Umaemon & Doraemon & Broadband (UPDATED)

(The whole Todd Goldman craze sweeping the internet reminded me about the cat like snack mascot Umaemon, shown here on the far right next to Broadband the FCC (Federal Communications Commission)’s mascot.)

Doraemon is a cat like robot from the future, sent back to help one young boy not completely mess up his life so his relatives in the future have a bit more cash. Umaemon, on the other hand, works for Yaokin, who have perhaps the most brain melting website in the history of machine translation. (Seriously. Check it here.) I don’t know if he has any special abilities other than his freakish copyright infringement powers, unless being able to make no sense whatsoever qualifies as a superpower; from the Yaokin website -

Yaokin produces in total from the plan of pleasant sweets which is full of play feeling to sale. The product which cherishes children’s dream is sent to the children in Japan and the world. With the new popular person who leads a time, children’s rich world is created through safer food.

Doesn’t it though.

UPDATE - the inimitable Crushmonkey pointed out in the comments that Broadband, the lovable catlike character who represents the Federal Communications Commission of America, looks a lot like someone we all know and love. Except he has ears. Picture added above for comparison. Link to their site, which in addition to having a copyright infringing mascot, appears to have been designed by someone with really quite shite design sensibilities.

Sunday, April 29th, 2007 Japan, Japanese Culture, Japanese Products, Separated At Birth Trackback URL for this entry