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Vehicle decorated with images of fictional characters

A Nissan March featuring Hinagiku Katsura from the manga series Hayate the Combat Butler
A Mazda 3 featuring Yamato from the video game Kantai Collection
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A Triumph Bonneville T100 featuring a Girls und Panzer's character

In Japan, an itasha (痛車, literally "painful" or "cringeworthy" + "car") is a car decorated with images of characters from anime, manga, or video games (especially bishōjo games or eroge). The decorations usually involve paint schemes and stickers. The cars are seen prominently in places such as Akihabara (Tokyo), Nipponbashi (Osaka), or Ōsu (Nagoya), or Itasha-based events, such as Odaiba Itasha Tengoku.

Itasha only applies to cars. There are different names for vehicles that have features of an itasha, such as itansha (痛単車) for motorcycles, itachari (痛チャリ) for bicycles, itabasu (痛バス) for buses, itatorakku (痛トラック) for trucks, itadensha (痛電車) for trains, and itahikouki (痛飛行機) for airplanes.

Etymology

In the 1980s, when Japan was at the zenith of its economic might, there were many luxury import cars in Tokyo. Among them, the "itasha"—originally Japanese slang meaning an imported Italian car—was the most desired. Since then, itasha (as the decorated vehicle) was derived from combining the Japanese words for itai (痛い, painful, cringe, embarrassing) and sha (車, vehicle). Itai means "painful", with additional senses of "painfully embarrassing" → "cringeworthy", "painful for the wallet" due to the high costs involved, or "painful to look at" (an eyesore). The name is also a pun for Italian cars (イタリア車, Itaria-sha), truncated in Japanese slang as Itasha (イタ車).

History

Itasha car meet, Moesha-ofu, in Iga, Mie

The subculture started in Japan in the 1980s with character plushies and stickers, but only became a phenomenon in the twenty-first century, when anime culture became relatively well known via the Internet. The earliest known report of an itasha-decorated vehicle in convention was in August 2005, in Comiket 68.

Conventions

In 2007, the first Autosalone (あうとさろーね, Autosarōne), an itasha-oriented convention, was held in Ariake, near Comiket. Since then, the subculture has grown and allows people to express themselves and show off their customization to fellow friends and competitors. In 2019, Odaiba Itasha Tengoku, which took place in Odaiba, Tokyo, was also held. Another Itasha-JDM event was held on March 27 named "Itasha Tengoku JDM Paradise".

International movement

Similarly decorated vehicles have been found in Taiwan, the Philippines and in Italy.

Vehicles owned by character rights owner

The executive director of ACID Co., Ltd. (parent company of game developer Âge), Hirohiko Yoshida, was reported to own a Muv-Luv-themed Lamborghini Gallardo, Lancia Stratos, and BMW M5. The cars were unveiled in 2008 âge×Nitro+ in Akihabara UDX Gallery.

Good Smile Co. has sponsored Super GT GT300 cars with liveries featuring itasha-like illustrations of Hatsune Miku since 2008. In 2010, they spun off from their sponsored team to start their own team called Good Smile Racing. These cars are often also featured at conventions like Anime Expo. In 2019, Good Smile partnered with Type-Moon and TRIGGER to field cars with itasha liveries for Miku, Fate, and Promare at the 2019 24 Hours of Spa.

Vehicles from automotive manufacturers

An itansha in South Tangerang, Indonesia featuring characters from Honkai Impact 3rd on the body

In Nagoya Auto Trend in 2009, a Phantom of Inferno-themed Chevrolet Corvette, a Melonbooks-themed MINI Cooper, and a Chaos;Head Noah-themed Toyota Estima were unveiled.

Licensed model vehicles

Officially licensed itasha cars can be found both in display and R/C car models.

In June 2008, Aoshima Bunka Kyozai launched "ITASHA" as one of their model car product lines. Since then, many model companies have produced various itasha versions of their car models. Fujimi, Kyosho, HPI and Tamiya also sell models with itasha decorations.

Recently, combinations between models and actual itasha are increasing, wherein models based on the original itasha were made afterwards.

Derivative uses

An itachari in South Tangerang, Indonesia featuring Hibiki from Kantai Collection on the frame

The itasha decorative style has also been found on railway cars, aircraft, computer cases, and other products. The itasha equivalent in apparel is the "ita-bag", a bag covered in fandom-related badges, buttons, etc. At Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, ema are small wooden tablets that are usually inscribed with a wish. The itasha version, "ita-ema", describes ema featuring usually hand-drawn illustrations of characters.

In-vehicle electronics, such as navigation systems, were also reported to be customized with character voices. On 28 March 2008, Maplus began to offer character voices for its Maplus Portable Navi 2 GPS system, beginning with Shūichi Ikeda (Char Aznable from the Gundam franchise).

Automotive consumables such as motor oil have also been customized. On 20 June 2009, T&E, a tuning shop, began to sell scented semi-synthetic motor oil under the Itayu brand, with the first product being a Lucky Star-themed motor oil, unveiled at the 48th Shizuoka Hobby Show 2009.

See also

References

  1. Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, entry for itai available online here, see sense ② (in Japanese)
  2. 1995, 大辞泉 (Daijisen) (in Japanese), w:Tokyo: Shogakukan, ISBN 4-09-501211-0; entry for itai available online here, see sense 4 (in Japanese)
  3. "Fly the "Kemono Friend"-ly Skies with Crowdfunded "Pain Plane"". www.crunchyroll.com. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
  4. Tan, Lincoln. "Anime-decorated itasha car fad hits Auckland". NZ Herald. Retrieved 2021-07-01.
  5. "フェラーリも萌える「痛車」ビジネス". Sankei News. 2008-11-17. Archived from the original on 2009-05-23. Retrieved 2021-06-22.
  6. "Itasha and Intansha - Tricking your car out is the latest otaku craze in Japan". Archived from the original on 2009-07-31. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  7. コミックマーケット68 2日目＆痛車
  8. Odaiba, Itasha Tengoku (7 March 2022). "Odaiba Itasha Heaven 2022". www.byocosplay.com. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  9. 痛車 in 台北!　世界は痛車に毒されはじめた…… (Itasha in Taipei! The world started to poisoned by itasha...), Ascii.jp report, Feb 2008
  10. Philippine Itasha Cars Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
  11. 『イタリア発 大矢アキオ ロレンツォの今日もクルマでアンディアーモ！』第48回── ITASHA（痛車）は僕の人生を変えた！ イタリア版クラブのメンバーに聞く, KaraKura.jp article, April 2024
  12. "Hentai Fans Airbrush a Mangallardo". Archived from the original on 2018-01-25. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  13. "Ridelust Daily Fail: Japanese Itasha Fad Makes Me Sad". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  14. "Humor from Japan: BMW M5, Lamborghini Gallardo and Lancia Stratos Itasha decorated in style!". Archived from the original on 2009-07-13. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
  15. Age Soft Chairman shows off Manga Lambo, M5 and Stratos
  16. "会社案内". www.goodsmile.info (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-11-15.
  17. 株式会社インプレス (2019-07-22). "「Fate」「プロメア」「初音ミク」デザインのマシンが「スパ24時間」を走る！ "グッスマ"が「Black Falcon」のアートディレクションを担当". Car Watch (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-11-15.
  18. 痛車天国？　ナゴヤ オートトレンド！【出展企業＆メーカー公認車編】
  19. (in Japanese) 青島文化教材が痛車のプラモを発売、車種とキャラは Archived 2008-02-06 at the Wayback Machine (Aoshima Bunka Kyozai sells a model car of itasha, the car and the character is...), carview.co.jp report, retrieved on June 7, 2008.
  20. ANA's Pokémon Jet Home Page
  21. "NieR:Automata Plane". wsyntax technologies. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  22. 3/3 痛機殼... Archived 2011-07-10 at the Wayback Machine
  23. "「痛機殼」改造你的電腦主機外觀". Archived from the original on 2008-08-04. Retrieved 2008-02-06.
  24. Yamamura, Takayoshi (2015-01-02). "Contents tourism and local community response: Lucky star and collaborative anime-induced tourism in Washimiya". Japan Forum. 27 (1): 59–81. doi:10.1080/09555803.2014.962567. ISSN 0955-5803. S2CID 143690685.
  25. "【Gadget】古谷徹、池田秀一、若本、釘宮等聲線的車內導航即將發售". Archived from the original on 2009-02-05. Retrieved 2009-08-20.
  26. "【ご連絡】「MAPLUSポータブルナビ2」用音声に池田秀一さんを追加！". Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2009-08-27.
  27. TandE page Archived 2009-08-22 at the Wayback Machine
  28. 痛車乗りに朗報！　痛いエンジンオイルが登場！

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