I am Genuinely Surprised to See a Kinect in This Anime

Games and game systems pop up semi-frequently in anime. But given the utter failure of the Xbox 360 in Japan, I was more than a little surprised to see a Kinect in a recent episode of lesbian romantic comedy Sakura Trick In a scene in the eighth episode of Sakura yono all app Trick, sporty girl Yu is shown playing Konami’s Dance Masters on a Kinect. More than that, as a kind of meta joke, she is actually dancing to the series’ own theme song.(new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c&cid=872d12ce-453b-4870-845f-955919887e1b'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c" }).render("79703296e5134c75a2db6e1b64762017"); }); While she is obviously using a Kinect, the console she is using isn’t an Xbox 360. Rather, the system shown looks more like the bastard lovechild of a 360 and a Wii—to avoid legal issues, no doubt. Now, it should be said this is not the first time I have run across a Kinect in an anime—the development and release of the Kinect was a plot point in last summer’s Hyperdimension Neptunia anime, after all—but it is the first one I have seen in an anime that is not game-related. And with the release of the Xbox One still months away here in Japan, I was more than a bit surprised to run across the aging Kinect at so late a date. http://kotaku.com/gamers-are-bound-to-get-a-laugh-or-two-out-of-neptunia-1462783165/all You can watch the full Sakura Trick episode here. (This scene starts at 12:45). Sakura Trick is currently airing on TBS in Japan. It can be watched for free in the US with English subtitles on Crunchyroll and Hulu Kotaku East is your all yono rummy slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. y1 games latest Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am. To contact the author of this post, write to [email protected] or find him on Twitter @BiggestinJapan