In honor of the recent birth of twin panda babies at the Ueno zoo on June 23, 2021, today’s post will explore the history of these cute and cuddly animals in kawaii art!
Pandas burst into the kawaii world in the early 1970s. As with many kawaii trends, the initial panda boom in Japan can be attributed to kawaii pioneer, Naito Rune. Inspired by the cuteness of the pandas he saw at the London Zoo during a trip abroad, Rune created the first kawaii panda character ‘Rune-Panda’ in 1971. That following year, Kan-Kan and Ran-Ran were gifted to the Ueno Zoo from China and a panda-boom swept the nation. Goods decorated with pandas, and in particular Rune-Panda, flew off the shelves. Here are some examples of Rune-Panda illustrations and goods:
Following the ‘Rune-Panda’ panda boom of the 1970s, the cuteness of pandas became a mainstay in young girls’ hearts and in the kawaii art world. A variety of panda characters have debuted over the years, ranging from cute and cuddly, to floppy and droopy, and to gruff and grumbly.
In the late 1990s, the delightfully floppy Tarepanda was another game-changing panda in the history of kawaii. Tarepanda’s popularity helped to launched San-X from a mere-stationary company to a kawaii-creating powerhouse. Tarepanda made his character debut as stickers in 1995. His designer, Hikaru Suemasa was inspired when she was particularly tired and created this droopy panda (tare means “lazy” or “droopy” in Japanese).
Stationery products featuring Tarepanda weren’t released until 1998, and were exceedingly popular, reaching almost $300 million in just a few months after release. Having been released only a few months after the financial crisis in the fall of 1997, San-X contributes a part of this character’s success to people being particularly sympathetic to a worn-out panda during those troubling financial times. Tarepanda’s popularity has outlasted that particular financial crisis and continues to be quite popular today.
In addition to Tarepanda, San-X has released a number of kawaii pandas over the years. Never quite rivaling the success of Tarepanda, but still cute in their own unique ways, here is a selection of a few from the archives:
Star Cutie – From 2001
Pair of american loving twin pandas (the younger twin shown here, who loves omurice with lots of ketchup!)
Pandy Happy – From 2004
Pandy the panda, traveling across the world with his friend Happy the little bird in search of four-leaf clovers to spread happiness and joy to all.
Hamipan (はみぱ)– from 2019
Lazy panda, with loose underpants, spends everyday lazing around around the zoo.
Sanrio hasn’t been immune to the alluring cuteness of Pandas either. In addition to various Hello Kitty panda cosplay themes, there have been a variety of panda characters over the years making their way into the extensive Sanrio character catalog. Some of the more popular ones include Pandapple from 2002 and Pandaba, a grumpy sidekick character in the Badtz-Maru universe, who wears a frown and a tutu. However, there are a few more pandas lurking in the Sanrio library including Pannapitta, Pankunchi, and Goexpanda.
Another popular kawaii panda, eschewing the cute and cuddly panda image, is Oji-pan from Q-Lia. Oji-pan is a salaryman panda, living a fairly typical salaryman life. The name ‘Oji-pan’ comes from a contraction of oji-san (meaning ‘old man’ in Japanese) and panda. Check out the comic below to see a typical day of Oji-pan:
Since ‘Rune-Panda’ in the 1970s, Panda characters have become a fixture in kawaii art. In additional to numerous kawaii panda characters over the years, there have been plenty of panda patterns, various kawaii goods, and fun anime featuring the adorable bears, and will surely continue to be popular well into the future. Congrats to Shin Shin on her babies and hope to make it to the Ueno zoo to see them some time. Let me know your fav panda kawaii designs in the comments below!
