They’re especially nice for New Year’s, but you’ll want to use them all year long.

In Japanese culture, visual presentation is an important part of any special meal, and that doesn’t just mean the preparation and plating of the food, but the quality of the tableware it’s served on as well. So any proper foodie needs a cupboard stocked with various sorts of dishes, plates, and trays, and foodies who are anime fans too will definitely want to add these stylishly adorable mamezara plates featuring the creature cast of Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.

Mamezara translates literally as “bean plate,” and yes, you can use them for plating beans such as sweet kuromame and perennial pub favorite edamame.

Really, though, mamezara can serve as plates for any small morsels. That’s why Ghibli specialty store Donguri Kyowakoku is releasing them in time for New Year’s.

Traditionally, in Japan people spend the first few days of the new year eating osechi, an array of fancy foods each with a symbolic meaning that makes it a portent of prosperity in the year to come. In classical Japanese table setting, different foods are served on different dishes, so small plates like mamezara come in especially handy for an osechi meal.

Of course, you don’t have to use these Ghibli plates for osechi, and really, you don’t have to use them for food at all. They’re cute enough to serve as decorative display pieces, and also compact enough to work as desktop organizers in which to keep coins, keys, or other small items.

All three sizes of Totoros are represented: the gray big boy…

…midsize blue version…

…and tiny white Totoro.

▼ Ever noticed how the littlest Totoro is the only one without the crescent-shaped markings on its chest?

Meanwhile, Spirited Away fans can pick from No Face…

…mouse-form Boh…

…and Aburaya bathhouse customer Otori-sama.

All of the dishes are made in Japan, priced at 1,650 yen (US$11.90), and being offered at Donguri Kyowakoku branches and through the chain’s online store.

Related: Donguri Kyowakooku online store
Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Top image: Donguri Kyowakoku
Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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