Marcelle is a fuzzy French elephant who likes, among other things, baby blue cotton candy.
For those who are often fooled by her sweet wooly demeanour, one must know that Marcelle was once a famous trapeze artist.
She has since left the circus, in hopes of finding greener pastures.
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Mei-chan loves Strawberry Shortcake.
The fun-loving cartoon character first appeared as a greeting card design in 1977 – way before Mei-chan was born, of course.
Strawberry Shortcake has since been given a makeover, evolving first into a tomboy-looking adventure-seeker, and later into a wide-eyed, pink-haired people-pleaser.
Some of her friends from Strawberryland were also given new last names (Raspberry Tart to Torte) and the berry hero herself was last rumoured to have stolen Huckleberry Pie’s pet dog, Pupcake.
In Japan, Children’s Day takes place on May 5. A month prior to that, families would decorate their households with koinobori – carp-shaped wind socks made of paper or fabric.
These carp streamers are traditionally flown on roof tops to celebrate the event known as Tango no Sekku, in honour of sons (and daughters?) in the hope that they will grow up healthy and strong. The biggest koinobori represents the father; the medium and small-sized carps speak for the mother and child.
Meimoirs is no stranger to symbols of the koinobori – her father, who was an exporter of Japanese carps known as koi, found the cloth ‘kites’ amusing and used to have them strewn across the house. Only recently did she find out what the fish was all about, and wished that she had kept one or two in remembrance of her father, and a childhood she still thinks about from time to time.
To please his father, Baby Kaonashi-chan has promised that he will make the most out of his first hunt alone.
Kaonashi, which means “no-face” in Japanese, is a melancholic soul that appears in Spirited Away.
It is a meat-lover, by choice.
In the Japanese culture, there is a word that perfectly describes the design of the Kaonashi character. “Kimokawaii” refers to something that is grotesque to the point of being endearingly beautiful.
Very Kaonashi indeed.
Spirited Away is one of Meimoirs’ favourite films. The 2001 Oscar-winning Japanese anime draws its inspiration from an Alice in Wonderland-like world of whimsiness, introducing us to countless multi-faceted characters.
In one of the scenes, the susuwatari returns for a cameo – the tiny, black critters first appeared in My Neighbour Totoro and were known as dust bunnies or soot sprites. The name “susuwatari” literally means “travelling soot”.
They exist on petite rainbow-hued Japanese sweets called kompeito, a type of thank-you-for-coming gift by the Imperial House of Japan.
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