Japan’s ‘Robot Restaurant’ Reimagines Chuck E. Cheese as Military-Themed Acid Trip

Search “Japanese music video” on YouTube and you will get a sense of Japan’s unique entertainment culture. The thrust of the J-pop scene seems to be towards transforming its performers into children’s toys. The genre shares a lot of aesthetic and cultural references with cosplay is generally harmless fun in the tradition of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. But then you see a person dancing in front of 7 foot ducks with a fabric checkerboard pattern for a face. Despite the cultural understanding hat I try to put on when seeing these types of images, I can’t help but get the willies when things get a little too creepy, and that goes for the videos clearly uploaded by wigged-out xenophobic Americans like me and the officially promoted videos from the record companies alike.

“Robot Restaurant,” a new establishment that opened in Shinjuku in July takes the music video crazy and doubles down on the sensory overload. The food seems to be an afterthought as bikini-clad entertainers both human and animatronic direct a neon-lit menagerie of tanks, warplanes, and sundry robots in the name of entertainment. We wonder how much alcohol consumption goes down here, as it seems like it could possibly just be a very elaborate strip club without the nudity.

Via Rocket News 24