Kotaku East

Anime Pastel Memories‘ Streaming Temporarily Stopped, Home Releases Canceled

Streaming for anime Pastel Memories has temporarily been halted and DVD and Blu-ray releases of the show’s first three episodes have been cancelled. The reason, it seems, could be related to how the show parodies another anime. As announced on the show’s official site (via ANN), the official statement apologizes for the trouble caused by…

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: Winter Rain

Winter is winding down, and that means I have precious few days left to share as much cold weather-inspired music as possible. A lot of Korean indie music fits the snowy months the best, and Seyoung’s Winter Rain is no exception to that rule. Maybe it’s the soothing synth, or the cold-tinted music video, or…

The Price Of PS4 Exclusive Judgment Is Going Up in Japan

Last week, Sega halted sales of PS4 exclusive Judgment after actor Pierre Taki was arrested on alleged drug charges. Taki is being replaced in various roles, and suddenly, the original release of Judgment looks like a collector’s item. Pierre Taki is being replaced in TV shows and as the official Japanese language voice of Olaf…

After Nudity Wasn’t Fully Censored, Nintendo Switch Game Temporarily Pulled  

Last week, Super Real Mahjong PV was released on the Nintendo Switch. This week, downloads of the digital game have been temporarily suspended. Warning: This article might be NSFW. The Super Real Mahjong series debuted in Japanese arcades during the 1990s. The series has previously appeared on Nintendo hardware, such as the Game Boy Advance. This…

Cosplay Made Me Want To Steal, Says Accused Burglar

A 37-year-old man has been arrested in Fukuoka, Japan for allegedly committing burglary while dressed in Rei Ayanami’s plugsuit from Evangelion 3.0 “When cosplaying, I wanted to break in and steal things,” the suspected is quoted by NHK as saying. According to the charging documents, the man is accused of breaking into Iizuka City home…

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: Fiction

Before the boy group Highlight overthrew the yoke of agency contracts and struck out a new path as independent artists in 2016, they performed for seven years under the name B2ST. Fiction, the title track to their Fiction And Fact album, is arguably the standout song in B2ST’s discography—although both 2010’s Shock or 2011’s On…

Studio Ghibli Producer Doesn’t Think Hayao Miyazaki Will Ever Retire

Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki said in a recent interview that he doesn’t believe Hayao Miyazaki, who previously retired and then unretired, will ever stop working. Back in 2013, Hayao Miyazaki stepped down from feature filmmaking, saying at the time, “I would like to do something else, and that’s not animation.” By 2017, his retirement…

After Cocaine Arrest, Sega Halts Sales of New PS4 Game [Update]

Actor and musician Pierre Taki, who voices yakuza Kyohei Hamura in Judgment, has been arrested for alleged illegal drug use. Update #1 March 13 – 7:30 am: Asahi News is reporting that Disney is looking at replacing Taki as Olaf in the Japanese language version of Frozen 2. The movie is scheduled to open in…

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: Night

A confession: I usually crank these out sometime past midnight, with a mug of tea, and the lights dimmed. Maybe that’s why my picks tend to skew toward the quietly emotive. Anyway, here’s one more. Eunji (not to be confused with the Apink idol of the same name) is an indie artist who released her…

Play Naked Dance Dance Revolution At This Love Hotel In Japan

In Japan, Love Hotels are specifically designed as places where folks can go and have sex. At Hotel Eldia, when they’re done with that, they can play arcade games. As Livedoor News reports, room 211 at Hotel Eldia in Kobe has a Dance Dance Revolution Supernova machine. The room is available for two hours for…

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: LOVEDRUNK

Epik High is back! The kings of many a high school karaoke sing-along party have returned with LOVEDRUNK, the title track of their latest album, Sleepless In ____. (No, I didn’t forget to finish that sentence, that’s literally the album.) It’s not an exaggeration to call this three-man group one of the biggest names in…

Rumor Leads To Studio Ghibli Fans Trespassing For Instagram Photos

In one of the most famous scenes of Studio Ghibli film Spirited Away, the protagonist Chihiro follows train tracks that led into the sea and boards a train. Instagram users began flocking to the spot in Ehime Prefecture after a rumor circulated that a local spot inspired the scene. However, the Spirited Away fans caused…

Octopath Traveler is getting a prequel for smartphones called Octopath Traveler: Tairiku no Haisha (Conquerors of the Continent). Announced for Japan, the free-to-play RPG features and all-new story set a few years before the first game.

Japan’s First “Convenience Store Bar” Opens

Several years ago, Japanese convenience stores began selling better coffee, offering fresh donuts and rolling out eat-in seating spaces for customers. Now, one convenience store chain in Fukuoka has taken the next logical step: a bar. This week, the Poplar convenience store located in front of Fukuoka’s Hakata Station just opened its first bar. It…

On March 20, a new Gundam Cafe is opening in Osaka’s Dotonbori, serving up Mobile Suit themed eats and drinks. It will also sell souvenirs and snacks with Gundam characters speaking in the local Osaka dialect.

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: Katchup

Among the many, many idols who’ve attempted to spin off from from their (often dead or dying) parent groups, exceedingly few actually manage to successfully stand on their own. Katchup shows that Subin, formerly of Dal Shabet, is—at the very least—trying her hardest to do so. Subin (who seemingly now goes by the moniker DALsooobin—see…

Detective Pikachu’s Face Is Spawning Endless Fan Art In Japan

The latest Detective Pikachu trailer shows a rather down-in-the-dumps electric rodent sleuth. Online in Japan, people have fallen in love with this shiwa–shiwa (しわしわ or wrinkly) Pikachu, calling the character cute and creating fan art. Here are some images of the wrinkly Pikachu One Twitter user called the movie’s version “Shiwachu” (Wrinkle-chu). Everyone seems to…

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: Senorita

More Latin vibes in K-Pop is unquestionably good, as faint as they may be. (G)I-DLE is one of the newer girl groups on the block, and as they approach their one-year anniversary this coming May, their early hype has coalesced into a budding tour de force in Korean pop music. They already achieved one of…

First Look Inside Japan’s New Moomin Theme Park 

On March 16, a Moomin theme park will open in Saitama, Japan. Let’s have a peek inside. Called Moomin Valley Park, it will feature various Moomin attractions, similar to Moominworld in Finland. The beloved Scandinavian characters have long been popular in Japan. Previously, the park’s concept art was revealed, which we can now compare to…

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: Noir

The music video for Sunmi’s latest, Noir, is a biting critique of the image-obsessed Instagram influencer. This strikes me as ironic. Considering Sunmi’s pedigree in one of K-Pop’s biggest idol groups and an active participant in possibly one of the most unhealthily exterior-obsessed, nip-and-tuck-fueling industries in the world, it’s worth considering if this is all…