This character, who looks like a bear and a hamster, is 'Chiikawa'. It is said that the character from a manga serialized on X (formerly Twitter) by a Japanese author is very popular in Korea.

Chiikawa is a character that appears in the manga "Nanka Chiisakute Kawaii Yatsu" created by Japanese illustrator 'Nagano', and is characterized by its white and round appearance.

This character, which started from a single doodle that Nagano posted on his SNS, became popular and was later published as a single volume and also made into an animation. The animation airs every Tuesday and Friday at 7:40 am on "Mezamashitelebi", one of Japan's morning information programs.

In addition to the main character Chiikawa, all the characters that appear in the manga, such as Hachiwale and Usagi, are loved. In Korea, as Chiikawa gained popularity, various offline events were held, such as selling goods at convenience stores and opening pop-up stores.

The Chiikawa pop-up store, where you can find official Chiikawa goods, was held in large shopping malls such as AK Plaza in Hongdae, Seoul, and Hyundai Department Store in Sinchon for two consecutive years in 2022 and 2023. In Sinchon, the 'Munjangwi Collaboration Cafe' was open for about two months. At the collaboration cafe, you can drink drinks in cups with Chiikawa drawn on them and eat desserts shaped like Chiikawa's characters. The cups the drinks were served in can be purchased separately. They also give you photo cards if you post a cafe visit certification post on SNS.

The Chiikawa character was also released as an emoticon that can be used on 'KakaoTalk', the most widely used messenger app in Korea. Author Nagano has released a total of seven series of Chiikawa emoticons on KakaoTalk.

CU convenience stores in Korea are also selling Chiikawa goods. It is said that many people buy goods sold at convenience stores because they are much cheaper than goods sold at pop-up stores and are easily accessible. They are particularly popular among women in their teens and twenties. Among them, the case of a griptok (smarttok) that can be attached to the back of a phone, one out of 20 types is randomly included, so there were cases where it was resold at a high price in the secondary market to get the desired type.

In Korea, another character drawn by the same author, 'Joke Bear', has also gained popularity. The character's simple appearance and seemingly insignificant face are rather appealing, and the character's appearance, which seems to represent modern people who live busy lives, has been loved by many. The 'Joke Bear' character was also collaborated with the Korean clothing brand SPAO to release clothing and pajamas.

Chiikawa animation can be watched for free on the Mezamashitelebi official YouTube channel for one week after it airs on Mezamashitelebi in Japan, and the Korean dubbed version can be watched on the Anibox YouTube channel.