All hail Myaku-Myaku, Japan’s new mascot overlord and viral superstar.
The slightly drippy, red-and-blue humanoid — based on the unsettling, multi-eyed logo for Osaka’s Expo 2025 — has been recruited to represent the event. Though the design for the character was announced back in March, it wasn’t until two weeks ago that its name was revealed and we got to see its final globulous form.
Despite some initial grumbling from the always-gloomy internet bulletin boards, charmed and terrified social media users alike quickly embraced and remixed Myaku-Myaku. (Fitting as the character can mutate into ... any shape it wants.) A fair amount of people chose to imagine the mascot as a benevolent blob, drawing fan art of Myaku-Myaku helping the blind or playfully imitating dogs. Popular English-language book series Koala English utilized Myaku-Myaku to teach bite-size lessons about expressions and adverbs.