Good morning. It’s Friday, September 25. You can expect wall-to-wall sunny weather in the low 80s.
The anime car stopped next to you at a light has a story behind it.
A car wrapped with a design featuring anime characters. (Photo courtesy of Carmen Chavez)
Los Angeles is arguably the most car-centric city in America. So naturally, Southern California is home to some of the country’s most famous car subcultures: Lowriders cruising “low and slow” down Whittier Blvd, Fast and the Furious-inspired Japanese tuners speeding in illegal street races, and exotic supercars showcased in Westside meetups, to name a few.
But there’s a new auto subculture in town. One that’s pretty hard to miss — not due to flashy rims or obnoxiously loud engines, but because these cars are covered in full vinyl wraps depicting anime characters. Often very sexed-up anime babes. Occasionally a shirtless anime hunk.
These cars are called itasha, a Japanese portmanteau that translates to “painful car” or “cringeworthy car.”
"The idea is that in Japan, it's an eyesore because it doesn’t conform,” said John Quinn, a 34-year-old Hemet resident whose 2018 Toyota Camry features a wrap of Kaguya Shinomiya from the manga series Kaguya-sama: Love Is War.
Quinn, who organizes itasha showcases at anime conventions across the Southland, said the subculture originated in 1980s Japan when drivers began airbrushing idols onto their vehicles. But, he said, the fully vinyl-wrapped cars didn’t pop up in the Southland until the late 2000s and early 2010s.
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