Kigurumi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page.

Animegao-style Kigurumi costume of Mimi Tachikawa from Digimon Adventure

Kigurumi (着ぐるみ, Kigurumi^?) is the Japanese name for costumed animal characters. The name comes from the Japanese term (着る - kiru: to wear) and (縫いぐるみ - nuigurumi: a stuffed toy animal). These suited performers are sometimes found at shopping malls, theme parks, and booths at anime conventions. For example, Disneyland costumed characters such as Mickey Mouse would be referred to as Kigurumi by the Japanese. Sometimes these characters are to entertain children, sometimes as promotional tactics to grab attention from adults on busy city streets.

Kigurumi is worn in Japanese street fashion; it is also called disguise pajama. The suits, which can be bought from many different companies, are made in the style of large full-body pajamas resembling animals or popular characters. It is occasionally worn by some Japanese youth on the streets, where they are referred to as kigurumin.

A subdivision of Kigurumi is a form of masked cosplay, called Animegao. Dollers, the performers, wear Kigurumi based on characters from manga or video games for fun at cosplay events, often making their own elaborate suits by hand.

[edit] Examples

Hobbyist as Naru (Love Hina) in a shiny leotard.

A cosplayer dressed as Mahoro from Mahoromatic, walking around Hakuba village, Nagano.

Miharu Nakashima, an original Kigurumi character.

[edit] Vocalists

Kigurumi (キグルミ) is also the name of a singing duet of two young girls who first came to public attention for their performance of a song for a series of Japanese television commercials advertising a packaged pasta sauce containing tarako fish roe. In addition to recording the commercial theme song, the girls themselves appear in some versions of the commercial -- and on musical variety shows -- wearing large red tarako fish roe headpieces. The various commercials were a cult hit on YouTube and other internet video uploading web sites.

Kigurumi official web site