The morning rush at Ikebukuro Station ground to a halt on Aug. 4 as crowds swarmed for photos in front of freshly decorated pillars.
In place of the once-bare columns stood towering statues of rotund, rosy-cheeked critters, their eyes almost gleaming under the fluorescent light. Station security were called in to keep the flow of traffic moving.
The characters were part of a guerrilla ad campaign for Chiikawa Park, a pseudo-theme park that opened on July 28 in Ikebukuro’s Sunshine City shopping complex and based on the “Nanka Chiisakute Kawaii Yatsu” (literally translated to “Something Small and Cute” but more commonly shortened to “Chiikawa”) web manga series first published in 2017.
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