Raw Japan
Slices of Japanese business, politics and life
I now pronounce you man and game
Japan has given birth to some of the world’s most memorable video game characters, from Mario to Sonic the hedgehog.
So it was only a matter of time before something like the wedding between Nene Anegasaki and a college student who refers to himself as SAL9000 took place.
What makes this wedding special is that Nene happens to be all digital, a character from SAL9000′s favorite video game.
“In the Japanese otaku or nerd culture, there’s a tradition of calling characters ‘my wife’, and I sort of thought of Nene as ‘my wife’. Since I was calling her that, I thought we’d just have to get married then,” he explained to Reuters.
While video games and especially dating simulation games such as “Love Plus”, the game from which Nene is from, are seen as something to do alone, SAL9000 said he didn’t see it that way.
Instead, he sees games as a communication tool, and cited his wedding that drew over 3,000 viewers when broadcast live online as one example.
