally Different!
Newly released Blades of Time is a spiritual successor to X-Blades, a hack-and-slash game noteworthy if only for its risqué Japanese style character design. Blades of Time is the game’s spiritual successor. Kotaku has covered the title before (here), but honestly, this title hasn’t been on my radar. At all. It stars Ayumi, who appeared…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Crazy Women, Stay Away from This Dude
You think only male nerds are scary? Wrong! Japanese voice actor Shinnosuke Tachibana is so freaked out by some of his female fans that he actually asked them to stop tailing him. As pointed out by Japanese site OtaNews, late last week Tachibana, who does voice work for Inazuma Eleven and Konami dating games, uploaded…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 -
Kotaku East
This Lady Loves Dressing as Fighting Game Characters
She really does! This is Rui, and she’s done a myriad of cosplay, including a handful of fighting game characters. Her gaming father instilled a love of video games in her from a very young age. Besides Street Fighter Zero 3, favorites include Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI, and many, many others. Rui is…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 -
Kotaku EastThis Banned PS3 Owner Looks Bonkers
Anyone who films himself or herself ranting about a ban and posting it online might have issues. Anyone who does that while wearing a plastic bag might be nutso. In this video, a PS3 owner, who was apparently banned from the PlayStation Network, bitched and moaned—while wearing a several snuggies and a plastic bag on…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Time To Ride the Giant Wooden Penis!
This weekend the Hodare Festival got underway in Niigata, Japan. Hodare means “male genitals”, and the centerpiece of this Shinto fertility festival is a giant wooden penis. Measuring 2.2m and weighting 600kg, the wooden penis in enshrined and carries religious significance. People believe praying to it or touching it can bring marital bliss and fertility…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 12, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Wait, Now China Is Ripping Off Underwear Fashion Shows?
China has ripped off electronics. It’s ripped off video games. It’s ripped off Conan O’Brien. And now, apparently, it’s ripped off a Victoria’s Secret fashion show. A student fashion show at China’s Chengdu University of Technology wasn’t just inspired by Victoria’s Secret. No, it completely ripped off a Victoria Secret fashion show—something that was pointed…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 9, 2012 -
Kotaku East
Brand New Robot Wars Game for PS Vita. Not Much Info.
Today, Bandai Namco revealed that it was working on a brand new Super Robot Wars game for the PS Vita. It showed no gameplay, no screenshots, and zero cutscenes. It did not even give a ballpark release date. Bandai did point out that the upcoming, already announced PSP Super Robot Wars game can be played…
By Brian Ashcraft Published March 9, 2012