Densha Otoko would be very proud on this guy: he built a giant beetle robot in his garage all by himself:

The robot is shaped after kabuto-mushi (also known as the rhinoceros beetle) which has a big antler on its forehead to be used in mating battles.

His controller looks pretty complex:

RX-03 control box

However when we zoom in on the title of the controller:

RX-03 control box zoomed in
Kabutom Ragio Controrea? Maybe that's how it is supposed to be pronounced by a Japanese... :D

He named his robot Kabutom RX-03 since it is the third incarnation of his robot. I wonder what Kabutom RX-07 looks like... Maybe something like the RX7 on the right?

Kabutom RX-07?

I found this funny video from Dreamcar Club featuring anime painted cars. Not that anime painted cars are particularly humorous, but rather their owners: each one of them really looks like the guy from Densha Otoko. For people who did not watch the movie or series: he's a real otaku and you can find an a picture of Densha Otoko here.

As you probably have seen most of the cars on this meeting are sportscars: Nissan Silvias (S14/S15), Nissan Skylines, etc. Apparently those otaku have lots of cash to spend upon cars and vinyl decals! Must be different than auto otaku who spend their cash upon upgrades, tires and gas!

The cars of the interviewed persons are all rear wheel drive: the yellow Nissan Silvia S15, the white Toyota Comfort taxi and the white Toyota Mark II GX81. With their powers combined they could become: Dorifuto Otoko! (insert echo here!)

Just found this Japanese Celica XX Advertisement on youtube:

As you can hear, the music is Twilight by Electric Lights Orchestra. Apart from the fact that I'm an 80s (electronic) music fan I immediately recognized the main theme from the Densha Otoko J-Drama.

You can view the opening credits here:

Funny they used the same theme for both videos! So now there is a link between the Toyota A6 platform and Densha Otoko! ;)

Benoist!!!!

Just finished reading Densha Otoko. Amazing! Much better than the J-Drama: Train isn't such a wimp in the book as in the Drama. He's more direct to the point and the story drags less on. In the end it turns out that he's worse than an otaku (translated into anorak): he's really into Hentai D?jinshi (translated into fan-porn) as well! If that isn't enough: his favorite is Sailor Moon and Keroro! ?????´)

For all you out there doubting whether you should buy the book or not: do buy it, it's definitely worth it!! Otherwise you can read it all here: Densha Otaku original (Japanese) or project DENSHA:The 'Densha Otoko' Translation Project. IMO the online version is better than the book, but reading the book is much easier. ?????????????????

Shameless ascii-art rip:

Benwa!

I'm currently reading Densha Otoko (Train man) novel.

The book originated inside a thread on 2Channel which is a forum in Japan. This thread was meant for single men on the forum and the writer, later on called Densha Otoko (which mean train man, however Otoko is actually worse than Otaku), wrote that he saved some women on the train from a drunk man who was herassing them. He received two thank you gifts from the women, from which one of them was sent by a young girl. He actually meets the girl again and has dinner with her and that's the actual start of a long story of "coming to age" for an otaku.

I must say the book is very readable if you are used to read forums, and lucky enough I'm quite an expert in that. ^_^

I do find some translations very annoying, like for instance otaku gets translated into "techie" or "geek" which does not cover it at all. Ah well, you can't have everything and lucky enough I already watched the J-Drama.