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Funassyi, Kumamon Get Segment on Last Week Tonight
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge
John Oliver's late-night talk show Last Week Tonight hosted a segment on Japan's burgeoning industry of government mascots. The show not only poked fun at some of the absurdity of the plentiful, cute characters, like one that represents a Japanese prison, but also talks about the money-making behind them. For instance, Kumamoto Prefecture's bear mascot Kumamon has brought in over one billion dollars in the last two years.
Warning: NSFW Language
Funyassi and Kumamon have hit it big recently, the latter doing tie-ins for Evangelion and Rurouni Kenshin. Funyassi has done his own Gundam, PreCure, and Parasyte tie-ins and even appeared on CNN. His popularity also secured him his own anime and manga series and a chart-topping album release.