Sumikko Gurashi (すみっコぐらし) is a set of fictional characters produced by the Japanese company San-X. The name directly translates to "life in the corner". The main Sumikko characters are Shirokuma, a polar bear who dislikes the cold, Penguin? who is unsure of being a penguin, Tonkatsu, a piece of leftover pork cutlet, Neko, a timid and anxious cat, and Tokage, a dinosaur who pretends to be a lizard. Minor Minikko characters include Furoshiki, a polka dot furoshiki cloth, Zassou, a weed with a positive attitude, and Tapioca, multi-colored leftover tapioca pearls. The characters were created by Yuri Yokomizo, a graphic designer working for San-X, and the first products were released in 2012. Their main inspiration was the feeling of comfort when one is near a corner, and they were based on Yokomizo's notebook doodles when she was a student. A wealth of merchandise, such as stationery, plush toys, and clothing, is sold. Books, mobile apps, and video games based on the franchise have also been produced. Three animated films with Sumikko Gurashi were released in 2019, 2021 and 2023.
Targeting Japanese people with an affinity for "corners", such as the corner seat of a café or the corner of a room, the characters are anthropomorphised animals and food items. The characters are split into "Sumikko", the main characters, and "Minikko", the smaller side characters. The main characters have common traits: they have a slightly negative personality, they are castaways in everyday life, and they feel most relaxed when they are near a corner.[1][2] In contrast, some of the Minikko characters have a more positive outlook, like Zassou, the weed with big dreams.[3]
Yuri Yokomizo was a new designer when she developed the Sumikko Gurashi characters in her first year of joining San-X.[3] Before getting hired at San-X, Yokomizo studied graphic design at Tama Art University where Hikaru Suemasa, creator of the San-X character Tarepanda, was one of her professors.[3] Yokomizo based the Sumikko Gurashi characters on doodles she made in the corners of her notebooks as a student.[4][5] They were first conceived as a series of cute animal characters, and early concept art included a sheep and a giraffe.[3][6] The polar bear character Shirokuma was originally conceived as a flawed white rabbit stuffed toy with ears that are too short. It was also considered for a main character role, but ultimately the lone character was deemed too gloomy and lonely, and a group setting was used instead.[7] The cat character Neko was added to the group after winning a survey San-X did with children in elementary school.[7] The addition of the leftover pork cutlet character Tonkatsu shifted the focus. Yokomizo said in 2015 that characters like Tonkatsu and Tapioca were inspired by a feeling of pity for that which is left over.[3] In 2019 Yokomizo said that some parts of the books are based on her own experiences, like a scene where the characters are afraid of answering the phone.[6]
In 2019, The Japan Times described Sumikko Gurashi as being part of a trend which first began with the release of the San-X character Rilakkuma in 2003, where characters have more negative personality traits compared to earlier kawaii (cute) characters which were more cheerful or bland.[8] Marceline Smith, author of a book about kawaii, described Sumikko Gurashi as "characters that feel left out or anxious" which makes them "more relevant for a generation who face greater uncertainty in their lives".[8]
San-X released the first Sumikko Gurashi products in September 2012, which included stationery and plush toys.[9] A variety of merchandise followed, such as clothing, kitchenware and bags. The Sumikko Gurashi Collection is a series of plush items, consisting of palm sized plush dolls and plush dollhouses, furniture, outfits etc. in size for the dolls. As of 2018 it includes over 300 different items.[10] Sumikko merchandise has been released with different themes, like seasonal items, depicting Sumikko wearing hats and mufflers in the winter, or depicting them at a beach holding watermelons in the summer. Other themes show the Sumikko participating in various activities, like studying or sports, or in locations like a cafe or a dagashiya candy store.[4][11] Some of the themes are reflected in short stories featured in books and magazines, on the San-X website, and in short promotional films with simple animation San-X publish on their YouTube channel.[12] As of 2019, San-X had a team of about 25 people working on Sumikko Gurashi product development.[6] As of 2023, 60 different design themes had been released.[13]
The first Sumikko Gurashi books were released in 2014, and as of 2018 over 30 different books have been released, including story books, fan books, activity books, and mooks with enclosed items.[14] There have also been several Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch games, and several mobile games, including Sumikko Gurashi—Our Puzzling Ways and SumiSumi.[15][16][17] For the 5th anniversary in 2017, San-X released birthday themed merchandise and held different events around Japan, like pop-up cafes and exhibitions.[18] Also, a commemorative train decorated with Sumikko Gurashi characters ran on the Yamanote Line in July and August 2017.[19][20]
Sumikko Gurashi is also promoted in Taiwan, and is known as Jiǎoluò Xiǎohuǒbàn (角落小夥伴,[21] lit. "Little Corner Partners") or Jiǎoluò shēngwù (角落生物,[22] lit. "Corner Creatures") in Chinese. In 2017, Sumikko Gurashi merchandise started selling in North American stores such as Books-a-Million and Barnes and Noble.[23][24]
According to San-X, in 2015 Sumikko Gurashi stood for 30% of sales of their original merchandise, or about 5 billion yen.[3] As of 2019 sales of Sumikko products were worth about 20 billion yen a year. Eight million plush toys and 3 million books had been sold.[25] Sumikko Gurashi was ranked #10 in 2016, and #5 in 2018 on character popularity charts from Bandai, based on surveys of parents of children under 12 in Japan.[26][27][28] In 2019 Sumikko Gurashi won the Grand Prize at the Japan Character Awards.[29]
For the 10th anniversary in 2022, San-x started the "Let's connect through Sumikko project" where the Sumikko characters, among other things, act as tourism ambassador for selected towns and areas in Japan.[30][31][32]
For the seventh anniversary in 2019 an anime film was released, called Sumikko Gurashi The Movie - The Pop-up Book and the Secret Child (映画すみっコぐらし とびだす絵本とひみつのコ, Eiga Sumikko Gurashi: Tobidasu Ehon to Himitsu no Ko). The film was produced by the studio Fanworks who previously made the Aggretsuko series.[33][34] It was directed by Mankyū, with the script written by Takashi Sumita and Kaori Hino was art director. It opened in 114 theaters in Japan in November, and ranked #3 on opening weekend and rose to #2 the week after.[35][36] It grossed a total of 1.45 billion yen in 2019 and won Best Animation of the Year at the Japanese Movie Critics Awards.[37][38]
In 2021, a second movie was released, Sumikko Gurashi The Movie: A Magical Child of the Blue Moonlit Night (映画 すみっコぐらし 青い月夜のまほうのコ, Eiga Sumikko Gurashi: Aoi Tsukiyo no Mahou no Ko).[39] It was directed by Takahiro Omori with a screenplay by Reiko Yoshida.[40] Like the first movie, it was produced by Fanworks with art directing by Kaori Hino.[41] The theme song was performed by the alternative rock group Bump of Chicken.[42] Yuri Yokomizo made rough sketches for character designs and collaborated with the movie design team in creating the concept. Much of the work on the movie was done remotely, using screen sharing.[43] It opened in 184 theaters and was #2 at the weekend box office, going up to #1 the week after.[44][41][45] As of January 2022 the total box office was over 1 billion yen.[46]
These are the smaller Minikko characters.[50][51]