Okasaki mascot ‘Okasaemon’ relaxes at home.
Just last week we saw the introduction of governmental ‘yuru-kyara’ [‘relaxing character’] mascots in the form of a cartoon Abe and Ishiba, and now netizens are talking about the new ‘yuru-kyara’ mascot for Okazaki city in Aichi Prefecture.
The new character, known as ‘Okazaemon’, has filled netizens with a mixture of horror and delight, and photographs of the mascot soon started trending online, accompanied by articles in major newspapers.
Okazaemon certainly is an interesting choice as a mascot to promote a city, but it seems as though the local council might have struck gold with their ‘creepy-cute’ combo character…
From Asahi.com:
Okazaemon: Both Creepy and Cute? New City Mascot For Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture
Okazaemon hands out leaflets for the Aichi Triennale at Okazaki Castle.
A new mascot was chosen for Okazaki (Aichi prefecture) on April 1st as part of efforts to promote the city’s arts and culture. The new mascot, referred to as ‘yuru-kyara’ in Japanese, is called ‘Okazaemon’ and will be used as part of the PR for the upcoming Aichi Triennale 2013, scheduled to be held in Okazaki from August 10th to October 27th.
Okazaemon was created by the contemporary artists Sai and Koheita, both originally from nearby Nisshin, who entered the character as an exhibition in last year’s art festival. Okazaemon’s face resembles the character 岡 (oka), whilst the character 崎 (zaki) appears on his chest; the two characters together spell out the city’s name in Japanese. Okazaemon’s surreal image has lead to him becoming a trending topic online. The city’s mayor, Yasuhiro Uchida, described Okazaemon as Okazaki’s Minister for Arts Promotion, even going so far as to present him with a formal letter of appointment at Okazaki Castle as people who had gathered for cherry blossom viewing there looked on. As Okazaemon walked around the grounds handing out leaflets for the arts festival, the general consensus seemed to be that “he freaks me out, but somehow he’s also really cute.”
Pictures from Hamusoku.com:
Comments from Hamusoku.com:
ハムスター名無し:
Looks like something out of a dream www
ハムスター名無し:
No way, that thing is scary!
ハムスター名無し:
(*´ω`*) It’ll definitely get popular!
ハムスターちゃんねる:
Looks like a cockroach from the manga Terra Formars.
ハムスターちゃんねる:
This… is bad.
ハムスター名無し:
I see they’ve included the recent trend of centering the parts of the face in the middle. Photo 4: his hand is sticking out!! wwwwwww his hand wwwwwwwww
ハムスターちゃんねる:
I feel like I can sense his insanity….
ハムスターちゃんねる:
What the hell is this Σ(￣□￣;)!!
ハムスターちゃんねる:
Genuinely freaked out by this wwwwwww
ハムスターちゃんねる:
Comments from Twitter:
桜花:
If this came running up to me, I’d cry wwwww
Masato Iwamoto:
New cult!! www. Looks like it’s going to call down UFOs www
ロンパクリアしたい漣:
No choice but to go to Okazaki now.
わろすオブジョイトイ（大人ノ玩具）:
He looks like me.
どろ@あばよ！:
If I saw this at night, I’d die…
Hiroshi_nhat_YOSHIWO:
All I can think is that someone from one of Okazaki’s rival towns must have submitted this design…
タマちゃん@がんばらない:
He’s wearing regular sneakers! At least do something about that www
Kenji Shimizu:
If this is the PR for the Aichi Triennale, maybe I shouldn’t go? w
Y-I全原発即廃炉！再稼働絶対反対!:
