#gatagoro

[gotouchichara]

Ariake Gatagorō (有明ガタゴロウ), a mudskipper from the Ariake Sea by Saga Prefecture. At the Gotōchi Chara Haku in Hikone (ご当地キャラ博in彦根), 2017.10.21.

He’s surprisingly tall compared to most yuru-chara (who are not), easily about 2 metres (6′ 6″), as he was nearly as tall as Fukkachan’s green onion “horns” (allegedly 2.2 m).

[creaturecompine]

[gotouchichara]

Here’s an All Nippon Airways tourism video about Saga Prefecture (in English), featuring local mascot Ariake Gatagorō (有明ガタゴロウ).

The other videos in the series (look for the “Sky Eye” videos with English titles here) often briefly feature gotōchi chara (e.g. the one on Shiga Prefecture has Hikonyan), but Gatagorō being one of the few talking mascots is featured more predominantly in this one.

Gata-chan shows us the Higashiyoka-higata mudflat (his home), the Mietsu Naval Dock, the Yoshinogari site, and an izakaya in Saga city.

If you watch NHK World you’ve probably heard those voice actors before...

[gotouchichara]

Part of the “UGG Magic Show” (Udonnoww, Gatagorō, Goya Sensei) at Susaki, where they perform an amazing levitation trick on Take-chan (publicity ambassador for Hanyu).

At least it wasn’t as terrifying as this, earlier in Kumamoto.

[gotouchichara]

Ariake Gatagorō (有明ガタゴロウ, from Saga Prefecture), hard at work in Sumida last weekend. Today (2nd June) is his birthday.

Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

[gotouchichara]

Who’s the better artist: Nyajirō, or Gatagorō?

Image sources: 1, 2

[gotouchichara]

People were puzzled and amused by the GCB47 lineup announced in the schedule for the Sumida festival last weekend, which only listed Nyajirō and Sugamon and several other characters not normally associated with the band. It turns out it was just Yohsuke Ishida (not mentioned in the schedule) singing and playing guitar, with the rest just dancing or whatever.

The second performance on Sunday was a bit more irregular - Ishida’s voice was gone (probably from the sold-out Aitai 2 concert the previous night) and could barely sing, so got some help from talking gotōchi-chara Yamadaruma (山田るま), Ariake Gatagorō (有明ガタゴロウ) and Chōsei Tōnyū-kun (ちょうせい豆乳くん). Unfortunately, none are renowned for their vocal abilities - if anything, Chōsei Tōnyū-kun is known for his terrible singing.

Above (if the timed link works right - should be 10 minutes in) is Gatagorō’s attempt at Jumpin' Jack Flash.

Chōsei Tōnyū-kun is much worse, but at least he apologises at the end.