Otaku’s little book of play

One title I’ve been meaning to blog about for ages now is Otaku, a little (almost A5) magazine that’s made in Romania but casts its net far and wide to cover content from Japan, the US, and eastern and western Europe. I’ve only seen the current issue, which is dedicated to the theme of play, but it does a fine job of raking together lovely, innovative products and projects that are variously inspired by videogames, fairytales, LEGO and role playing games.

It’s all pretty geeky but in the best possible way, and there are some genuinely surprising inclusions – for example the Japanese artist who reproduces famous album covers using bento boxes filled with meticulously prepared food. Or the Americans who decorate old video game cartridges with skewed scenes from the games themselves. That’s not a very good description, but go to their site and you’ll see what I mean.

There’s a free EbOY poster to celebrate EbOY’s 12th anniversary, and a (Windows only) CD-Rom that contains links to videos, games, and samples of the world’s finest 8-bit chip musicians (people who make music using Gameboys and other 8-bit hardware).

To be honest the English isn’t great, and such geekcore content is bound to leave some people a bit cold, but I really enjoyed it, and I’ve never so much as set foot in a Games Workshop. So if any of the above pushes your buttons, seek it out.