Itasha (痛車), literally "painmobile", is a Japanese term for an otaku fad of individuals decorating the bodies of their cars with fictional characters of anime, manga, or video games (especially bishōjo game or eroge). These characters are predominately "cute" female. The decorations usually involve paint schemes and stickers. Automobiles are called itasha, while similar motorcycles and bicycles are called itansha(痛単車) and itachari (痛チャリ), respectively.
The cars are seen prominently in places such as Akihibara (Tokyo), Nipponbashi (Osaka), or Ōsu (Nagoya).
History
The decoration was started in 1980s with character plushies and stickers,[3] but only became a phenomenon in the 21st century, when otaku culture became relatively well known via the Internet. The earliest known report of the decoration vehicle in convention began in 2005-08, in Comic Market 68.[4]
[edit]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.
[edit]Involvement in motorsports
In recent years, the involvement of itasha in real motorsport events has grown. Though most of them are amateur events, participation of itasha in races are increasing, and they usually receive much media coverage. Some of the entries also having impressive result in their participation, including individual race wins or even overall champion titles.[5]
Participation of itasha in Japan's professional motorsport event can be seen as early as 2007, when a Lancer Evolution VII featuring themes of Lucky Star and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in Japan Dirt Trial. One year later, Studie GLAD Racing (a BMW tuning shop in Japan)'s Hatsune Miku–themed Z4 in the Super GT GT300 class marked itasha's debut in international event directly under FIA. Since then different itasha which belongs to various teams has entered various kind of motorsport event in Japan, like Super GT, Super Taikyu, Japan Rally Championship, and D1 Grand Prix. In some of the recent year's events, competitions between different itasha teams in a single race can also being seen as well.
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