Strange characters are not something new to Japan. An anthropomorphic egg, affectionately named “Gudetama” which literally translates to “Lazy Egg” in English is no exception. He is one of the new popular characters from Sanrio, a Japanese company specialized in creating cute characters. Beginning in 1963, Sanrio sells and licenses products branded with these characters and has created over 400 characters, with the most successful and best known being Hello Kitty. We have visited a dedicated Gudetama expo in Taiwan!
Meet Gudetama, the anthropomorphic embodiment of severe depression, according to pri.org.
The cute character is a cartoon egg yolk that feels existence is almost unbearable. It shivers with sadness. Yeah, it is a sad character and a lazy egg! It clings to a strip of bacon as a security blanket. Rather than engage in society, it jams its face into an eggshell and mutters the words, “Cold world. What can we do about it?
Gudetama Fever everywhere
According to japansubculture.com Gudetama’s cartoon is on in the mornings, and it only runs for about 90 seconds. Before the ending credits, the curtain closes on him and a group of kids say “itterasshai,” followed by a strange man in a full-body yellow suit dancing and wobbling around to the theme song. The character first appeared in 2013 and has been growing in popularity each years. For western people it may be difficult to understand why Japanese people find this character so cute and interesting, but they are so emotional about Gudetama. In Japan you will find him everywhere, including in Happy Meal, Big Mac on Mc Donalds and even Circle K gas stations have these cute character in their marketing. Also you find Gudetama credit card, which is pretty wild!
Gudetama is taking over all the egg products
The cute character also has many Japanese cultural references. He shows up in traditional Japanese dishes that contain egg. Examples include chuwanmushi, goya chanpuru, tamago-yaki, and and omu-rice. He shows his face when humans are about to eat him, similarly to the Mame-shiba character (a talking bean who has the face of a dog and tells the human a disturbing fact to make them lose their appetite and avoid getting eaten). The human is usually telling Gudetama “Gambatte” or “Do your best” and trying to motivate the lazy egg, who often responds with something like “I’ll do it tomorrow” or “I’m too tired.”
Learn about Japanese culture from the Buddha of eggs?
Who would have thought that you could learn about Japanese culture from a complaining, complacent egg?
There is something surreal about Gudetama as well. No matter how many times he gets beaten, fried, poked, and eventually eaten, he reincarnates and returns to earth to spread his message of laziness, apathy, and occasionally having a good time. He’s the Buddha of eggs.
Gudetama Expo in Taiwan Photo Gallery
The Sanrio character is huge in Japan but also in other countries. E.g Wuri in Taichung in Taiwan a huge “Expo”, and we were there. Have a look at our Gudetama Expo Gallery! It was a huge expo with so many cozy sceneries. The expo was also in Kaohsiung and Taipei before last stop Taichung.
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Sanrio’s character gudetama. ‘gude’ is tired in English, ‘tama’ is an egg. Due to the character’s popularity, a pop-up cafe has opened up in Solamachi, the shopping center under the Tokyo Sky Tree. It’s a very small space with bright yellow walls decorated with Gudetama in his many different forms, doing what he does best: complaining. The Gudetama Cafe features traditional Japanese egg dishes, takoyaki, musubi, and soda floats, all emblazoned with Gudetama’s distressed face on them. Join us to GudeTama Cafe at Tokyo Sky Tree(secound Tokyo tower) where we had 4 kinds of GudeTama foods, Gudeonigiri, Gudetakoyaki, Gudefloat and Gudemitsu and even Gudetama drinks.
Where can I read about Gudetama?
You can’t get enough of this lazy eggman? Now Distrita has done it even easier for you. We have collected everything about him, including videos, how-to guides, tutorials and a lots of egg-ziting products! Check out his brand new site at gudetama.distrita.com
Source: japansubculture.com,
