entry 1: Game Urara

I’m starting this blog because the internet is too boring. I like finding unique things online and sharing them with others who appreciate unique things. I’ll share my thoughts about them on this blog. The first of these posts is on a short-lived Japanese magazine named GAME URARA. It existed from 1995 to 1996, releasing 5 volumes. Supposedly, a sixth volume exists that’s not been digitally scanned. You can find the five scanned volumes on Archive.org at this link (images in the magazine contain nsfw).

If you’d like to understand the content of these magazines, Gaming Alexandria has a great write up on it here. I can’t read Japanese, and I claim to be illiterate. To me, the appeal of artifacts such as Game Urara or similarly by-otaku-for-otaku media like Rare Tokusatsu is not the specific story being told in its writing or dialogue (though, of course, those things are important to understanding). Being unable to understand the language has not deterred me from finding value in these things. In Game Urara’s case, the presentation of mid-90s otaku culture is what appeals to me. I spent much of my formative years being passively exposed to cultural content from this era. There’s a lot I recognize but don’t understand - which adds to Game Urara’s appeal. It exudes nostalgia and mystery at the same time.
Most of all, and important to the ethos with which I create this website, is the mystery and appeal of digital world at the time.
From “Hacker Reader For Adults (オトナのハッカー読本―世界暗黒電脳列伝)” magazine published in 1996.

I found Game Urara through a citation on the Wikipedia page for “The Story of Kamikuishiki Village (上九一色村物語)”, a kusoge* PC-98 doujin** game satirizing the Aum Shinrikyo cult responsible for the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack. If you want to know more about that game, here’s a Vice article about it. Anyway, the Wikipedia page lead to the previously linked Gaming Alexandria article titled “Game Urara – Japan’s Filthiest Underground Gaming Magazine [NSFW]”. What a lurid title! I always role my eyes at things that go “WHOA! Isn’t Japan so pervy and weird?” because that just stinks of repacked Asian exoticism to me.

*kusoge: “shitty game”, literally a game that’s supposed to suck ass on purpose. **doujin: fan-made fan-work

And to be clear, Game Urara is sure to be very shocking if you’re not used to 90s/00s otaku culture. There’s a whole section of Game Urara dedicated to NSFL (not safe for life) disgusting shock videos you could order directly through the magazine, curated by a guy named “Kowloon Kurosawa” (Incredible name, same guy also made “The Story of Kamikuishiki Village” btw, not surprised to learn he had a curated gross-out shock video column too). But a lot of this stuff is very similar to how weirdos online acted in the 2000s and early 2010s. I think there’s a lot more interesting things to uncover once we acknowledge the shockingness of the deliberately gross stuff and start seeing what else Game Urara has in store for us. For example, it’s covers.
Volumes 2 and 4 of Game Urara


Game Urara is a surprisingly polished presentation - though it’s dripping with that information overload I’ve seen in a lot of Japanese advertisements. The first thirty-or-so pages are even in full color! Though, I’ll admit, the majority of the full color pages are various advertisements and most of the articles in the magazine are in black and white. But it’s not like I’m reading these things, just looking around at the pictures and the layout. And oh, the delight the ads are!

It’s unreasonable for me to comb through every single advertisement in Game Urara, so here’s a description some ad I came across:

Thing that supposedly makes you taller.

Okay! Let’s once again address the naked elephant in the room. These magazines have a lot of porn advertisements. I want to reiterate how normalized this was for otaku culture in the late 90s/early 2000s. It’s just something you have to deal with when combing through otaku-related media. Its not like Game Urara is all porny shit either - that stuff just stands out against the detailed articles about late 90s BBS systems and early software pirating because I can’t read Japanese.

Anyway, let’s go over some other interesting things Game Urara has to offer:

FIGHTING GAMES, BABY!
Would it be the late 90s if nerding out over fighting games wasn’t present? Game Urara issues include what appear to be some combo/move charts for games like Virtua Fighter (which also gets its own little comic in one of the issues!) The magazine was published during a golden age of fighting games, and it’s no wonder most of the pretty cosplay babes they feature are dressed up as fighting game characters! Including my favorite late 90s fighting game, mother fuckin DARKSTALKERS!!!!!
A bunch of female cosplayers. All except #2 are cosplaying Darkstalkers characters!

The only guy’s included in one of the issues cosplay roundup rankings is dressed as the Aum Shinrikyo leader. Not gonna lie: funny, laughed.

There’s also a lot of really cute, unique manga illustrations in the magazine! These dot the pages to help illustrate a topic or provide an aside, though there are some short form manga strips with their own dedicated sections. Unfortunately, the content of most is lost on me 99.9% of the time but they’re still a delight to peruse.
Illustration explaining how to load ROMS on a Super Famicom

Idk what this is advertising (probably a shop), but look at that cute elf girl!


What Game Urara has a LOT of is tutorials & resources. Here are some that caught my eye!

(Left): Yeah, fuck that pinball machine up!! (Right): Why this is in a gaming/otaku magazine is a mystery to me


Game Urara reminds me of eating at Kenka in NYC for the first time. If you’ve never been: picture a striking Japanese restaurant that has a cool vibe and is located under a punk thrift store named SEARCH AND DESTROy. It’s a fun kitsch I don’t get to enjoy very often: one that blends historical iconography with modern interests, giving a vibe that’s edgy and provocative, and also has a lot of porn advertisements associated with it, for some reason. In short, Game Urara is pretty interesting to flip through. If you’ve got the time, give it a looksie - just maybe not on a school computer or whatever.
Aforementioned Kenka restaurant
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