Soda-Pests (ソーダペスト) is a Japanese franchise created in Tokyo by a beverage company of the same name, initially developed in 2003. The brand’s goal was to create a highly distinctive concept with cult appeal, inspired by alternative aesthetics popular among youth, similar to stores like Hot Topic.
The core idea came from the unusual combination of urban pests as soda mascots, creating a contrast between cute and repulsive elements that became the franchise’s defining identity.
The brand was officially launched on January 1, 2006, after a period of refining character designs, visual identity, and marketing strategy. Each character represents an urban pest, a soda flavor, and a specific subculture or aesthetic (for example: Lity, a blowfly with a lemon flavor and a scene subculture; Moldy, an American cockroach with a chocolate flavor and a kawaii subculture, etc.). In addition, each character has their own personality and lore.
The franchise’s visual style is heavily based on chibi-kawaii culture, drawing inspiration from brands and aesthetics such as Tokidoki, Sanrio, Gloomy Bear, Domo-kun, and Skelanimals. Because of this, the characters feature large heads, wide expressive eyes, and cute cheeks—typical traits of kawaii and chibi styles—reinforcing their adorable appearance despite being based on urban pests. This visual choice also reflects both Japanese and Western pop culture influences from the 2000s, especially brands focused on a “cute + edgy” aesthetic.
Within the narrative, the main protagonists of the anime are Lity, Moldy, and Soulflux, with Lity acting as the central protagonist.
The anime, released in 2007 (day:march 15 2007) with a 16+ rating(some swears+edgy content like drugs, cigarretes mentions also and etc)takes place in Pests City a place where only urban pests are sapient/anthro and live urban lives(non urban pests animals arent sapient, and they have to pass for a test, if they are urban pests they join and became anthro/sapient in pests city, but if not, they arent sapient). The city is fully adapted for them: some live in slums(some lives in slums, mansions and etc in the sewers, but others live in normal ones), mansions, or sewer homes, while others inhabit castles, cemeteries, or standard buildings. The series blends slice-of-life elements with darker themes, helping solidify its cult status. A notable detail is that some characters frequently use slang, especially Lity.
Among all characters, Moldy became the most famous and popular.
The franchise also gained recognition for its creative marketing, cult status,
Funfact:They did collaborations with pest control companies, referencing the project’s original concept.
In 2016, the company went bankrupt and soda production ended, although the anime continued until 2020. After its conclusion, Soda-Pests remained a cult franchise, remembered for its unique aesthetic, unusual concept, and strong presence in 2000s and 2010s fan culture. Some characters existed only in the anime (not all had soda flavors), and despite being based on urban pests—typically small in real life—the characters were portrayed with human-like size and proportions, and not all characters debuted on the exactly debut of their soda version (some debuted before even gaining a soda flavor), the anime is about pests living adventures on the city!!, so here lets start with the character one:
Name: Lity Hazard
Urban pest Species: Blowfly (a bluebottle fly to be more specific)
Birthday: July 13th
Age: 15y
Gender:♀️
Disorders: Autism + ADHD
Subculture: Scenekid
Disability: Lost one of her legs
Lore/About:
Lity is the protagonist of SDP. She is a rebellious teenage blowfly obsessed with rave parties, nightclubs, nightlife culture, and loud electronic music (she is even a DJ). She loves using her phone, either visiting blogs, listening to music, chatting online, or drawing digital art, since she is also an amateur digital artist. Lity loves urban exploration /urbex(especially abandoned places), creepypastas, horror media, and edgy things in general.
Growing up, Lity became extremely curious and impulsive. She developed a strong obsession with Urbex (Urban exploration ) often sneaks into abandoned places around Pest City. Her curiosity constantly overpowers common sense, often causing her to get involved in dangerous situations simply because she wants to experience things for herself.
Her personality is rebellious, adventurous, curious, tomboyish, edgy, energetic, courageous and sometimes immature and sacartisc.She currently lives in a house in the sewers of Pest City alongside other characters like Moldy, Soulflux, Rouge, and others.
Very little is known about her biological origins. During her maggot stage, she was abandoned inside a pile of dirty litter and later discovered by Gomichika(a garbage collector housefly but then they died some years after), who adopted her and gave her the name “Lity Hazard,” derived from the world litter, The only confirmed biological relative she has is Patch, her housefly cousin, identified through a DNA test years later.
Growing up, Lity became extremely curious and impulsive. She developed a strong fascination with urban exploration, especially abandoned places around Pest City. Her curiosity constantly overpowers common sense, often causing her to get involved in dangerous situations simply because she wants to see or experience things for herself.
Funfacts:
1-While visiting a crowded shopping mall, Lity accidentally dropped her phone into an escalator. Instead of asking for help, she impulsively tried to retrieve it herself by reaching into the moving mechanism. The escalator severely injured her leg before it was stopped, ultimately causing her to lose it completely. Since then, Lity has developed a deep phobia of escalators.
2-Lity has acid instead of blood, Because of this, antacids trigger severe allergic reactions in her system(she can even die bc of antacids), causing her to develop a strong fear of antacids as well.
3-During one of her urbex explorations, Lity broke into a closed party salon that had apparently been abandoned for years. Inside the building, she found several old star-shaped cosmetic stickers scattered across a dirty dressing room. Without thinking much about safety, she placed the stars around one of her eyes and continued using them repeatedly afterward. The expired chemicals permanently affected her eye coloration, accidentally giving her heterochromia. Even after finding out what caused it, Lity continues insisting the stars are “just stickers.”
4-In another exploration, she found a glowing neon biohazard necklace buried inside a pile of discarded rave accessories and chemical waste. Fascinated by its radioactive appearance, she cleaned it and began wearing it almost every day, especially during parties and DJ performances. The necklace glows in the dark and eventually became her signature accessory. Because of this obsession with radioactive aesthetics and biohazard imagery, Lity often refers to herself as the “Biohazard Queen.”
5-She has a crush on moldy(as she also mentioned that on her diary)
6-She has a pet leech called "Kuro-Chan"
7-Her mbti type is enfp+esfp
8-Lity was abandoned in a pile of contaminated urban waste, including chemical residue and improperly discarded radioactive materials. Prolonged exposure during her development caused severe biological mutations, resulting in her body producing a corrosive acid-like fluid instead of regular blood, thats also the reason why she has a more green skin color (even tough she is a blue blowfly)
9-Her eyes glow in the dark too!
10-She adopted "Hazard" as her last name (in tribute to biohazard)
(Heres her design:)
11-She also says so many slangs
12-She loves eletronic songs/eurodances
13-her wings got reworked to make her look more to a fly
14-lity loves slimes (principally green slimes)
She is heavily involved in rave and nightlife culture, often acting as a small underground DJ at electronic parties.
Now, character 2#-Name: Moldy
Birthday: September 27
Age: 14
Species: American cockroach (Periplaneta americana)
Soda flavor: Chocolate
Birthplace: Los Angeles 🇺🇸
About/Trivia: Moldy is one of the three main characters of Soda Pests (along with Soulflux and Lity). She is Lity’s best friend. Moldy loves moldy sweets/mold in general (that’s the reason for her name lol), and she lives in the sewers of Pests City (just like Lity, Soulflux, Rouge, etc). She is very poor, and since she doesn’t have money for accessories, she makes them using moldy/rotten sweets (for example: her cupcake hat). She also wears an old, worn-out pajama (both her hat and her pajama are very dirty and full of pathogens, because she lives in the sewers and loves pollution and trash more than anything). She also has a fixation on and really loves bacteria/pathogens (she has a big interest in bacteriology, and is a nerd in this topic). She even has a emotional support pet pathogen called “Yuyu” (and treats bacterias like they are her children, and yuyu is visible and not miniscule like bacterias irl). Moldy’s personality is gluttonous, kind of airheaded, innocent, creative, and she loves pollution and hates cleanliness (she has an allergy and intense fear and hate to clean things). She is also a flying cockroach, and she is really kind to everyone (even to the ones who hates her)
Fun Facts:
1- She was the one who made Kissy’s hat as a gift (that’s why you can see a similarity between Kissy’s hat and hers), however, Kissy simply cleaned and remade the hat, which made Moldy sad.
2- Because of all this—loving and interacting with pollution, pathogens, etc—Moldy has contracted several diseases throughout her life. and she rarely takes it seriously. Even so, her body ended up developing an unusual resistance to various pathogens.
3- Moldy lives in poverty (as already mentioned lol)
4- Lity has a crush on Moldy, but she doesn’t want to admit it
5-Some characters find her disgusting and weird, often avoiding her because of her lifestyle.(like jousye, waedes, tickade etc.)
6-Moldy is autistic.
7-Moldy loves kawaii things(such as kawaii animes, and etc)
8-Moldy’s pajamas were originally discarded multiple times and ended up in the trash, which is how she found them(at the garbage in the sewers). At some point, while visiting the KraütBite fast food(a fast food owned by a German cockroach)she accidentally spilled a hamburger on them — but instead of cleaning it, she liked how it looked (especially as it started to mold), and kept it as part of the pajama.
9-Her favorite pathogens are e.colis (her pet yuyu is one) and mold fungus
10-She also loves cute kawaii animes!!(big fan of Rataro, a hamtaro parody lol)
(I will try to post others characters soon xd, theres also soulflux on main characters)
#sodapests #oc #urbanpest #pest #blowfly #cockroach #kawaii #chibi
