My Neighbour Totoro characters are too cute to use!

In Japan, the soot sprites from the 1988 Studio Ghibli film My Neighbour Totoro are known as “Makkuro Kurosuke“, with “makkuro” meaning “pitch black“, “kuro” meaning “black” and “suke” being a common ending for boys’ names.

Despite their relatively plain appearance, these large-eyed dust dwellers display so much character that they’re just as adored as the bigger forest characters from the film, and now you can own a bunch of them, thanks to the Ghibli-licensed retail chain Donguri Kyowakoku.

Called Kurosuke Keshigomu, which translates to “Kurosuke Erasers“, this new set of character goods is cute and functional, although given their cute appearance you’ll probably have a hard time using them.

But that’s okay, because even if you don’t use them, they make for an adorable display on your desk, as they’re packaged up in a glass jar that’s sealed tightly with a cork stopper.

The cork stopper is firmly pressed down with a piece of tape, so if the cheeky soot sprites do come to life and try to run for the dark corners of your room when you’re not looking, they won’t be able to!

There are 10 cute erasers in each bottle, with each one measuring just 1.5 centimetres (0.6 inches) in diameter.

The jar of soot sprites retails for 715 yen (US$6.28), and although they’re currently sold out at the Donguri Kyowakoku online shop, they’re still in stock at some of the chain’s brick-and-mortar stores.

The fact that they’re hard to find in Japan is quite fitting, given their elusive nature and tendency to hide from humans in the film. So if you’d like to find them, you’ll have to channel your inner Mei and go on a hunt for them, or you can simply settle for catching Soot Sprites from these special gacha capsule toy machines.

Source: Donguri Kyowakoku via Nijimen
Featured image: Studio Ghibli
Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku
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