Weird Japanese Toys

There are many toy stores, especially in Akihabara, that cater to creepy men. It is not unusual to end up in a store with entire racks of slutty little dolls (some of them clearly children) to chose from. Pun intended.

This chick is slutty AND riding a fish.
The most disturbing of all phenomenons is that of Japanese pop group AKB48. The group is made up of 48 girls who started out in Akihabara (hence the name), and were marketed as the idols you could always meet because they play concerts at a major store in the neighborhood every day.

Since there are 48 members, they rarely perform together and are able to travel around the country for marketing endeavors. Audiences are also encouraged to vote for their favorite member and there is a constant competition to be #1. And, most importantly, the girls are constantly appearing in ads for everything from food to real estate agents.

The most disturbing fact is that the target audience are note little girls, but 20 something year old males. In the rest of the world, these pop groups (e.g. Spice Girls) always target teenage girls, and even if men are into collecting pictures or posters, they would never openly admit to being interested in the group.

As a result of targeting these male nerds, there have been many AKB48 computer and video games released. There is a NintendoDS game where you can chose your favorite AKB girl bachelor-style, by voting off the other girls one by one and having to deal with their reactions of anger or devastation at having been dumped by you.

In another game you control the girls as they beat the crap out of each other Street Fighter-style vying for the championship.

And finally, the pearl of all WTF ads: the mobile billboard on a truck for their latest game. As you can see, she's breastfeeding a baby and the text says: Let's make a baby!

That's right, you can now buy a game where you can fuse your picture with that of your favorite girl to see what your future offspring will look like.

As for the truck ad, these are actually quite common in Japan. Usually, they also come with musical accompaniment.