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character goods

Classic Japanese character merch stars of the late ‘90s and early 2000s make comeback with San-X

Tarepanda and pals are back to put smiles on the faces of old fans and make new ones too.

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Mister Donut’s new collection of ghost characters brings a fun new twist to Halloween

Come for the spooky cute doughnuts, stay for their creative backstories.

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Mister Donut teams up with Sumikko Gurashi for the first time for adorable goods and donuts

They may be for kids, but that doesn’t mean adults don’t want them too!

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Japanese VTuber Usada Pekora’s new plum wine has a label drawn by Madoka’s character designer

Otaku across the generations can appreciate this plum wine, sourced from hundred-year-old plum trees!

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Kikkouchan the rabbit loves traditional Japanese tortoise shell bondage.

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Sailor Moon invites Sanrio character My Melody in on the fun for 25th anniversary celebration

Fans of magical girls and Sanrio, rejoice–this is truly a collaboration destined by moonlight.

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New Rilakkuma traditional Japanese sweets are ready to maul you with cuteness

Don’t feed the bears. Let them feed you instead.

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New anime features Nyanbo, the adorable box-shaped cardboard cat

Cats love cardboard boxes, so why not combine the two and create a cute new lineup of adorable characters?

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  • Jun 18, 2015

Disney meets classic Japan — see your favorite characters reborn as traditional Japanese crafts!

It’s no secret that Disney has been hugely successful in Japan. The Japanese anime industry may have cultivated a unique style over the years that’s quite different from that of the international entertainment giant, but the public here in Japan definitely seems to love all things Disney, from beautiful lingerie to adorable mini-cakes.

So we guess it’s not too surprising that Disney characters have now been recreated using traditional Japanese crafts, which is the concept behind the Disney Japan Classic Series of merchandise. Join us for a look at what delightful forms the familiar Disney characters have taken at the hands of traditional Japanese artisans!  Read More

It’s all about the isopod – Company pushes gifts and fashion featuring weird, sexy marine bugs

In Japan, where the market for character-based merchandise is intensely competitive, it’s not always easy to predict what’ll take off. Sure, it was easy to see Hello Kitty and Pikachu coming, since either one could serve as the accompanying illustration for the definition of “adorable” in the dictionary, but who’s going to be the next big star?

There’s a new dark horse entry to the character goods arena, with one company hoping Japanese consumers’ ravenous hunger for all things kawaii will lead them to embrace something so ugly it just might be cute, in the form of T-shirts, notebooks, and purses all featuring the humongous marine bug called the giant isopod.

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Disney fans go crazy for new character at Tokyo DisneySea

Tokyo DisneySea mascot Duffy the Bear has a brand new friend! And that means new character goods now on sale at the park, and of course hundreds of Disney fans eager to get their paws on them.

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It can take a while to wrap your head around the concept of “character goods” in Japan. It’s a term used to refer to licensed merchandise such as notebooks, stickers and figures featuring the likenesses of fictional characters. What sets character good apart from plain old cartoon or movie merchandising, however, is that its characters generally don’t appear anywhere else, and are created solely for the purpose of having an excuse to produce their associated knick knacks.

It’s a tradition that was firmly established by Hello Kitty, and carried on by newer characters such as Rilakkuma. A blending of the words “relax” and “kuma” (Japanese for “bear”), Rilakkuma is exactly what you’d expect, a bear who loafs around, usually depicted in the prone position.

But what if the world had greater things in store for Rilakkuma than just yawning and eating stack after stack of pancakes? If humanity needed a savior and destiny called, could he be bothered to pick up the phone?

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