"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.

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.

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.