Character Expo 2005 (yes 2005! )was held in Omotesando Spiral. This year's concept was "past, present, future". Past is old character section. Gonta kun appeared in an old educatinal TV program "Dekiru kana"(I loved it!), Koeda chan was a popular girls toy in the 70s. Monchi-cchi is old enough, but it is in present the section, because they are having a revival.
Not only big names like Hello Kitty, Post Pet, Qoo, Gloomy(my post), The Japanese like cute (sometimes violent anyway) characters so much. Actually even a warnings and caution panel have some characters. This is the caution message on Train door. Why cat? it couldn't be that cat is in the train. In Japan, all under construction panels have an illustraion of a guy who bowing, this is the under construction guy collection site. Every guys says "sorry for inconvenient". And around elementary schools, you will see this type of runing boy. They all say , " Do not run into the street". This site collects dentist panels. To make a good image for kids, many dentist panels have an animal character on them. Because of its big teeth, the Rabit is the most popular animal for dentists they say.
Since such characters are so common in Japan, people often try to add something onto their panels, so sometimes you have to see too much ugly something on a panel. Look at this Ugly Snoopy!, What is this?, maybe Tanuki ? maybe car? They wanted to make it a pretty one like Neko Bus from Totoro. At least that what I suppose. This weird panel is a warning for fire, she is crying because "my memories were burned out"..... crazy panel.
(°0°).....I WANT A HK PHONE STRAP!! Corporate America needs to lighten up and get cute. I mean Starbucks could use Mr Bean for their mascot..right? the burnt toast guy is cool.. I have a couple of pens and pads with him on it...but someone stole my Oyaji burnt toast keychain..@#*!!
Posted by: robert | Friday, December 31, 2004 at 12:10 AM
I like Panda-Z and Kogepan. It's kind of funny to have a character made of burnt toast. Monchhichi I remember from a long time ago. What I used to find so amusing was when every different bank had a different cute mascot, so you could pick your bank by what cute character you wanted on your cash card: Kitty-chan, Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, Paddington Bear. Even the utilities and transit systems have cute characters, like smiling buses and things like that. Nothing like that here. The "brand image" in America is not to be cute and friendly. I've seen oyaji in Japan with Hello Kitty phone straps...you wouldn't catch too many guys with that kind of stuff here, unless they were buying it for their daughters.
Posted by: Claire （クレア） | Thursday, December 30, 2004 at 10:01 AM
of course if being still only shortly after christmas you can have fun by playing ALL the bearsin the first few notes of "Joy to the World" like so:
(again numbered from left to right)
8765, 4321, 56, 67, 78...see??!!! oh my gosh! simply hours of entertainment!
(¬__¬)... he's completely lost it.(°__°) I know. I know.
♥ :þ
Posted by: robert | Wednesday, December 29, 2004 at 12:53 PM
sorry..that first line should read...3212333222355. guess my fingers weren't as awake as I thought they were. ;p
Posted by: robert | Wednesday, December 29, 2004 at 12:43 PM
ha.. I wish I could see the "memories burned out" panel..it would be funny for a computer to say that. ;p I LOVE this aspect of Japanese culture. The cat on the train..so graphic! Yes..odd, but so FUN! and Playboy dentist was funny.. maybe he has a different clientele... I wouldn't use him if I had to get anesthetized...no telling what kind of pictures might end up on the internet, and I wouldn't want just anyone seeing my root canal.
I read your other post about Gloomy. I love those bears! did you know you can play "mary had a little lamb" with those bears here numbered from left to right:
3 bear,2 bear, 1 bear, 2bear, 3,3,3, 222, 3, 5, 3
3,2,1,2,3333,22, 3, 2, 1 ...it's a little out of tune..but how fun is that??!! fall bears...fall!! YEAH!!
Posted by: robert | Wednesday, December 29, 2004 at 03:14 AM