In "Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure,” a new live-action and animated series on Netflix, an ambitious television producer thinks he’s stumbled onto the perfect subject for a show: a sentient egg and a relentless chick on a journey to find their mother. That egg is Gudetama, a cartoon that skyrocketed to international fame after Sanrio introduced the character in 2013, not long after Hello Kitty, its biggest star, started to underperform.
Gudetama is a genderless egg with a sad face and a shiny yellow butt. They want nothing and they do nothing. They laze around, complain and feel very little besides emptiness and ennui. Gudetama is essentially a burnout, a slacker, a malingerer crushed under the weight of melancholy.
The egg appeared when Sanrio held a contest to develop new food characters, which the company hoped would connect with a new generation of food-obsessed consumers. Although Gudetama wasn’t the original winner, the egg quickly became a fan favorite.