They're painful. So painful that pedestrians can't help staring at them and real girls stay away from their owners.
The heavily decorated vehicles called "itasha" have been experiencing a nationwide resurgence lately, reflecting Japan's "anime" craze. Combining the words "itai" ("painful") and "sha" (vehicle), itasha are literally "painful cars" with exteriors pimped out in tacky illustrations or stickers of female animation characters.
The cars tend to grab attention, especially when five of them line up in Tokyo's electronics mecca of Akihabara, the hub of "otaku" (geeks).