Cute characters get artsy

Pikachu cars and Doraemon rice paddies inspired by cute Asian character brands

By La Carmina 4 November, 2009

Astro Boy train ticket mural

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Astro Boy! In 2008, Shinjuku’s Takashimaya department store mounted a 3.2 x 2.1-meter mural made from 138,000 recycled Tokyo Metro tickets. It depicts the manga hero with the new Fukutoshin train.

Astro Boy train ticket mural

A closer look at Astroboy.

Doraemon rice fields

In 1993, Inakadate, a village in northern Japan, began turning its rice fields into colossal canvases. Each year, volunteers meticulously plant four varieties of rice to recreate cultural images, such as samurai, Hokusai’s wave, and anime robot cat Doraemon.

cute bento pigs

Japan’s newest and kitschiest food fad is the art of the cute bento. Makiko Ogawa sculpted three little Momobuta piglets out of colored rice, dried seaweed, and ham.

Tom Sachs Hello Kitty

Bad-boy artist Tom Sachs is fascinated with Hello Kitty, calling her a “pure merchandising icon” with “an almost Buddhist sense of nothingness.” In 2008, he wowed New York City with three-meter-tall bronze figures of Kitty and Miffy weeping into a fountain of their own tears.

Pokémon car

Now that’s epic fandom: several Pokémon addicts have customized their cars to look like the squeaky yellow creature. In 2005, Toyota turned 10 vehicles into Pikachus, complete with Pokeball hubcaps and lightning-bolt tails.

Sapporo’s Snow Festival

Every year, big-eyed characters such as Anpanman, Keroro, and Rilakkuma get the cold treatment at Sapporo’s Snow Festival.

Antoinette J. Citizen

Antoinette J. Citizen blows up the 8-bit world of Super Mario Brothers in her 2008 room installation, “Landscape.”

Christel Weixelman

No canvas is too small for cute character art. Seattle manicurist Christel Weixelman painted Totoro and friends on her nails with acrylic craft paints and hot pink glitter.

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Who would have thought Hello Kitty and Super Mario Brothers would become modern-day muses? Artists are recreating their images, and other Asian icons like them, in inspired mediums, including rice paddies and snow.

Here’s a roundup of some of these massively cute works.

La Carmina writes about Harajuku pop culture and all things spooky-cute. She is the author of three books about Japanese pop culture and food, including "Cute Yummy Time" and "Crazy Wacky Theme Restaurants: Tokyo" -- for which she did all the photos and illustrations. Both books were released in October, accompanied by a U.S. major city book tour.

For more, please visit her website.

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Cute characters get artsy

Astro Boy train ticket mural

Astro Boy train ticket mural

Doraemon rice fields

cute bento pigs

Tom Sachs Hello Kitty

Pokémon car

Sapporo’s Snow Festival

Antoinette J. Citizen

Christel Weixelman

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