Worst Image Character of Japan - Top 3 2009

Before I kick this epic post off properly into it's full glory, my own personal stance to the topic in question should probably be clarified.

As many of my readers probably know, "Image Characters" are very popular here in Japan. Plenty of companies and institutions have these characters to "soften" the message and to help illustrate whatever the message is in a cute way. Personally I don't have any problems with this approach although I know quite a few foreigners here in Japan, and a few Japanese as well I should add for good measure, who thinks these image characters are stupid and the concept in itself is for children and not for grown men.

However, sometimes these character really don't hit the mark... The larger companies go with surefire characters, homegrown such as Hello Kitty, Doraemon, Atom Boy or imported ones such as Snoopy, Moomin, Miffy or similar. The cuteness of those well established character brands is well established so there is little risk of missing the mark. Even if you can't afford to get the actual Hello Kitty license, you can at least try to get the Keroppi license...

With that lengthy and cumbersome disclaimer out of the way, let's get the real post on the road! As you might understand, this post deals with those characters that weren't... well... maybe that well thought out? Characters that fail to evoke that feeling of affection and just plain miss the mark, by far.

Worst Characters of Japan

Number 3 - The Keisei Panda

Well, this character just makes me uncomfortable... You would think that it's hard to use a panda and not get the "cute" right, but this Panda is anything but cute, I'm not sure but I think it's the mouth that gives it a slightly creepy look. The Panda is the official character of the Keisei Railways credit cards and to it's credit it has to be said that it's thankfully not very well known among the general public and I have a feeling it never well. Let's just not mention the weird backstory about how he came to earth from the rich and bountiful "Panda Planet", sent by his father to save the earth...

Number 2 - Kuutan, the Narita Airport Character

This one just feel so off the mark in so many ways... In a bid to improve the image of the Narita airport this character was created a few years ago. You would think that a better way to increase the image of the airport would be to make it more accessible and customer friendly instead of paying some stupid agency tons of money to come up with this lame design... To it's credit, the backstory is hardly there at all and Kuutan keeps a very low profile these days...

Number 1 - Sentokun, the Nara Prefecture Character

The worst of the worst, the image character of the ancient capital of Japan and home of the free roaming deers and beautiful buddist temples; Nara. I've been to Nara quite a few times and it's really an amazing place that I would recommend people to visit even if in Japan with limited time. It's less hectic than Kyoto but contains many impressive temples in a calm and nice environment. But then... this character? I believe that a mix of buddism and deers was the general concept for this one, but what they came up with was just plain... .... disturbing... His favorite foods are stated to be "tasty things from Nara", that is just a pretty obvious sign of "character creating block"... Sentokun is the well deserved winner of the "worst character of Japan 2009"!

(I'm sure that there are plenty of other bad seeds out there, so if you have any other really bad characters in your mind, please drop a line in the comments and I might follow this one up with a full top 10, I'm sure the material is out there...)