Itasha

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Photoshopped example of typical itasha, featuring Wikipe-tan
Photoshopped example of typical itasha, featuring Wikipe-tan

Itasha (痛車?) is a Japanese term for an otaku fad of individuals decorating the bodies of their cars with fictional characters of anime, manga, or video games (especially bishōjo game or eroge). These characters are predominately "cute" female. The decorations usually involve paint schemes and stickers. Automobiles are called Itasha, while similar motorcycles and bicycles are called itansha (痛単車?) and itachari (痛チャリ?), respectively.

The cars are seen prominently in places such as Akihibara (Tokyo), Nipponbashi (Osaka), or Ōsu (Nagoya). Itasha also appears in customizable video games, such as Forza Motorsport 2. [1]

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[edit] Etymology

Itasha derives from combining the Japanese words for itai (痛い? painful) and sha (車? vehicle). Itai here means "painful", as in "painfully embarrassing". The name is also a pun for Italian cars (イタリア車 Itaria-sha?), truncated in Japanese slang as Itasha (イタ車?). [2]

[edit] History

The decoration started as early as in 1980s, but only became a phenomenon from the 21st century, when otaku culture became relatively well known via the Internet. From Summer 2007, itasha oriented convention called Autosalone (あうとさろーね Autosarōne?) is held in Ariake, near the site of Comiket. In 2008, Aoshima Bunka Kyozai started to sell a model car of itasha. [3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ (Japanese) YouTubeのゲーム動画が起こした予想外のできごと (Something unexpected happens by the game video on YouTube), Nikkei IT Plus report, retrieved on June 7, 2008.
  2. ^ Japanese Wikipedia article of Itasha, retrieved on June 7, 2008.
  3. ^ (Japanese) 青島文化教材が痛車のプラモを発売、車種とキャラは (Aoshima Bunka Kyozai sells a model car of itasha, the car and the character is...), carview.co.jp report, retrieved on June 7, 2008.

[edit] See also

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