Life In Japan: Gudetama
I’m gonna go ahead and assume that you are familiar with Hello Kitty. Arguably one of the first true Japanese pop culture icons, Hello Kitty is famous all over the world and stands as a steadfast symbol of Japan’s kawaii-culture, despite the relatively unknown fact that Kitty is actually Taiwanese. That’s not true, but you believed it for a second, didn’t you? Although you’re most likely aware of Hello Kitty, you might be less aware of her origins. Specifically, her parent company, Sanrio and her family of cuddly co-characters, the most recent of which also happens to be the most bizarre; the lazy egg, Gudetama.
Gudetama; the lazy egg. His name comes from a play on the term ‘gudegude’ which means, lazy or unmotivated, and ‘tamago’, meaning egg. In 2013, when Sanrio held a vote to see which food based character their customers wanted more of, Gudetama lost to Kirimichan, an anthropomorphised
salmon cutlet, but it’s Gudetama that has really captured the hearts of the Japanese people. And no one is really sure why.
When the Japanese like something, they LIKE something. Mascots and characters are big money here and Sanrio have a reputation for being better at churning them out than most. That said, anyone familiar with their work will know that Gudetama is a sharp break from their usual formula. He’s not immediately cute, he doesn’t really do anything, his catch phrases are ‘muri‘- (“I can’t…”) and ‘dari‘- (“I’m lazy…”) and many, myself and several of my Japanese friends included, initially found his passing resemblance to some kind of honey-mustard fetus more than a little creepy, so what did it? What changed everyone’s mind? There’s only one thing that ever could. The most powerful, most influential, unstoppable and insidious force in all of Japan; animation.
Gudetama slouched his way to fame, and 489,000 Twitter followers, through a string of 3 minute shorts aired on television here and on YouTube everywhere else. There’s something undeniably charming and funny about them, and while I’m definitely a fan now, I still can’t tell you why. Watch a few for yourself and see what you think.
Coming into the summer months, Japan is getting super, super hot. Like, hot enough to grill bacon on my pasty Irish forehead, which you’d think would get me invited to more picnics, but sadly you’d be mistaken. With that heat comes the inevitable feelings of laziness and sleep-envy, and I can’t think of a better mascot for that feeling than Gudetama. Generally speaking, the Japanese work incredibly hard (and frequently, for incredibly long), so there’s something in Gudetama‘s perpetual inability to do… anything, that’s simultaneously hilarious and enviable. It’s almost poetic, really.
We can only wait to see if Gudetama will stand the test of time and become as iconic as his older Sanrio sister, and although my gut tells me he’s a passing fad, somehow, I don’t think he’ll mind being left alone.
