Japanese resort town caters to men with virtual LovePlus girlfriends
Love Plus, the crazy jailbait dating sim for the Nintendo DS is fucking insanely popular in Japan, and by insanely popular, I mean insanely popular with mental otaku who forsake all other opposite sex attraction to stay at home with their virtual teenage girlfriends. It’s so popular that the resort town of Atami is now specifically catering to the Love Plus otaku market. You know, for when you want to take your DS and your jailbait body pillow somewhere nice for the weekend.
Thirteen romantic spots around the town, like a statue of a couple from a famous love story, have been rigged with barcodes that allow these men to take pictures with their virtual girlfriends from the dating simulation game, Love Plus. In this latest edition of Love Plus, available on the hand-held Nintendo DS and iPhone applications, these men appear in pictures with the superimposed anime characters Rinko, Manaka, or Nenefrom in vacation wear.
This is a subsect of manga and anime, known as “otaku,” which allows users to court virtual girlfriends. One user even staged a wedding last year with his cartoon girlfriend, Nene Anegasaki.
Some souvenir shops in Atami have even started selling Love Plus merchandise. The Ohnoya hotel offers rooms with two sets of futon beds and a barcode that allows the men to visualize their girlfriends in the room.
Great… it’s cute and all that these guys like their video game girlfriends so much, but do you really have to encourage it?
