First-ever marriage between man and a video game character

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First-ever marriage between man and videogame character in Japan: Nintendo DS "Love Plus"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsikPswAYUM&feature=player_embedded

On Sunday, a man named Sal9000 married the love of his life. Her name is Nene Anegasaki, and she lives inside of a Nintendo DS video game called Love Plus. The wedding took place during a Make: Japan meet-up held at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In attendance were a live audience, an MC, the bride's virtual video game girlfriend — who made a speech — and a real human priest.

The event was livecast on Nico Nico Douga, a popular video sharing web site that I wrote about in Wired Magazine back in 2008. (Watch this clip of hot shot Wired folks making total fools of themselves on Nico Nico Douga.)

Nico Nico Douga is home to thousands of video projects by anonymous users — mashups of original art, pop music, anime, and web memes that only an insider to Japanese web geek culture can completely decipher. Sal9000 is an active member of the Nico Nico Douga community, so it was important to him that his offbeat wedding ceremony was broadcast on the site. The footage seen here of Sal and Nene tying the knot between real and virtual is a highly imaginative, multimedia project orchestrated by a guy determined to officiate his devotion to his video game, and to pay homage to the otaku subculture that nurtures this type of creativity. Enjoy!

Reply from Sal9000
Dear Ms. Katayama,

Thank you very much for watching our wedding ceremony online. Because of your blog post, we received some comments from what appeared to be international viewers, and we were very happy about that.

I had heard before the groom is very busy during a Japanese wedding, but this was much more than I expected!

Both the actual wedding space and the livecasting web site were full on the day of — I'm so happy so many people were able to witness this. There were over 3,000 connections and 7,000 comments made online, and the people who showed up in person at the ceremony also offered their congratulations. It was great.


Now that the ceremony is over, I feel like I've been able to achieve a major milestone in my life. Some people have expressed doubts about my actions, but at the end of the day, this is really just about us as husband and wife. As long as the two of us can go on to create a happy household, I'm sure any misgivings about us will be resolved.


As for what's next, we still haven't gone to see my parents, so we will be going home together on New Years to officially announce our marriage.


The two of us hope to continue to let our love for each other grow as time goes on.


Sincerely,

SAL9000 & Nene Anegasaki

Source




This has to be just about the oddest thing I've ever heard online ._.

Yes, he may be the first man to marry a videogame character, but he's not the first woman to do that!

That honor(?) goes to Alix Henriol, who claims that she married none other than Sonic the Hedgehog(!!!) in 2005. See, now y'all learned something today.

On topic, I love the expressions of Sal9000's (presumed) friends in the background of the first picture.

...This is when you know people have no life whatsoever.

That's about all I have to say here. Moving right along now...

This all sounds like a cheap marketing ploy to me. Surely they just have to come up with a story that'll get people curious enough about the game that they will end up buying it...

Nah, in my experience it's probably for real. Some people are really screwed up.

I'm curious as to where the actual Nico Nico Douga video is, though. I wanna see ;_;

...What the heck? How in the freaking world is THAT possible? I would love to see the look on the face of his parents when they find (Or found) out.

Which character next? Duster from Mother 3? A mouse that marries Pikachu? (I love referencing)

That's just sad...

...When i saw the title i was sure it was a joke,but now i realize it's for real....And that prove there some people in the world who have No life...

ZDGamma said:

...When i saw the title i was sure it was a joke,but now i realize it's for real....And that prove there some people in the world who have No life...

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I'd hate to sound overly cruel, but based upon what these people have done, I'd say their social prospects were already pretty dismal. You know, if pretending they're married to fictional characters gives them the slightest facade of fulfillment, why the hell shouldn't we leave them be? As long as these people don't attract undue attention to themselves and don't devote overly graphic forums to their obsessions, *coughsonicpassioncough!* they can conduct their affairs however they want, for all I care.

Wombatwarlord777 said:

I'd hate to sound overly cruel, but based upon what these people have done, I'd say their social prospects were already pretty dismal. You know, if pretending they're married to fictional characters gives them the slightest facade of fulfillment, why the hell shouldn't we leave them be? As long as these people don't attract undue attention to themselves and don't devote overly graphic forums to their obsessions, *coughsonicpassioncough!* they can conduct their affairs however they want, for all I care.

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I fact,the problem isn't they married a fictional character(they are free to do anything legal),the real problem is why, why did they have to marry a fictional character?Is the society so hard and so cruel?

In the perceptions of some people, I suppose it is. Either that or they're grasping for attention. I imagine that's Henriol's primary motivation (merely glancing at her website makes it clear that she desires celebrity status).

As for why they prefer fictional characters, I haven't a clue. That'd be something interesting (if not also disturbing) to look into.

ZDGamma said:

I fact,the problem isn't they married a fictional character(they are free to do anything legal),the real problem is why, why did they have to marry a fictional character?Is the society so hard and so cruel?

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Japanese society is having a massive drop in marriage rates recently for a number of reasons. It is entirely possible he simply cannot find a girlfriend and not from a lack of trying.

Don't get me wrong, this is extremely creepy and sad, but the reality is that poor single guys beyond a certain age in Japan are basically screwed in this regard.

Wombatwarlord777 said:

Yes, he may be the first man to marry a videogame character, but he's not the first woman to do that!

That honor(?) goes to Alix Henriol, who claims that she married none other than Sonic the Hedgehog(!!!) in 2005. See, now y'all learned something today.

Click to expand...

Oh god, not her again. I remember that like it was yesterday.

Wombatwarlord777 said:

In the perceptions of some people, I suppose it is. Either that or they're grasping for attention. I imagine that's Henriol's primary motivation (merely glancing at her website makes it clear that she desires celebrity status).

As for why they prefer fictional characters, I haven't a clue. That'd be something interesting (if not also disturbing) to look into.

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Her FAQ is quite... interesting....
Also, since she quit school at 16, and is now 22, and apparently "loved" sonic at 14.. so.... she's now rich without a highscool diploma for this?
Such a lazy bum...
That's not say that this is fake... but I'm skeptical.

I'd like to see him go swimming with his wife.

He can bring plastic cardboard...
Edit: Wtf is a plastic cardboard!

This is just sad.

I wonder what'll happen when the batteries die. XD

LightspeedX said:

I wonder what'll happen when the batteries die. XD

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Charge them? The real question is, what will happen if the data corrupts, or someone starts a new game/deletes the data?

I hope they don’t try to have babies...

On the bright side, he sure picked a beauty of a fictional character.