Japanese Nationalism Swells in Tokyo’s Geek District

On the eve of an election, a politician stood before a crowd. The speech was fiery. And flags fluttered. If this were anywhere else, nobody would think twice. But this wasn’t anywhere. It was Tokyo. Akihabara to be exact. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lead his conservative Liberal Democratic Party to a huge victory yesterday,…

Pepsi and China: Things Get Weird

Last week on Kotaku we talked about China’s Pepsi-cooked chicken wing potato chips coming out of China as a weird but delightful snack. Well, being the resident China hand, I can say without a doubt that Pepsi in its 30 years of history in China has been anything but conventional in terms of its products…

Your Favorite Manga Characters Are Ready To Beat the Crap Outta Each Other

Project Versus J is an upcoming team battle fighting game that, so far, features Goku from Dragon Ball, Luffy from One Piece, and Toriko from Toriko Check out that kamehameha. Damn The upcoming game is headed to the PS3 and PS Vita, and it ill help mark the forty-fifth anniversary of Weekly Jump. There are…

Don’t Talk Sh*t About Reggie’s Japanese. Just Don’t.

Reggie Fils-Aime is the Nintendo of America honcho. And while he works for a Japanese company, he’s no Japanese language wizard like in-house localizer Bill Trinen. He is, however, a vengeful, vengeful man. They don’t call that man the Regginator for nothing. The wrath of Reggie [DiskSystemChronicles@YouTube] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet…

Man Outs Arcade As Gambling Den, Receives Death Threats

A young man in Xi’an, a city in North Central China’s Shaanxi province, anonymously tipped off police about illegal activity happening in an internet cafe. After police arrived and apprehended eight men into custody, the informant began receiving death threats. The informant, lets call him Mr. Guo, is confused as to why he’s receiving death…

From Cute to Anything But, This Is Plastic To Treasure

The Treasure Festa rolled through Tokyo this past weekend. The twice a year event showcases both upcoming and limited edition figures and statues. As in the spring, Japanese website Akiba Hobby was once again on hand to snap photos and document the expo. The above gallery is mostly bishoujo (beautiful young girls), but there’s a…

A Theme Park Dedicated to One Piece, Naruto, and Dragon Ball Opens Next Year

Next summer, a Weekly Jump “theme park” is opening in Tokyo. Weekly Jump, of course, is a popular weekly manga that features iconic titles like One Piece, Dragon Ball and Naruto. The theme park will be housed in a building complex in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro called Sunshine City. The theme park will have a Dragon Ball…

This Robot Toy Is Expensive, But Damn, It’s Beautiful

Just. Look. At. It. If you love Japanese robots, this deluxe super alloy Mazinger Z is definitely worth your attention. And maybe even your cashola. Priced at ¥36,750 ($440), this 30cm tall Mazinger Z leads the way in Bandai’s newest Soul of Chogokin series (“chougoukin” or 超合金 is Japanese for “super alloy”). The figure is…

Japan’s Love Affair with Pigtails

The pigtail, or as they’re called in Japan “twintail”, is not a new hairdo by any stretch. It’s not new in the West, and it’s certainly not new in Japan. But in the last few years, it’s become more popular than ever. Earlier this year, the Japan Twintail Association was created to promote and celebrate…

Bring a Little Middle Earth To Age of Empires

Tales of Middle-Earth is an ambitious mod that seeks to bring the world of Lord of the Rings not to some modern strategy game like Total War, but to one a little older, one that’s definitely earned the title of a classic: Age of Empires II The mod’s called Tales of Middle-Earth, and while it’s…

Valve Fans Create Gear So Good It’s Officially Going In A Game

Like it’s done with Team Fortress 2, Valve recently reached out to members of the Polycount forums to see who could make the best gear for its DOTA 2 game. The winners were announced over the course of last week, with the very best not only set to appear in the game’s next update, but…

Forget Fantasy Lands, Normal Cities Look Awesome In Minecraft As Well

There’s a tendency to go straight for the fantastical when designing Minecraft worlds, to castles and islands in the sky, but just like we see with LEGO and its City sets, the mundane can be just as good. These images are from a fictional Minecraft city on rikkuness’ server, which while not available for download…

Halo 4 Players Are Getting (Sort of) Banned For Downloading a Halo 4 Map Pack

The farce surrounding the release of Halo 4’s Crimson Map Pack has got a whole lot more farcical, with some users complaining that those who downloaded and began playing the pack for free—like Microsoft told them to—are being banned from certain portions of the game. The game’s official forums are full of people saying that,…

God of War Was Very Nearly an Accidental Diablo Rip-Off

Kratos’ red body paint is about as iconic a wardrobe option as any character we’ve seen this console generation, but it an interesting reveal over the weekend, former God of War lead David Jaffe has told how this very nearly wasn’t the case. The picture you see above was, according to Jaffe, what Kratos looked…

The Best Jokers Are The Old Jokers

It’s been a good week for cosplay, in part because there are actually some men to feature this week, but also because of what those men are dressed as. A humanoid Wheatley from Portal 2? The Joker from the 1989 Tim Burton flick classic TV series? Well played, gents, well played. As seen on Callesto…

Oh, Turns Out One Can Simply Walk Into Mordor

What was once a throwaway line in a 3.5-hour long movie has, thanks to the slow burn of Sean Bean’s amazingness, become one of the most memorable quips in all three Lord of the Rings flicks. Mostly because he has a point! One does not simply walk into Mordor. Or… can they? Kerry Shawcross and…

Square Enix’s Next-Gen Engine Sure Makes Eyeballs Look Pretty

We may know nothing official about the next generation of consoles, but we do know what Final Fantasy overseers Square Enix hope their games will look like on them, courtesy of its 2012 debut of the Luminous engine These two videos give us a closer look at the tech demo first shown at E3, zooming…

One Real Good Incentive To Work At Blizzard For 20 Years

If you thought the glass controller Sony employees got after five years of service was a nice gesture, wait til you see what Blizzard employees get for twenty years service. They get one of the helmets pictured above. It’s inspired by Diablo III’s Archangel Imperius, with custom tweaks made by its creator, Blizzard’s Vice President…

When Only 42 People Are Playing Madden on the Wii U, It’s Not a Sports Console

Around halftime of a game on an NFL Sunday is a good time to take the temperature of the Madden NFL crowd. It’s like the water department analysis that shows everyone flushing the john when the Super Bowl goes to the break. In this case, online gamers, many of whom have their consoles running and…

The NASDAQ-100, an index of that exchange’s top non-financial companies, is booting out Electronic Arts on Dec. 24.