We’ve introduced an anthropomorphized food character from Sanrio before on our site, but we now have another one that we’re keen to share with you, just because his personality (although we’re not quite sure if that word applies even when the subject isn’t a person, or even an animal) is so unconventional and unexpected. That’s right, if you thought all Sanrio characters were good and cheery, you may have to think again. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Gudetama, the lazy egg who doesn’t seem to want to do anything at all!
Sanrio’s egg-turned-mascot character gets its name from a combination of the words “gude“(pronouced goo-deh), which is a Japanese onomatopoeia for describing something or someone with no energy or strength, and “tama” from the word tamago, which means egg in Japanese. And sure enough, Gudetama is an egg that, well … seems to lack the energy to do anything active at all.
Gudetama actually has his own Twitter account, and his profile comment at the top says, “I really don’t feel like tweeting everyday. It’s such a bother. I’ll do it because the higher-ups tell me to, but I know I’m only going to be eaten in the end.” A grumpy egg who’s resigned to being cooked and consumed, now that’s certainly an unusual mascot character if we’ve ever seen one!
▼ The top image from Gudetama’s Twitter account with his unenthusiastic comment
And here’s a look at what Gudetama has been doing (admittedly, not much) in some of his tweets:
▼Here, Gudetama is completely relaxed in his egg shell, looking like he has no desire whatsoever to do anything.
▼Another shot of Gutetama in a totally apathetic pose
▼Most of the time, he seems to just want to sleep, in this case, under a blanket of bacon.
▼Or sometimes, he simply puts his head down and says, “No, no, I can’t do it anymore.”
▼In some cases, he actually tries to become a cooked dish, although here, he can’t quite seem to muster enough energy to finish saying the complete name of the dish, as he only manages to mumble, “Eggs bene … bene … di …”
▼Here, he’s shown soaking in a hot spring bath as an onsen tamago (hot spring egg), which is a kind of popular poached egg in Japan.
▼He’s even seen sliced into pieces, along with a comment that could be translated to something like, “Sometimes you just need to give up and cut your losses…”
▼Even on top of a bowl of rice as a part of a hearty breakfast dish, Gudetama looks like he doesn’t have much energy to move.
▼He even makes the occasional appearance as a real egg that’s ready to be eaten. He says in the tweet that if you first mix the egg and rice and then add soy sauce, it really enhances the flavor of the soy sauce.
Despite his apparently indifferent attitude to everything, Gudetama does seem to have a certain appeal. He has over 22,000 followers on Twitter, and he has even been made into a series of short animations, which is currently being aired each morning on Japanese national TV.
Here’s a collection of some recent episodes of the animations, each about a minute long:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFNUyl__hoIg1iIxNsf28sPori9P6CZoT
▼TBS, the TV station that broadcasts the animations, also sells the Gudetama goods below: chopsticks (600 yen [US$5.90]), keychain (500 yen [US$4.92]), ball-point pen (400 yen [US$3.93]), iPhone5 case (1,600 yen [US$15.73]), plastic folder (160 yen [US$1.57]) and stickers (200 yen [US$1.97])
So, how do you like Sanrio’s unusual egg mascot character? Visually, we think he looks kind of cute and his appearance just makes us want to poke at that plump, yellow yolk. We hope Gudetama will be around for a while, because we, for one, would be happy to see more images of the egg with a lazy attitude!
Source: Gudetama Twitter account
Photo of Gudetama goods: TBS Store website
All other photos: Gudetama Twitter account