Gachapon toys for Japan’s “first manga,” Scrolls of Frolicking Animals, to be available next year

The medieval Scrolls of Frolicking Animals burst into the mainstream with museum exhibits. Soon, they’ll also be available in local gachapon machines!

Already many centuries old, the Choju-jinbutsu-giga (usually just shortened as the Choju-giga) is commonly considered to be the first manga in Japan. The picture scrolls, which are known as the Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Humans, show a variety of anthropomorphic animals in a number of scenarios, including sumo wrestling at night.

The scrolls have sort of burst back into the main stream thanks to museum exhibits in Japan both last year and this year. Though the exhibits are now finished, the Choju-giga is still popular, so it should come as not surprise that the animals will soon be turned into gachapon toys!

The toys, which are being produced by Bandai, will be available at towards the end of January next year from capsule machines across Japan. Each of the six capsules will cost 300 yen (about US$2.50) and will be about 40 millimeters (about 1.5 inches) tall.

The six gachapon figures in the line include: A frog wearing an eboshi (a Heian-period hat worn by men) which you can hang paperclips on, a cat in a hat that doubles a pencil holder, a rabbit in a sitting pose that can be hung on cups or glasses, a fox with a giant tail to hold your hair ties, a rabbit lying on its back that can be used to hold notes, and a frog figure designed to hold up your smartphone.

▼ Which do you prefer? A frog in a hat…

▼ Or a cat in a hat?

According to a press release from Bandai, Choju-giga is apparently quite popular with Japanese women, so a complete set might not be a bad idea for a Valentine’s Day present for your 20-something-year-old girlfriend!

▼ We’re sure she’d rather have a kitsune than chocolate.

It also looks like the figures can be put together to recreate scenes from the scrolls. For example, the smartphone-holding frog and the memo-holding rabbit are the same characters as the rabbit and frog wrestling in the image at the top of the page.

Now, we just really hope the figures will come to life at night and duke it out with each other!

Sources: Japaaan, ITMedia, Gashapon
Featured image: Wikimedia/ReijiYamashina; Bandai
Images: Bandai, Gashapon

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