The Japan Racing Association, Japan’s major horse racing and betting organisation, has surprised many by producing a highly moe and not entirely unsuggestive visual novel based around the theme of girls riding horses…

The game, an online visual novel entitled “My Sweet Umadonna -I Am Your Horse-” (“uma” is Japanese for “horse”) and written by none other than the autor of Ro-Kyu-Bu:

It even gets an OP from the same people responsible for Ika Musume’s:

Comiket 77 attendees have noted that the JRA was mysteriously in attendance, explaining that they wanted to see how a vibrant event operated as their own attendance numbers have been dropping off. The result was apparently this game.

Online the reaction has been quite positive – mainly on account of the carrot scene it would seem…

Eschewing plot or character development in favour of girls with big breasts in sexy costumes, Rio RainbowGate is once again earning praise amongst easily entertained oppai anime fans – the second episode actually goes some way further than the first, with nudity and nipple exposure aplenty:

The nipple action comes replete with hot waki exposure:

Ecchi anime fans are finding newly airing Rio RainbowGate is proving sexier than any scummy pachinko spin-off anime has any right to be, but otherwise opinion of it is already less than flattering…

Sexy it may be, but opinions are divided as to whether it is any good or not.

Other than it being filled with oppai, pantsu and random cosplay, viewers are having trouble working out whether this is card-battle anime, a special powers anime or a random pastiche of vaguely marketable genres as seems increasingly likely to be the case…

Strike Witches fans are aghast at the news that anime studio AIC has been turned into the subsidiary of a pachinko company.

AIC (Anime International Company), in 2010 responsible for Strike Witches 2, Asobi ni Ikuyo and Amagami amongst others, and previously responsible for scores more titles, including many classics, was founded some 30 years ago and has come to be known as an major industry player.

Thus it has come as a surprise for fans to learn that the company has been completely bought up and turned into a 100% owned subsidiary of Oizumi Corporation, a company hitherto best known for producing pachinko and slot machines.

For those unfamiliar with it, pachinko is essentially a type of slot machine played with small ball bearings in hellishly noisy parlours which can be found near any station of size in Japan. Cash winnings are technically illegal but exploitation of a legal loophole and sympathetic police ensure they are in fact the norm.

Of all the quasi-legal enterprises of Japan, pachinko enjoys the shadiest reputation, just (barely) above that of soap-lands and brothels – their patrons are regarded as gambling lowlifes, and their (almost entirely Korean) management are known to have extensive connections to organised crime and the North Korean government.

The machines themselves are widely known to be rigged, using sophisticated software to manipulate payouts. Police bribery deflects attention from all but the worst improprieties.

However, a major component of their marketing is anime tie-ins and their own anime-styled characters such as Rio – thus it is little surprise to see speculation that Strike Witches and company may soon be finding their way onto pachinko machines.

One fan sums up the feelings of the majority – “It’s like all the girls in Strike Witches just became prostitutes.”

This Nagoya pachinko company is handling the matter of advertising one of their newer series of games machines (originally based on a manga series) with aplomb, decorating the entire face of their office building in a way that is most familiar to fans of itasha.

The company is Takao Corp., a maker of the metal pinball arcade machines that inhabit Japan’s countless pachinko parlors.

The specific game being shown above is カイジ / Gaiji, which has its own confusingly made website available here.

The original source material is 賭博黙示録カイジ / Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji (Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji), a manga featuring a young gambler serialized in Weekly Young Magazine.

For some reason the connection between pachinko and anime is strengthening, with pachinko based on Evangelion and the like virtually ubiquitous, and with pachinko characters even being adapted into anime…

Rakuten Online Market has announced that their “Lucky☆Star x Macross F” line of figurines will be released this September. As the name suggests, these consist of the Lucky Star characters cosplaying the cast of Macross Frontier.

Considered to be the most “premium” of the prizes that one can achieve through the “Ichiban-kuji” lottery, it is said that the chance of one actually winning one is just 4%, meaning it could cost ¥15,000 to get one (along with a mountain of other trinkets)…

At a cost of ¥500 per draw, entrants could in theory walk away with:

Figure A: Konata in Alto costume
Figure B: Kagami in Clan costume
Figure C: Tsukasa in Ranka costume
Figure D: Miyuki in Sheryl costume

International participation looks to be extremely difficult. Expect much activity on auction sites in any case…

Via Banpresto.

Gravure idol Aki Hoshino, famed for her large breasts and probably little else, was at the centre of an embarrassing scene when she was turned away at the entrance to a Macau casino, apparently being mistaken in her low-cut dress for a prostitute.

Tourists noticed the geriatric idol (32) causing a scene at the entrance to the casino, with Japanese tourists instantly recognising her (whether from her TV appearances or from her innumerable saucy posing sessions is not clear).

“Looking like a celebrity wearing a sexy, low-cut dress”, according to witnesses, she was attempting to gain access to the gambling establishment with a gentleman politely presumed to be her manager.

However, casino staff where having none of it, and resolutely refused her entry at the door.

Tourists suspected that she was being confused with a common strumpet, an unthinkable mistake: “Because of the way she was dressed, it appeared that the casino staff decided she was a prostitute. We all thought that was the reason.”

So desperate was she that she tried to corral some of the Japanese tourists into identifying her for the suspicious door staff, apparently to no avail.

Her agency cooked up a suitably innocent story for her; the 32-year-old “looks like a minor” and of course had no interest in gambling:

“She was mistaken for a minor because she looks younger than her age. She didn’t have her passport as she was on location… As far as we know, she wasn’t there to gamble but just needed to use the restroom in the casino.”

Via JapanToday, with thanks to Aoshi for the tip.

Some would say this is actually a natural mistake to make…

Click the above image to see the naked roulette in action. Now we just have to wait for the slot machine adaptation. Shame about the light censorship, it does lose out to raeping Yoshika in that critical respect.

Yoshika is saying “Now, select your favoured oppai”, so we may as well put the matter to rest, Popularity Witches style:

Refer to the below image or to the DVD for additional evaluation material.

“I-It’s not made for you or anything, OK!?” – slots and similar games can now be enjoyed with the added spice of tsundere moe, as gaming machine company Techno-Top is set to provide a Tsundere version of its “Tekichu” gaming/gambling machine. The machine’s voicing is providing by tsundere queen 釘宮理恵/Rie Kugimiya, a seiyuu who is not lacking in experience in these roles.

In case you’re wondering just what on earth this “event machine” is, it is basically a slot/arcade machine with various gambling style games for prizes, for installation in shops, parties, events, etc.

Looks like it can be yours for a mere ¥200,000 or so. Some movies of the games are here, though the tsundere version is not yet featured, and see here for a glimpse of the machine itself.

Via NekoAreBlog.