When it comes to yuru-chara champions sweeping Japan, the west has Kumamon (Kumamoto Prefecture's official mascot) and the east has Funassyi (Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture's unofficial mascot).
Fake versions are perhaps the price of fame. Kumamon counterfeits made headlines this spring. Major reports included "Fake Kumamon keeps appearing overseas—how to stop it" (Nishi-Nippon Shimbun, March 25, http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20140325-00010000-qbiz-bus_all), "Kumamon goods go global as Kumamoto lifts ban—but fakes are a worry" (Sankei, June 1, http://sankei.jp.msn.com/region/news/140601/kmt14060102080001-n1.htm), triggered when Kumamoto Prefecture decided to allow overseas sales of Kumamon goods, which had been banned in principle, leading to reports of fakes in China and elsewhere.
Funassyi, meanwhile, has been spotted frequently at home. On June 1 at a "local-character expo" marking Takasago City's 60th municipal anniversary in Hyogo Prefecture, a fake Funassyi appeared among mascots nationwide. The Mainichi evening edition of June 2 reported:
"According to Takasago Police Station, the person inside was a man in his 20s from Kakogawa in the same prefecture who said he 'wore it to please my child.' The yellow face and light-blue shirt looked just like the real thing. Takasago City said it had invited Funass
yi but scheduling did not work out. Around noon, however, an idol on stage spotted the fake. As children chased it and the venue stirred, the impostor fled outside and was questioned in the parking lot" (top photo from that article).
J-Town Net posted "Fake Funassyi spotted nationwide! Seen in four places at once" (http://j-town.net/tokyo/sanpo/sanpocolumn/139680.html). Collecting many Twitter photos from Takasago, it commented: "Judging from on-site posts, the eyes and mouth look slightly large and the hands rather flat, but the vibe is close. Whether people mistook it for real or saw through it is unclear, but it was mobbed until the shape fell apart." It also noted that on the same day at noon, fake Funassyi appeared nationwide—at a cosplay event in Nagoya's Sakae with an oddly shaped head＝photo upper left, rowing a boat at Ohori Park in Fukuoka's Chuo Ward＝photo upper right, and as a greeter at an auto-parts shop presumed to be in Suwa, Nagano＝photo lower left＝—reposting Twitter images.
On June 9 at Nihe Ballpark in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, during a game between the Hiroshima Carp and Orix BlueWave, a Funassyi lookalike wearing a name tag reading "Kuressyi" appeared.
Daily Sports reported that in the seventh inning on the third-base side it danced to the Carp fight song, drew a crowd, sensed danger and removed the costume. The team warned, "Do it again and we'll call the police." "Kuressyi" did not return. This also spread on Twitter＝photo at right. With the Carp on a losing streak, some fans grumbled that the fake jinxed the game.
Also making the rounds: a YouTube video on "how to make Funassyi." 【Made & became Funassyi】 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9l2yGZYGcY)＝photo upper left＝ shows dancing near what looks like the University of Tokyo's Yasuda Auditorium. It analyzes how the performer moves inside the suit＝photo lower left＝—quite serious compared with similar clips. A caption says it was made for a graduation photo by a university circle.
Funassyi is reportedly trademark-registered. School festivals and Akihabara cosplay are one thing, but let us hope no one crosses the line.
Many characters appear at school festival costume parades, and Akihabara exists too—personal "cosplay" should be fine, but please do not step over the line.
