Photos by Matt S.
Tokyo Game Show would certainly look different without its girls. The “booth babe” is a tradition all-but outlawed with most western game shows, but it’s alive and well in Japan, as you’ll see from the series of photo slideshows that we’ll do this week.
The question on whether TGS should get rid of the girls is an interesting one. It can be exploitative, and it doesn’t do anything to enhance the conversation around games. This is all quite true. At the same time most of the exhibitors at TGS are now hiring cosplayers to do a lot of the costume side of things, and generally speaking everyone seemed to take these things in a good spirit. What the booth girls do do is add a showbiz atmosphere to the event.
Anyhow, while I’ll happily have the debate about booth girls at another time, I’m not going to do it in these pieces. Rather, across these photo galleries, I’ll be showing off some of the weird, wonderful costumes and cosplays that I saw at TGS.
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| First up is a rabbit-thing from Phantasy Star Online 2. I don’t have much else to say here about this. |
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| GREE held regular dance performance shows. As you can probably guess, they were popular with camera crews. |
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| This lady was promoting that Zodiac game I’ve been raving about since. |
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| Monster Hunter… I think. There were a lot of people around that made it hard to take this photo! |
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| Dragon Dice. I’ve got to admit, I have a crush on this girl. She was adorable. Not sure about the game though. It looked pretty awful. |
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| Koei’s cats are back! Can’t get enough of Nobunyaga. C’mon TK, localise this game! |
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| Not sure what this model has to do with Daylight, but it’s a terrible game and no one is paying attention anyway. |
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| Very traditional style shirt, very traditional style lantern. And very traditional denim shorts… or something. |
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| When you’re looking to promote your school for aspiring game developers… You dress the models up as school girls. Naturally. |
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| Eh… let’s face it. No one was ever going to out-model Miku. |
– Matt S.
Editor-in-Chief
Find me on Twitter: @digitallydownld
