#hanipon

Fukkachan with:

Hanipon, from Honjo, Saitama

Hikone mascots Hikonyan, Vivatche-kun, and (just about) Yachinyan

Hanipon (はにぽん, from Honjō, Saitama) goes back with Mayor Shinge Yoshida to report to the Governor of Saitama Prefecture Kiyoshi Ueda about their Yuru-Chara Grand Prix success - also with Saitama mascots Kobaton and Saitamatch who only got 190th in their combined entry, compared to Hanipon’s second place.

He also visits neighbouring Fukaya city, to compare silver medals with Fukkachan (who got 2nd in 2014, and 3rd in 2015).

Idol singer and yuru-chara expert Yufu Terashima describes Saitama Prefecture as the “Yuru-chara Kingdom”: Probably due to the fact they have so many (at least 118 official local mascots); and it is also home to the biggest annual gotōchi chara event, the World Character Summit in Hanyū (next week!).

Other Saitama mascots who entered the GP this year include Mimurin (8th), Kyuporan (24th), Awabuta (28th) and Kapal (49th).

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.

Public voting for the Yuru-Chara Grand Prix 2016 began yesterday (22nd July) - although it would have been easy to miss as it was also the launch day of Pokémon Go in Japan.

The procedure for voting is the same as last year, although it seems you will have to create a new account. You can vote once per day per account, until 24th October.

Pictured: Tochisuke (とち介, Tochigi, Tochigi) is leading after the first day, although Hanipon (はにぽん, Honjō, Saitama) isn’t too far away in second. Unari-kun (うなりくん, Narita, Chiba) is in 8th and Kikunon (きくのん, Kikugawa, Shizuoka) is currently 9th.