Japanese City Blatantly Rips Off Pikachu For Mascot
- Thread starter vansau
- Start date
To be honest it's the face that resemble Pikachu (the cartoon body is still different enough) and they really should of kept the body structure the same for the costume (big wide head). Well I guess those copies Pokemon game had found the real mascot since they are scrapping that one.
The newest games sold 2.6 million copies in Japan during the first two days.werewolfsfury said:
I just don't know how they think they could get away with this. This is like some town in America recoloring mickey mouse green and sticking some leaves on for ears.
1000 yen says that whoever the designer was knew exactly what they were doing. They were probably bored or hit writer's block, threw a dart at a dartboard of popular children's characters, changed it up just a little bit, and hoped nobody would notice. Well, they noticed. Personally, what with the prevalence of cute mascots attached to all sorts of PSA campaigns here, and with the sheer abundance of pokemon available to use, Nintendo could actually score some pretty good PR if they licensed out pokemon to use as those mascots to promote public awareness for stuff such as recycling.
"Hey kids! Pikachu can't stand there and generate power all day for you! It wants to play, too! Give it a break and save some power!"
"Remember to keep Sudowoodo's home clean! Throw away your trash, and recycle!"
"Don't waste water or else Gyarados will F***ING DEVOUR YOU!"
Yeah, great PR...
"Hey kids! Pikachu can't stand there and generate power all day for you! It wants to play, too! Give it a break and save some power!"
"Remember to keep Sudowoodo's home clean! Throw away your trash, and recycle!"
"Don't waste water or else Gyarados will F***ING DEVOUR YOU!"
Yeah, great PR...
Well, the drawing doesn't resemble Pikachu that much (though it still looks like a pokemon) but the costume just looks like a repurposed pikachu costume.
If they made it more like the drawing - wider head, point for a nose, and a different smile shape it wouldn't be such a blatant rip-off.
Note that this is a certain drawing style widely used in Japan. There are many anime characters who look very much alike.
If they made it more like the drawing - wider head, point for a nose, and a different smile shape it wouldn't be such a blatant rip-off.
Note that this is a certain drawing style widely used in Japan. There are many anime characters who look very much alike.
Someone finally gave Pikachu the option of using elemental stone for evolving into.. new Pikachu's.
Dear god. Also.. no f'ing way they didn't honestly think it'd escape anyone's notice..
Dear god. Also.. no f'ing way they didn't honestly think it'd escape anyone's notice..
What balanced journalism! Hey, Escapist! If you have no one on staff that can speak Japanese, I'd be glad to work freelance for you.
The video included goes into more detail about the situation. Here it is: The city is saying that the design artwork of the character was intended to represent a thing of nature, hence the leaves for ears. They then contracted out the work to create a costume from the character design on paper, and the contracted designer came up with what you are seeing.
Considering the design drawing looks a lot less like Pikachu than the costume does, and that the city contracted out the costume design, it actually is really plausible that it was an honest mistake.
That said, as Doom972 noted, it's not like this is a fluke. Characters with gigantic eyes, animal features such as tails and big ears, and bubbly body types are pretty much par for the course in Japan. It's a style that combines the characteristics of early anime and manga (itself inspired by American comic books) and traditional Japanese mythology which heavily features mystical animals, especially foxes, tanuki, cats, and other furry creatures.
The video included goes into more detail about the situation. Here it is: The city is saying that the design artwork of the character was intended to represent a thing of nature, hence the leaves for ears. They then contracted out the work to create a costume from the character design on paper, and the contracted designer came up with what you are seeing.
Considering the design drawing looks a lot less like Pikachu than the costume does, and that the city contracted out the costume design, it actually is really plausible that it was an honest mistake.
That said, as Doom972 noted, it's not like this is a fluke. Characters with gigantic eyes, animal features such as tails and big ears, and bubbly body types are pretty much par for the course in Japan. It's a style that combines the characteristics of early anime and manga (itself inspired by American comic books) and traditional Japanese mythology which heavily features mystical animals, especially foxes, tanuki, cats, and other furry creatures.
