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What is Chiikawa? What animal are they? Why so popular in Japan?

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Chiikawa is a character and a Japanese manga series by Nagano, an illustrator.

Chiikawa is an abbreviation for Nanka Chiisakute Kawaii Yatsu (“Something Small and Cute”).

It started on Twitter, and became very popular in Japan.(It has 1.2 million followers in August 2022.) Then it has been made into a manga and an anime on TV.

Also Chiikawa has many products of collaborations with famous characters.

Why is it so popular in Japan? Let’s figure it out!

Contents
  1. Chiikawa’s Twitter
  2. Chiikawa’s Characters
  3. Chiikawa’s plot
  4. Why is Chiikawa so popular in Japan?
  5. Collaboration with Chiikawa
  6. Chiikawa Anime
  7. Japanese Tips for Chiikawa

Chiikawa’s Twitter

Chiikawa distributes manga on Twitter. Here is the Twitter account.

This is a account the illustrator, Nagano.

Chiikawa’s Characters

There are 3 main characters in Chiikawa. What animal are they and what kind of personality?

Chiikawa

We don’t know what animal Chiikawa is because Nagano doesn’t mention it but it is said to be a mouse.

Chiikawa is timid and easily cries, and can only speak minimal words such as “wah” and “hoo.”

Hachiware

Hachiware is a cat that is sociable, positive and optimistic. Hachiware lives alone in a cave.

Hachiware in Japanese means a cat’s pattern that extends from their forehead to the cheeks like a bio colored cat or a mask-and-mantle cat. So it is the name of a cat pattern.

Hachiware meaning｜Why is it called Hachiware? Hachiware is the name of a cat or a dog's pattern that extends from...

Usagi

Usagi is a rabbit character that is high tension and free-spirited, and hardly talks.

Usagi means rabbit in Japanese.

Chiikawa’s plot

They live in their own world and make a living by weeding or fighting monsters.

They try to find happiness in their life, eating delicious but not expensive food or trying to get better jobs by studying for certification.

Why is Chiikawa so popular in Japan?

Chiikawa has become very popular, gaining 1.2 million Twitter followers in about two and a half years.

The number of followers shows that 44.1% are male and 55.9% are female. Despite the adorable characters, there are many male fans.

Why is Chiikawa so popular in Japan?

Friendship, hard work, and achievement

They earn income through hard work of weeding and defeating monsters, which is always dangerous.

Readers enjoy their friendship, hard work, and achievement which is like manga published in “Weekly Shonen Jump.”

Nostalgic choices

Nagano is very good at using nostalgic stuff in the manga.

For example, she uses foods that were popular in long time ago and it makes readers feel nostalgic.

Thrilling drama

Despite the cute characters, there are thrilling dramas.

For example, there is a scene Chiikawa fails an exam, on the other hand Hachiware passes it although Hachiware started to study after Chiikawa.

I bet everybody feels this kind of awkwardness in our lives.

Readers enjoy this kind of thrilling drama with sympathy.

Collaboration with Chiikawa

There are a lot of collaboration with Chiikawa.

While many collaborative products are still geared toward women, collaborations with popular boys’ manga such as “My Hero Academia” and “Tokyo Revengers” have been on the rise recently.

Chiikawa Anime

The animation was started on a news program called “Mezamashi TV”.

You can watch some episodes on You Tube.

Hachiware meaning｜Why is it called Hachiware? Hachiware is the name of a cat or a dog's pattern that extends from...
 https://www.coco-daisy.com/865/kanji-jlpt-n5-numbers/

Japanese Tips for Chiikawa

Japanese Tips

Chiikawa/チイカワ

Usagi/ウサギ…rabbit

【Reference Sites】

ちいかわオフィシャルサイト

Yahoo!ニュース｜話題の『ちいかわ』はなぜ人気？魅力を紹介！　かわいいだけじゃないダークな世界観

Yahoo!ニュース｜なぜ、Twitter漫画『ちいかわ』に人々はハマるのか──約2年半でフォロワー数100万人超の大ヒット

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