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Yuru-chara (Anime style cartoon mascot ) collection in Japan.

Matome Entertainment
Sunday, January 08, 2017 at 09:19
Do you know what Yuru-Chara is?
Yoru-Chara means anime-style cartoon muscott character which looks either cute or weird and often fluffy.

Japanese people tend to love cute and fluffy characters.
The very beginning of yuru-chara was at 1980 with the booming of local exhivisions in Japan.
The first of well know yuru-chara is Hiko-nyan, which is the mascot character of Hikone Castle at Shiga prefecture.
Hiko-nyan became so famous quickly. And his (her?) success inspired other prefectural goverment or companies and started to make new Yuru-charas.

The best hit Yuru-chara so far is said to be Kumamon, who earned approx 300mil USD while the cost is merely 1mil USD.
Even now, many Yuru-charas are being made to advertise a prefecture or company.
Somo of them failed, some of them made a great success.
In this article, let me introduce some of famous or award winning mascots characters.

Best 10 Yuru-chara list!

Kumamon
Kumamon
Kumamon was created to become a mascot character of Kyushu shinkansen bullet train.
The most famous Yuru-chara ever.
Funasshi-
Funasshi-
Unofficial mascot character of Funabashi city, Chiba prefecture.
He is said to be a fairy of Japanese pear.

He is noisy and suffered from mythomania but actually straightforward guy.
Bary-san
Bary-san
The official character of Imabari city, Ehime prefecture.
He is a chicken with cockscomb that is shaped after Kaikyo Ohashi bridge that is the famous sightseeing spot of Imabari city.
chicchai-ossan (Small Old Guy)
chicchai-ossan (Small Old Guy)
Chicchai-Ossan (Small Old Guy) is an unofficial character of Amagasaki city,Hyogo prefecture.

He is 45-year-old, jobless guy who likes to drink so much.

He is said to be a best friend of Funasshi-
Chi-ba kun
Chi-ba kun
Chi-ba kun is an official character of Chiba Prefecture.
Chi-ba kun has the same shape as Chiba prefecture it self.

Designed by Chiharu Sakamoto who also designed the penguin of Suica train IC card.
Gunma chan
Gunma chan
Official Yuru chara of Gunma Prefecture.
Designed after Pony.
Melon bear
Melon bear
The official character of Yubari city, Hokkaido.

It used to be a normal bear in the past.
But after eating delicious melon of Yubari city he change to be a scary look like this.
Nobody knows what happened...
Okazaemon
Okazaemon
The official character of Okazaki city, Aichi prefecture.
He is designed after Kanji "岡崎".

He used to be just a painting but said to have escaped from painting and show up to many events at Aichi prefecture.

He is said to be married and divorced once and got 1 kid called Okazaemon Jr.

Creepy Yuru-Chara Collection

Some of Yuru-Charas are so creepy.
I wonder how they came up with these ideas.

Let's see that kind of Yuru Charas.
zu-shi-hokki-
zu-shi-hokki-
Yuru chara of Hokuto city, Hokkaido

Designed after Sushi.

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