Ohh the pain! Part I
November 1, 2009 by Peter Horniak
Filed under Latest Articles, Odd Spot
Earlier last month a group of around one thousand Otaku, or geeks as we know them, converged on the famous parking area of Odaiba to show off their painful prides and joys.
The cars or ‘Itasha‘, is a term used loosely for any car that is emblazoned with fictional Anime, Manga or game characters. The vehicles are brightly decorated with cute female characters who are usually ’slightly’ out of proportion.
However, the word originally comes from the term ‘Ita-sha’ which was a contraction of the words ‘Italian’ and ‘Sha‘ which means car in Japanese. Slowly though the meaning changed and the ‘Ita’ part of the word was replaced with Kanji for ‘Itai‘ or ‘Painful’. Painful because the car is painfully embarrassing to drive around or has been painful to the hip pocket costing the owner an arm and a leg decorating it.
The designs that have been applied to the cars above and below are no ‘cheapy’ jobs either. All of the work is usually done in Vinyl and painstakingly applied to the cars. It is not unheard of prices going over the one hundred thousand yen mark for these graphics. Whilst some of the designs are very ‘Kawaii‘ or cute, the cost and shame would dare I say, be prohibitive for most.
This particular event, more than eight hundred vehicles gathered and displayed some of the best ‘Itasha‘. It wasn’t only cars that received the painful treatment but also motorbikes, bicycles and three wheelers too! Finally, prizes were awarded to the best vehicles on the day.
More tomorrow （＾＿－）☆
Words: Peter Horniak
Images: Mainichi News
This is just so wrong on so many levels I’m not even going to waste time typing about it. Simply the worst “mod” ever. Stick to your figurine collections you anime geeks!
Applying anime stickers to cars leaves many people cringing, but I don’t see why the author sees that is “painfully embarrassing”. This is what the owners are passionate about. What is to say that a huge Vertex kit is great (and so often heralded on this site), or that a Sprinter that looks like one from ID is terrific, but this is terrible? Of course, a matter of opinions, but one that one sided.
Having seen some of the other cars on the site, the rusted AE86, the riced up RX7, they leave the same sensation in my mouth as some of the cars shown above. This site is a celebration of Japanese car culture, if anything, the cars above the uniquely Japanese, truly endemic to the world.
To me (and many will disagree) the mods above are in the same basket as huge wings, stickers and so on. I don’t see the difference…
in same opinion as “lol”
An article could easily be run on bosozoku style, just replacing the word “otaku” for bosozoku. I cringe just as much to see bamboo spikes coming out of a hachi as I do this, but it’s their style, their cars…
each to his own I guess…but I’m keeping all that stuff away from my car!
Lol, maybe you’ve misunderstood the meaning of ITA and ITA-SHA.. The ITA of ITA-SHA means painful and the drivers themselves know it is embarassing to drive around in such rides. But that’s a part of the whole idea.. and thats how they like to ride.. their choice.
I love the Azusa’s sticker!
I remember in Indonesia there was a car with anime character decals too.
i understand the pain meaning especially the hip pocket bit but don’t understand why its so embarrassing, i mean sure a guy driving a car splashed with pink cute characters is bad but the owner chose it so they are hardly going to be embarrassed, not too mention the other less girly chicks make awesome car gfx mix it with some tougher characters and logos like in the second last pic and you have a really awesome car
i think there should be another name for the kool looking “itasha” cars and just call the out there pink “cute” ones as itasha
Lol: You’ve confused the accepted Japanese meaning behind “Itasha” with Peter’s own personal opinion. A few of the owners themselves have described their cars as (painfully) embarassing to drive around in.
I think this stuff is awesome. Cars have good mods and most of the graphics look great. I love the 2 RE-Amemiya kitted FD’s and the Odyssey. Would I ever do it? Probably not, but I do have an open mind to appreciate this subculture. Its not like these people want to put a bad name to the cars that you like. Their just doing what they love. Also, for every one person that hates this, there are 10 anime fans that love it. I doubt Itasha’s and Itachari’s are going anywhere anytime soon.
Never been a fan of putting this kind of stickers on cars, but they are ok if you think that retards are paining cars in chrome or gold and give ‘em 25 inch spinners. This cars, like the anime that inspired their owners are a part of japanese car culture and that’s that.
@Lol maybe you should leave this “riced” out blog and go on a bling blog or something, no one wants to hear your hateful comments.
I’ve gone through a whole heap of articles on this site and I’ve yet to find one that “heralds Vertex kits” like that LOL guy says. He might’ve confused which site he was on as well.