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I Can’t Stop Looking at Hilariously Quirky Posts from Second Life’s Japanese Community on Twitter

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If you were to judge Second Life only by how it's mostly depicted on Flickr or Facebook, you'd assume it's a photorealistic fashion simulator. But among the Second Life users of Japan, many of whom congregate on Twitter, Second Life is just as much (if not moreso) a comically zany and quirky play space, where you're just as likely to, say, come across a giant circus hamster playing Pokémon GO.

"I think most Japanese SLers grew up in a quirky culture in real life," New World Notes' Japanese translator Sanny Yoshikawa tells me. (That's Sanny above, as the hamster.) "We played gacha or funny arcade games when we were little kids. Then we moved to Nintendo and PlayStation. Also, so many funny anime and TV shows were always beside us. I think we are native to quirky culture."

Sounds right to me. Now that I'm following hundreds of Japanese SLers on Twitter, my feed is blessed with adorably goofy and wacky images on the daily, depicting a Second Life that reminds me of its earlier, Bebop Reality days before mesh had moved the economy and culture toward high end fashion.

More on that topic another day, but for now, here's a glimpse of SL Japan, with some translation from Sanny when necessary. She helps explain, for example, why a buff naked guy with Gundam weaponry and a teddy bear helmet is wearing a salad on his crotch:




SL Japan

Image via Magnum Yoshikawa

"Magnum attaches different creators' items at the same time. Magnum wears a leaf made by GABRIEL, which is a fashion brand for mesh human avatars," Sanny explains. "You know our [SL] communities always have a wall between species or philosophy but we are trying to overcome them." Well OK then!

This was taken at a Second Life tribute to Comiket, a regular event in Tokyo that's the world's largest fan convection. (Yes, many times larger in attendance than Comic-Con.) Comiket also came with a hamster market:

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And a giant fish stall:

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And then there was this group tribute to "Greg", one of Second Life's default avatars:

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And why take interior decoration photos in a regular home, when you can do it underwater?

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… or have a pool party that looks like a beer commercial, when you can have a pool party with a ninja and an old guy with truly excellent hair?

Second Life twitter japanImage via SLShono3

And finally, an obligatory Oppai Battle, which requires no translation:

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If you want to join in on the fun, the Comiket event is over, but here's an ongoing events from SL's Japanese community:

And much domo to Sanny!

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2 responses to “I Can’t Stop Looking at Hilariously Quirky Posts from Second Life’s Japanese Community on Twitter”

  1. Spiffy Voxel Avatar
    Spiffy Voxel

    I stopped by Comiket in SL last week, the place was completely bonkers and packed with people. I had no idea what was going on, everyone was speaking in Japanese (obviously). When I turned up there was a HUGE macro female avatar towering over the entire build, I had to cam upwards a LOT to find her nametag! I’ve no idea how tall she was, but I’m pretty sure that’s the biggest avatar I’ve seen in SL by a long shot.
    While most of the stuff there, and in the Twitter posts you linked to, isn’t of interest to me, I have to admit my admiration for all those folks having fun, being silly and enjoying the possibilities offered by SL. The virtual world could use a lot more of that right now.

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  2. Sanny Yoshikawa Avatar
    Sanny Yoshikawa

    Magnum told me about the screenshot. It represents the miracle of the intersection of three different lines crossing over that would normally be impossible: the well-known fashion brand GABRIEL (a salad ), a solitary artist Cica Ghost (a teddy bear helmet), and the mysterious SL cow Kyubey (Gundam weaponry). They set up stores at SL Comiket at the same time. Magnum was moved by the miracle of these three lines crossing over and took this screenshot. So this picture is not just showing his nudity! LOL

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