Japanese Kawaii Culture and the ever pervasive influence of Cute

I first witnessed this excellent animation series (for the time) while on holiday on Italy's Adriatic Coast (Lignano Sabbiadoro) on a couple of occasions in the late 70's and early 80's - of course dubbed into Italian at the time I think - but great fun regardless. It was adapted from the original Gatchaman series with most of the animation intact - but made more child-friendly by American producers Sandy Frank Entertainment. Following on from Star Wars and a love of everything sci-fi - this series perfectly fed into those expectations - the adventures of G-Force - Keyop, Mark, Princess, Tiny and Jason (as pictured) - saving planet Earth from the evil Zoltar and Spectrans!

For some years in the 80's this was the most desired unattainable Christmas present - who wouldn't want a cute little furry Mogwai as a pet? Executive Produced by Steven Spielberg - although often associated with him it was actually directed by one Joe Dante and has become something of a Christmas classic - while initially released in June. Everyone knows the drill - keep away from water, don't feed after dark, and never expose to sunlight or bright lights!

Originally character drawings by artist Real Musgrove - but then hand-crafted by the same in the UK as collectible figurines - these were launched into the UK in 1989, and were often seen in the windows of high street jewellers especially in the 90's - including F Hinds and H Samuel. I can't recall exactly how I came across these but I used to buy these as fairly regular gifts for my then girlfriend - possibly I liked them more than she did! But I think we were both fans. The company's fortunes start dwindling in the late 90's and operations came to a halt in the following decade. There are still a fair few number of these in circulation though on Ebay and the like.

No doubt Margaret Keane informed and influenced me as she obviously did Mark Ryden - whom I see as the lynchpin of the modern Pop Surrealist movement - and with a direct inspiration lineage right back to Margaret, but with added quirks and the macabre in this instance. I pretty much love all of Mark's output - and his wife's Marion, but this painting for some reason is still my favourite of his - although I really like "Bunny Butcher" too. There is often a slightly creepy influence in some of these painting - plenty of whimsy, and a whole lot of quirkiness - just how I like it! Obviously Kawaii can manifest in many ways - and there are several sides to 'Cute' rather than just straight up adorable innocent cuteness.

Based on the Oils on wood panel painting of the same name from 2009 - I still view this as the quintessential Camilla piece. I was quick to snap up one of the statues, and also have her Aria wall-mount figure which I'm still trying to figure out where to place. Again a fantastic mix of cute, quirky and slightly otherworldly. Both the painting and statue are just amazing - beautiful and emotive.

Of course we have had a succession of cute droids and robots over the years - including R2-D2 (which I also have in Lego format), Muffit, Twiki, Johnny Number 5 from Short Circuit - and Wall-E from the Pixar / Disney animation of the same name. I always feel that Wall-E is a natural progression on from Johnny 5 - and a cuter smaller version of that really. Again making the most of those big eyes!

I see 'Bishoujo' (Pretty Girl) figurines as a subset within the Kawaii universe. All drawn up by Shunya Yamashita for Kotobukiya Productions and then modelled and sculpted into the finest 3D figurines from various source materials - although mainly Super Heroes/Villains from Comic Books and Screen. I started the collection with a cool version of Black Cat from the Spiderverse - and Squirrel Girl (Marvel) is the most recent I have added to my collection. I only like select versions of those figures produced - correct facial features and proportions and character poses are critical to me - and not all the figurines make the standard - but let's just say I have a fair few of these. Squirrel Girl is definitely one of the more Kawaii ones! I think my sister Bina got this for me for a birthday or Christmas - either or.

From the Roberto Rodriguez film of the same name - this film obviously lies rooted in manga and anime, and has a firm footing in the 'big eyes' camp too - so a direct descendent of the Margaret Keane style of sorts. This is yet another area of Kawaii - 'Fierce' we will call it - which plays on its samurai and manga martial heritage.