is a

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life perso ...

produced by the Japanese company

San-X is a Japanese stationery company known for creating and marketing Kawaii, cute characters such as Tarepanda, Rilakkuma, and Sumikko Gurashi. The characters are usually anthropomorphic representations of animals or inanimate objects. Each charact ...

and created by

Aki Kondo Aki Kondo (born February 22, 1977) is a Japanese illustrator and character designer, and former staff of San-X is a Japanese stationery company known for creating and marketing Kawaii, cute characters such as Tarepanda, Rilakkuma, and Sumikk ...

. After the character's launch in 2003, Rilakkuma has been featured on

stationery Stationery refers to commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter pape ...

and merchandise created by San-X, as well as several collaboration cafes. Along with picture books and comics, a stop-motion animation series titled ''

Rilakkuma and Kaoru is a 2019 stop-motion animation series created by Dwarf Studio in cooperation with San-X that premiered on Netflix on April 19, 2019. In October 2020, it was announced another stop-motion series ''Rilakkuma's Theme Park Adventure'' would be rele ...

'' was broadcast in 2019.

Development

employee

had previously created characters such as Amagurichan and Mikanbouya. At the time, San-X ordered staff members to create one character per month. After watching a TV show about

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

s at the height of the pet boom in Japan, Kondo not only wanted a pet dog, but also envied its life, as she was busy with work and hoped to relax more. This inspired her to create Rilakkuma, with its name a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words Rilakkuma was designed with a slightly sloppy posture because Kondo found it amusing, believing that it should look "cute", yet "out of place." Kondo had also designed Rilakkuma with a zipper on its back, which became one of its quirks. San-X initially found Rilakkuma too gangly and had preferred characters with small hands.

Character

Rilakkuma was launched in 2003 and first seen in San-X's four-panel comic series titled ''Rilakkuma Seikatsu''. In ''Rilakkuma Seikatsu'', which describes its origin story, it appears one day in the apartment of a female office worker named Kaoru, who only appears as a silhouette. Rilakkuma spends every day relaxing. The zipper on its back reveals that his appearance is a costume, and its true form is unknown. It is accompanied by other creatures in the series, who also have their own character lines.

Korilakkuma

is a white bear introduced in ''Rilakkuma Seikatsu'' in 2003. Like Rilakkuma, it appeared in Kaoru's apartment one day and was named by Kiiroitori. It has a red button on its chest and does not appear to be a real bear. It has a mischievous personality and loves pranks.

Kiiroitori

is Kaoru's pet yellow bird introduced in ''Rilakkuma Seikatsu'' in 2003. He can leave his cage at any time and takes care of both Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma.

Chairoikoguma

is a brown honey bear introduced in 2016. Korilakkuma finds it one day in the forest and befriends it, bringing it to meet Rilakkuma and Kiiroitori. Chairoikoguma has defined fangs when its mouth is opened, as well as bear-shaped honey patches on its feet and rear. Its friend is Kumanbachi, a honey bee.

Marketing and distribution

Along with stationery and product lines, Rilakkuma has collaborated with multiple organizations, brands, and character cafes. In September 2017 San-X opened its first temporary pop-up Rilakkuma shop in Florida, USA. In September 2018, a second pop-up shop opened at the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

. A

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

animated series called ''

'' began streaming on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

on April 19, 2019. The series was made at Dwarf Studio. It is directed by Masahito Kobayashi and written by

Naoko Ogigami is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. She first began gaining attention after winning several prizes at the PIA Film Festival for her short film ''Hoshino-Kun, Yumeno-Kun'' (2001). Among her most notable works are her f ...

, with

Mikako Tabe is a Japanese actress from Tokyo. Starting acting in her teens with a role in the Sailor Moon musicals, she has developed into a lead actress in film and television, playing the heroine in the Asadora ''Tsubasa'', starring in TV comedy series s ...

voicing Kaoru in Japanese and Lana Condor voicing Kaoru in English. In October 2020, it was announced another stop-motion series ''Rilakkuma's Theme Park Adventure'' will be released on Netflix. San-X has announced on its Japanese website that ''Rilakkuma's Theme Park Adventure'' will be released worldwide exclusively on Netflix on August 25, 2022.

Reception

Initial sales for the Rilakkuma product line were low but slowly picked up popularity in 2004, with Rilakkuma breaking the stereotype of cute characters needing to be energetic. In May 2010, Rilakkuma ranked as the fifth most popular character in Japan in a survey of the Character Databank. , character merchandise has generated a total of in retail sales revenue across Asia.

Media

Picture books

*''Rilakkuma Seikatsu - Daradara Mainichi no Susume'' (Aki Kondo, March 2004) *''Dararan Biyori - Rilakkuma Seikatsu 2'' (Aki Kondo, November 2004) *''Tori Dayori - Rilakkuma Seikatsu 3'' (Aki Kondo, May 2005) *''Kuma Goyomi - Rilakkuma Seikatsu 4'' (Aki Kondo, September 2006) *''Utatane Kibun - Rilakkuma Seikatsu 5'' (Aki Kondo, September 2007) *''Bonyari Kinenbi - Rilakkuma Seikatsu 6'' (Aki Kondo, August 2008) *''Yanwari Jozu - Rilakkuma Seikatsu 7'' (Aki Kondou, October 2010)

Sticker books

*''Rilakkuma Daradara Seal Book'' (Aki Kondo, November 2004) *''Rilakkuma Dara Pika Seal Book'' (Aki Kondo, May 2005) *''Rilakkuma Gorogoro Seal Book'' (Aki Kondo, September 2006) *''Rilakkuma Howa Pika Seal Book'' (Aki Kondo, September 2007) *''Rilakkuma Nohohon Seal Book'' (Aki Kondo, August 2008) *''Rilakkuma Daradara Seal Book'' (Aki Kondo, August 2017)

Games

*''Rilakkuma na Mainichi'' (Rocket Company,

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...

, April 2005) *''Rilakkuma ~ojamashitemasu 2 Shuukan~'' (

Interchannel was a Japanese video game developer and publisher. History Interchannel was founded on October 2, 1995 as an NEC subsidiary named . Its founding was a result of divisions within NEC being spun off. NEC Interchannel took over NEC Avenue's musi ...

, PlayStation 2, September 2005) *''Watashi no Rilakkuma'' (Rocket Company, Nintendo DS, April 2007) *''Chokkan Asonde Rilakkuma'' (Smilesoft, Nintendo DS, September 2008) *''Rilakkuma Minna de Goyururi Seikatsu'' (MTO,

Nintendo Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

, March 2009) *''Norinori Rilakkuma Hit Song Ongaku'' (Smilesoft, Nintendo DS, December 2010) *''LINE Rilakkuma Loop'' ( LINE), ( Android,

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

2016) *''Rilakkuma Farm'' ( Imagineer, Android,

2019) *''Rilakkuma at Home'' ( Nintendo Switch 2020)

TV series

*''

'' (

, April 19, 2019)

References

External links

* * {{Teddy bears Comics characters introduced in 2003 San-X characters Fictional teddy bears