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Reach Level 10 on Tamagotchi Paradise and You’ll See Credits

image source: Some_Ad_5301 on Reddit

Did you know that level 10 on the Tamagotchi Paradise is considered Lab Staff? At this point you’ve raised a few Tamagotchi’s across several fields. To celebrate, Bandai Namco has baked in an easter egg where you will see an adorable animation once you achieve level 10 and it provides credits to all of the Bandai Namco employees who are responsible for the two year development of the Tamagotchi Paradise!

How cute? We spy some names that we recognize including Yuri Okamoto, Asaki Murakami, and Tara Badie! Icons.

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Tamagotchi Development Team Provides Insight on Tamagotchi Paradise Development

The Tamagotchi development team recently spoke DIME, a Japanese magazine, where they provided insight to the Tamagotchi development process. Taro Tsuji (Executive Director, and Chief Tamagotchi officer), Tomori Aoygai (Assistant Manager of Bandai Toy Division), and Yuri Okamoto (Toy Divining Planning Team 1) were all featured in this article giving insights on the development process of the Tamagotchi Paradise which started back in July, 2023.

It all started in the cafeteria with a sheet of A4 paper and a pen, and lots of snacks too! At first, they were lost, and knew that they needed to make the device 2,000 cheaper than the Tamagotchi Uni released in 2023 which was pushing 8,000. The fans were very vocal about the higher price point, and Bandai knew they needed to address that.

They also needed to ensure that the device was unique enough to stand out amongst competitors as the virtual pet space is becoming competitive. There was an idea where there was a syringe and something would happen if you stuck it in the device, and even a magnifying glass. However, none of these items were coherent, and the proposals were rewritten.

Chisato Aoygai took a fresh sheet of A4 paper over to Yuri Okamoto’s desk and told her to write down things that you want to incorporate into the Tamagotchi brand. Yuri drew birds, fish, and even guinea pigs, and that is where it all started, the incorporation of evolution and biodiversity. Then game the concept of the different fields, land, water, and sky! After a long day of work, the two of them did not want to go home, and came up with the concept of the zoom dial, emulating the big bang, and the use of a microscope.

Yuri seems quite impressed by the attention in North America specifically, calling out the attention she received at the 2025 San Diego Comic-Con, with fans telling her how long they’ve been raising Tamagotchi’s for.

Taro Tsuji also mentions the huge success of the launch, and the excitement that fans had contributing to the products success.

The development team even shared out sketches of the Tamagotchi Paradise original characters from June 5th, 2024!

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2025 San Diego Comic-Con "Inside the World of Tamagotchi" Panel

image source: shyku.tchi on Instagram

The first day of the 2025 San Diego Comic-Con, and it was a fun one! The Tamagotchi booth is #3345 and it drew quite the crowd! Even more exciting was the “Inside the World of Tamagotchi” panel where Tara Badie, Asaki Murakami, and Yuri Okamoto took the stage to review insights of the Tamagotchi Paradise development process which started August, 2023, and to announce some new Tamagotchi Original shells.

Did we mention that the super big Mametchi plushie had a seat at the panel too?

image source: shyku.tchi on Instagram

First was the review of the Tamagotchi Paradise development, which is really insightful. As Asaki Murakami mentioned in an interview with us before, development can take 2-3 years. Starting in August, 2023. We really enjoyed seeing the prototypes pictured above, including the concept of a circular screen!

image source: shyku.tchi on Instagram

They then reviewed the characters including the sketches from their concepts and how they came about. Also how the concept came about for zooming, and some sketches of what they visioned zoom to be like. The zoom feature using the zoom dial is completely inspired by the microscope.

image source: shyku.tchi on Instagram

The concept of the three fields, land, water, and sky came from the research conducted through field work, including the aquarium. The Tamagotchi Paradise is inspired by biodiversity and sustainability.

image source: shyku.tchi on Instagram

After reviewing the new Tamagotchi Paradise, Bandai Namco then made some product announcements!

The first announcement was the next wave of Tamagotchi Original shells for Fall, 2025. These shells include Avocado Mix (P1), Tama Sewing (P2), Angel Cake (P3), Angel Tiara (P3), and Stained Glass Autumn for 2025 (P1). Now available for preorder on Amazon.

image source: tamatraveler on Instagram

Second Bandai Namco announced that Tamagotchi Face/Eye Color and Tamagotchi Paradise lanyards (both purple and pink) are coming September, 2025 with preorders set to be released next month.

Lastly, Bandai Namco detailed the 2025 Tamagotchi Summer Tour! With destinations in Minneapolis, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, and Irvine!

Bandai also announced that more episodes of the popular web series Tama Animation are coming!

Talk about a successful panel! Great job, Tara, Asaki, Yuri, and Justin! All members of the audience received a Tamagotchi Paradise trading card and a copy of the Tamagotchi Paradise comic book.

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Fuji News Network’s Live News A Interview with Chisato Aoygai and Yuri Okamoto on Tamagotchi Paradise Development

We love a look behind the scenes! FNN, Fuji News Network’s Live News A program was able to visit Bandai HQ in Japan and interview both Chisato Aoygai, Assistant Manager of Bandai Toy Division, and Yuri Okamoto, of the Bandai planning team of the Toy Division Global Toy Planning Department.

The interview reviews the planning and development of the new Tamagotchi Paradise, including its programming and focus on biodiversity. We really enjoying seeing some of the Tamagotchi Paradise device prototypes, and the concept sketch of Tamagotchi Paradise landscape!

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Mezamashi Interviews Bandai Media Department’s Kimihiko Sato

Tamagotchi’s 30th anniversary is coming up, so Mezamashi has interviewed Mr.Kimihiko of Bandai Japan’s media department. 

The article explains that Tamagotchi is currently going through its third boom just before the 30th anniversary. The first boom was back in 1996 in Japan with the Tamagotchi Original, and then again in 2004 with the Tamagotchi Connection. According to Bandai, the third boom started back around 2021, where generation Z have become obsessed with the newer models.

Kimihiko Sato explains that rappers in Los Angeles who never touched a Tamagotchi would wear them as fashion, and really help fuel the third boom. Sato also states that both America and Europe are fueling the boom.

Sato also explains licensing and how they’re using the intellectual property on various goods to take the Tamagotchi’s out of the device.

The article also briefly features Yuri Okamoto of the Bandai Toy Division Planning team. They specifically mention that Tamagotchi is easily identified by the iconic screen and three button design that is present on all models. As of March 2025, Bandai has sold about 97,600,000 Tamagotchi’s worldwide mainly in Japan and North America. According to Bandai’s Wi-Fi connection data, Tamagotchi Uni is being used in more than 150 countries.

Be sure to check out the full article here.

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Yuri Okamoto Explains Why Tamagotchi Uni is Popular With Adults in Tokyo Walker Plus Article

It’s no surprise that the Tamagotchi Uni has been a huge, global hit since the release back in July, 2024. Yuri Okamoto, of the Bandai planning team of the Toy Division Global Toy Planning Department who was in charge of the planning and development of the Tamagotchi Uni at Bandai provides some really interesting insight into the Uni in a recent interview.

Yuri explains to Tokyo Walker Plus that the Tamagotchi Uni is the first Tamagotchi equipped with Wi-Fi, which achieved the goal of making users feel that Tamagotchi was in line with modern times. We really enjoy the question and answer part of the interview, where Yuri is asked if users can interact in real time on the Tamagotchi Uni, to which she responses that they cannot, and that Tamagotchi data from around the world is collected on the serve, and the Tamagotchi uses that data, users can only see the region of other users.

How many Tamagotchi Uni owners participate in the Tama Arena monthly fans? 50,000 per Yuri! That is impressive. Yuri explains that adding Wi-Fi allows Bandai to send out messages and gifts to users, and facilitate over the air software updates to enhance gameplay.

Yuri explains how the idea of the Tamaverse came about, and how this was to help users feel connected around the world for the global release, and how this really was a theme following the COVID-19 pandemic, connectivity!

Tokyo Walker Plus also asks Yuri what she values when planning new work, to which Yuri provides insight about the focus being caretaking.

Yuri also talks about other models including the Tamagotchi Smart, which she worked on the development of as well. She calls out the iconic shape of Tamagotchi and three button design being globally recognized.

When asked about the ages of Tamagotchi users, Yuri has an interesting response, many of the users are 6 to 8 or 9 years old, but with the Tamagotchi Uni they are seeing users that are in their 20’s and 30’s that have played in the past and since they are familiar with the brand, they are returning to the brand.

Yuri also mentions that the key demographic for Tamagotchi in the first generation was mainly for high school girls, and it became popular with a wide generation including children. When the anime was released, it popular with elementary school girls.

What we really find interesting is when Yuri mentions that the popularity of the Tamagotchi Original overseas in North America and Europe has been really popular and even brought some shells over to Japan.

This article is a good read, be sure to check it out here.

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2025 San Diego Comic-Con "Inside the World of Tamagotchi" Panel

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Bandai Explains Why They Adopted AWS for Tamagotchi Uni and Why NFC Didn’t Work

The partnership of Tamagotchi and Amazon Web Services is so interesting, and we love hearing more about it. Yuri Okamoto of the Bandai planning team of the Toy Division Global Toy Planning Department, who was in charge of the planning and development of the Tamagotchi Uni at Bandai, and Daisuke Sakammoto of the technical design team of the same department explain further why exactly Bandai adopted AWS for the new Tamagotchi Uni.

Mr. Okamoto explains that the first connectivity method was introduced in 1997 with the Tamagotchi Osutchi and Mesutchi. The purpose of this connectivity was for one character to be able to cross over into the other device.

Then in March of 2004, after the explosive boom of Tamagotchi calmed down, the Tamagotchi Plus model was introduced with new infrared communication. The infrared technology functionality was the exact function that was tailored in the heyday of feature phones in Japan, and it was possible not only to connect two Tamagotchi’s together, but also to mobile phones.

Newer models also introduced different types of connectivity, including NFC with the Tamagotchi 4U in 2014. NFC was aimed to allow Tamagotchi’s to connect together by touching the devices together. However, the communication speed of NFC was not very fast, so it did not become a user experience the communication would end when touched.

Tamagotchi M!X back in 2016 brought back the infrared connectivity. The Tamagotchi Meets back in 2018 then introduced Bluetooth connectivity on top of the infrared functionality which enable the ability to connect to a smartphone or tablet to use the application.

The Tamagotchi Smart which was released in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic where contact with people was suppressed. The Tamagotchi Smart allowed caretakers to interact with their Tamagotchi with the use of voice and touch, along with wearing your Tamagotchi Smart right on your wrist.

Mr. Okamoto then discusses how the Tamagotchi demand has been higher overseas than in Japan. The Tamagotchi Uni was sought out to unify the design and content of play sot hat Tamagotchi users around the world can enjoy the same Tamagotchi Uni globally.

The Tamagotchi Uni also introduced Wi-Fi for the first time. This enables the new Tamaverse feature, software updates, and more. There are a wide range of functions that should be independently implemented in the cloud infrastructure to realize the concept of the Tamagotchi Uni. AWS has great infrastructure capabilities and a range of sample documents to advance development.

Monoist asks if future models after the Tamagotchi Uni will feature cloud connectivity. Mr. Okamoto responds that there alway needs to be the core play that has always been featured in the Tamagotchi, and Bandai will consider how to do that with both hardware and software. So the cloud is not necessarily a requirement for the next generation model.