According to a viral post by the prolific Gareso Takizawa on Twitter/X (with 8.4 million views and counting), a Japanese pro esports player has apologized for cheating because he was hoping to get his end away.
The unnamed male competitor played with a friend using a cheat program. He did this because two female acquaintances promised that if he could maintain his Apex ranking, they'd help him lose his virginity.
Though the man has come clean and shamefully admitted his cheating, it's not known if the women upheld her end of the bargain.
Takizawa's post was based on the player's own ...
Do androids dream of electric sheep? Do otaku date non-2D women?
These are the eternal questions of our times. In the case of the latter, it seems that are some otaku who are keen to branch out into three dimensions.
So much so that, well, there's an app for that.
Otakoi (Otaku Love) is a dating app for otaku. The promo images are just awesome. If you've seen these ads popping in your feed, you know you're in trouble!
Needless to say, these images are AI-generated. The presence of fake photos of couples might be a warning sign for a dating app, but since the target demographic is ...
Over four years ago, the media in Japan and globally went bananas about a Japanese man who "married" a virtual character.
These stories are catnip to editors who love "sexless Japan" and "wacky Japan" content. The tale of Akihiko Kondo and his love for popular Vocaloid idol Hatsune Miku was too much to resist, and the world lapped it up.
For little discernible reason, Kondo (who is now 40) is back in the news.
The Mainichi Shimbun sat down for a fresh interview with him and find out how his "marriage" is going. (The newspaper also published a follow-up story in January 2022.) Apparently, ...
If Instagram is to be believed, everyone has a personal trainer these days and is obsessed with developing the perfect muscles.
In Korea, it's called geongangmi (healthy beauty) and here in Japan it's led by influencers who moonlight as models and trainers like Rose Melle or Kyoka, or female celebrities who show off their sporty bodies.
And if it's sheer muscles you're really into, Reika Saiki straddles the world of bodybuilding, gravure, and cosplay with serious aplomb.
But what about female otaku? Don't they also want to build up their muscles in between pursuing their oshi ...
Private detectives are something of a cottage industry in Japan: they derive much of their clientele from men or women (but especially women) who suspect their spouses of adultery. Catching them in the act or at least gathering concrete evidence of adultery will lead to a better payout in a divorce. Many such services specialize in discreet teams of female agents with hidden cameras.
One recent story seems to start off in the usual manner.
A wife suspected her husband (not pictured) of adultery and hired an agency to snoop around. The warning signs were there.
Her husband would disappear ...
We all know that if you want an anime girlfriend, you have plenty of options -- not least, the incredible array of dakimakura body pillows and covers available in Japan. If you want to splash out some more, there are also blow-up dolls for every taste and preference.
Of course, there are simpler delights, like posters and panels.
But what if one of those was life-size and designed to lie next to you?
Aimed squarely at otaku and harem anime fans, this Rent-A-Girlfriend erotic art panel is based on the female lead Chizuru Mizuhara.
Rent-A-Girlfriend (Kanojo, okarishimasu) is a manga, anime, ...
Netflix is ramping up its Japanese-market content, not least successful drama series like The Naked Director (second season coming soon!) and movies like Ride or Die. It is also getting into producing original anime and has even opened an academy for training the next generation of talent.
And now it's created a virtual YouTuber as its anime ambassador.
Launched in late April, N-ko is a bilingual sheep girl character (officially, a "sheep-human lifeform"), since you can't go wrong with kemonomimi and moe anthropomorphism to build a fandom.
Apparently aged 24 and (like Netflix) from Los ...
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is not only the best-selling fighting game of all time. The Nintendo-Bandai crossover game famously includes playable characters from other franchises, and players have recently discovered that Pyra (Homura in Japan) and Mythra (Hikari in Japan) from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 offer some unexpected bonus visuals. Of an adult nature.
Mythra and Pyra were made available for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in March and now the internet is flooded with images of the two in sexually compromising poses.
Showing off their butts and legs? Of course. But how about these scenarios? ...
Fan adaptations of manga and anime franchises are a major part of Japanese subcultures, most notably in doujinshi. But fan fiction is not always liked by the original creators, especially when it is depicting beloved characters in sexually explicit settings.
As one of the most popular and obsessed-about franchises, Evangelion has attracted plenty of such fan fiction and doujinshi attention. And given the popularity of the female character Rei Ayanami, who is regarded as a sex symbol by many, it is inevitable that Evangelion fan fiction is often sexual explicit -- or, in another cadence, ...
Around the end of December, people started tweeted about a "worrying" new development in Akihabara, the Tokyo district known for electronics and otaku culture.
The restaurant Kitchen Jiro has been replaced by a "free guidance place" (muryo annaijo) -- essentially a sex industry information center, where you can get introductions on nearby soaplands, massage parlors, and other types of brothels. Such modestly sized places are common in areas like Kabukicho or Ikebukuro in Tokyo, Namba in Osaka, or just about any downtown area in a major Japanese city.
Does this, as people seem convinced, ...
