gloomy the bloodthirsty bear

A package from the US rocked up on my desk this morning. Yahhhhhhh, Gloomy's arrived!!

Gloomy is a cute pink bear from Japan...with blood dripping from his claws and mouth. He's now sitting on the corner of the shelf at work where I keep my project folders, looking most ferocious and cute. ありがとうございます to jojo, who scooped one up for me at the Gloomy shop in Osaka on his recent trip to Japan.

I went looking for a picture on the net to post until I can take one of my real Gloomy. I ended up with the one above. Mine is plush, not vinyl, and he doesn't have the bloodstain on his chest, just the bloody claws and mouth. I also found this rather graphic picture of Gloomy attacking his poor long-suffering owner and this article on Gloomy and his creator. Quite interesting.

Why is Gloomy so cool? Japan is so full of cute stuff that it can be a bit much. As one person put it:

"If you gotta be cute but you're sick of it what do you turn to?"

How about Gloomy, the bloodthirsty bear? I think the quote I liked best from the creator was:

"It is only natural that a bear attacks humans."

So Gloomy's a toy...so what? He's still a BEAR, right? It's so true. If we actually had a bear sitting on our pillow, he'd probably eat us and then go raid the cupboards for dessert.