10 Fun Ass Years of Funassyi!!! A Retrospective of TV, Music, Games and (if there's time) Pears.....
261If you ever watched Japanese TV between 2013 and oh.. say 2018, you know exactly what I'm talking about! (Chapter markers and more below...)
0:00 Mojaro Cares!
0:07 GTV ID: Always Bearing Fruit
0:14 Prologue: An Army of Plush Buggers
0:56 Act 1: Funassyi’s Story
7:11 CM 1: Kanju Homes (Japan, 2014)
7:43 Act 2: Funassyi’s Media
15:43 CM 2: Virus Off (Japan, 2015)
16:00 Act 3: Funassyi’s Legacy
Episode Information
GTV 133 "10 Funass-years!" Season 7 Episode 11
Original Airdate: July 29, 2022
Produced July 20-24, 2022
Recorded at Butsudan Studios and edited on my all new 14” MacBook M1 Pro! Edited and produced with Photoshop and Final Cut Pro, which my job paid for, but apparently, not for much longer...
Other great GTV episodes with celebrities in them!
Double Identity https://youtu.be/sVx-e4obQc0
Guts Pose https://youtu.be/JSTB4x5LccE
For The Record Altered Beast https://youtu.be/cIIw-ypy8Tc
Who Are Kato & Ken? https://youtu.be/CtKuKTSjF_g
Rational Ebullience https://youtu.be/z6psyKzdY4s
Elec-Man VS. Journey https://youtu.be/7GSx_0yMuXo
Hulk Hogan Manga Mania! https://youtu.be/ei7wxfKkMnQ
Meet Mr. Sega https://youtu.be/bkOsNYAx90I
Zelda 2 and the 1988 Chip Shortage https://youtu.be/H6zYKiueCEA
Monkey Magic https://youtu.be/V5nmAnmOe7g
Segata Sanshiro https://youtu.be/NBPNcI9OMbk
The Legendary Mother https://youtu.be/7mpAdSpXb0E
Club Nintendo https://youtu.be/TM3oL-xoCO0
Ken Uston: The Gamer Gambler https://youtu.be/4ww3Uy_RHPs
King of Keirin https://youtu.be/LKRjZfKeFsg
Partial Transcript
Oh yesss, Funasshi! A dear old friend to all! The little pear fairy plucked from obscurity to become the most famous Japanese Tarento of the 2010s (and likely for many, the most annoying too!)
From an outsider’s point of view its quite easy to look at Funasshi from afar, shake your head and say “oh that Crazy Japan, up to its old antics again. And even on The Island, it was quite puzzling why this screaming yellow zonker was so beloved. Coming out of nowhere, seemingly overnight, without much reasoning or explanation involved.
This character, Funasshi! Appeared on the scene way back in the year 2013 and for a good number of years, DAILY! He.. she .. or it was everywhere, on TV nearly 24 hours a day, or at least it felt like it, with additional appearances in CMs, PVs CDs DVDs! (And a bunch of other acronyms)
To understand the lay of the land in 2013, you have to go back to the Turn of the Century, no not the that one, the next one! As Japan entered the “zero-zeros” the nation as a whole started to adopt cute little mascots to represent their respective towns and cities.
Officially these are known as “Yuru-chara” A portmanteau of the words Yurui, meaning relaxing, calm or peaceful, and character. [As an aside I think this is the tenth time I’ve used the word portmanteau in a video (trophy sound!) Nice Get!!]
Yuru-Charas are means to convey some image or feeling about the town it represents, and ends up plastered on every poster, menu, stop sign, tax bill and you name it.