I got this from a good S-Pulse friend of mine. He came over it when back at his parent's house for New Year. It dates to the J. League's (and S-Pulse's) foundation and shows three options from which to vote for the team mascot, and three more for the club logo. Looks like with Palchan we got off veeeeeeery lightly.
Yes so funny It also stumbled over this 3 months ago so funny, also look at the colour of the uniform.... Blue...... btw. I fell over an old design of Kofu logo..... the same just green and red instead of blue.
I can't speak a word of Japanese, but I just can't imagine the crowd chanting about the opposition managers' wife and her sexual habits. Or that rival team X are all inbred ____s who have sex with their sisters. It just shows the different cultures we have, as mascots seem to be really popular over there judging by this thread, whereas anyone over the age of 6 in my country just thinks 'let's all laugh at that giant hairy c___.' And as for the S-Pulse mascot choice. Holy crap. That Rhino/dinosaur thing is rubbish. Personally, I would have something along the lines of Iron Maiden's Eddie.
Remember Japan is the country that invented Hello Kitty, Pokemon etc. Characters earn huuuuge amount of money in Japan, and no organisation or companies can live without a popular character, just look at the cute rabbit dressed in police uniform used as a sign on some police boxes. Cute characters is defining corporate identity nowadays, not overall design as would be in the west. They call it the character war and afterall Japan is the country of Cute culture.
Yep. Check out the various police mascots from each prefecture, this gathering of mascots from the Tokai/Hokuriku area, go look up the Nara mascot controversy (sadly I can't find a link to the story where all three (!) competing mascots got together and hugged it out)... they love their mascots here. In this case, mascots appeal to the J-League's most valued audiences: women, and children. Give the kids something to take photos with and the women something cute to get their boyfriends to buy merch of, and you're set.
I think Kyotos City police mascot is not there.... its not that mascot like but still the mascot a 19th. century Jyunsa (old word for cop) riding on horse. I've met the lord mayor of Nagoya city as their mascot Hachimaru But basically I think this digs much deeper than just kawaii and photos for the kids. Mascots in Japan is Image public image and branding. Its basically the same philosophy as corporate logos or corporate branding through image or design. Its just another way to brand than Shells Eco friendly commercials but has the same goal.
This is an interesting topic, and has reminded me of Doraemon. I used to watch it in Cantonese for a laugh when I lived in Hong Kong, as I cannot understand a single word of that language. Same for Dragon Ball Z, which is mental when the dialogue is incomprehensible. I also remember when I saw a very serious magazine like Time/The Economist (but Asian) had something on 50 greatest 20th Century icons of Asia. You had human rights activists from Sri Lanka, Indian political figures like Ghandi...........and Japan voted for Doraemon . It is all part of that cute culture that is so popular over there, from Hello Kitty to girl groups that dress up in school uniforms (though that may have other elements involved there). It is very different to Britain.
And after everything they've done to get me on board with their team... One step forward, eleventy steps back.
Not really new, just a re-design I guess, it was on the RSN even before Matsumoto was promoted to the JFL (http://www.the-rising-sun-news.com/...t&view=category&layout=blog&id=181&Itemid=227) Still, I like the way it is designed, even though it is not half as cool as Machida Zelvia's Zelvy.
The design at RSN was a design from Fregional League time, this design is a re-design from when Matsumoto got promoted to the JFL, on new about this is the pose and that Ganzu-kun has a girlfriend. I find the design of this mascot matching the soft lines in their club emblem so I like it.
I've not no real idea what is going on, but have enough of a post-boozing acquaintance with Lawsons karaage-kun to guess that this is some sort of tie-in with that. We get lots of special days at Level-5 stadium where local companies sponsor the match and bring along some mascot, it looks like Lawsons have brought along a walking version of their chicken nuggets (hence also the Lawsons uniform on the Tokyo mascot).
http://blaublitz.jp/whatsnew/4144.html Blaublitz's mascott is Blaugon. Those two characters are Namahage (the red one is called jiji-namahage and blue one baba-namahage). A part of Akita's folklore.
Can you also translate this Majster2 TDKサッカー部クラブ化実行委員会が一般公募し、にかほ市の女性のものが採用された。「ブラウ」はドイツ語で「青」、ブリッツは「稲妻」の意味である。 エンブレムは、TDKサッカー部の魂を受け継ぐ形で形は変わらず、中に秋田の象徴なまはげと稲妻(ブリッツ)をとり入れた。 or at leats why they have a german name of a team? p.s. too bad those two arent the mascot. That bastard kid with his drawing