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Hello, Please! Very Helpful Super Kawaii Characters from Japan
A menagerie of mascots and characters inhabit the islands of Japan, cheerfully guiding citizens through all sorts of daily activities and situations. Hello, Please! collects photographs of hundreds of the these cute (or kawaii ) creatures in their native habitats, which are virtually from public street signs to supermarket shelves, in doctor's offices and instruction manuals even emblazoned on the sides of Tokyo's emergency vehicles. Authors Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda explore the cultural context of these ubiquitous, hard-working critters and their relationship to anime and manga, commercial characters like Hello Kitty, and the cult of cute, while introducing readers to a host of adorable new best friends they never knew they had.
240 pages, Paperback
First published September 6, 2007
192 people want to read
About the author
Matt Alt
14 books127 followersMatt Alt lives in Tokyo with his wife and frequent collaborator, Hiroko Yoda.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 26, 2024
Cute and helpful! These characters help the Japanese people navigate through daily life by respectful reminders of what to do/not to do. Interesting look at Japanese culture. I am told by friends of mine (who know much more about Japanese culture than I do) that there was an attempt to raise generations after the war with a more 'cooperative' feeling. Kawaii characters were part of this communication shift.
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September 5, 2018Great kawaii inspiration that's not about the kawaii superstars -- it's about the working kawaii that accompany signage, collateral, pamphlets, and other communication all over Japan. Very helpful to consider all the ways that kawaii characters can take the edge off otherwise unpalatable topics, making prickly things seem approachable.
November 24, 2016
Everything in Japan seems to have a cute (kawaii) little character associated with it, from police boxes to rice delivery trucks, and everything in between. This is an adorable little book filled with photographs of Japan's various mascots, with helpful essays at the beginning of each chapter.
February 12, 2010
I loved this little book, especially the little fruit people like the Berry girls. I can't resist a glimpse into everyday Japan.
September 25, 2016
Super cute!! I adore kawaii and this small book is great for sneaking a peek anywhere and everywhere.
July 16, 2014
adorable! if this collection doesn't make you smile, you can't have much of a heart. my only compliant is that I think the characters are a little out of date though I do recognize the construction characters, DoCoMo mushroom people and some of the vegetable characters. my favorite was probably the Monster Mt. Fuji characters. yet, where was the Soft Bank dog, The Boss?
there are also neat briefings on "kawaii" characters as well as each category of "kawaii" character the author features. apparently the ancestors of all chibi characters are Yokai (characters that take the shape of everyday objects), moku-mokuren (a sliding screen in which a spirit lives, hence "the walls have ears") and biwa-bokuboku (a character with a lute for a face). never knew anthropomorphic, cute characters were a thing back in the days of the 16th century! now I miss Japan again.
there are also neat briefings on "kawaii" characters as well as each category of "kawaii" character the author features. apparently the ancestors of all chibi characters are Yokai (characters that take the shape of everyday objects), moku-mokuren (a sliding screen in which a spirit lives, hence "the walls have ears") and biwa-bokuboku (a character with a lute for a face). never knew anthropomorphic, cute characters were a thing back in the days of the 16th century! now I miss Japan again.
August 1, 2010
This is the cutest little book, all about “very helpful super kawaii characters from Japan”. And how. It’s 90% photographs of cute characters used for packaging, manuals, signage, service mascots and more. I recognised a lot of them from my own Japan trips and really think the rest of the world would be improved by having kawaii mascots for the police, customs etc. and using illustrations of freaked out appliances to warn you of the dangers. The text is good too, explaining the history of cute mascots and their usage, plus some insight into those bewilderingly helpful characters who spend their lives encouraging you to eat them. Definitely worth picking up!
June 14, 2014
Super kawaii!!
Fun, cute, and colorful photographs of "real" kawaii characters, images, etc. as used in actual everyday Japanese life. I knew Japan was famous for its love of cute, but I had no idea kawaii elements were used (not to mention accepted by the populous) in just about everything - from regular things like labels and advertising to even serious matters like health warnings or government announcements.
This is a very fun yet very informative book... and very cute/kawaii!
A must for kawaii-lovers! (^-^)
Fun, cute, and colorful photographs of "real" kawaii characters, images, etc. as used in actual everyday Japanese life. I knew Japan was famous for its love of cute, but I had no idea kawaii elements were used (not to mention accepted by the populous) in just about everything - from regular things like labels and advertising to even serious matters like health warnings or government announcements.
This is a very fun yet very informative book... and very cute/kawaii!
A must for kawaii-lovers! (^-^)
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November 18, 2007I think this is the only book on my shelf that has a smiling roll of toilet paper on its cover (see top left corner).
August 31, 2009
Offers really fascinating insight into the Japanese cultural tradition of "working characters" to make information and warnings friendlier and more eye-catching.
February 14, 2011
nice book! and nice illustration! love it!
JAPAN SAIKOU!
JAPAN SAIKOU!
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May 3, 2019741.6 A465 2007
December 30, 2019
Exceptionally entertaining book about the ubiquitous mascots or graphic anthropomorphic characters that evidently saturate Japan - on streets, in instruction manuals, even stenciled onto police cars. They are obviously part of the same manga-anime-Hello Kitty-"cutesy" visual culture trend, which has also spread worldwide with the popularity of manga/anime. However, in Japan itself, there is an astonishing number of adorable anthropomorphic characters - infantile, usually - filling various needs, such as instructing people where they can smoke, warning them about various hazards, exhorting them not to litter etc. The messages may be more effective if accompanied by an nonthreatening endearing cartoon-like character. This book - which mostly consists of photos of the characters in situ, that is, in street settings or in stores, is an interesting look into this unique aspect of Japanese culture, especially as it is influenced by Japanese pop culture trends, should be of interest to anyone interested in Japan.
Here are a some quotes from the interesting essays introducing each part of the book (Introduction, Official Characters, Instructional Characters, Warning Characters, Advertising Characters, Food Characters):
"The term [kawaii], a sort of catchall that encompasses meanings of "cute," "childish," and "adorable," has come to define an entire design aesthetic in Japan and in fact can be applied to nearly every character and mascot created there. With an oversize head, pleasantly blank expression, and adorably squashed proportions, Hello Kitty could be called the archetypal kawaii character, yet the concept is maddeningly difficult to pin down with any specificity. Cuteness so completely permeates modern Japanese art and life..."
"Working characters didn't make a full-fledged appearance in daily Japanese life until well in to the postwar era, a time when graphic designers were honing manga (comic books) and anime (animated) television shows and movies into cutting-edge art forms."
"The inescapable presence of working characters is only the most recent example of a Japanese predilection for characterization and personification that extends for centuries before the modern era."
"...old shrines of gratitude to used sewing needles, knives, and eyeglasses can still be found throughout Tokyo and the Japanese islands--a whimsical synthesis of Buddhist beliefs in the relational nature of life and of the animism underlying Japans's native religion, Shinto."
"...Japanese kanji ideograms, originally imported from China in the sixth and seventh centuries, encode a wide rang of visual as well as abstract meanings. The kanji for "mountain," for instance, takes the form of a series of peaks, while the kanji for "horse" shows what could be interpreted as a mane and four legs."
"The vast majority of working characters are enjoyable and perfectly understandable even without any direct knowledge of Japan's culture or language."
"Created neither for purely pragmatic reasons nor purely for entertainment's sake, these industrious little working characters are a bridge between idealized pop-cultural aesthetics and the realities of daily life."
"...instructional characters are an amusing example of the Japanese ability to empathize and put oneself in another's shoes--even if those shoes happen to be worn by a toaster or cell phone."
"A working character explains the role of iron in the bloodstream - and that caffeinated beverages can leach it out."
"This form of instant visual communication could be called a form of "anti-cryptography," the science of conveying information in a format so easy to decipher that it can be understood with little if any common context or linguistic tools at all."
"Even without any knowledge of Japanese language or culture, they're surprisingly easy to understand."
"The sheer range of products and services anthropomorphized by Japanese advertisers is incredible. Nearly any concept is fair game, even hard-to-characterize things like loan services, or utterly mundane objects like the netting used to secure garbage from the talons of hungry crows."
Here are a some quotes from the interesting essays introducing each part of the book (Introduction, Official Characters, Instructional Characters, Warning Characters, Advertising Characters, Food Characters):
"The term [kawaii], a sort of catchall that encompasses meanings of "cute," "childish," and "adorable," has come to define an entire design aesthetic in Japan and in fact can be applied to nearly every character and mascot created there. With an oversize head, pleasantly blank expression, and adorably squashed proportions, Hello Kitty could be called the archetypal kawaii character, yet the concept is maddeningly difficult to pin down with any specificity. Cuteness so completely permeates modern Japanese art and life..."
"Working characters didn't make a full-fledged appearance in daily Japanese life until well in to the postwar era, a time when graphic designers were honing manga (comic books) and anime (animated) television shows and movies into cutting-edge art forms."
"The inescapable presence of working characters is only the most recent example of a Japanese predilection for characterization and personification that extends for centuries before the modern era."
"...old shrines of gratitude to used sewing needles, knives, and eyeglasses can still be found throughout Tokyo and the Japanese islands--a whimsical synthesis of Buddhist beliefs in the relational nature of life and of the animism underlying Japans's native religion, Shinto."
"...Japanese kanji ideograms, originally imported from China in the sixth and seventh centuries, encode a wide rang of visual as well as abstract meanings. The kanji for "mountain," for instance, takes the form of a series of peaks, while the kanji for "horse" shows what could be interpreted as a mane and four legs."
"The vast majority of working characters are enjoyable and perfectly understandable even without any direct knowledge of Japan's culture or language."
"Created neither for purely pragmatic reasons nor purely for entertainment's sake, these industrious little working characters are a bridge between idealized pop-cultural aesthetics and the realities of daily life."
"...instructional characters are an amusing example of the Japanese ability to empathize and put oneself in another's shoes--even if those shoes happen to be worn by a toaster or cell phone."
"A working character explains the role of iron in the bloodstream - and that caffeinated beverages can leach it out."
"This form of instant visual communication could be called a form of "anti-cryptography," the science of conveying information in a format so easy to decipher that it can be understood with little if any common context or linguistic tools at all."
"Even without any knowledge of Japanese language or culture, they're surprisingly easy to understand."
"The sheer range of products and services anthropomorphized by Japanese advertisers is incredible. Nearly any concept is fair game, even hard-to-characterize things like loan services, or utterly mundane objects like the netting used to secure garbage from the talons of hungry crows."
November 19, 2007
What a nice anniversary present this was!
March 25, 2008
Fun, cute, mildly informative coffee table fare.
May 31, 2010
Interesting pictures, but nothing too involved. Skimmed through it and was done.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews