In Japan, an itasha is a car decorated with images of fictional characters of anime, manga, or video games. The decorations usually involve paint schemes and stickers. Automobiles are called itasha, while similar motorcycles and bicycles are called itansha and itachari respectively. The cars are seen prominently in places such as Akihabara, Nipponbashi, or Ōsu.
Etymology
In the 1980s, when Japan was at the zenith of its economic might, Tokyo's streets were a parade of luxury import cars. Among them, the "itasha"—originally Japanese slang meaning an imported Italian car—was the most desired. Since then, itasha was derived from combining the Japanese words for itai and sha. Itai here means "pain", which can be interpreted as "painfully embarrassing", "painful for the wallet" due to the high costs involved, or "painful to look at". The name is also a pun for Italian cars, truncated in Japanese slang as Itasha.
History
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, 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.
Involvement in motorsports
Nowadays, the involvement of itasha in real motorsport events has been a unique feature in Japan's motorsport industry. Race cars in itasha decals can be seen from regional club events to international races. Participants are also not limited to amateurs. Many professional teams, or even manufacturer-backed teams, would not mind to turn their race cars into itasha cars; not only does it act as an alternative for sponsorship decals, it is widely considered as one of the many ways of expanding their team's fanbase or promoting the event they are participating in. In the AutobacsSuper GT series, Good Smile Racing has run a series of Hatsune Miku-themed racecars since 2008, while Pacific Racing has had collaborations with Squid Girl, , Love Live! and Girls und Panzer in their involvement with the Super GT and D1 Grand Prix series. Good Smile Racing notably is a three-time champion in the GT300 class, the second most successful team in the history of Super GT's GT300 class. Similar involvement of itasha vehicles can be seen in motorcycle or even open-wheeler events. Internationally, Good Smile Racing sponsored Komatti-Mirai team in TT Zero in 2013 and participated in Spa 24 Hours since 2017. In 2019 Spa 24 Hours Good Smile Racing collaborated with Black Falcon, TYPE-MOON, and Studio Trigger to field three Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the race with Hatsune Miku, Fate, and Promare liveries. The Promare car started from pole position and finished third overall and the Hatsune Miku car also finished third in the Silver Cup class.
International movement
Similarly decorated vehicles have been found in Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, the United States, Brazil, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom.
Vehicles owned by character rights owner
The executive director of ACID Co., Ltd., 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 Akibahara UDX Gallery. An official Macross Frontier-themed Suzuki Wagon R was unveiled in Macross Galaxy Tour Final. It was later redesigned for the Macross Super-Dimensional Space Launch ceremony.
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
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. 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. 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.
