The road to recovery was long and arduous, but as many good friends had told me, time is a great healer. I was able to abandon thoughts of venturing to the smoky prison to see her once again, and instead made preparations to continue with m...
Unsurprisingly, the rain of "scandals" continues to pour on AKB48, this time due to Yuki "Yukirin" Kashiwagi having the temerity to attend a group party with *gasp* men in it, just days after the now-infamous "Mii-chan Affair". To be fair,...
You'd think that we'd have had enough of nerd "facepalm" moments in the last few days, but it's always worth calling out internet jerks. To shrug and say "Meh, internet" is letting them win. That's the case with one Chaka Cumberbatch, ...
Never underestimate the power of otaku. Now, I'd like to say that that phrase is some kind of testament to nerd ingenuity or some other super cool thing, but the tone I must adopt this time is one of warning, that this is once more proof th...
The time is now, dear readers, as we come closer and closer to the time of gift-giving, and also to the end of Japanator's shopping guide season! We brought you our gift suggestions for videogames, anime and film, and printed media, but now...
I'd think it's a fairly safe assumption to make that one ambition of pretty much any non-Japanese manga fan is to learn to become fluent in Japanese. And for many an otaku, the first step down the road to Nihongo-mastery is to try one...
We've caught more of you making out on the show floor today than we did yesterday. We snapped a picture of a few of them, but I fumbled with my camera for too long to get twice as many. Have some class -- do it in the hotel room!
Going through Japan Expo, the event feels a lot like an American convention. The booths are all there, the fans are dressed in cosplay, and I don’t get a damn bit of sleep the whole time. But both the event and the fans themselves fee...
Please, people. We’ve already caught two of you shoving your tongues down your significant other’s throats in the middle of the show floor. We take terribly invasive pictures.
Hey! You know what's hot right now on this series of tubes?! The Pinterests, that's what's hot! It's all so...Pinteresting, the way all the housewives and regular, non-2D-obsessed net denizens are into posting their favorite arts, crafts, a...
It's almost three years since Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: Purezza aired, but it seems that there is still more rich-otaku action to be had. The official Dengeki website has revealed that the series will be concluded in the form of four OVA ...
Japan loves making mascots for things. The latest is Zunko Tohoku, whose purpose is to raise the spirits of those in the Tohoku region that was hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Zunko, named after the zunda mochi rice cakes in the reg...
I love the smell of retcon in the afternoon. I've opted to use 'tourist' instead of 'pilgrimage' from now on, mainly because not all of the places I feel I should talk about really count as an otaku pilgrimage. Not that it really matt...
Some Japanese otaku are into a fad called itasha, where they decorate a car, often an Italian import or other fancy model, with decals and paint jobs of favorite characters, usually cute girls from anime, manga, and videogames. The word&nbs...
When One Piece got to its Enies Lobby arc (possibly my favorite part so far), Usopp got awesome. Even though he was still totally goofy, his new adopted persona, Sogeking (Sniper King), gave the weakest Straw Hat crew member some serious sk...
Japan's dating scene has gotten so bad that even the government is getting involved, in hopes of getting more couples to get it on. They're pushing girls to put themselves out there more and teaching guys how to be likable on a date. For so...
There's a big ocean between Japan and the US, and tastes in anime can differ depending on what side of the Pacific you're on. BigGlobe.jp recently conducted a survey of 2,740 otaku about what elements are important in deciding whether to wa...
JapanaTour: now running on Valve time. I'll admit, I'm nearing the end of places I can write about. Having only visited the country on holidays, my time there has been rather limited, so I figure it's high time I focus on some of the ...
We all celebrate out Holidays in different ways! Isn't that what makes all of us unique? ANN posted a gallery of some of those special 2D moments that were had this season. Some of the images are cute, while some are borderline scary! Eithe...
Yeah, you read that right. Balloons, those rubbery things filled with air that sometimes float around. People bend them and twist them and sometimes shape them into crude animals, but no animal as complex as Wild Tiger, the Crusher For Just...
Now here's something that should happen more often. Geeks and otaku are far too often pigeonholed into nasty stereotypes of insular deviants incapable of empathy. Not true at all! We're humans, like everyone else, except for those hyper-int...
If you're reading this site you're probably doing one of two things. You've either ditched work, and are still partaking in your 24 HR marathon of Skyrim, or you are celebrating K-ON!'s adorable guitarists's birthday! Me? I'm stil...
A big part of finding a great partner in life is having similar interests. How about dating fellow otaku? What if they were a K-On! fan? Well Yattaruimode is having an "i'm Single" event, just for fans of K-On! at the Roumant...
Ah, Comiket! That most essential of otaku events is going full speed ahead, and the first day has just passed. And before everyone is overwhelmed by the tide of perverted doujinshi and other obscene material (that's for day three!), there's...
Madoka Magica is finally finishing up! This we know. However, only the Kansai and Kanto regions are getting it in the wee hours of April 22, from stations MBS and TBS respectively. In the Chubu region a.k.a. central Japan, CBC won't air the...
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. To kick off the associated festivities here at Japanator (it's been awhile since you've seen some Confessions pieces, am I right?), here's a video that will likely make most folks simultaneously grin and cri...
Yes, it'll happen. All you lesser otaku will know who reigns above all in America, as TokyoPOP airs its upcoming documentary series America's Greatest Otaku in just a few short weeks, on February 24th.As you may remember, TokyoPOP conducted...
Have you ever become so emotionally connected to your anime that you feel like it's actually becoming part of you? Like it has seeped its way so far into your life that it is preventing you from having any sort of a sexual relationship with...
Stepping away from totally weird activities, otaku idol Shoko Nakagawa appeared on the TV show Tobidase! Kagaku-kun decked out in a wetsuit designed to mimic the plugsuit of Mari Illustrious Makinami, the new Eva pilot in Neon Gen...
Compared to the amount of academic research afforded to more established forms of entertainment like film and Western animation, there is an expected lack of discourse on anime. Or at least, that's what I assumed, but according to a panel ...
Who doesn't want to marry Baka to Test's S-Tier trap, Hideyoshi? Even without having watched the series, I can tell you that his delicious body has kept me sane on many a lonely nights.Now, you too can confirm your bachelorhood for eternity...
Another round of Saimoe - Japan's Ultimate Annual heart-attack pageant - has ended, and you know what that means: a new gallery post, partnered with increasing bitterness about Rin's defeat last week.Groups C and D's first round have passed...
Some of my friends and I were joking around on Twitter about how we could make a killing off of a patented Otaku Diet. However, a bit of research proved that the Otaku Diet already exists in the form of several books and workouts. After the...
What makes a great otaku, actions or possessions? Tokyopop's search for America's Greatest Otaku is coming to a close. The manga publisher had announced in May that the search would continue until August. Now, about 30 finalists will ...
My fiancé says "Hey, I'll just check out the dealer's room for five minutes- see you later!" Then this happens.
When I first started watching anime, I had never heard of the word otaku. However, in 1983 Japanese author Akio Nakamori wrote a little series called "An Investigation of Otaku" in loli manga mag Manga Burikko, and the word caught...
I'm sometimes sad that there isn't an IKEA nearby for me to shop at - the closest one is across the Canadian border, so we rarely go. But if you've never been to the land where the furniture folds to a much smaller size, you don't know how ...
I've been meaning to post this one for a while now. I'm sure you all have seen those quirky Google commercials with people using the search engine to solve relatively typical (as well as some that are a bit more far-fetched) dilemmas within...
I was sitting and eating breakfast this morning out on our back porch -- cheddar and scrambled eggs with a croissant -- when I came across something rather curious in the latest issue of Variety: the film How to Date an Otaku Girl was ...
No, that's not some kind of obscene euphemism. It just seems that a fan was enough of a gourmet to bring the keyboardist of Afterschool Tea Time's likely-delicious food-craftings to the world of 3-D. Yes, he replicated Tsumugi's bento ...
