Japanese City Blatantly Rips Off Pikachu For Mascot

[GamemasterAnthony]

To be honest...I thought Pikachu already WAS Japan's mascot!

Boy...and I thought that purple Sonic recolor as a future Olympic mascot was odd.

 

[Konaerix]

Wow...this is surprising.
I'd expect this kind of shit to come out of China or something, not Japan.
Well, whoever was in charge of the character design certainly isn't the smartest bloke out there.

 

[esperandote]

Friend: "Have you finish the design for the mascot?"
Designer: "No, I have until next week to finish it"
Friend: "The deadline is today"
Desginer: "Oh shi..."

 

[AstylahAthrys]

It's like they gave Pikachu a leaf stone and not a thunder stone to evolve it. Japan isn't nearly as sue-happy as Americans are, so there is a chance there won't be a copyright infringement lawsuit. Maybe since they've been caught they'll change it, but, hey, it is pretty darn cute.

 

[The Philistine]

It looks more like Pochacco with red cheeks.

Seriously, since when has Pickachu had a monopoly on red cheeks?

 

[TeeBs]

In all fairness Pokemon is really underground in Japan.

I... I'm pretty sure that that is a completely incorrect statement.

What about diglett?

 

[ZeroDotZero]

On paper it looked similar, but not too similar. The costume on the other hand looks identical to Pikachu. They could have gotten away with it if they made the costume a little more like it looked on paper.

 

[SD-Fiend]

In all fairness Pokemon is really underground in Japan.

I... I'm pretty sure that that is a completely incorrect statement.

What about diglett?

well... diglett is a special case

 

[Weaver]

Why does everything in Japan need a mascot?

 

[minuialear]

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.

Not really. Even if whomever they contracted had come to them with the costume that was eerily similar to Pikachu (and no, it's not just because of big eyes and the ears; the whole face practically looks like a carbon copy, for one), the city could have easily

a) stated that they didn't like design because it too closely resembled a Japanese icon that people would obviously associate it with,

b) had a new costume made, and

c) not use the costume that looks a lot like Pikachu in public, and wait until the costume looked more unique like the drawn art, and less like Pikachu.

That the city failed to attempt new designs and/or to hold off on using a costumed mascot until the costume was better distinguished from Pikachu, is still damning, regardless of whether their drawings are different. The costume couldn't have gone through all those checkpoints had the company actually gave a crap about the similarities between its costume and Pikachu (which aren't that hard to figure out).

 

[Bran1470]

i don't see it.

 

[Danpascooch]

Japanese City Blatantly Rips Off Pikachu For Mascot

​

What? Who is this Pikachu you speak of? We've never heard of him, and we totally didn't rip him off for our new recycling mascot. Ok, that last bit may be a bit untrue ...

It's not too often that city mascots come under fire for ripping off popular cartoon characters. However, that's just what's happening over in Ube City, Japan, where a new recycling mascot is a pretty blatant rip-off of Pikachu.

It turns out the city created the character Ecoha to promote recycling and environmental friendliness. That said, as you can see in the video here and the photos below, Ecoha bears more than a passing resemblance to the world's most famous Pokémon. Between the rosy cheeks, enormous eyes, ear placement, and color choice, there's really no feasible argument that this character design isn't a Pikachu rip-off.

Apparently a number of citizens had a problem with the design: "The city has received 96 comments from citizens. 82 of the comments could be categorized as complaints about how Ecoha looks too much like Pikachu."

The city has now decided to change the character's design. The fact that Ube City actually went so far as to not only OK the creation of this character and then promote it is a bit mind-boggling. Did officials actually think that no one would notice?

Source: Geeks Are Sexy

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Permalink

Wait, are you sure they didn't know? Because at 0:14 of that video the lady actually says "Pokemon-o"

 

[dmcc85]

so picachu finally goes green.
he was energy-wasting for a long time now.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Looks more like Pichu to me

The fact that that's the first thing I though of when I read the story as well makes me sad.

It's possible that the guy was just living under a rock and didn't know about Pokemon or that he thought it was different enough but yeah that was pretty dumb. I'm surprised no one thought to stop this thing before though and they waited for citizen feedback to change the thing.

 

[Rad Party God]

Well, it looks a bit more like Pichu than Pikachu. But yeah, I'm looking forward to the next design they'll come up with next time.

Maybe they'll come up with a green slime?

 

[Uber Waddles]

I dont see the resemblence, I'm sorry. Clearly one of them is an electic mouse, while the other is a yellow/offgreen bear with leaves for ears.

Maybe it was just a coincidence. Afterall, Pokemon as a series is pretty unknown. Theres no possible way this could have been on purpose, its not like having a Pokemon being a mascot for recycling would lure kids interests in.

Im fairly certain this is just everyone being cynical.

I think if I be any more sarcastic in this one post my face will explode, so I'll stop now.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Pikachu and Nosepas, yes?

I dont see the resemblence, I'm sorry. Clearly one of them is an electic mouse, while the other is a yellow/offgreen bear with leaves for ears.

Maybe it was just a coincidence. Afterall, Pokemon as a series is pretty unknown. Theres no possible way this could have been on purpose, its not like having a Pokemon being a mascot for recycling would lure kids interests in.

Im fairly certain this is just everyone being cynical.

I think if I be any more sarcastic in this one post my face will explode, so I'll stop now.

I was going to rip your ears off before I saw the last bit... well played, sir.

 

[Formica Archonis]

<IMG SRC="http://s91291220.onlinehome.us/formica/dentsumameshiba.jpg" align=right>What I want to know is where Mameshiba fits into this.