© 2010 Ballacorkish

© 2010 Ballacorkish

Zakumi – World Cup Mascot

I first discovered Zakumi whilst watching the South African world cup on tv, I was also multi-tasking by trying to play poker online and doing the ironing aswell as eating my lunch. The official mascot called Zakumi is a football loving leopard with bright green hair. His name comes from “ZA”, which stands for south Africa and “kumi”, a word that means ten in several African languages. Zakumi’s green and gold colours matches the uniform worn by their national football team. Apprently his hair is green so that he is better camouflaged on the football pitch.

Zakumi was born on the 16th of June 1994 the date coincides with Youth Day and the year is when South Africa became a democracy. He is a cheerful and sporty animal, he loves football and proud to be South African. The official Fifa site says this about him;

Zakumi is a jolly, self-confident, adventurous, spontaneous, and actually quite shrewd little fellow. He loves to perform and always follows his instinct and intuition, yet sometimes has the tendency to exaggerate a bit. You will often find him fooling about and teasing people but not in a mean way. He is warm-hearted and caring, and wants to make as many friends as possible.

Also on the Fifa site you can read a comic about the mascot, watch videos and see photos. If you’d like to make a cool looking papertoy Zakumi visit design on the rocks.

Special thanks to Ballacorkish for his two great Zakumi photos. To see another Idle Idol of the Korean / Japan mascots; the Spheriks click here. At the bottom of the page you’ll see all the world cup mascots. I think Zakumi is a great football mascot however my favourite is World Cup Willie but perhaps I’m being a little bit biased. Let us know your favourite world cup mascot in the comments. To find out more about the past world cup mascots click here.

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’.