Cho Aniki which translates as "Super Big Brother" is bizarre video game from Japan.  The game gain cult status from its surreal graphics, wacky humour and homoerotic overtones. The game is essentially a side-scrolling shoot-em-up, where spend much of the game semi-naked, with other semi-naked muscle men, fighting more semi-naked and oiled-up muscle men. There are pyramids of semi-naked men, rocket powered dildos, and an end of level boss that fires a giant man shaped penis out of his robotic cod-piece. You really can't make this stuff up, and that's all just a brief explanation of the weirdness that is Cho Aniki, that actually spawned a whole series of sequels. 

The first game debuted in 1992 for the PC Engine system. The game's many sequels and spin-offs later appeared on the Super Famicom, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and PlayStation 2.  

The game is an example of what the Japanese refer to as "kuso-ge", meaning "shit game". In fact it's classed as a sub-genre, known as "baka-ge", which translates as "idiot game".

House (ハウス) is a 1977 Japanese cult horror comedy film. A group of girls travel into the countryside, to a house that is possessed with supernatural powers. The house attempts to devour the girls in increasingly bizarre and surreal ways. Beyond that it's hard to describe the magnificent madness that is House. There are moments that hark back to the era of silent movie slapstick comedies, the special effects are just weird, the acting is terrible, and the whole thing is utter nonsense. But those are all the things that make House such a great film. As it merrily skips along as a camp Japanese teen comedy, and suddenly switches to disturbing horror, and back again.

The film straddles the line between horror comedy and experimental arthouse film. With the screen filled with stunning visuals, it plays out like a bad LSD trip. With a floating disembodied head that has a bum biting fetish, a carnivorous piano, vicious killer bedding, and the blood gushing cartoon cat. The whole thing leaves you wondering what the hell you have just watched.

Critically panned (which often makes for great cult film), director Nobuhiko Obayashi went on to direct the live-action version of The Girl Who Leapt Through time in 1983, and the dark erotic cult film Sada (1998), based on the story of Sada Abe who  erotically asphyxiating her lover, Kichizo Ishida in 1936. Sada  then went on to cut off his penis and testicles and carrying them around with her in her handbag. Obayashi's film of the story is another must see of Japanese cult cinema.

In the north east Asian countries of Japan and South Korea, the carrying of an umbrella is a vital tool come rain or shine. Either to keep the rain off, or the sun from beating down on you, umbrellas are carried everywhere. So the idea of reminding people to take their umbrellas isn't such a strange thing. Despite the message that these posters give off. Looking into them more deeply, explains that maybe Japanese culture isn't quite as weird as it may appear on the surface.  For example, the random Marilyn Monroe poster, is a play on words. The text in the top right corner "Kaerazaru kasa" (umbrella of no return) is a play on "Kaerazaru Kawa," the Japanese title for "River of No Return," the 1954 movie starring Monroe. The Jesus image, reads at the top "Wishing to God again and again". The poster makes a play on the words "kasa" (umbrella) and "kasane-gasane" (again and again). A little bit of insight into graphic design choices and public information posters? Do you really care?

Originally a Japanese manga series in the late 1950s by manga and anime artist Tatsuo Yoshida, Mach GoGoGo was developed into an animated series in the late 60s. The story of teenage race-car driver Gô Mifune (known as "Speed Racer" in the American version) who aspires to be the world's best with the help of his friends, family and his father's high-tech race-car, the Mach 5. The series was originally syndicated to the United States, and ran for 2 seasons, totalling 52 episodes. With some of the violence of the Japanese animation cut, and redubbed it became an instant cult classic, that inspired an over-the-top colour saturated CGI movie in 2008.

His often repetitive adventures centered around Speed's car built by his Pops (the Mach 5), his girlfriend Trixie, his little brother Spritle (with his pet chimp Chim-Chim), and his mysterious brooding older brother, Racer X. 

The show's success in the United States spawned a whole Speed Racer franchise, ranging from comics, video releases, merchandise, the live-action film, and new animations in the 1990s and 2000s.

Must remember not to stub my cigarette out on my own child's snowman, make sure it's someone else's snowman. And I must carry my cigarette above child head height, like an Olympic torch, while looking behind me, all the while looking for people waving at me and avoiding the possibility of burning an expensive coat. Oh and to make sure I'm in an old movie when I don't throw my butt down the drain. Phew! After all that hardcore social pressure to be aware of others when I smoke, I need a cigarette.

If like me, one are one of these people who likes to dig around the weirder side of the Weird Wide Web, then you couldn't have failed to some point to have come across pictures of dismembered body parts toys from Japan. Or the bright graphic of the baby bursting out of the microwave, its guts spilling out. You may have just shrugged, laughed and shook your head, mumbling, "Oh, those Japanese!" But have you bothered to find out what they are all about? Anyone who knows about Japanese pop-culture will be aware of their love of extreme violence through manga, anime and J-Horror cinema.

These particular toys are by the ero-guro (エログロ) and manga artist Shintaro Kago. Ero-guro is an artistic movement in Japan that depicts the decadence of society through images of extreme sexual violence, eroticism and sexual corruption. Deviant and grotesque to a ridiculous degree, the movement which has a long history in Japan, has influenced many areas of Japanese pop-culture. 

Shintaro Kago, made his début in 1988, has become a very popular artist. His grotesque works, push many boundaries, both in style and imagery. Taking things to such extremes that they appear comedic, yet unnerving, satirising aspects of Japanese culture. His range of toys, which are available by mail order, and through vending machines in Japan, play with the idea of collectable toys for adults. Mirroring other mass-produced collectables, and are available as key-chains, phone charms and vinyl book shelf display pieces.

A single from the stadium prog rock band Styx, from their 1983 rock opera album Kilroy Was Here.The story of the opera is of Robert Orin Charles Kilroy (ROCK), a rock and roll performer who was placed in a futuristic prison for "rock and roll misfits" by the anti-rock-and-roll group the Majority for Musical Morality (MMM). Kilroy, over powers a "Roboto", and hides inside its emptied out shell. The song tells of Kilroy's meeting with another character, as the robot, and his eventual unmasking. (Yeah, it was the early 80s, these guys had probably taken a lot of drugs in the 70s!) When the band performed the rock opera, they had robots designed by special effects genius Stan Winston, which featured on the album cover.

The video for the song, features the band dressed in the robot costumes, long before Daft Punk were ever around. And despite the over-the-top acting and dramatics of the video and the band's performance, the robots do add a creepy dystopian element to what is otherwise a bad 80s music video. Though I'm still confused as to how the prisoners in the video manage to over-power robots by a punch in the guts! Bit a design flaw in poor old Mr. Roboto.

The vocoded chorus is what the song is most well known for, with the repeated Japanese line, "dōmo arigatō misutā Robotto". Making the song popular in Japan. In 2002, the Japanese new wave band Polysics recorded a cover version of the song, which was a hit in Japan and Korea. And was accompanied by a fun video that paid homage to Japanese giant robot sci-fi movies and TV shows of 1960s, like Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot (1967-1968).