He lives in a cave, loves TV, and is coming to America. Say, “Hello” to Domo.
He’s a fuzzy, brown creature that the Japanese television station NHK created in 1998 as its mascot. (He hatched from an egg and is essentially a chenille-covered rectangle with skinny arms, stout legs, and a mouth that never ever closes, so he fits the description of “creature.”) Domo starred in funny, stop-motion shorts to promote NHK and quickly became a Japanese cultural icon and kitschy-store staple. (There are over 600 Domo products sold worldwide.)
This fall, Domo will make his U.S. broadcast debut on Nicktoons Network, in a series of 26 two-minute shorts. With the shorts, of course, comes an onslaught of Domo dolls, Domo key chains, and even Domo underwear.
I had the chance to watch two of the new Domo shorts and have to say that even though they're targeted towards kids and the Japanese-obsessed, they were rather entertaining.
Another image and more about the shorts after the jump.
In the first mini-sode, Domo, his grandfather-like rabbit friend Mr.
Usaji, the two bats who live in the cave with Domo and Mr. Usaji, and
Domo’s friend TaShanna, a weasel-girl who aspires to be a model or fashion stylist in Tokyo, see on TV someone bend a spoon, just like that kid in The Matrix. They decide to give it a try themselves.
Everyone makes their spoon—and later their ice cream scoop and whisk—flop over backwards. Everyone, that is, except Domo. TaShanna repeatedly calls the TV station to come cover her accomplishment—“Hey, ya, TV Station? I just bent my spoon,” and “Hi, TV Station. Um, I bent my spoon again…”—providing comic relief. But she is drowned out by the intensity of Domo’s attempts to spoon-bend.
The results are a little unusual and the ending a little unclear.
But that's intentional, spokesperson Rich
Maryyanek tells me. “The fact that there are not clear-cut resolutions is part of the heritage of
Domo,” he says. “It is about sharing his experience rather than coming to a clear ending.”
In the second short, Domo leaves his congested cave and goes to work—which means he dons a hat and fancy watch, sits against a tree, uses a stump as a desk, and talks into a log as though it were a phone.
He recruits three other animals—whose species are unidentifiable—and together they get to work answering the logs phones.
Along comes TaShanna, who asks Domo and Co. what they're selling. Domo's muffled, bellowed reply is “Everything!” (To which one animal says, “Ah! That is fantastic!”)
Again, the story has no real ending, no concrete meaning, no suggested lesson. But it earns points for its funny moments, like when
TaShanna suggests they sell clothes and then has an Eve-post-apple moment (“We could use some clothes. I mean, we’re all naked…that’s awkward…”).
Nickelodeon will begin broadcasting the shorts this fall, but has yet to pinpoint a date. Nevertheless, Hello Kitty beware. Your days of cute-Asian-icon domination may soon be over.
