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Kawaii Domo-kun
11/APR/2010 on air

Tokyo Kawaii TV has learned that Madonna loves Japanese kawaii from its exclusive interview with her!
Taylor Swift likes deco. Che’Nelle loves Domo-kun.

Speaking of Domo-kun, it’s been 11 years since he was born. Domo-kun has been so popular in the U.S. At a toy store in New York, for example, Domo-kun is the most popular character. Surprisingly, Domo-kun is used as an icon of a major convenience store chain in the U.S! Nintendo DS’s game (for the U.S only) also has Domo-kun inside the game! Actually it’ not only the U.S but around at 150 countries, Domo-kun appears on TV!!

Who created Domo-kun? It’s Goda-san, an animation creator. He however is worried if Domo-kun is well-received by the teenagers in Japan. He wants to know how to promote Domo-kun to the people in their teens. How Domo-kun is received by the people in Shibuya? While some people find it cute, others say it looks like a mole, dowdy, no way to be cuter, and etc. Then how can they make Domo-kun cute enough to make young girls in Shibuya say “Kawaii!!”.

It was in February 2010 that Taylor Swift visited Japan for the first time. She loves deco. Her guitar’s got fully decorated with swarovski stones. 3 Japanese deco artists had a chance to promote their works to her. Watanabe-san, who has Ayumi Hamasaki or Ai Fukuhara (table tennis player) as his customer, made deco hina doll for Taylor. Suzuki-san, a flower deco specialist made flower deco slippers, and Saeki-san made a guitar strap for Taylor.

Che’Nelle visits Harajuku several times incognito. She comes here to shop sneakers of its sales only limited to Japan. She also enjoyed shopping at Atmos Girls.

Which Domo-kun is most kawaii?
Shibuya-kei Domo-kun seems popular in the city.

*The last part is a preview of the next episode.

Kirin’s opinion:
I’ve heard Domo-kun is well-known in the U.S but I didn’t know he was this popular~~! Why only Domo-kun can be so well-received by American people while there are many other cute characters in Japan? They just don’t know the rest of them? Just Hello Kitty and Domo-kun? Or maybe its our fault that we, the Japanese may have failed to market our cute characters in the world. Only Domo-kun and Hello Kitty have so far succeeded in expanding in the world?? (How about Rilakkuma~~?)
BTW, I found cute Domo-kun deco stickers!

Domokun deco stickers (a set of 3) designed by Tokyo Kawaii TV¥3,550more details

Do you know Domo-kun? Why do you think he was so well-received by American people? What do you think of Domo-kun?

Disclaimer: Tokyo Kawaii TV is a TV program owned and broadcasted by NHK Japan, and has nothing to do with this blog.

***There are archives of episodes listed under the page titled “Tokyo Kawaii TV” that is just located under the title banner of this blog.
***If you want to know the music that was used in the episode, please refer to this page and help yourself to find it by selecting the date when the episode was on air in Japan.