otaku

Plastic model urinals, toilets aimed at Japan hobbyists

The deep, dark world of Japan's otaku geeks contains fetishes galore. For those who find both figurines and toilets exciting, Santa came very early this year.

Now they can get their hands on these 1:12-scale toilet and urinal model kits that guarantee hours of fun -- and perhaps some social ostracism.

Released earlier this month by hobby goods makers Milestone and Aoshima, the Oretachi no 1/12 Benjo loos are of course obsessively detailed. … Read more

Latest Steve Jobs action figure remarkably detailed

You know the holidays are getting close when Steve Jobs action figures start to appear.

We've seen a few toy tributes to Jobs from Chinese companies. There was a kerfuffle in January of this year when Hong Kong toymaker In Icons bowed to pressure from Jobs' family and Apple and withdrew a 12-inch doll from the market.

That hasn't stopped a Japanese startup from trying to cash in on Jobs' popularity. Tokyo-based Legend Toys is releasing its own strikingly detailed 12-inch figure of Jobs. It was sculpted by Takao Kato, whose work includes 1:16 scale and 1:4 scale figures for the otaku market. … Read more

Mind-controlled robot tail lets you wag when happy

So you've got your cat ears, your cat suit, and everything else you need to transition to another species. What's missing? A thought-controlled robot tail, of course.

From Neurowear, the makers of Necomimi robot cat ears, comes this concept for a mechanical tail that moves according to the user's emotional state. There's a brainwave-reading sensor, also used in Necomimi, that can be hidden under your hat.

As seen in the ridiculous vid below, your tail will wag when you see a bunch of pretty flowers, or an attractive Frisbee player in the park.

And, no doubt, fresh kitty litter. … Read more

Giant fembots land in Tokyo's red light district

They're pneumatic in all the right places.

Giant fembots have set up shop in Tokyo and they're drawing both Japanese businessmen and otaku geeks in droves.

Robot Restaurant recently opened in Kabukicho, one of the world's largest tenderloin areas, with a gimmick that combines giant robots with sexy gals.

The establishment is selling out its cheap dinner shows featuring scantily clad ladies riding around on 10-foot-tall female humanoids, also scantily clad. … Read more

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Camera Man!

Wow, check out that guy in the bizarre helmet that looks like a camera. What's the deal?

He's giving his Halloween costume -- Instagram Man -- a very early test run. He's the inventor of the digicam, and an old, film-using SLR has taken its revenge by assimilating him. Don't be a wiseacre, this is art.

If you chose No. 3, you're absolutely right (and we apologize for being a wiseacre).

"Touchy" (see video embedded below) is an art project by Eric Siu -- an MFA graduate of UCLA's Department of Design Media Arts, and a Hong Kong-based new-media artist -- and beneath its playful surface it's actually quite serious.… Read more

iMac robot, faux Steve Jobs snapped in Tokyo

The blogosphere, as you know, is a giant echo chamber. Someone posts something and other sites parrot it like ventriloquist dummies, verbatim or nearly so. But does it matter if the original post is wrong?

Case in point: The pic below surfaced on MIC Gadget recently. It suggests this fellow in a very awesome robot costume, seemingly fashioned out of old iMac parts, appeared in Chongqing, China, along with his mutton-chopped Steve Jobs sidekick striking a Moses pose.

It's been making the rounds recently, with Gizmodo, io9, Cult of Mac, Geekosystem, and Geekologie, among others, hailing the Macbot in China.

The thing is the photo was taken in Tokyo, Japan, not China. If you've ever been to the Tokyo Big Sight convention center, you'll remember its unmistakable inverted pyramids in the background of the photo. … Read more

Otaku band AKB48 morphs into $200M business

What if the vice president of your university were a genius producer who had put together an insanely successful pop group of 90 singers and then approved the creation of identical doll versions of them?

Weird? Not for Kyoto University of Art and Design and Yasushi Akimoto, the Steve Jobs of otaku (supergeeks) in Japan. The school just hosted a hit exhibition of dolls based on the gals in the band he produces, AKB48.

At 90 members, AKB48 is the Guinness-certified world's largest pop band. Its members are all females in their teens and early twenties, and all its bubble-gum singles top the charts on the day of their release.

The music is, shall we say, an aquired taste; it sounds like arcade game tunes drenched in a massive one-part vocal harmony. Yet intense otaku fandom has lifted the hydra-headed, miniskirted band to the highest levels of Japanese acceptability. It's even acting as Japan's unofficial representative in China. … Read more

Fans surprised to learn Japanese pop idol isn't real

Japanese geekdom was reportedly shocked of late to learn that the newest member of AKB48, an all-girl idol band with a rotating roster of fresh teen faces, isn't human.

According to her official profile, Aimi Eguchi is a 16-year-old from Saitama, north of Tokyo. Her looks might have earned her the prominent spot in confectioner Ezaki Glico's ad for Ice no Mi candy balls (see below)--if only she weren't a computer-generated composite.

Eguchi's appearance caused a stir among fanboys, and she even appeared in Japanese magazine Weekly Playboy. But their excitement soured when Glico confirmed she's fake, according to a Channel News Asia report.

Her face was fashioned from the features of six other band members, as you can see in this video.

I'm not a fan of AKB-47 or its 60-odd human members, and I was astounded to see grown men lining up to see them perform at a theater in Akihabara, Tokyo. Still, I have to give credit to Eguchi's creators for the verisimilitude of their work. … Read more

Control these robot cat ears with your brain

How do you know if a girl is interested in you? If she's wearing Necomimi robot cat ears, you'll know right away. Whether you'd be interested in girls who wear cat ears is another matter.

A Japanese group called Neurowear has been promoting this high-tech headband, which consists of a pair of motorized, fuzzy feline ears and a brain wave sensor.

The ears feature in Japan's otaku subcultures centered on anime and manga fandom. They're seen in catgirl outfits worn by cosplay enthusiasts.

It's easy to find cat-ear headbands in Japan, but Neurowear has taken them a step beyond. The Necomimi forehead brain wave sensor makes the ears stand up when the wearer concentrates. They turn down in response to a relaxed state.

In the rather ridiculous PR video below, the ears stand up when a woman passes a man who catches her eye. Meanwhile, guys have also been trying Necomimi, as seen in the vid here, shot at a recent demo in Tokyo. … Read more