The Secret Lives of Kawaii Characters

Poor Hikonyan! The uber-cute samurai spokes-cat for Hikone Castle rose from humble origins to become a subcultural superstar earlier this year. He's a textbook example of the very Japanese "official mascots" profiled in Hello, Please! But now he's smack in the middle of a very un-Japanese legal battle between his creator and the committee that serves as his guardian.

Like so many official mascots, Hikonyan wasn't created by a marketing department. Rather, he was the winning entry in a design contest held in 2005. Unlike the average Japanese mascot character, the vast majority of which languish in utter obscurity, Hikonyan succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Now he's a cult phenomenon that's generating a small fortune in character merchandise.

Hikonyan's creator is a 22-year-old man who works under the pen-name of "Moheron." He received one million yen (just shy of $9,000 USD) in exchange for assigning all rights to the design to the prize committee. Now working for an Osaka design firm as a professional illustrator, he is demanding that the Hikone municipal government shape up or find themselves a new mascot. It's kind of like a custody battle -- except the stakes involve a rotund, sword-waving, helmet-wearing Hikonyan instead of a baby.

On the surface, Moheron doesn't seem to have much of a case. The rules of the contest were explicit. The winning design would become the exclusive property of committee run by the Hikone municipal government "for use as a PR tool or the like." But Moheron claims the massive merchandising effort -- an astounding 1000 products and counting, including stuffed animals, books, and even a music CD -- far exceeds the bounds of normal PR. Sounds like any of a bazillion similar lawsuits filed in the US every year, right? The only-in-Japan twist is that he isn't asking for money. He insists it's about the liberties Hikone is taking with the character. According to a report in the Mainichi Shimbun, he's particularly incensed that the committee added a tail to his design and that they created a back-story, including the fact that Hikonyan "likes meat and playing paper-rock-scissors" (hey, who doesn't?) without consulting him first.

Japanese magazine Cyzo frames the situation in classic businessman versus artist terms, lamenting the fact that the "system" rewards the owner rather than creator of characters like Hikonyan. But the really fascinating aspect of the case is that it was even filed at all. Japan is famously litigation-averse, and it is far more common for artists to simply suck it up when a company begins unexpectedly profiting from one of their designs. Not Moheron. In March, he sent a letter to the Hikone committee that read in part, "characters are like children infused with souls by their creators, and my only wish is for [Hikonyan] to enjoy a long life in a good form." When they failed to respond, he filed suit.

On the 19th of last month, the Hikone court refused to hear the case, ordering both parties to sit down to mediation instead. What are the implications for the character-design industry? In the short run, at least, very little. Hikonyan made his big appearance at the festivities for the 400th anniversary of Hikone Castle on December 1 as scheduled. And while his long-term fate may be in legal limbo, his fans appeared unfazed. ("This is our third time making the trip to see Hikonyan! He's so cuuuuute!" chimed a trio of three Kyoto women who showed up specifically to meet the fuzzy guy.) At the very least, it's a growing sign of the increased attention being focused on what could be called Japan's Gross National Cute, and a sign that artists may not be as willing to go gently into that kawaii night as they have been in the past.

Comments

[Mr.Dandy]

Great story! Reminds me a little of the story of Dan DeCarlo, how he basically created the pantheon of Archie Comics characters (Betty, Veronica, Josie and the Pussycats, Sabrina, etc). Those characters became a media and merchandising juggernaut, but he was never compensated beyond his standard scale for continuing to draw comic pages. When he tried to negotiate for some royalties late in life, they sacked him from the drawing too. Seems that a company that relies on "PR" might want to show a little goodwill and spread the rewards where they are due, especially when they're so plentiful... but that's probably being way too naive ~_^

[cae]

> Seems that a company that relies on "PR" might want to show a little goodwill and spread the rewards where they are due

But Moheron doesn't want compensation - he wants control over the character's back story! (and possibly a little PR himself for being the official "authority" on Hikonyan minutiae)

[Mr.Dandy]

I understand. I'm just saying that once a client has what it wants out of an artist, he's cut out of the loop, whether that means money, creative control or credit, regardless of the success of the project. This is an unusually pure case of love for the creation from the sounds of it, I hope he gets his dues.

[Matt]

>>Reminds me a little of the story of Dan DeCarlo

It's also the basic story of Siegel and Shuster, creators of Superman.

In contrast to those sob stories, the Hikonyan scandal (such as it is) occupies such a legal-moral gray area that it's tough to get worked up over it, but I remain amazed that it actually went into litigation. That's really unheard of here. Perhaps he took some of Sugiyama's "Cool Japan" to heart?

http://altjapan.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/07/cool_japan.html

[Matt]

Resolution!

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071215p2a00m0na006000c.html

According to the December 15th issue of the Mainichi Shimbun, "The deal was struck at the Hikone Summary Court on Friday [December 14th]... The court-mediated settlement said that the trademark rights of three particular designs of Hikonyan belong to the Hikone Municipal Government, but awarded Moheron the right to produce new publications using other designs. The copyright of the character belongs to the creator, the settlement said.

The agreement is expected to pave the way for both parties to cooperate in the proper use of the character design from now on."