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Kotaku East
Shigeru Miyamoto Doesn’t Want To Make An MMORPG
Today in Yokohama, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto gave the keynote address at the 2018 Computer Entertainment Developers Conference. The speech was about an hour long, and here are some of the highlights. It was a packed house, and websites Afternoon News and Famitsu were in attendance, reporting the following: The Spread Of Smartphones When the spread…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 22, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: A
Yes, this song is literally called A. That might make things a bit confusing for us, but bear with me, because it’s Rainbow’s best. Rainbow debuted in 2009 under DSP Media, which also managed the very successful KARA before them, and therefore brings forth the question: how did they fuck it up so badly with…
By Seung Park Published August 22, 2018 -
Kotaku East
The Real-Life Totoro House People Could Sleep In
Previously, Kotaku introducedthe real-life version of the My Neighbor Totoro house that Studio Ghibli had built in Aichi Prefecture. You cannot stay the night in that house. In this one, you could. Japan isn’t home to one replica, but two. Located in Nagasaki Prefecture, this “Satsuki and Mei House” used to be available for 5,000…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 21, 2018 -
Kotaku East
Thank Gundam For This Photo Meme
The key art for the upcoming animated film Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative features a ridiculous pose which is spawning silly meme photos. Here, have a look at what people have been coming up with, posting their photos under the tag #ナラティブチャレンジ (or “Narrative Challenge”). Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative will open on November 30 in Japan.
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 21, 2018 -
Kotaku East
The Best Affordable Japanese Whisky You Can Buy
Japanese whisky sure can be expensive. While older bottlings can easily fetch thousands of dollars or, at the super-premium end, hundreds of thousands, there are Japanese whiskies that are both affordable and excellent. Last Friday, one bottle of 50-year-old Yamazaki went for a staggering $343,000. While the prices of Japanese whisky has gone up, there…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 21, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: I’m A Butterfly
Let’s kick start things with some rock-n-roll. If I’m A Butterfly doesn’t get you psyched to tackled the rest of the week, you’ve got issues that music can’t solve (and those are grave issues indeed). YB, formerly as the Yoon Do Hyun band, debuted in 1997 under their eponymous lead vocalist. Like so many of…
By Seung Park Published August 21, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: I Swear
Sistar was, is, and always will be, the undisputed queen of the summer song. I Swear is just one example of their dominance when it comes to the season of swimsuits, pool parties and sunscreen. There’s also Loving U, with its dazzlingly saturated music video, and Touch My Body, and Shake It, and we would’ve…
By Seung Park Published August 17, 2018 -
Kotaku East
Japan Has More Than Just Square Watermelons
A few years back, there was a report that wealthy people in Russia were paying over $800 for Japanese square watermelons. In Russia, that’s supposedly 300 times the price of a regular watermelon. But why square Japanese watermelons? That’s so passé! Watermelon is a popular summer fruit in Japan. People give watermelons as gifts and…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 16, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Breathless
We’ve all wondered what it would be like to be a bottle of soda at some point in our lives, right? If this music video is accurate (and why wouldn’t it be?), we’d all be happy-go-lucky pop idols livin’ it up in air-conditioned comfort until we, uh, get drunk by a cute girl with pigtails.…
By Seung Park Published August 16, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Hot Summer
Apt title for these dog days, don’t you think? (I never went outside today.) Korean entertainment agencies have a curious fascination with debuting groups set up as “counterparts” to others within their company. YG Entertainment did it with 2NE1 and Big Bang, JYP Entertainment (perhaps most egregiously) with 2PM and 2AM, and SM Entertainment with…
By Seung Park Published August 15, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Darling
Welcome to Summer Songs Week, where we attempt to stave off the heat that’s slowly killing us all with beachy, refreshing tunes. Yup, it’s summer. You know what that means: popsicles, beach days, A/C on full blast… and the annual dose of K-Pop groups clamoring to nab a slice of that sweet, sweet summer release…
By Seung Park Published August 14, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Magic Carpet Ride
Jaurim is one of Korea’s longest-running bands, having officially debuted in 1997—and active in the indie community prior to that date. The above is the highest-quality video I could find of Magic Carpet Ride, part of their 2000 album The Wonderland, from an official source. If you’d like to see the music video, albeit in…
By Seung Park Published August 10, 2018 -
Kotaku East
For an Anime Studio, This Looks Nice
Many anime studios tend to look like regular, bland offices. They’re functional, which is fine, but lack personality and style. The headquarters for anime studio P.A. Works is functional, too, but it also looks quite nice. P.A. Works is known for anime like Shirobako, Haruchika, and Kuromukuro. Boat aside, the anime studio portrayed in Shirobako…
By Brian Ashcraft Published August 9, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Dolls
Nine Muses is one of those groups that exist in that uncomfortable grey area between success and failure: never really achieving breakout status, but also never stumbling badly enough that their agency decides to cut its losses. So they struggle on, quietly debuting one solid bop after another, hoping for the day when they will…
By Seung Park Published August 9, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: You Are A Girl, I Am A Boy
If your exposure to K-Pop so far has only been through title tracks and their accompanying music videos, you’re missing out on some premium quality pop. Here’s an example of what I mean. B1A4 designated Sweet Girl as their title track for their sixth extended play album in 2015. The song is… fine. It’s a…
By Seung Park Published August 8, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Power Up
Red Velvet is very quickly becoming one of my favorite groups, and Power Up might just be their best song yet. When they debuted with Happiness in 2014, I had a hunch that they would turn out to be one of K-Pop’s more unique and inventive artists, and I was right. From their spins on…
By Seung Park Published August 7, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: I’m A Loner
I’m A Loner is an uncommonly good debut track, and it set the tone for CNBLUE’s rise as one of the premier rock bands in South Korea. As with many other K-Pop groups, CNBLUE debuted with a gimmick: every member stood for a letter of the word BLUE. He wasn’t just Jonghyun, the guitarist; he…
By Seung Park Published August 3, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: One More Time
Ten years ago, before Twice and Red Velvet and Girls’ Generation and 2NE1 and Wonder Girls, there was Jewelry. In the mid-to-late 2000s, Jewelry was all the rage; coming hot off the successful Superstar three years prior, they would release, in 2008, one of K-Pop’s watershed tracks: One More Time One More Time embodied Jewelry…
By Seung Park Published August 2, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Soulmate
Block B’s rapper Zico has had one of the more interesting careers for a mainstream K-Pop artist. He actually got his start in Korea’s underground rap world, becoming a respected rapper alongside several crews before his debut as an idol. Soulmate, his latest solo track, is a collaboration with IU (who we’ve covered in this…
By Seung Park Published August 1, 2018 -
Kotaku EastK-Pop Pick Of The Day: Dance The Night Away
The last time I featured Twice, I asked someone to wake me when they decided to show some progression in their music. No one followed my directions, it seems, because I was asleep for this one. Dance The Night Away is a refreshing change of pace for Twice, long known for their addictive, cutesy hook…
By Seung Park Published July 31, 2018