Enthusiasts of Japanese culture will occasionally be chastised by those who say that Japan is more than robots, sumo, electronics and all things youthful — including but not limited to speakers in the squat feet of "futuristic robot cat" plush dolls.
Well, now: do you trust them, or your own eyes?
Maiko, Kyoto, liquid diamonds and more from the Mainichi Shimbun's own vote of confidence for robots, sumo, electronics and all things youthful. (Note that the Doraemon speaker set is one of several novel output devices from you-know-where.)
Serious observation and commentary can be found here.
AND THEN THERE WAS DORAEMON: Robert Mayer of Publius Pundit, whom I just added to my blogroll, noted in an e-mail that he'd seen Doraemon before — but in Chile. Now, as we know, I'm just a wide-eyed Nippon neophyte, and one futuristic robot cat is any other futuristic robot cat. It turns out that Doraemon is a founding pillar of postwar Japanese pop culture, more venerable than Hello Kitty, who celebrated her 30th anniversary last year. His backstory:
Doraemon looks like an earless blue cat, but is, in fact, a robot from the 22nd century sent to assist a likeable fourth-grade knucklehead named Nobi Nobita.Doraemon, himself, is something of a bumbler, but has a front pocket from which he manifests all kinds of wondrous gadgets from the future.
Where can you find an earless blue cat that's more than meets the eye? All together, now...