Itasha

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 (as the decorated vehicle) was derived from combining the Japanese words for itai (痛い, painful) and sha (車, vehicle). Itai here means "painful", which can be interpreted as "painfully embarrassing" or "painful for the wallet" due to the high costs involved. 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

The decoration was started in the 1980s with character plushies and stickers, but only became a phenomenon in the 21st century, when anime fandom culture became relatively well known via the Internet. The earliest known report of the decoration vehicle in convention began in August 2005, in Comic Market 68.

Conventions

In 2007, the first Autosalone (あうとさろーね, Autosarōne), an itasha oriented convention, was held in Ariake, near the site of Comiket. Since then the subculture phenomenon 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 one of the unique features in Japan's motorsport industry. Race cars in itasha decals can be seen from regional club event to international-level races (including events under FIA). Participants are also not bounded by privateers amateurs. Many professional teams, or even manufacturer-backed teams would not mind to turn their race cars into itashas; this not only acts as an alternative for sponsorship decals (if the character or design is provided by the sponsor), it is widely considered as one of the many ways of expanding their team's fanbase or promoting the event they participating.

Goodsmile Racing has run a series of Hatsune Miku-themed Itashas in the Autobacs Super GT since 2010. Similar involvement of itashas can be seen in motorcycle or even open-wheeler events.

International movement

Similarly decorated vehicles have been found in Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, the United States, Brazil, and Indonesia.

Vehicles owned by character rights owner

ACID Co., Ltd. (âge games developer)'s executive director Hirohiko Yoshida was reported to own Muv-Luv-themed Lamborghini Gallardo, Lancia Stratos, 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.

Vehicles from automotive manufacturers

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

Licensed model vehicles

Officially licensed itasha can be found both in static car models and movable car models.

In June 2008, Aoshima Bunka Kyozai launched "ITASHA" as one of their model cars product line, Since then many of the model producers produced various itasha on the car models. Fujimi, Kyosho, HPI and Tamiya also sold models with itasha models.

Recently, combination between model and actual itasha are increasing. Where model based on the original itasha were made afterwards.

Derivative uses

The itasha decorative style has also been found on aircraft, computer cases, and other products.

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, beginning with Shūichi Ikeda (Char Aznable from the Gundam franchise).

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