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Tokyo Weekender
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Tokyo Weekender
McDonald's Chiikawa Collab Causes Chaos and Controversy
McDonald's Japan released its highly anticipated Happy Set (Happy Meal) collaboration with popular character series Chiikawa on May 16. It sold out— in just two days. The collaboration features exclusive Happy Meal toys with various Chiikawa characters donning McDonald's staff uniforms. The first wave of toy releases — including a McDonald's cup-shaped pen holder with the titular character Chiikawa, a plastic calendar with the character Hachiware, a small container shaped like Usagi flipping a pancake and a rolling car featuring all of the characters — was scheduled to run from May 16 to May 22. However, McDonald's released a statement on May 18, notifying fans and customers that sales have ended prematurely due to most restaurants selling out of Happy Meals much earlier than anticipated. And while fan frenzy during new merchandise release days is typically nothing to cause a double-take, this particular occasion sparked quite the controversy, as viral social media posts showed alleged scalpers bulk-ordering Happy Meals solely to acquire the limited-edition toys and resell them at a markup. List of Contents: Chiikawa Fever Sparks Chaos Preparing for Upcoming Round Two Chiikawa's Kawaii Empire Related Posts Chiikawa Fever Sparks Chaos The promotion instantly became a chaotic event. An X post from release day got nearly 11 million views, after anonymously depicting a supposed scalper carrying a giant overflowing bag of Chiikawa toy boxes. The text translates, 'From a certain C-country…' — taking a Sinophobic turn for what was supposed to be a fun prize drop for children and fans to enjoy. Below the post, comments flooded with similar discriminatory sentiments. The post's top comment, with 169,000 views and 2,600 likes, suggested implementing the Kyokujitsu-ki imperialist rising sun flag or statements like 'long live Japan' into product packaging to dissuade resale in China. Another user angrily remarked how these individuals are 'anti-Japan, but want Japanese products.' マクドナルドの「ちいかわ＆マイクラ」ハッピーセットが中国人転売ヤーの爆買いにより即日完売。マックの中身は床に落ち、食べ物を何だと思っているのか？転売対策も虚しくフリマサイトに高額出品が相次ぎ、購入者から怒りの声。 ちいかわ公式サイトは販売終了を発表。 #中国帰れ #Chikawa — のうまにあ 願榮光 (@FreeAll_protest) May 18, 2025 Tension and frustration grew throughout the weekend. Another post went viral on X with over 16 million views. The video shows a McDonald's restaurant overrun with Happy Meal bags covering every counter surface in sight. The text claims that scalpers placed bulk mobile orders, snatched the coveted toys out of the takeout bags — and then abandoned the orders. The toys can't be purchased by themselves, so customers must buy the meal to receive a Chiikawa toy. With food continuing to pile up and some even spilling on the floor, it appears that McDonald's employees were forced to dispose of some of the innumerable uneaten meals. Many users reposted the video of food trays being chucked into the garbage bins, one X post with 24 million views perpetuating the narrative of Chinese resellers 'tarnishing childhood traditions.' While unverified allegations and Sinophobia continued to run rampant amid the mayhem, other users added disclaimers through X's user-submitted 'added context' feature to bring awareness to the fact that there is currently no evidence that the scalpers were of Chinese origin, or that all of the Happy Meals in the viral video were bulk-ordered solely for the toys. While McDonald's policy limited each guest to buy four Happy Meals, it seems like that rule was quickly overlooked. Toys immediately started to pop up on resale websites such as Mercari, for about six or seven times their original retail price. Some listings raised their markups to jaw-dropping levels such as ¥100,000 for a complete set of the four toys. Happy Meals start at ¥510. Preparing for Upcoming Round Two To the dismay of fans who were looking forward to getting their own Chiikawa and friends toys, McDonald's announced that the first wave of the collection has been prematurely suspended. The official statement thanks customers for sales far exceeding initial expectations, but does not mention any of the weekend controversy pertaining to food waste and scalper loopholes. The second installment of the collection release is still scheduled for May 23. The second wave features new exclusive toys, including a Chiikawa memo set, a Hachiware photo frame, an Usagi sticker dispenser and a Momonga pencil cap. Round two is intended to run through May 29, though based on the previous release it does not seem likely that that'll be the case. Chiikawa's Kawaii Empire Chiikawa originated as an online manga series written and illustrated by the mangaka known as Nagano. The series is named after the main character, Chiikawa (which translates to 'small and cute'), and follows adventures from daily life with friends like Hachiware, Usagi, Kurimanju and Furuhonya. The printed version of the series now has seven volumes, and has sold a total of over 2.7 million copies. In 2022, an anime television adaptation produced by animation studio Doga Kobo premiered on Fuji TV. Currently 260 episodes have been released. Fans of the series often cite their love of Chiikawa's relatability — the series explores themes of friendship, growing up and the everyday struggles that come along with it. Chiikawa's failures and continued persistence resonate with viewers who are experiencing similar hurdles. Related Posts A Chiikawa Park Is Coming to Tokyo in 2025 Manga Manners: How Sailor Moon and Eren Yaeger Are Teaching Japanese Etiquette in JR Stations Sonny Angels: The Viral Japanese Baby Figure Everyone Wants
SoraNews24
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- SoraNews24
Does Chiikawa's cuteness have a breaking point? Testing anime character's edible stickers【Photos】
Looking for the limits of Chiikawa and friends. Since Japan has an insatiable appetite for cuteness, it's only natural that the country is always searching for ways to make food cute. That search recently brought us to a way to incorporate the cast of anime/manga Chiikawa into our meals and snacks of, well, essentially anything. While poking around the official Chiikawa online store, we came across the Chiikawa Edible Stickers set, which gets you a sheet of illustrations of Chiikawa and friends made of thin strips of starch and agar. While they don't add any noticeable flavor or substantial texture, they do give food a sizable cuteness boost, and so we were eager to try them out ourselves. Though they're currently sold out on the official shop, we managed to find some on Amazon Japan here, priced at 270 yen (US$1.85) per sheet of 13 stickers. Sliding out the sheet, we were greeted by several stars of the main cast, including Chiikawa, Hachiware, Usagi, Momonga, and Kuri-Manju. With so many options to choose from, we decided to try using the Chiikawa Edible Stickers with a variety of different foods in order to test the limits of their cuteness-enhancing powers. We settled on a top-down approach, starting with foods that are already inherently cute, then working our way down to less-cute foods until they stopped making us go 'Awwwww!' when Chiikawa stickers are applied to them. ● Round 1: Sanshoku dango This traditional Japanese sweet of a trio of mochi dumplings doesn't really need any help being cute, as the bright colors and playful atmosphere of eating them straight from the skewer is enough to put a smile on our faces already. But would applying the Chiikawa stickers send their cuteness soaring to an even higher level? Yes. Yes it would. We're honestly amazed at how professional the results look. You'll want to make sure your hands are clean and dry when placing the stickers, and use a delicate touch, but get it right and they'll transform a pack of ordinary from-the-supermarket dango into something amusement park snack bars would probably charge you three or four hundred yen a stick for. ● Round 2: Warabimochi Next up, the jiggliest of traditional Japanese desserts, warabimochi. For our test, we picked out a pack of bite-sized spherical mochi pieces. Since warabimochi doesn't have much flavor by itself, the pack included kinako (roasted soybean powder) and kuromitsu (brown sugar syrup) to dip/cover them in, but we added the stickers first. Once again, there was a major addition of adorability, with the stickers looking like they were quivering in joyous excitement. Applying the extras seasonings does dampen the visual contrast, though, so you'll want to use them sparingly, or at least be strategic as to which angle you dip from. ● Round 3: Tamagoyaki Shifting from sweet to savory, we come to tamagoyaki, the Japanese-style fried egg omelet. This gave us our first broad, flat canvas to work with, but applying the facial-feature-only stickers worked great, making it look like Chiikawa and the others had morphed into egg form. ▼ Seriously, if they made plushie keychains/straps that looked like this, they'd probably sell a ton of them. ● Round 4: Konnyaku OK, now it's time to really start challenging Chiikawa as we introduce konnyaku to the test. A type of yam-based gelatin, konnyaku is healthy and low-calorie, but as a gray/beige block, it's not exactly cute… …or at least it's not exactly cute until you put some Chiikawa stickers on it. With konnyaku having a drabber hue than the more vivid tamagoyaki, there's sort of a humorous undercurrent to the cuteness here, with your brain telling you this probably shouldn't be cute, but somehow still is. Simmilar to warabimochi, konnyaku doesn't have much flavor on its own. One way to eat it is with miso, so we slathered some on, which turned out to be a very wise plan because it made it look like we'd covered our Chiikawa konnyaku up with a cozy blanket. ● Round 5: Shishamo OK, now it's time for the final trial, shishamo, or as they're called in English… …smelt. Yep, these are straight-up small fish that are served with the heads still on. Even by Japanese standards, it's an old-school dish, something particularly popular with older generations. So how well will it mesh with Chiikawa aesthetics? Hmm… OK, Chiikawa, that's enough for today. It looks like we've reached the limit of foods that you can make cute. Between the undulating nature of the fish's flesh and the visual unevenness of the scaly pattern and color imparted during grilling, it's hard for the character artwork to stand out. Since the linework doesn't pop, it seems to fade in and out depending on if you're directly looking at it, which kind of makes it look like the fish is haunted. For everything with more inherent cuteness than a grilled fish, though, Chiikawa Edible Stickers definitely create a cute dining experience, and one you don't even have to go to McDonald's for. Photos ©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! [ Read in Japanese ]
Time Out
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Catch a glimpse of the Chiikawa trio in 3D on a digital billboard in Shinjuku
Tokyo has had its fair share of eye-catching 3D billboard ads over the past few years, showcasing everything from pandas to Doraemon – and even Yayoi Kusama for her 2022 Louis Vuitton collaboration. Now, the adorable (and sometimes mischievous) Chiikawa characters are joining the exclusive club to be shown on the Cross Shinjuku Vision billboard, where they'll be appearing for a limited time from April 25 to May 11. While details are yet to be revealed on the duration of the ad and the frequency of the airings, a preview of the 3D clip features the characters Chiikawa, Hachiware and Usagi breaking through a glass wall with their sasumata sticks to greet the pedestrians below. ／ ちいかわたちが飛び出す⁉️ ＼ ちいかわらんど新宿店オープンを記念し JR新宿駅東口「クロス新宿ビジョン」に ちいかわたちが登場🎶 🗓️放映期間 4月25日(金)～5月11日(日) ※撮影の際は周囲の方のご迷惑にならないようお気をつけください… — ちいかわグッズ公式 (@chiikawa_kouhou) April 23, 2025 The ad celebrates the April 25 opening of the nearby Chiikawa Land Shinjuku store, which is setting up shop on the second floor of Kiddy Land Shinjuku.
