アニメやゲームのキャラクターのステッカーや塗装を施された車を「痛車(Itasha)」と呼ぶそうです。そんな痛車が一堂に集う「痛Gフェスタ」を海外のメディアがリポートした動画です。
○アニヲタ達の痛車
The latest trend in otaku culture, or anime-fan culture, is decorating cars, motorcycles, and bicycles with paint, decals and even dolls related to Japanese animation.
Ita-G Festa is the first large scale itasha car gathering since the itasha boom a few years ago.
Itasha literally means painful cars in Japanese, referring to the pain felt when otaku leave the comfort of their fantasy world to join the rest of society in their sha or car. The name is also a pun for Italian cars.
Itasha owners simply enjoy creatively putting on decals of their favorite anime characters on their ride.
[Shunsuke MIA Sato, Lucky Star Itasha Club]:
The character on my car is from anime, I just put the vinyl decal on. But the pink vinyl stripe, I designed it myself and created this form. It seems too ordinary if I only have a character decal, I wanted to make my own itasha, so I made it like this.
Itasha cars are regularly seen on the streets of Akihabara, the popular Tokyo district famous for anime and electronics.
[Tomohisa Shimizu, Ita-G Festival Organizer]:
When I first saw itasha, I was so surprised. We decided to organize this event so more people could see the Itasha culture. The customization is whats most appealing. We hope more people become interested and try it.
Tomohisa says itasha culture is spreading to other Asian countries like Taiwan. When it becomes popular in the U.S. and Europe he hopes Japan will be known as the originator.
Im Liliana Yap. NTD, Odaiba, Japan.
動画ページのコメント欄を見る限り外国人は概ね痛車には好意的で、自分の好きなアニメを描きたいって人や、素敵だと感じる人が結構いました。コメントしてる人たち自体もオタク外国人が多いからかも知れませんが。
ちなみに、痛車のバイクバージョンを「痛単車」、自転車を「痛チャリ」と呼ぶそうです。やりすぎ感も否めませんが、好きなアニメをあらゆるものに応用するオタク文化は本当にすごいなと思います。