ASCII art

Turn rough sketches into crisp digital line art with free web service from Waseda University

The automatic service is already popular online, with Japanese artists eager to share their impressive results.

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Homo Toys Raise Issues of Meme Trademarks and Corporate Coopting of Them

Awhile back we ran an article about the US Navy’s latest robot resembling a Japanese Twitter meme called Homo.

Originally created to mock the homoerotic anime-loving Japanese female (fujoshi), homo is a somewhat humanoid creature the crawls along on all fours and utters “homooooo” as it searches far and wide for gay porn.

On twitter this little guy/gal/thing is represented by the ASCII characters ┌(┌ ^o^)┐, however several artistic depictions can be found on twitter or if you check our previous article.

The cute little whatever has found a following among the Japanese internet to the point that some are trying to profit from Homo.  A reporter from Byokan Sunday recently encountered a capsule machine with a line of Homo figurines, but is this legal?

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