Tarepanda (たれぱんだ) is a cute panda character owned by the company San-X サンエックス (San Ekkusu). The term "tare" (垂れ) means "droopy" in Japanese.

History

Creation

Tarepanda is licensed by San-X, the company that introduced Tarepanda stickers in 1995. It was designed by Hikaru Suemasa (ja:末政ひかる) and was inspired when she was being tired.

Characteristics

Tarepanda is a character that moves by rolling over, with a record speed of 2.75 m/h. Tarepanda's favorite food is mochi (餅), especially suama (寿甘).

Popularity

In February 1998, San-X launched Tarepanda erasers and letter pads, which proved enormous hits. San-X believed these products were successful because they were released shortly after the Asian financial crisis of autumn 1997, a time when many people in Japan were facing layoffs and, consequently, were sympathetic toward a "worn-out" panda character. Sales of Tarepanda goods exceeded ¥30 billion (US$291 million) in the first few months of its release. It became Japan's seventh top-grossing character of 1999, generating ¥billion (US$million) in merchandise sales that year, adding up to ¥billion (US$million) merchandise sales in Japan by 1999. Tarepanda was a major hit in Japan. It has appeared on annual retail sales charts published by Character Databank, a Japanese character sales monitoring firm,. It was rated one of the most popular characters in Japan for its cuteness.

Merchandise

Picture books

Sticker books

Videos

Games

Computer