Take This Anime Avatar As Your Lawfully -Wedded Wife

It must have been love at first Love Plus video game encounter.

When Japanese Sal9000 ( that's how he wants to call himself) started fiddling on adolescent "love video games" via his portable Nintendo DS, little did he knew that his curious foray into teen games and video avatars would traverse a not-so-downtrodden path: having a love affair with a teen ladylove avatar.

And that's not all, folks. This one, a love affair for the books: being a first-time occurrence of ending up in wedded bliss. The real thing.

Check out BoingBoing.Net's report:

"The man, who calls himself SAL9000, was so in love with Nene Anegasaki that he decided to marry her and take her on a honeymoon to Guam. Of course, this means that he literally just took his Nintendo DS to Guam... while there, he took photos, livecast their adventures on popular video-sharing site Nico Nico Douga, and documented their adventures using the augmented reality iPhone app Sekai Camera. In any case, the guy plans on having a public reception in Tokyo this Sunday. It will be livecast on Nico Nico Douga, but in case you miss it, we'll be bringing you an update early next week. Stay tuned!"

And the video game couple's followers, following the love story as reported by Lisa Katayama over BoingBoing.Net, did stay tuned.

And it was wedded bliss alright, happening last Sunday November 20th: Sal9000 married the love of his life , a teenaged schoolgirl avatar in Love Plus Nintendo DS video game named Nene Anegasaki, with the "wedding rites" held at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. A real Japanese priest , all-human, celebrated the exchange of marriage vows between the two, with an attending live audience, and the presence also of MC -- he bride's virtual video game girlfriend -- delivering a speech for the virtual schoolgirl bride.

The event was livecast on Nico Nico Douga, a popular video sharing web site : 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!" the Boing Boing report said.

And just recently, while traipsing and frolicking to their , or his , heart's content -- the wedded couple cruising the beaches of Guam and its tourist spots recently took time out from their honeymoon to thank writer Lisa Katayama , for all the "support" and extensive media coverage of their much controversial love affair.

The couple wrote , courtesy of Sal9000 -- the blushing bridegroom:

"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."

"Both the actual wedding space and the livecasting website were full on the day of our wedding — 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

And while the frolicking in that Guam honeymoon continues, another lovestruck fellow, Nisan from Tokyo, tells his story on falling in love with Nemutan, another videgame ladylove in blue bikini -- her image drawn in a throwpillow, and her bright blue eyes having Nisan as smitten as can be.

Check out the love story:

Nisan didn't mean to fall in love with Nemutan. Their first encounter -- at a comic-book convention that Nisan's gaming friends dragged him to in Tokyo -- was serendipitous. Nisan was wandering aimlessly around the crowded exhibition hall when he suddenly found himself staring into Nemutan's bright blue eyes. In the beginning, they were just friends. Then, when Nisan got his driver's license a few months later, he invited Nemutan for a ride around town in his beat-up Toyota."

They went to a beach, not far from the home he shares with his parents in a suburb of Tokyo. It was the first of many road trips they would take together. As they got to know each other, they traveled hundreds of miles west -- to Kyoto, Osaka and Nara, sleeping in his car or crashing on friends' couches to save money. They took touristy pictures under cherry trees, frolicked like children on merry-go-rounds and slurped noodles on street corners. Now, after three years together, they are virtually inseparable.

"I've experienced so many amazing things because of her," Nisan told me, rubbing Nemutan's leg warmly. "She has really changed my life." Nemutan doesn't really have a leg. She's a stuffed pillowcase -- a 2-D depiction of a character, Nemu, from an X-rated version of a PC video game called Da Capo, printed on synthetic fabric. In the game, which is less a game than an interactive visual novel about a schoolyard romance, Nemu is the loudmouthed little sister of the main character, whom she calls nisan, or "big brother," a nickname Nisan adopted as his own when he met Nemu."

When I joined the couple for lunch at their favorite all-you-can-eat salad bar in the Tokyo suburb of Hachioji, he insisted on being called only by this new nickname, addressing his body-pillow girlfriend using the suffix "tan" to show how much he adored her. Nemutan is 10, maybe 12 years old and wears a little blue bikini and gold ribbons in her hair. Nisan knows she's not real, but that hasn't stopped him from loving her just the same. "Of course she's my girlfriend," he said, widening his eyes as if shocked by the question. "I have real feelings for her."