Halloween Horror Nights is starting up again and I feel like I should inform all y'all who love it of these sweet little bears:
These 3 are mascots of HHN in Japan and they are as fascinating in their lore as they are adorable
Hamikuma/ハミクマ (middle): Hamikuma has been a part of the event since about 2021, starting as a walk around character inhabiting the Scarezones until graduating to the official icon of the event in 2022, when he was given a stage show called Hamikuma Psycho Circus. His backstory states he was once a circus bear who was very popular with audiences because he was very cute and danced in a very unique way, but his fellow performers became jealous and also suspected he wasn't really a bear. They ended up murdering him and burning down the bigtop to destroy the evidence, but Hamikuma managed to survive when a demon known as the Death Bringer bore his way into Hamikuma's belly. Now he gets to live on and party when Halloween comes around, but unfortunately his gaping stomach wound is now basically a portal to Hell.
Hamikuma SOUL/ハミクマソウル (right): Hamikuma's soul incarnate, introduced last year as part of the Zombie de Dance stage show. They reside in a place called YOU ME LAND.
Hamikuma Punk/ハミクマパンク (left): The latest Hamikuma, who'll be introduced to this year's HHN. He represents the anger and resentment inside of Hamikuma (I'm assuming because being murdered and turned into a Hell portal would make anyone kinda pissed off). He'll be appearing alongside the other Hamikumas during the Shout it Out Party.
I feel like there's not enough discussion of Hamikuma and Japan's HHN here on Tumblr, despite how HHN seems to have a genuine fandom here, so here's hoping this might spark some interest in it.
Some sources (so you can read more and to prove I didn't pull all of this out of my butt):
異なる表情を持つさまざまなエリアは、感動がいっぱいの別世界。ハリウッドの超大作映画をテーマにした興奮のライドや人気キャラクターたちのショーなど、子どもから大人まで楽しめる、ワールドクラスのエンターテイメントを集めたテーマパーク。
HAMI-KUMA (TM)[1] is a cute and terrifying zombie teddy bear with many things protruding from his stomach. In Japanese, “Hami” means “stick
Hami-Kuma Soul was a character featured in the Hami-Kuma’s Shout It Out Party show during Halloween Horror Nights 2024 (Japan). Hami-Kuma So
９月６日から始まる「ユニバーサル・スタジオ・ジャパン」（大阪市此花区）のイベント『ハロウィーン・ホラー・ナイト
(Some sources may need to be translated. The last source is also where I got the image above from. I'd also advise looking them up on YouTube to see them in action because they are VERY fun to watch dance around.)
