With apologies to Mr. Platt, Charmmy Kitty is not a “knock-off” replica of Hello Kitty, but an official Sanrio character:

http://www.sanrio.com/characters/more_characters.php

Why no, I’m not blushing like a maid that I knew that offhand…

-Mikaela

The trash fighter superhero is Char from Mobilesuit Gundam – though an embarrasingly bad example of it.

Otakuman! AWAY!

Just a side note: there are some culture misunderstanding in the texts of photos like:

“Since the contents are not pornographic per-se, there seems to be no lower age limit for the model on the box”
- Actually the models are over 18, it’s just that Japanese girls look younger)…

“Two fairly typical Akihabarans pose obligingly in their shopping garb”
- No they are just the hated (almost by us Akibakei) not otaku people coming to Akiba for the Sunday “otaku zoo” sightseeing (she holds an akibamap that no self respecting otaku would ever use and the boyfriend is totally no “Akibaharan” at all)!

That’s Bridget from Guilty Gear XX. Everyone’s gay for Bridget.

I’m almost positive that this is a cosplay of the character Bridget.

See: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=bridget%20cosplay&w=all&s=int

I love the Char parody cosplay inspired by the super famous “Char Aznable Comedy” (I’m old so I don’t remember the exact name)…

Of course Charles Platt is a geek without otaku culture knowledge but he wrote one of the best piece about Akiba I ever read!

Charmmy is Hello Kitty’s pet cat. (Yes, a cat owning a pet cat. I don’t get it either. It’s just cute.)

Yes I’ll plead guilty to that! Actually, to show you how seriously I take this kind of thing, I did try to fact-check my piece on Akihabara by asking for a reading from two people in Japan, one of whom sent it to a couple others, but, evidently, we didn’t hit the truly informed authorities whom only BoingBoing can reach.

I am especially chagrined to learn that Charmmy Kitty is the pet cat of Hello Kitty. Next time I will do more due diligence.

–Charles Platt

A few years ago a popular book/tv show/movie Densha Otoko, about an Akihabara nerd who falls in love with a normal girl, was all the rage. There’s even a great video where they stage a damsel in distress scenario and see how many of the nerds rescue the girl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FHknryJ4ig

It’s awesome.

My eyes glaze over at all of the Disney talk at boingboing – It’s just not for me. Never cared, probably never will.

To me, the most magical place on Earth is Akihabara.

http://itsabridgetrap.ytmnd.com/

That said, I love shopping there. I have a pal who lived for a few months by only eating their super cheap 30 yen tofu cause he was broke. It’s a must see for any visitor to Japan, and offers some good bargains for those of us who live here.

Even though it’s a cool place to go, In general I ask: Does Akihabara need or deserve all this attention? How does the daily festival of hyper-consumerism there equate to anarchy?

@#3
I’m not sure which photo you’re referring to but, those girls might be u14 (under 14) models. There’s a market for u14 bikini models. No nudity, but very suggestive photos. Lots of showers.

There’s also a u17 subdivision.

#3 – Actually, i think he’s talking about the junior gravure videos. Mostly they are swimsuit videos of girls around 11-13yo. Recently, there was a crackdown on that portion of the industry, as they were getting more and more overtly sexualized, amongst other reasons.

I lived on Portobello Road for many years. I thought of it as a place where you could adopt any identity that you chose, without being hassled for it. And it was a kind of counterculture center. But that was a while ago…it may have changed since then.

Just two comments to give a slightly different perspective on this. 1) Eye contact can traditionally be considered disrespectful or rude in Japan, depending on the context. So, in a Maid Cafe they are typically going to be in extreme politeness mode and may begin by not making eye contact.

(And honestly, my friends and I– awkward gajins in Japan– can get a reaction like this at regular restaurants too. For us, I suspect it’s got a lot to do with the poor waiter’s dread at having to deal with foreigners and their bad Japanese. Or, in a maid cafe, perhaps with the additional embarrassment of knowing you’re being judged?)

2) Not to burst your eagerness to “unveil” the subtext of maid cafes (and there is certainly ample text and subtext to be found there), but it’s actually very common for waitstaff in Japan to crouch, bend one knee, squat, and generally lower themselves in some way that puts their head just above/at the table height. I went to my neighborhood okonomiyaki restaurant the other night and the older, male waiter did the exact same thing. As does everyone waiting tables at the neighborhood Zawatami. Not sure if this is about practicality and crouching down and in to hear the customer better, or in line with traditional customs of bowing and not having your head be higher than the person you’re trying to show respect too. Generally however, I’d say this happens at about half of the restaurants I go to in Japan. (Although the western food places certainly seem to do it less.)

There’s still heaps that can be said of and read into Maid cafe’s but the two particular details you choose may not actually be the easiest ones to dwell on. The massage services, for example, and the photo sets for sale, and the super expensive coffees (which involve the maid staying with you for a good 10 minutes as she pours water through the individual drip coffee brewer)… those might be also be worth mentioning.

<– also studying pop culture in Japan. ;)