Not to be outdone by Volkswagen, Toyota is slated to sell a nerdy car of its own: a Toyota Auris customized in the image of Gundam character Char Aznable.

"Itasha" (痛車) literally mean "painmobile", but they are Japan's sticker-covered geek cars. The decals often feature anime, manga or video game characters. "Ita" either refers to the pain inflicted on the wallets of the car owners—or the folks who see the cars.

This might not be Neo-Tokyo, but that sure looks like Shotaro Kaneda's bike in cyberpunk anime Akira. Masashi Teshima from Fukuoka, Japan thought he'd like an Akira bike for himself and spent seven years and ¥10 million (US$121,000) to make it.

Lupin from Japanese anime Lupin the Third drives a Fiat 500 in the classic flick Lupin the Third: Castle of Cagliostro. The car is very much part of the character's lore.

Here's some horrible news coming straight from the Hollywood adaptation of Akira. Garrett Hedlund has reportedly been offered the role of Kaneda. Now we can trade in our fears about whitewashing for a new set of worries about the world's blandest Kaneda to ever ride a Huffy into a futuristic McDonalds.

The Nagoya-based auto maker is already going after Western otaku with its bizarro take on virtual idol Miku Hatsune. Next up? Japanese otaku.

This screen-cap is from a cartoon Toyota produced to help kids understand how their cars are made. It starts with a meeting, charts and one paranoid engineer noticing "they all look the same..." [Toyota]

There are Japanese trends we wholly approve of, like dekotora, and then there's Itasha. Literally translated to mean "painful car" this trend is incredibly creepy.