The battle has come to a sad and bitter end for Mari Mobility Development Inc., which will have to pay 50 million yen in damages to Nintendo. The end of this saga serves as a reminder of the consequences of marketing a business using the intellectual property of another company, particularly one as protective of…

by Zoria Petkoska At the beginning of 2019, Tokyoites were surprised and delighted by art from the cult classic Akira appearing on construction fences in Shibuya. The art seemed deliberate, and it was not graffiti, which made otakus even more curious as to who was behind this. This is because graffiti is illegal and very…

A boxed original GameCube controller found tucked onto a shelf above eye level in BEEP @ Akihabara. With the recent release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch, original GameCube controllers have become hot commodities. Production of new controllers has stalled, and among the Smash community some consider these new controllers slightly inferior…

Have you ever dreamed the world of Pokemon would be real? Your dream could come close to becoming true at the biggest Pokemon center in Japan! Pokemon DX Tokyo is the newest and biggest Pokemon center in all of Japan. It’s located in Chuo City, very close to Ginza. It has so much to offer…

Think of your favorite video game. Who is your favorite character? Maybe it’s the brave Link from The Legend of Zelda games, Cloud from the widely known Final Fantasy VII, or the famous, star-collecting Italian plumber, Mario. Chances are that you’ve at least heard of a game character who’s from Japan! Although the United States,…

It’s that time of the year again when Nikkei Trendy releases a top 30 ranking of the hit products in Japan for the year, i.e. between October of the previous year and September of the current year, based on three aspects: sales, novelty, and influence. This ranking is a good indicator of what’s hot in…

If I asked you to name a video game, what would you say? The Legend of Zelda? Super Mario? Metal Gear? Ask anyone to name the first video game that comes to their head, and it’s fairly likely that their answer will be a game or character that originated in Japan. This country has been…

Waiting can be annoying and boring for a lot of people but is often hard to avoid. When you fly internationally, you probably arrive at the airport several hours early to ensure you don’t miss your flight. It’s significantly more difficult when traveling with small children, as they can be even more impatient than adults…

You must have already heard of the upcoming collaboration between Universal Studios and SUPER NINTENDO WORLD. Although there’s no actual date when it will be opened, Universal Studios Japan (ユニバーサル・スタジオ・ジャパン) wants the plan to materialize before the opening of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo (東京). Part of the plan is the rumored opening of…

With the upcoming release of the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo seems to be on the upswing after a very troubling period. It is hard to remember that in the late ’80s and throughout the ’90s, Nintendo was on top of the world. It was seemingly indomitable. They could crush any competitors, and they often did. Yet,…