Arrival of 10th Anniversary Zodiac Series Rilakkuma Plushies!

Exciting news!

My 10th Anniversary Zodiac Series Rilakkumas came in today!

This was also my first time ordering from the San-X Net Shop. Even though Net Shop is almost entirely in Japanese, the whole process was surprisingly fast and easy – even for someone completely illiterate in Japanese like me.

Zodiac Rilakkuma arrival - box

My first San-X box, too!

Zodiac Rilakkuma arrival - open box

Who’s inside?

Zodiac Rilakkuma arrival - all

From left to right: Gemini, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Taurus, & Cancer

Although images of this series have been out for months (one of my earliest blog posts, actually!), they were officially released just last week (1/19)!

This zodiac/astrology series is 12 plushies strong, and commemorates Rilakkuma’s 10 year anniversary! I only ordered 5 because I’m not made of money, but maybe I’ll collect the full set one day. Wow, San-X is sure doing it big this year for Rilakkuma’s 10th birthday!

Stay tuned for individual posts (and close-up photos) on each of them later this week!

ETA: If you’re curious about how to buy from Tenso, I wrote a guide!

Rilakkuma movie coming soon!

No way!

San-X is teaming up with the character and animation studio Dwarf (TYO Inc.) to make a stop motion-style Rilakkuma movie!

Dwarf is famous for its stop motion animations of Domo, NHK’s official mascot. Wow, what quality work!

Check out this (extremely short, but sweet) teaser video here!

Rilakkuma movie - teaser image

Coming soon!

Not sure exactly what this will entail, but it looks like they’re releasing it episode-style at the first of every month.

I am unbelievably excited about this, and the premiere just a week away!

Mikan Rilakkuma UFO Catcher Plushie!

Last but not least from the big UFO catcher batch: Mikan Rilakkuma! He was released into the UFO catcher wild by Fansclub and San-X in December 2011.

Mikan (Citrus unshiu) are citrus fruits of Japanese origin, and are also known as satsuma mandarins or satsuma oranges. We actually have a tree full of these out in our yard – yum!

Mikan Rilakkuma - full body shot

Hello Mikan Rilakkuma!

Mikan Rilakkuma - hat detail

Cute citrus hat!

Mikan Rilakkuma - scarf

Lovely scarf with fuzzy citrus details on both ends!

Because of Chinese tradition and symbolism (and some clever wordplay), my family loves to display and serve oranges to ring in the new year since our word for “fortune/success” sounds similar to the word for “orange”.

This Rilakkuma will also help us welcome the lunar new year next month as well – how auspicious for this Rilakkuma to join the family at the start of 2013!

Rilakkuma Valentine’s Day 2013 products!

Did you know that Japanese chocolate companies make more than half their annual sales during the week leading up to Valentine’s Day? Whoa!

Are you ready for Valentine’s Day? It’s just under a month away, but it looks like some Rilakkuma Stores have already started selling pink Valentine’s themed Rilakkuma products – there’s even Rilakkuma/Korilakkuma holding donuts and looking suspiciously like the Misdo Rilakkuma collaboration series hahaha.

Rilakkuma Valentines Series - 2013

Seriously, Rilakkuma’s essentially holding the same type of donut.

Wow, San-X has been doing WORK recently with all these new shiny releases!

Though with the exception the (unaffiliated) donut Rilakkumas, this set looks pretty similar to last year’s; if you’re curious, Relax Kuma has a really great post about last year’s 2012 Valentine’s set, with a cool explanation of Japanese Valentine’s Day traditions!

Personally, my childhood Valentine’s Day memories were of chalky Sweethearts candies and punny cartoon cards – could’ve used some Rilakkuma back then!

Spotted: Rilakkuma weather forecast?

Not exactly sure why this exists, but here’s a wacky weather report from last May featuring a Bonjour/Bon Voyage Rilakkuma dancing in the background:

 

From my minimal understanding of what on earth is going here, I think this is just a weather report show with people dancing around and bright colors; this one just happens to also have Rilakkuma?

Admittedly, this way more exciting than my local weather report.

February Rilakkuma Store Exclusives!

OMG! To celebrate the Tokyo Station Rilakkuma Store’s 4th anniversary, San-X is releasing these cute new Tokyo Station-exclusive fruit dessert Rilakkuma plushies!

They’ll only be sold at a special birthday event at the Tokyo Station Rilakkuma Store this February.

Tokyo Station 4th Anniversary Series - announcement

Fruit shorts!

They look so snug and yummy!

But that’s not all!

In addition to the previously announced Aloha Rilakkuma series, Rilakkuma Stores all over Japan will also be stocking these special, Rilakkuma store-exclusive Aloha Rilakkuma series plushies next month as well! (Maybe some will end up at the San-X Net Shop, too?)

Aloha Rilakkuma Store Exclusive - announcement

I want a pair of Rilakkuma-shaped sunglasses too!

Wah, so many new releases!

Can’t decide if I’ll order any of these for sure since San-X releases these new series faster than my wallet grows, but we’ll see!

Rilakkuma Furikake!

My sister’s friend from Japan gave our family some Rilakkuma furikake!

Furikake is a delicious dried condiment that you can sprinkle over rice. No, these flakes aren’t Rilakkuma shaped (not that I’d eat Rilakkuma anyway), but they do have some great packaging designs!

Rilakkuma furikake - packaging

Adorable packaging!

Rilakkuma furikake - packets

Flavors by row, from top to bottom: salmon, vegetable, egg, okaka (bonito flakes)

Rilakkuma furikake - Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma, Kiiroitori

One of my favorite packet designs, front and back! OMG that Kiiroitori’s is egg flavored though hahaha

Rilakkuma furikake - with Rilakkuma

Rilakkuma loves his rice with veggie furikake!

San-X began selling these as a collaboration with seasoning/instant food brand Nagatanien in July 2011. According to the product page, they are a great source of calcium!

So yummy! Getting addicted…

New Rilakkuma gifs on tumblr!

Since I got a little gif addicted, I started up a new tumblr blog dedicated entirely to Rilakkuma gifs!

Because I’m a big fan of straightforward naming, you can find it at rilakkumagifs.tumblr.com!

Rilakkuma Gifs - hula dancers

One of many Rilakkuma gifs!

Enjoy!

I took care to tag them all appropriately, so they’ll be easy to search by series and character – though I’ve only made and queued gifs of the Tamago (chicken/egg), Aloha (Hawaii), and Tokyo Skytree series so far.

More to come when I find more Rilakkuma videos! There used to be ones from the older series, but the links seems to have disappeared with the recent layout renovation over at San-X – maybe I’ll have to do some digging…

Outdoors Rilakkuma UFO Catcher Plushie!

While the last UFO plushies were gifts, I got this one for myself: it’s Rilakkuma holding a kabob! He was part of an outdoors series (アウトドアごっこ) released by Fansclub and San-X in July 2011.

Kabob Rilakkuma - full body shot

Ready to go camping!

Kabob Rilakkuma - kabob detail

Rilakkuma has cooked a yummy kabob! And he’s wearing a nice yellow bib in case he makes a mess.

Seeing this plushie on Fansclub was actually what prompted me to make my first big Rilakkuma UFO catcher plushie purchase earlier – San-X hasn’t released anything like this design in their standard 22 cm collectible size (the style I usually order), so that convinced me to make the leap!

I’m so glad I did, because he is a wonderful addition to my largely food-themed Rilakkuma collection. Yay!