Pi Squared
Do you remember the official mascot of Nakano Broadway? Unveiled a few months back? Looks like a giant pink sperm with a broken tail? Ringing any bells?
I am proud to announce that the formerly nameless mascot has a new moniker: the rather unfortunate sounding "PiPi"! And that's not all: you can have your PiPi and play with it, too, thanks to a whole host of official souvenirs being sold at a tiny kiosk crammed in between a shoe store and a stairwell deep within the otaku-infested hallways of the complex. Long live obscure mascot character goods.
Why "PiPi"? You can ask "Saito-san of Nakano-ku," who named it in a contest (and pocketed a cool 50,000 yen in the process.) It's supposedly "the sound of information being transmitted, plus the 'pi' of 'pink.'" Righto.
PiPi has all the charisma of leukemia, but I'm sure if Bounty Hunter made a vinyl figure out of it people would go crazy for it.
Posted by: Roger | September 01, 2008 at 10:31 PM
I'm sure KAWS has one in the works.
Looks like a good match for the Tokyo Tower mascot...a pink phallic little fella:
http://www.tokyotower.co.jp/333/06_noppon/index.html
Posted by: hillsy | September 02, 2008 at 12:49 PM