This is GTV! Always bearing fruit!
Ya-hoo!
One thing that’s a Universal Truth about Japan is its fondness, and affinity for cute, cuddly
costumed characters! You may have seen hundreds of Pikachu running around all over The Land of the
Rising Sun, and if you missed that, there there’s a whole army of these plush buggers that you just
cant miss. The mania for these characters will ebb and flow over time but they are so ingrained,
so saturated into the culture, one thing you can’t call it, is a “fad.”
This is the story of one rising star,
who, 10 years ago, defied the odds, rode the wave, and embarked on a journey to be
the most famous character this side of the Pacific in long long time!
Funassyi!!
OPEN
Oh yesss, Funasshi! A dear old friend to all! The little pear fairy plucked from obscurity to become
the most famous Japanese Tarento of the 2010s (and likely for many, the most annoying too!)
From an outsider’s point of view its quite easy to look at Funasshi from afar,
shake your head and say “oh that Crazy Japan, up to its old antics again. And
even on The Island, it was quite puzzling why this screaming yellow zonker was so beloved.
Coming out of nowhere, seemingly overnight, without much reasoning or explanation involved.
This character, Funasshi! Appeared on the scene way back in the year 2013 and for a good number
of years, DAILY! He.. she .. or it was everywhere, on TV nearly 24 hours a day, or at least it felt
like it, with additional appearances in CMs, PVs CDs DVDs! (And a bunch of other acronyms)
To understand the lay of the land in 2013, you have to go back to the Turn of the Century,
no not the that one, the next one! As Japan entered the “zero-zeros” the nation as a
whole started to adopt cute little mascots to represent their respective towns and cities.
Officially these are known as “Yuru-chara” A portmanteau of the words Yurui,
meaning relaxing, calm or peaceful, and character. [As an aside I think this is the
tenth time I’ve used the word portmanteau in a video (trophy sound!) Nice Get!!]
Yuru-Charas are means to convey some image or feeling about the town it represents,
and ends up plastered on every poster, menu, stop sign, tax bill and you name it.
Some make a lot of sense, such as…Kumamon A large friendly bear
from Kumamoto. Which literally means Bear Mountain. By 2010, Kumamon was one of the
most popular characters, as the design is simple, and cute. After the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake,
Kumamon was a symbol of support around Japan for the reconstruction effort in the area.
So, he really did a lot of good for his town.
Others are just a play on the name of the town,
like Warabi using a Wallaby as its character. Or Fukka-chan from Fukaya!
Some are just inexplicable, like Ageo City’s Appi. A weird…
thing… I guess they were late to the party and there just were no original ideas left..
By the end
of the “zero-zeros” nearly every municipality in Japan, large and small had a Yuru-Chara in action!
With all these towns and cities vying for to have of most popular Yuru-Chara,
it only made sense that, eventually, parades, rallies and contests would come about,
which did happen often back in those days. Kumamon was always in the top 3!
But while all the love and attention was showered on the winner, the losers got a
sliver of the limelight, usually to laugh at these designs and contrast them to Kumamon.
Yes, much like the aforementioned Appi, some towns just didn’t have the right stuff, which often led
the people to take things into their own hands, creating a slate of “unofficial” Yuru-chara that
were often better designed and more well liked than whatever the official creation might be.
That’s where Funasshi!! comes in. A store owner in the city of Funabashi, Chiba came up with the
concept of a Yuru-Chara for that town. A “Pear Fairy” dressed in a kindergarten uniform.
The character first appeared as a drawing in November 2011, but sometime in 2012,
the creator of Funasshi had ordered a custom made costume and began to post videos online.
Yuru-Charas by nature are cute. They are also supposed to be inoffensive
and calming to be around, but not Funasshi! He would scream and wiggg out and go crazy.
The exact opposite of what his Yuru-Chara brethren are and by all rights ought to be.
Oh yeah and his name is spelled, Fun A-S-S- yi! That has to be unintentional, or the creator of
this thing is truly some kind of genius, yukking it up on a big pile of money down in Chiba.
Hey who is the creator of Funasshi anyway? The thing is nobody really knows who the
mastermind is. Some celebrities from Funabashi have been speculated to be inside the suit
and as a funny point of order, the trademark filed for Funassyi! is registered to NAKA NO HITO,
meaning literally the person inside! So we may never really know.
In 2013, Funasshi made the jump to television,
where the Pear Fairy told his sob story about being rejected from a recent
Yuru-Chara contest because Funabashi already had an official Character. Funaemon. this guy,
literally a human male! Normal and boring and pedestrian as Funabashi itself.
The Pear Fairy, quickly surpassed Kumamon as the most well known Character in Japan, and was
quickly put into every kind of TV show possible!! And man did they really run this thing into the
ground! Good quality comedy, talk and news shows were upended by Funasshi and his goofy antics!
Really, Funasshi is not very funny. But what is funny, at least to me,
is the way some outsider managed upset the whole apple cart, a 140 billion yen (on the day this
was recorded 1$ = 140 yen) business which was meant to highlight tiny, middle of nowhere towns,
raise some awareness about them and then, either out of curiosity, guilt, or maybe both, you go
there one summer day and spend a little money there. That was all ruined because of this thing!
I will say there was one time that Funassyi gave me an honest laugh. He was invited to an eating
segment on a some TV show. I know I say “segment” as if there’s actually anything else on some of
these TV shows, but they were eating, and the way Funasshi eats is so weird and hilarious.
Funasshi eats by opening up a little door in the back and then whoever is in the costume puts a
hand out and takes the food! Then eats it, opens up the little door again and returns the plate!
Which begs the question is Funasshi supposed to be the Character or is it the person in the costume?
Let’s take a quick station break and let’s cover all the various Funasshi
media that was cooked up over the last decade!
Among the hundred trillion TV appearances Funasshi made,
the Pear Fairy somehow found the time the make all kinds of other media.
Funasshi recorded and released 4 CD Singles between 2013 and 2019. They all follow the same
joke and ride the one hit wonder wave all the way. Maybe I need to take a sidebar to explain
exactly what makes Funasshi funny, at least when he talks. Because his name is Funasshi, he also
ends a lot of sentences with Na-SHI which is the Japanese word for pear, or often just Shi which is
a way to connect clauses in a sentence. It’s kind of like “and” or “yeah, so…” in conversation.
The songs are all kind of the same and the first one, at least was the “Official Theme
Song” of Funasshi. That peaked at #8 on the Japanese Oricon music charts!
Then, Funasshi released an album of heavy metal covers!
Part of the character that Funasshi is the he loves heavy metal! So on top of being a pear,
a fairy and a kindergarten student, Funasshi is also an edge lord!!
While this may seem like overkill, wait till we get to the DVDs.
Its really just Funassyi! Going to different places, looking at stuff, talking to people
and eating. Like how nearly all Japanese TV isThere was one where he went to Antarctica,
actually for REAL! So, ok I guess that would be kind of fun to see.
Now let’s get to the good stuff, games! Much like how Funasshi clogged up the TV with his antics,
the Pear Fairy started making cameos in all kinds of games. Now seeing as Funasshi
is a top ten music artist, it only makes sense that those songs would appear in rhythm games.
And they do. Taiko no Tetsujin, Dance Evolution, Pop ’n music.
All the big names are covered. And hey, those are actually fun, you are supposed
to challenge yourself to fast music, and there is a lot of redeeming value in that experience.
Funasshi also had a version of Puzzle and Dragons. It is what it is,
if you like Pazu-Dora than you’ll like it this version. If not, then you won’t.
One more cameo as the Fairy Pear popped up in Go-to-chi-te-tsu-bo. Each station is has
a different Yuru-Chara waiting for you at Funabashi is at, you guessed
it… Frank Stallone! Oh, no, wait not Frank Stallone, I miss read that.
Funabashi. It’s Funabashi. Note to self, don’t spill milk tea on the script anymore.
If you cant make that work. One more cameo as the Fairy Pear popped up
in Go-to-chi-te-tsu-bo. It’s a Yuru-Chara themed game, so when you get to Funabashi,
he’s there! All the other Characters however are the proper an official ones.
Saving the best for last, Yes there was an honest to God proper Funassyi! game! Titled, in English,
Pear Juice action! Funasshi’s Amazing Story. Released on April 30th,
2015, by Success for the Nintendo 3DS!
I am not going into this with a lot of confidence.
The story of the game involves Funassyi! searching for missing items that were stolen from his
friends. So, it’s up to the Pear Fairy to save the day and find them. In each stage, things like
a bowl of ramen, fresh fish, ancient fossils?! Well incase you can’t figure it out, all of these
missing items are things that Funabashi is famous for. Well, famous in the Japanese way that they
aren’t necessarily famous, but whenever you meet someone from a different area of Japan, he or she
will prattle on endlessly about how a footnote to a footnote about Japan makes that place “uniquely
unique.” If you’ve lived in Japan for at least 15 minutes, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
You also find photos of tourist spots in Funabashi along the way too, like a dinosaur park,
and some beaches. All of these tourist traps and the missing items, have an explanation about them
on the second screen, then the information is saved in Funassyi’s! story book. So you
can go back later and look at them, and it serves as a progress meter for the game,
because once you collect them all, you’ve basically 100%-ed the game.
Hey why are all these things missing anyway? A witch took them!
This witch will pop up from time to time and taunt our hero about
never being able to beat her many challenges, which we will get to in a few minutes.
The game is played out over 5 different worlds. Funabashi City, natch. The Haunted Forest,
The Beach, Dinosaur Land, and the World of the Fairies. Each of these is divided up
into substages, kind of like New Super Mario Bros. Also kind of like New Super Mario Bros. Each stage
has 3 golden coins you have to find, as part of your 100% completion quest. They’re pretty easy
to find so don’t worry. Also, again like New Super Mario Bros. Some of the enemies look like strange
knockoffs from said game. Funassyi! can jump, and kind of fly after jumping, a lot like Yoshi.
You know what, you are probably a lot better off just picking up a Mario game…
Funasshi! also has the power to spray pear juice, his method of attack in the game. The
pear juice will stun an enemy for 5 seconds, after which you can bypass safely, or use the
enemy as a jumping platform, which is required to reach some golden coins and finish some stages.
Peaches, for reasons unknown, not pears, give Funasshi! a protective shield, good for one hit,
just like in Sonic the Hedgehog! There are also mid stage goal posts,
represented by bottles of water. Drinking one will send you back to that point after losing a life,
rather than the beginning. And funnily enough… Funassyi! drinks
the water by putting the bottle through the door in the back of the costume!!
There are also immovable obstacles throughout the game. Just touch it, which triggers an
animated sequence where Funassyi! Powers up, and clears the way.
The witch that gives the game some semblance of a plot
is waiting at the end of each of the five worlds to offer up a challenge.
It isn’t a traditional boss battle, but rather one of five mini games, randomly chosen.
With a name like Funasshi Kart you would think that you’d be playing a basic rip off of Mario
kart, but no! It’s a downhill racer instead! Move Funassyi! down the slope and avoid the
witch’s attacks by braking or hitting the gas. Cross the finish line without getting hit to win!
In Pear Fist, you must use Funassyi’s! Karate skills to smash through layers of concrete bricks.
Hey Segata Sanshiro had the same game too! It’s fairly simple. Land the pear on the
right spot on the power meter, to smash through the bricks and get the high score.
Yakiniku Match is a game like memory. flip the meat over, match the correct image,
in this case, how well done the meat is, and win! Very simple!
In Goal Keeper, it’s your basic soccer shootout. Hit the power meter dead center to block the ball
each time. There are a few funny animations depending on wether you block or miss.
Then there's Smash! Pear Roll. Basically, Pong.
I mean if you have played Pong, then you know exactly what the game is and how to
play it. It’s supposed to be Air Hockey. It’s not bad, it’s just not very original.
In addition to these games appearing at the end of each world, you can try them out from the main
menu as many times as you like, with three levels of difficulty, for practice or just for fun.
Funassyi’s! full fledged game, isn’t “bad” but it certainly isn’t “good” either. There is just
nothing memorable about it, the graphics are interesting enough, but after a few minutes you
realize that it’s basically the same thing over and over again. The gameplay is almost boring,
with not nearly enough challenge. The notebook of facts about Funabashi is probably the most
fun thing in the game, just because it’s so oddball to see these things in a game,
it gives you a nice laugh about it, in a meta way. The game is simple,
and too easy. Not as easy as Jet-o-Man on the Family Computer, but it’s up there.
And the game doesn’t carry over any of the humor or wackiness Funassyi! brought to TV
or music. That’s not his fault, that’s just the super high barrier that comes with translating
something from any other form of media into a video game. Something that is rarely done well.
Let’s take one more time out and find out where Funassyi! Is today.
After all that he’s done in this world, its hard to believe it's
been 10 years since the first time Funassyi! graced our TVs. Recently,
I haven’t seen the Pear Fairy around so much. Do we really live in a post-Funassyi! world???
Funassyi!-mania is certainly dead and gone. The last game appearance was in 2018,
that was just a re-issue. While the last CD single was released in 2019. It failed to chart.
In 2022 you can still catch Funasshi on TV, but you are really going to have to try your luck.
Funasshi hasn’t retired, but in recent years has scaled back the appearances.
In 2014 Funasshi was on TV 102 times, officially, not counting reused clips. By 2018,
that number was down to just 4. Expect a similar number this year and the next.
When asked, Funassyi! said, very seriously I might add, that the TV grind is too difficult
and some of the stunts he was placed in were too dangerous to keep doing.
That’s a good point! The person inside the costume, NAKA NO HITO, might be some
97 year old lady! You don’t know! And by they way, that person is according to Internet Lore™ a shop
owner! Shouldn’t this person be getting back to work soon, selling whatever that store has?!
So, in the end, it was a good long run this Yuru-Chara had, with some fun novelty songs
and some OK games as well. Yes, Funassyi is still around,
even if all we think about is the good memories left behind,
and nothing more. Whenever you see a pear or pass thru Chiba, you can always remember
the little character that could, and at least this time, actually did!