(ビデクラ) Videkura has the next dance with the Love & Berry Digital Stage

OK, so last summer we captured your imagination with the prospect of millions of kawaii schoolgirls dancing along to the latest craze, Videkura(ビデクラ). During our trip to the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TIAF) we stumbled upon something that many may have easily looked over unless they were dragging along an eight-year-old girl. Trends in Japan is now proud to introduce the first real example of Videkura…the Love and Berry Digital Stage! （ラブandベリデジタルステージ）

Developed by Sega and Teruten Inc. (whose Mr. Ureshibara was more than gracious), the Love and Berry Digital Stage is merely the beginning of what we see as the next big thing in our new Brave Cute World. Not only is this a worthy predecessor to full-on Videkura, but it’s also the first purikura to be aimed specifically at young girls (most likely under 10).

Behind the curtains, the Digital Stage looks like any other purikura, except that it’s much more simple in design, and the interface is kid-friendly. After depositing ¥300, we chose which characters we wanted to attend and also the location of the big fiesta. The next step was to choose what the ladies were going to wear to the dance, and we were presented with a huge range of options. Finally, after hiding our dignity (yet again), we struck some cute (you decide) poses for the camera as Love and Berry themselves came out with us! It was an orgy of cute to delight even the most hardened of men.

After the celebrity shoot we pulled out the pen and went to work on the touchscreen decorating our four pictures with lots of little hearts and other such sugar n’ spice. I put a little damper on the action when I accidentally pushed the finish button, but we were just in time for the dance party to start! Love and Berry came back out, the music started to play, and we did the only thing it seemed we were supposed to do: Dance like we’d never danced before.

After our sweaty minute (the booth gets quite hot) we received our photo sheet with the results. Because of the way they overlay the digital graphics it’s important to stay away from Love and Berry or you’re apt to lose a limb. On the bottom of the photo sheet is a QR code that you scan with your mobile phone that allows you to access both photos and video. Unfortunately, you can only save or share the photos, but nothing for the video. We did our best to get some footage in with the video below.

The Love and Berry Digital Stage will be making its debut in from this April, but it’s only the beginning. We were told that there will be similar booths released featuring the likes of Mushi King and even Naruto! In the Naruto version you’ll be able to strike lots of fighting poses using a sword…but what do you do as a giant beetle? Will boys enjoy the experience like the girls already do, or even as much as I secretly did? This is just a taste of what’s to come with the future schoolgirl manifestations of Videkura, ready to knock their loose socks off.

Click the thumbnail below to see our highly embarrassing photos, and access them yourself with the QR code if you’re in Japan. Enjoy!

Hat tip to Teruten Inc.