The western world has renaissance fairs, which mainly attracts men wanting to play with swords and live an idealized and unrealistic fantasy of a cruel and chaotic time. In Japan it’s women who are attracted to the feudal era of Japan, wanting to play with swords and live an idealized and unrealistic fantasy of a cruel and chaotic time.

Rekijo, or female history geeks, are a new trend in Japan that has seen tourism at historical sites increase by up to 30%. They are looking towards a time when people had stronger resolves and beliefs, a harsh contrast to Japan’s ever docile society. From the video it seems a bit odd that this is happening but one you stop to think about it, it’s no different than knights, pirates, soldiers or cowboys. Armed Douchebags.

See, it holds true that the mean guy always gets the girl, and in these cases, the dead mean guys from several centuries ago get the girl.

[Japan Probe]

Studies show women are the fastest growing gamer demographic. Companies hoping to cash in on this trend continuously pump out all manner of casual titles. In the wild, the proverbial white whale remains elusive. This doesn’t prevent budding teenagers from being targeted like their male counterparts. “Must play” titles have all the characteristics of feeding testosterone driven brains with war scenarios, aggression, and adrenaline inducing virtual violence; often leading to parental concern over the “gamer addict” and mislabeled real world violence supposedly brought on by games. Rated M titles are said to warp the adolescent mind providing a false sense of reality, though I could argue so do social networking titles (WoW, GTA, The Sims).

What then of girl gamers? Wired blogger Tracey John lists “life lessons” learned by tween girls in several DS titles, but the thought provoking question comes by way of Tom Chick(Fidgit): What do videogames teach girls? I’ve included a few of Tracey John’s examples below, but am interested whether you feel these are just trumped up charges similar to how legislators demonize (for the purpose of the post) “guys games”.

Are these titles unintentionally causing emotional/psychological stress in females? And before boys think they are immune, studies do indicate behavioral changes do occur with violent games. I’d also really like to hear from our female fanbase. I can only go so far in my understanding of the ladies.

[Wired via Fidgit]

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It is only every so often that a game hack comes around that is so brilliant, so glaringly obvious that it boggles the mind why it was never official. Such is the case of this Katamary Damacy trackball mod by Kelly Farrell of the Hacker Collective NYC Resistor. With a little ingenious hardware hacking Kelly managed to control The Prince and his Katamari with a big metal ball placed above some ball bearings.

Why was a custom controller for the game never released is beyond my comprehension. In any case we get an awesome retro hardware mod by a very tallented hacker girl, what else can we ask for?

[Kellbot / Via Offworld]

Rejoice! The day of our robot companions draws near! Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology has unveiled its latest creation, the HRP-4C, a humanoid robot made for the runway. Watch her strut her stuff in the following video.

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Here’s a segment from Asahi TV, which tells the impressive story of Ugo, a small rural town in Japan which turned around its economy by having an Otaku makeover.

Takaori Yamauchi had the brilliant idea of getting some mangakas to design covers and labels for the local products with moe girls all over them. The result? The whole economy exploded in an orgasm of Otaku consumerism. Sales of rice with anime imagery went from 18 tons a year to 36 tons a month just on the first month the moe rice launched.

Other products include moe curry and moe strawberries. The whole fad even attracts Otaku tourism to the town! Forget sex sells, in the 21st century moe sells.

[Japan Probe]

It’s no secret that women gamers are drawn to different aspects of gaming then their male counterparts. The gaming industry is seen as a teenage boy clubhouse. While there has always been talk surrounding getting women more involved in this industry, finally a company is taking real action.

“Today, I am challenging everyone to take action to help level the playing field for women pursuing a career in video games,” said Torrie Dorrell senior vice president of Global Sales and Marketing for Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE). “We can encourage diversity in development and make a difference, hopefully creating more opportunities for women.”

SOE is piloting, G.I.R.L. or Gamers In Real Life, a new initiative designed to encourage female students pursuing a career “in the creative and applied arts, with the ultimate goal of developing video games that are more interesting for women to play,” stated in a SOE press release.

There are a number of statistics and write-ups concerning this topic, but it is pretty clear that in the game development industry and within the gamer population “girl gamers” are a small albeit growing population.

G.I.R.L. is a scholarship program given to students of undergraduate studies relating to game development. Female students compete by submitting original artwork or essays to be judged by a panel. This scholarship has been in the seedling stages for quite a while and I think this is a fantastic outreach opportunity.

Let’s be real honest here and make some general, bordering on stereotypical statements, guys are very goal oriented. Girls that I know who play games tend to enjoy games that are either more cerebral or social based. Games like Rock Band, World of Warcraft or The Sims fit in this type of category and casual gaming is still dominated by women.

In a growing multibillion dollar industry, where nearly 75% of paying casual gamers are women demonstrating they play and are willing to purchase games for themselves, the potential revenue created by having women design games with the woman in mind, are too good for developers and publishers to pass-up.

What are your thoughts? Think I’m wildly off base and the gaming industry won’t change? Let me know in the comments.

[G.I.R.L. / Via SOE Press Release]

Time for a little test. How many anime series could you indentify by fast snapshots? Probably a lot. How about we restrict the parameters a bit? How many series could you identify simply by simply watching clips of anime boobs for 2 minutes? You might be surprised!

This little music video compiles clips from over 300 anime titles, how many series can you identify? Be amazed as you discover you might be more of a pervert an astute observer than you thought! Post your record in the comments.

Japanese fashion model Nozomi Sasaki tries to reach out to the otaku crowd in this video where she visits a maid cafe in Akihabara dressed as a schoolgirl. It makes for a very fun watch but not for the intended reasons. Half the time her expression screams “GET ME OUT OF HERE!” and the other half it mutters “what the hell is up with these weirdoes?”. Watch her laugh, is she laughing with the maids or at the maids?

And this was easy, she was sheltered. I’d like to see her deal with the attention of a couple dozen otaku. I’m not sure she’d hold up… but it would be quality entertainment!

[JapanSugoi]

Most of us men hate it when women just stare at us blankly, they are either pissed, judging us or preparing to give us the look. However, in japan, some men will actually pay to see a woman staring them down. That’s why Avex Group in Japan have released their Miteru Dake (just looking) DVD in which you can select from any 50 women including children and the elderly to stare blankly at you for one minute and one minute only (that is unless you loop them). Here’ we’re showing you 3 examples of Just Looking for your… um… entertainment.

The mind runs wild coming up with theories of why on earth they want this. Its weird, its creepy, its kinda disturbing but this is, after all, Japan.

[Mitery Dake / Japan Probe]

In a likely attempt to expand her legion of lonely otaku to the english speaking world, Shoko-tan, Japanese otaku idol (and an otaku herself) has started blogging in english. Well this is somewhat of an overstatement, as her posts are actually being translated by someone in the shadows.

In this blog she narrates her stay in Los Angeles while she appears as a guest at LA’s Anime Expo. Its filled with tiny tidbits of info and pictures, pretty much her saying how American cosplayers are so cute. This girl has Japan tied by its collective nutbladder and now she’s about to do it to America too.

Go on, click the link! You know you wanna go look at the pretty pictures and then argue online about how she’s your waifu.

[Shoko Nakagawa English Blog]