Chuppy (チュッピー, from Sōja, Okayama) returned home to a media frenzy (2016.11.07). The Yuru-Chara Grand Prix bronze medallist has now retired from entering future GPs, but I believe this was previously announced. One of the campaigners described their efforts as “frustrating”, but the mayor believed it was a good way of bringing people together.

Chuppy’s going back to his day job anyway, which seems to be mainly playing with the local children. Sōja city is advertised as the “child-raising kingdom” - of course you need a PR character to sell that in a country with a declining birth rate.

Sankei Shimbun article

The Yuru-Chara Grand Prix 2016 finishes tomorrow! The awards ceremony event started today in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, where run-off voting will take place for the weekend. Online voting ended on the 24th October.

The rankings on the website have been hidden since last month, but the latest top 3 (as of the 17th October) are as follows:

Hanipon (はにぽん) from Honjō, Saitama

Chuppii (チュッピー) from Sōja, Okayama

Shinjō-kun (しんじょう君) from Susaki, Kōchi

I haven’t been following this year’s GP as much as previously - as I said before, Hanipon and Chuppii have very little internet presence so the battle for first place hasn’t been as interesting for me this time. Shinjō-kun - who was this year’s favourite since the start of the year - was winning for a while after the very successful Gotōchi Chara Festival in his hometown of Susaki in early September, but was overtaken by the other two again soon after.

The final awards ceremony will take place tomorrow at 15:00 JST.

So they do exist - I’ve never seen them before (or maybe never noticed), but current Yuru-Chara Grand Prix no. 1′s (gotōchi and corporate/other) made appearances at the Gotōchi Chara Festival in Susaki (2016.09.10~11): 

Chuppii (チュッピー), with Barysan

Posukuma (ぽすくま), with Shimanekko and Tosakenpi

The votes have been hidden since Tuesday for the interim announcement today (don’t have much info on this), but will be visible again on Monday.