Kotaku East

Pokémon Go Grandpa Is Now A Mobile Phone Spokesperson

Last year, Taiwan’s Chen San-yuan went viral with his bicycle contraption to which nine phones were affixed so he could play Pokémon Go around Taipei. Now, he has more phones and a new gig: ambassador for Asus ZenFone smartphones. As Apple Today recently reports, Chen now has a whopping twenty-two smartphones rigged up to his…

Japanese Arcades Light Up The Night

In cities across Japan, arcades are beacons of the night. They are a place to take refuge, escape, and unwind, which is what makes them so special. Photographer Victor Gonzalez has started documenting Japanese arcades, hoping to tap into the nostalgia they invoke. For more, you can follow him on Instagram. He will also be showing…

K-Pop Pick Of The Day: Nothing Lasts Forever

With Girl’s Day’s Sojin announcing her departure from her agency, yet another one of my favorite groups has bitten the metaphorical dust. Nothing lasts forever, indeed. This is another one of those cases where fans saw the writing on the wall far before any official rumblings of trouble started. Girl’s Day’s last album released in…

How Anime Art Has Changed Since 2009

Anime art is not static. It is constantly changing with each passing year. Some of those changes are noticeable. Others less so. On 2ch, a forum member has posted the above image to explain how anime art has changed in the past ten years. The comparison shows prevalent stylistic touches then and now. The most…

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…