Inflatables

I avoided having any inflatable characters In the Idle Idol book as they didn’t quite fit in. Going to the Tokyo international Anime Fair last week I spotted quite a few inflatable characters so thought it would make an interesting collection for the website.

The first character is Mr Earth, the mascot for Tokyo’s Shibaura Water Recyling Center. Check google maps to see a huge version of him painted onto their reservoir tanks.

Next we have Otosan the softbank dog and Docomodake the Docomo mushroom. Both mascots are for Japans two biggest mobile phone providers. Otosan (Japanese for dad) stars in the softbank adverts. He also has his own DVD showing his daily life.

The huge Stitch was in Akihabara. Stitch is extremely popular in Japan. It was a Japanese animation company who produced a spin off animation set on a fictional Okinawa island. Next we have a random pink ball from somewhere near Ueno, Then Pickachu and Maneki Neko. The large boy with glasses is Detective Conan a popular character from the Case Closed manga. The penguin is the Suica mascot, Suica is a rechargeable smart card for use on the trains, in convenience stores and at vending machines. The big mouthed guy in the hat is Karuojisan who’s the character for a brand of crisps. The big lion was on some random pachinko building in Tokyo.

Space Battleship Yamato

Tokyo International Anime Fair

I went to the 2010 Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF2010) on Sunday and found many Idle Idols. The event was held in Tokyo Big site in Odaiba.

The first character is a large inflated Mameshiba. Be sure to watch the videos, where he teaches you interesting facts. Pacman, Kuchipatchi (from Tamogotchi) and Totoro also float above the many booths. An unusual Optimus Prime from a new animated series stands beside a Transformers booth. The yellow robot is called Omotchama from the anime Yatterman. The female dressed in yellow is Yuki Mori from the anime Space Battleship Yamato. The anime will soon be released as a live action movie staring Meisa Kuroki as Yuki. Finally Monkey from an animated version of ‘Journey to the West’.

Mario

In Naha, Okinawa’s capital you’ll find Kokusai-dori a long street lined with endless tourist shops and restaurants. This might be boring if it wasn’t for all the different mascots the shops have outside in an attempt to stand out from the rest. Walking along the street I spotted not one but two Marios. The third Mario was found in Tokyo on another island. This time in the Panasonic centre on the man made island – Odaiba.

Some non-idle idol pictures added as I thought they would be interesting. The mental looking Mario was spotted in Akihabara. Its a hand drawn label attached to a Yoshi toy. Mario appeals to his friends and asks them to buy the toy. The final picture was taken in Osaka. A group of around 10 people sped past Sankaku Koen (Triangle Park) on quads. There were at least 3 dressed as Mario, trailed by Waluigi, Luigi and Yoshi.