Ask John: What Is Domo-kun?

Question:
I have been looking into Japanese television and I keep running across this thing called Domokun, a big brown monster thing that can be seen riding the subways of Tokyo or skating (real pictures, not anime). Could you please tell me what Domokun’s purpose is on Japanese TV?

Answer:
Japan has quite a attraction to odd cartoon style mascots ranging from animals like the mouth-less Hello Kitty, Afroken- a breed of dog with a chameleon-like afro haircuts, and Tarepanda the drooping panda (named after the Japanese word for drooping “tareru”); to children mascots including Ecoco Ice, the little penguin-themed mascot of Tohoku Electric Power and Dijiko, the cat-themed mascot girl of Gamers anime shops; to simply bizarre icons such as the ill tempered Kogepan- a humanoid piece of baked kogepan bread that’s angry and unwanted because it/he was cooked at bit too long and got burned, and the mascot of NHK television network, Domo-kun.

Exactly what Domo-kun is, is a mystery. He’s a brown cube with arms and legs and a very large mouth full pointy fangs. And he’s not particularly bright. Domo-kun’s name is a combination of the Japanese word “domo,” which is often used as an abbreviated form of “thank you” and the “honorable” suffix “-kun” often applied to the names of young boys. The name is appropriate because Domo-kun gained fame through appearing in a series of short serial commercials aired last year advertising NHK broadcast satellite television and in brief commercial appearances after shows thanking viewers for watching. Domo-kun quickly found fame outside of commercial appearances and now has a full line of stuffed dolls, a career in public appearances and even a Gameboy Advance game- a collection of mini-games.

The original puppet animation Domo-kun television shorts are available in DivX AVI format from Domo-kun Mayhem and in QuickTime format from Claancy.net.

Screenshots of the Gameboy Advance game are available from Video Game Museum.

And finally, the official English language section of the Japanese Domo-kun homepage.