Japan

Shinji Tejima spent several years and the equivalent of about $120,000 American dollars to create a flawless replica of the iconic red motorcycle seen in AKIRA, the landmark 1980s manga and anime written and drawn by Katsuhiro Otomo. The justification for such an endeavor is manifest, and the owner could have chosen to simply ride the bike around the world for the rest of his life with both middle

It won't quite hit the scale of Tokyo Disney, but a new mini theme park dedicated to all things Gundam will surely be the mech-iest place on Earth when it opens up on April 19. According to Sankei News, Bandai's Gundam Front miniature theme park will open at Diver City Tokyo this spring and come complete with all the giant robot trimmings, including the full-scale Mobile Suit Gundam RX-78 statue t

Gaming: New Marvel Comics items are now available on Xbox Marketplace, including web-shooters, Hulk hands and Captain America's shield. Records: The Dark Knight Rises trailer had had more than 12.5 million views in its first 24 hours on iTunes than any other film in the history of the the site...

Having already chronicled the proud presentation of the 1/1 scale Mobile Suit Gundam in Shizuoka, Japan last year, YouTube user darwinfish105 has returned to see the mech warrior reassembled in Odaiba. Gundam's legs get most of the love here as crews work to return the RX-78-2 to its rightful configuration. It's basically the biggest exercise in gunpla (Gundam model kit building) known to man. See

If you're a Japanese otaku growing bored of your crippling iPhone GPS dependence, Namco Bandai could have the solution for you -- gaming your way to destinations with Mobile Suit Gundam. Gundam Navi, the first of a line of Character Navi programs, is a new GPS app that transforms a user's commute into "battle events" that pit a location marker against randomly generated enemies lined up

We were stoked to see art from the Japanese editions of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series back in April (especially the one that paid homage to Street Fighter 2), but we're even more pleased to report that all the goodness sold in those international volumes will be available for purchase at the San Diego Comic-Con International as posters this coming week...

A few weeks ago I was talking to Aaron of Awesomed By Comics, and he described a film as being like Sid and Marty Kroft making a Japanese horror movie for children, and then told me that it was something I had to see. And he was right on all counts...

Joining the ever-growing legion of creative professionals raising money for disaster relief efforts in Japan is Periscope Studio, whose stellar roster of illustrators have produced brand new work to be auctioned off starting today. Dustin Weaver, Colleen Coover and Ron Chan are just some of the members the Portland, Oregon-based art collective whose original work you can purchase on eBay, with all

Once again, the fine folks over at Pink Tentacle have blown our minds with an insanely awesome piece of Japanese pop culture: a set of Pachimon Playing Cards. Released in the early '70s by the QP Corporation as promotional material for mayonnaise -- a secret origin that only makes them even crazier -- the set features 53 truly ridiculous knockoffs of the only-slightly-less-riduclous original mons

Okay, everybody, that's it. We can go ahead and pack it in now, because the Internet has reached its final form. And it happened in the way that I think we all knew it would: With a massive picture of 493 Pokemon drawn as anime girls. At this point, the response is less "why...