Living in a land full of mascots, I thought I’d seen it all….

Anyone familiar with Japan will know that it is densely populated with cartoonish mascots representing a wide range of governments and companies. There are even fringe groups of rogue mascots operating without oversight.

When it comes to mascots we really thought nothing could surprise us anymore, until reports came out of the island nation of Indonesia that a whole new breed of mascot has been born, but perhaps shouldn’t have….

▼ “In Indonesia, a mysterious mascot appeared out of nowhere at night. It was disturbing, dirty, scary, moved in a strange way, and the balance of its body was weird.”

The tweet’s photos show what appears to be a 50-year-old baby with a greasy rave shirt and the half-mast eyes of someone who’s been sucking on a bottle of Dr. Guertin’s Nerve Syrup a little too long.

However, these still shots don’t really give us a sense of their ” weird balance” and the “strange way” that these mascots move. So it’s fortunate that that wasn’t the only sighting. Brace yourself for this video.

▼ “I saw a hand come out of their forehead,
and a tongue come from their mouth.”

▼ “I’ve seen a similar one.
It was unsettling, like their eyelid was twitching.”

Not much more is known about these characters. They appear to be a type of street performers as seen by their forehead holes that collect change from passersby.

Here’s what the mascot aficionados in Japan had to say:

“They look like yokai.”
“Do the locals enjoy this? It would never fly in Japan.”
“I call him Mr. Licky.”
“The photos were okay, but that movie I can’t handle.”
“They remind me of the ghosts of dead children.”
“When that tongue came out was funny… but gross.”
“Isn’t that the kid from EarthBound?“
“They’re no worse than Sentokun.”

Some comments also suspected that these might be characters from the popular Malaysian animated series Upin & Ipin.

There certainly is a resemblance, but I don’t know enough about the series to know if eyelid spasms and tongue flicking are running gags. And while they do appear a little off, “a little off” seems to be the gold standard for South East Asian street mascots.

They’re pretty wild, but I guess if they aren’t making any trouble for the locals, why not allow them to let their freak flag fly?

However, if these things ever set foot in Japan, we’ll have to send over SoraNews24’s own Hard Ku**mon and Satosshi in retaliation.

Indonesia, you’ve been warned.

Source: Twitter/@dignat_nd, Hachima Kiko
Featured image: Twitter/@koakumaenikki