Purikura machines or photo boots (a.k.a. “print clubs”) in Japan have been hot for some time, but are quickly evolving into youth culture magnets for DIY image expression beyond the printed format. To provide a quick history, purikura machines are often found in arcades in Tokyo such as the popular Shibuya location called Purikura no Mecca! whereby 1 to 5 people can cram into small photo booths and not only get their 2-10, 1” by ¾” sticker photos taken, but are then offered an array of options to choose from to enhance one’s photo. Posers can add personal messages with special frames, and different backgrounds to appear as though you’re on the cover of a popular magazine, advertisement, or record label. People then take their photos and share them with friends or stick them on their iPods, notebooks, journals, and bags.

While many people still associate the Hello Kitty border with the typical purikura photo machines, the technology from Japan in the last year has added enhancements such as new background locations that make you look smaller or shorter, and machines that can now fit up to 15 people. In addition, there are themes such as the Himeryu machine or wookie machine that with the given background, prompt the user to make various facial expressions or exhibit different poses. The purikura craze is also rampant in Taipei, Taiwan including a three-story mall in the popular hang-out of Ximen dedicated to purikura machines. In China, they’ve re-vamped many old Japanese purikura machines and placed them not only in arcades but also malls, movie theatres, and general youth market gathering places.

From an American perspective, purikura may seem like an extension of the primitive passport picture booths we have in malls. However the real purikura experience is quite entertaining. For example, most purikura booths pump in J-pop songs into the booths and most booths are located in energetic locations like arcade malls, which are rampant, and provide the additional element of fantasy. There’s also a competitive factor: given all of the choices for arranging your purikura image set, including wigs, Cosplay props, backgrounds, expressions, poses, and borders, young people try to create the most beautiful, funny, scary, or expressive images possible. There’s also an important element of socialization involved not only between friends of the same sex, but also flirting with the opposite sex and going to purikura locations as part of the dating experience for creating couple poses. And at 300-600 Japanese yen ($2-$4), purikura is an inexpensive, but personalized form of entertainment that provides action-packed take-away memories that are always shared with others.

The next level of the purikura is even more fascinating as seen recently in Purikura no Mecca! for example, one of the leading-edge locations for new technology. At Purikura no Mecca! you can now send your finished creations to your cell phone, which you can then send onto friends. In addition, certain locations are working hard on the next level which is to offer videkura—short personalized video animations that you can create and send to friends via your cell phone or internet. One of the first is the Love & Berry digital stage created by Sega and Teruten which debuted in April. Other videkura stages include Mushi King and Naruto where you can demonstrate your best fighting poses in action.

In Harajuku there’s the MYSQ (My Style So Qute) created by Ututu, Co. where people can step into a white-walled booth and with their hands and feet, create a personalized video with different effects and music. They then enter in a code or scan a code with their cell phones and the personalized video is uploaded onto their cell, which they can then pass onto to friends’ cell phones or share online.

If you combine the fascination with purikura and now videkura, not to mention old-school karaoke, it’s easy to see where the possibilities with type of entertainment are heading, such as a plethora of new YouTube videos using videkura, advertising and marketing enhancements to personalized prints and videos, and several new dimensions to personal entertainment and distribution in general.