#yurugp2020

[gotouchichara]

Yuru-Chara Grand Prix 2020 update (week 1)

After a strong start by Yurunakin [3], Takata no Yume-chan [1] took the lead after a few days and now has a significant lead. Yurunakin/Inunakin was one of the characters caught up in the organized voting scandal in 2018, the fact they seem to be getting a lot of votes despite not having much support on social media suggests they may be up to their old tricks, but I could be wrong. It has also been customary since 2015 for all three podium winners to not re-enter, yet they’re here again even though they got second place last year (3rd place Korō-kun did not re-enter). Needless to say, I am not a fan...

For the corporate/other mascots, VTuber Kōkaryū Ninja Ponpoko [5] has taken a massive lead, surpassing Yume-chan by nearly double the amount of votes (although they do not compete with gotōchi chara directly). This is despite the fact that as a yuru-chara they haven’t appeared to have done much, e.g. public appearances (granted that’s been difficult this year) - the only decent picture I could find is from the costume manufacturer’s website!

Anyway, here are the gotōchi (local) rankings as of 8th July:

Takata no Yume-chan (たかたのゆめちゃん) from Rikuzentakata, Iwate - 16.4k votes [1]

Yurunakin (ゆるナキン) from Izumisano, Osaka - 9.7k votes [3]

Tsurugon (つるゴン) from Tsurugashima, Saitama - 8k votes [2]

Toyonon (とよのん) from Toyono, Osaka - 5.6k votes

Midomosu (みどモス) from Midori, Gunma - 4.5k votes

Echigon (みどモス) from Kashiwazaki, Niigata - 4.3k votes

Takinomichi Yuzuru (滝ノ道ゆずる) from Minoh, Osaka - 3.9k votes

Kyabettsu-san (キャベッツさん) from Nishitokyo, Tokyo - 3.8k votes

Saigo Tsun (西郷つん) from Satsumasendai, Kagoshima - 3.2k votes (note: actually a dog in case you’re wondering)

Omapyon (おおまぴょん) from Ōmachi, Nagano - 3.1k votes [4]

Don’t forget you can vote once a day until 10th November! See my instructions here.

Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

[gotouchichara]

The Yuru-Chara Grand Prix 2020 “THE FINAL” has begun, and public voting started this month. You can browse the current rankings here, and see instructions on how to vote here.

The Yuru-Chara Grand Prix is where the public get to vote for the most popular mascot. Gotōchi-chara (local mascots) and corporate or other mascots can enter as long as they meet the criteria for being a yuru-chara.

This has been running since 2011, and previous winners include Kumamon,  Sanomaru, Shinjō-kun and Kapal. It was announced a few years ago that 2020 would be the last year of the Grand Prix, to coincide with the Tokyo Olympics... well, this year hasn’t exactly gone to plan, but the Yuru-Chara Grand Prix still marches on.

This year’s schedule:

1st April: Open for entries

24th June: Deadline for entries

1st July: Public voting starts

25th September: Public voting ends

3rd-4th October: Run-off voting and awards ceremony in Takizawa, Iwate Prefecture

Surprisingly, the awards event was confirmed yesterday. The largely rural prefecture of Iwate chosen for the location has so far had zero confirmed coronavirus cases.

Some characters of interest:

Takata no Yume-chan (たかたのゆめちゃん) from Rikuzentakata, Iwate - increased interest in yuru-chara and the Grand Prix started amidst the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and Yume-chan was created in 2012 to represent the hopes and dreams of the people of one of the most devastated cities of the disaster. (highest rank: 49th in 2012)

Omapyon (おおまぴょん) from Ōmachi, Nagano - the Japanese serow with a mountain on their head hopes to do better than last year’s 11th place and will hopefully get the support from fans their “brothers” Tochisuke and Susonon.

Kōkaryū Ninja Ponpoko (甲賀流忍者ぽんぽこ) - the Virtual YouTuber is normally some sort of half-girl, half-tanuki (raccoon dog), but also physically appears as a costumed yuru-chara tanuki. Her “brother”(?) Peanuts-kun won the Grand Prix last year for corporate/other mascots. I’m still very confused by this whole VTuber thing... (new entry)

The popularity and relevance of the Yuru-Chara Grand Prix has been waning in recent years, and many well-known local characters have gained their popularity by other means so have not returned. I really don’t know if something interesting could happen this year, but I’ll still try and follow it, one last time!

Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

[gotouchichara]

Yuru-Chara Grand Prix 2020: Voting instructions

Voting for the Yuru-chara Grand Prix 2020 (ゆるキャラグランプリ) opened on 1st July at 10:00 JST, and will continue until 25th September at 18:00 JST. Voting is open to anyone in the world.

You can vote once every day. After you vote, you’ll have to wait until midnight Japan time (UTC+9) the next day before you can vote again.

For online registration, you need an email address, but it appears you cannot use common free email services. They used to specifically mention Gmail and Yahoo Mail were not allowed, but these details seem to be missing from the new website. I tried Gmail and it did not work for me.

The instructions are largely the same as last year, but if you registered a previous year you will need to register again.

How to register

1. Go here: https://vote-yurugp.secureserv.jp/en/members

2. Click on “[email protected]へ空メールを送る” (highlighted above). This should open up a new message in your email client, with the recipient address, subject and body already filled in.

If the email link does not work, just send a blank email to: [email protected] (blank subject and message body)

3. You should get an email response pretty quickly. The email should look like below and contain a link - follow this link.

4. You should be presented with a page headed “ID（メールアドレス）登録”:

The two fields are for your password and password confirmation. The password requirements are 4-12 alphanumeric characters (no symbols). Click the button underneath to continue.

5. You should get a confirmation that your account creation was complete.

You’re now registered!

You may see things around the site mentioning “docomo/スゴ”, “au”, and “SoftBank/AppPass” - these are Japanese mobile phone operators, so can be safely ignored (they have different ways of voting).

How to vote

Go here: https://www.yurugp.jp/en/

You can search either by prefecture, or by ranking (rankings are only updated once a day or so). When viewing rankings, this is near the top of the page:

The default view is “Area Ranking”, which is showing local mascots (gotōchi chara). “Company Ranking” will show corporate/other mascots, who are ranked separately.

You can vote from either of the above by clicking on one of the characters, where you will be presented with their profile page. Scroll down a bit and you should see this:

Click on it to vote. Note: On previous versions of the website, there were reCAPTCHA prompts around this stage. I haven’t encountered anything like that yet, but will update if I do.

A successful vote should result in this page:

The button is to log out, useful if multiple people are voting using the same computer.

If you get a page starting with “投票エラー” (voting error), it usually means you are trying to vote but have already voted that day with that account - you must wait until tomorrow (midnight JST) before voting again.