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“So wrong!” Elders react to hairy schoolgirl-fronted Ladybaby with shock and amusement 【Video】

Here at RocketNews24 we love Ladybeard, everyone’s favourite heavily-bearded, muscular, precious flower. And as a natural side-effect of our Lady-lovin’, we’re also nuts about his newest venture, performing as part of pop trio Ladybaby. Something about the combination of cute Japanese idol teen vocals combined with Ladybeard’s growls just gets our toes tapping, and not to mention those funky dance moves!

So we couldn’t stop laughing at this new video titled “Elders react to Ladybaby”. Just what do America’s seniors think of this new mashup of cultures, genders, and musical stylings?!

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Night of paper-folding with a Japanese friend leads to creation of beautiful “origami jewellery”

With so many traditional arts, customs and practices, it’s not hard to fall in love with Japanese culture. For one French couple, it was a night of origami paper-folding with a Japanese friend that left a big impression. Intrigued by the art, they set upon a journey to recreate the folded designs in metal and not long afterwards, a gorgeous jewellery collection was born, featuring delicate animals, birds, crustaceans and dinosaurs.

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Japan’s netizens weigh in on singer Gackt’s new look: “He looks like a video game boss!”

As western stars who’ve been in the entertainment industry since we were nippers could tell you, reinvention is the cornerstone of a long and successful career. Just like Madonna and David Bowie, Japan’s mega-popular musical powerhouse Gackt loves a good makeover, and his newest incarnation has gotten Japanese netizens all riled up and excited. Why? Because he looks like a total badass!

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Miyamoto: Pikmin 4 is ‘very close to completion’

Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto revealed in an interview with video game news website Eurogamer that the Pikmin 4 game is “very close to completion.”

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Pokémon finally comes to iPhone and Android as the augmented reality game Pokémon GO 【Video】

There’s a pretty big gap between the life of an in-world Pokémon trainer and a real-world Pokémon player. Whereas your in-game avatar is alternatively journeying to new lands or patrolling old stomping grounds on his quest to catch ‘em all, you yourself can experience the games’ wonders without ever leaving your couch.

It looks like all that’s about to change, though, because the newest installment of the franchise, Pokémon GO, is not just a smartphone title for iPhone and Android, but an augmented reality game that requires you to get out and search the real world for Pocket Monsters and other trainers to battle.

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Nintendo’s Super Mario Maker, which allows you to design your own levels for the beloved video game hero, is really a game that could only be properly realized now, on the 30th anniversary of the franchise. Three decades as the platforming gold standard means there are multiple generations of gamers intimately familiar with the series’ building blocks, ensuring an ample supply of would-be creators and players who can really get the most from the system’s ins and outs.

Just as important is the modern digital infrastructure for sharing user-designed stages. Super Mario Maker would have been a flop on hardware that requires physical media, but in our modern Internet age once a completed course has been uploaded to Nintendo’s servers, anyone in the world can play it.

Well, anyone in the world can play it if it’s good. If it’s not, then Nintendo will just go ahead and delete your creation.

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Where have we heard Metal Gear Solid V’s iDroid voice before? When we last rode the Shinkansen!

The release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has been met with as much excitement and frenzy as you might expect from the latest instalment of a legendary video game franchise. But while most players are preoccupied with riding D. Horse around, frolicking in cardboard boxes and puzzling over the intricate story, it’s a certain voiceover that’s had us scratching our heads. Where on earth have we heard iDroid‘s soothing tones before? Oh, that’s right – on the Shinkansen!

Voice actor and vocalist Donna Burke is a veteran of the video game industry, lending her vocal cords to multiple games including MGSV and Silent Hill, and she ALSO provided the English-language spoken announcement that’s broadcast on the bullet train to help foreign visitors navigate their way around Japan!

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Super Mario Bros. creator explains how and why he designed World 1-1 of the 8-bit classic 【Video】

Ahead of the launch of Mario-themed level-building game Super Mario Maker, video game industry legend Shigeru Miyamoto sat down with veteran game designer Takashi Tezuka to take questions from journalists and show off its features.

Before leaping into the level creation proper, however, Miyamoto took a few minutes to talk about the creative process that is involved in building a Super Mario level, talking his audience through the steps he and his team took when creating the original Super Mario Bros., and explaining why World 1-1 of the game—for many their first ever brush with Mario on Nintendo’s 8-bit system—was built the way it is.

You’ve no doubt cleared this level countless times by now, but you may not have realised the hidden genius and careful planning that went into the positioning of every block, pipe, and pit of doom.

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TIL: Table tennis tables are blue because of a Japanese comedian’s random comment

There is no one “official” color that a table tennis table absolutely must be, according to the International Table Tennis Federation handbook. Nevertheless, there was apparently a time, not too long ago —let’s say, at least around the time Rocky was taking on Ivan Dragon—when more or less every table tennis table was an ugly, some might even say “gloomy” or “sinister,” dark green.

Well, that’s how one random Japanese comedian described the green tables in a throwaway comment he made in the late ’80s, which, rumor has it, is the reason most tables you see nowadays are a slightly more cheery blue.

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Talk about slowpokes…New Pokemon, Yadon’s official debut song finally released in English

What’s better than Pokémon? Music videos about Pokémon! Last year, the Pokémon higher-ups in Japan released an official theme song and video for Yadon (Slowpoke, in English), the lethargic, sleepy, pink Pokémon. The Japanese song, Donaiyanen Yadon, was made to celebrate the Pokémon Center’s Facebook page and is charming, if not hypnotic.

Apparently, though, Yadon’s sluggishness is contagious and spread to the Pokémon Center’s translation team, because the translation of the psychedelic-reggae song was not released until a solid year after people started grooving to the original. But we’re happy to say: The English version is finally here in all of its bizarre glory.

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Life Is Strange is coming to Japan, gets new voice cast & dubbed trailer 【Video】

The last few years especially have seen a notable increase in the number of western-developed narrative-driven video games. Notable entries include Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and of course Game of Thrones, which deliver their respective stories in downloadable chunks once every few months, leaving players itching to play the next episode and find out what happens.

Telltale pretty much cornered the market on this genre until French development studio DONTNOD Entertainment released the absolutely captivating five-part supernatural high school story game Life Is Strange. The game has been a surprise hit, selling over a million copies to date, with players falling in love with the endearingly complex characters, time-travelling mechanics, mellow game atmosphere, and killer soundtrack. In fact, the game has done so well for itself that publishers Square Enix have decided it’s time Japan got a piece of the photo-snapping, heavy decision-making, time-rewinding fun for themselves. Yep, Life is Strange is being released in Japan, and it’s getting an entirely new Japanese voice cast, too!

Check out the reveal trailer to hear Max, Chloe and the rest of the characters speaking Nihongo!

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This group of Japanese kids tear up the dance floor at the World of Dance competition 【Video】

There was an overflow of talent, skilled dancers, and amazing performances at the World of Dance competition held in Los Angeles last month, but this boy’s dance group from Japan made a particularly strong impression on the audience. Not only were their moves awe-inspiring and beautifully synchronized, but the fact that everyone in the group was of high school age or younger made their dance all the more incredible.

Watch the full video below and be blown away by the high-flying flips, spins, and awesome soundtrack!

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“It’s the Japanese! Run!” – Overseas gamers tired of playing Splatoon with Inklings from Japan

Online console gaming has been thriving for over a decade now, and ostensibly it should have brought gamers from all over the world into contact with one another as competitors and co-op teammates. In practice, though, regional differences in preferred genres, aesthetics, and overall play styles have meant that Japanese and Western gamers haven’t crossed paths all that terribly often.

At least until Nintendo released Splatoon this year for the Wii U, that is. Combining the team-based shooter Western gamers have so embraced with the colorful quirkiness that their Japanese counterparts have always been fond of, Splatoon’s popularity is bridging the oceans. This is giving overseas Inklings a chance to play with gamers in Japan…or to complain about them online and devise strategies to avoid them.

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What do toilets the world over look like? Check out this video to find out 【Video】

Love and music may not have borders, but neither do other universal concepts like the call of nature.

Although Japan is famous for its modern toilet technology (there’s even a museum now), many non-Eastern Asians are often taken aback when they visit the country and have their first encounter with the older, squatting kind. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re a staple in most Japanese schools, parks, and stations.

The fact that there’s such a gap in modern toilet technology got us curious about how toilet models and their degree of upkeep varies worldwide, and fortunately one brave soul has gone through the trouble of filming bathrooms across the globe to answer this very question.
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P.T. easter egg discovered tucked away in Metal Gear Solid V 【Video】

With Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain now available, gamers are hunkering down to complete Hideo Kojima’s final Metal Gear outing, and the last couple of days have seen a flurry of uploads to YouTube and gaming sites from players wanting to show off their discoveries in the huge open world.

One such discovery has people lamenting the cancellation of Silent Hills, the horror game that was at one time to be Kojima’s next project, all over again. Despite Konami’s attempts to erase its existence by removing it from the Playstation Store, P.T., the playable teaser for the cancelled game, can’t be wiped from gamers’ minds that easily, and apparently not from the company’s latest hit, either.

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Little Big Planet 3 offers Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain costumes

The official U.S. PlayStation blog revealed on Tuesday that Sony‘s Little Big Planet 3 game is offering a Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain-themed costume pack for the game’s characters. Buyers who purchase the costumes as a complete set will also receive a Box Costume for the character Toggle. The costumes can also be purchased separately.

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Virtual reality Totoro? Project Morpheus team looking for artist with “Studio Ghibli” style

After more than a year since the last film from anime production house Studio Ghibli, the paint is rapidly drying on the writing on the wall. At the very least, it looks like animation fans are in for a long wait before the next Ghibli movie, and it may turn out that When Marnie Was There ends up being the last theatrical feature we ever see from the company co-founded by Hayao Miyazaki.

Still, that doesn’t mean that other artists, perhaps working in other mediums, won’t carry on the beloved anime studio’s spirit. As a matter of fact, if you’ve got the necessary video game production skills, that someone could be you, as a U.K.-based Project Morpheus team is looking for an artist to help add a Ghibli-like aesthetic to its game.

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We explore the evolution of the toilet at Kitakyushu’s newly opened TOTO Museum

What would modern life be like without the humble toilet? Actually, we’d rather not think about that.

Many of us around the world should direct our thanks to TOTO Ltd., the world’s largest manufacturer of toilets and the very company that invented the washlet. In fact, Friday, August 28 marked the grand opening of the new TOTO Museum in Fukuoka Prefecture, where the company was originally founded in 1917.

Takashi Harada, our Japanese reporter who proclaims that he couldn’t survive a day without a washlet, immediately made a bee line to the new sanctuary to give thanks to the toilet gods and to learn a bit about the historical evolution of the toilet.

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The World Cosplay Summit 2015 competition crowned Mexico representatives Twin Cosplay as the Grand Champions at the award ceremony on Saturday. The duo also took home the Minister of Foreign Affairs Award, ANA Prize, and the Tabi Pad Award.

Twin Cosplay‘s presentation was based on Nintendo‘s Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask video game. Between the two, a total of four costume and set transformations take place in three minutes.

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Disney to release ‘Collected Works of Hayao Miyazaki’ Blu-ray set

Disney announced on Thursday that it will release “The Collected Works of Hayao Miyazaki” Blu-ray box set. In addition to Miyazaki’s 11 feature films, the set will include a bonus disc with the 1972 television pilot film Yuki no Taiyō (Yuki’s Sun), three episodes of the 1972-1973 series Akado Suzunosuke (Little Samurai), and a video of Miyazaki’s retirement press conference.

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