Gudetama is a lazy egg yolk character created by Japanese company Sanrio that has become a global phenomenon. It is known for its melancholic and lazy personality, uttering phrases like "Can I go home now?" which resonates strongly with millennials and helped the character achieve widespread popularity. The character's popularity has led to a vast range of merchandise from toys to clothing to theme cafes and even airplane and train designs.
4. Gudetama is an egg-yolk with arms and legs and a little butt that spends its day being lazy and melancholic.
It sounds strange and a little half-boiled, yet this little egg yolk, made by Sanrio (the Japanese company
behind Hello Kitty) has spread like wildfire across Japan and become a cultural phenomenon.
6. • The name Gudetama, comes from the Japanese phrase “gude gude” (lazy) and “tama” (egg). So,
Gudetama literally means lazy egg, a name that it more than lives up to.
• It is also riddled with a certain despondence and existentialist angst which add to its personality.
• This cultural phenomenon utters catchphrases like “Can I go home now?”, “Too lazy”, “I can’t”, “I seriously
can’t”, “I’m too lazy” and “meh”.
• The little egg-yolk is often portrayed in moments when it’s too lazy to be eaten, to get out of its (egg) shell
or to even sneeze.
8. • It was at a company-wide competition at Sanrio, where participants were asked to create a food-based
character.
• Gudetama came in second, after a salmon fillet named Kirimichan.
• The company released products for both, where Gudetama emerged a clear cut-winner, an anomaly for its
character.
10. • That seems to be the main reason behind its popularity, across ages.
• The quirky character is grumpy, too, quite like millennials, who are burdened with stress and social
pressure to a point where they’re apathetic and riddled with ennui.
• Its popular catchphrase, “Can I go home now?” is also reflective of the generation’s preference for staying
at home to “Netflix-and-chill”, instead of going out.
• In Japan, this specific trait may go even deeper, where a strange phenomenon called hikikomori became
prevalent a few years ago, which saw more than half a million reclusive youngsters shunning the company
of people and locking themselves indoors. They refused to leave their houses and avoided all social
contact.
11. • In 2010, an estimated 700,000 youngsters were in a state of hikikomori, though the number dropped to about
540,000 in 2016. It is an unexplained phenomenon, with no specific cause or reason being identified, though it
is regarded as a “culture-bound syndrome” by some psychiatrists.
• Japan is often associated with its love for consumerism and its outlandish fads such as kawaii. Sanrio’s
characters are an amalgamation of both.
• However, it appears that these trends and this socio-cultural seasoning stem from something much deeper.
Japan, while being consumeristic and superficial, also has a deep-rooted social structure which runs on
tradition and authority.
• This attributes the superficiality to years of trauma and stress induced by the World War II and the atomic
bombing. Thus, what may appear as silly, cultural icons like Gudetama have an interesting role to play in our
lives.
13. According to the fact, it have its own range of products like lunch-boxes, clothes,
beddings and linens, cutleries, bags, shoes, accessories, fashion items, stationaries and plush toys...
and many more...