Let’s Learn About Japan Through Pocchari Anime Girls
One interesting aspect of living as a foreigner in Japan is being in a society that’s so much thinner, at least compared with my home country. For a variety of reasons, including eating a healthier diet, being okay with smaller portions and walking a lot (at least in cities like Tokyo), it’s rare for Japanese to be overweight, although of course people do come in all shapes and sizes as they do everywhere else.
(In case you’re curious, the average weight of a 30-year-old Japanese male is 67.7 kg/149 lbs with a height of 172 cm/5’8″. For females of the same age, the average weight is 51.6 kg/114 lbs and height is 159 cm/5’2″.)
As an American living in semi-rural Japan, I had to get used to the idea of standing out pretty much everywhere I went. This was exacerbated by the fact that I lived a pretty standard life doing things Japanese people do, like attending parents’ day at my children’s school, hitting the onsen for some quality bath time or going to the shrine to pray for good luck on New Year’s Day, things that other foreigners generally don’t do. This meant I was nearly always the only gaijin in the room wherever I went, which took some time to adjust to. Back in the day, I was quite heavy, 109 kg/240 lbs, so I stood out by being the heaviest guy in the room, too. When Japanese people started assuming I was a famous pro wrestler and asking for my autograph, I decided to do something about my weight and dropped 20 kg/50 lbs. If I can do this while working on computers 14 hours a day, then anyone can.
Pocchari Anime Girls are Adorable
It’s fun to look at overweight characters in anime, too. One of the concepts behind moe is characters who possess some defect or flaw that’s charming to the audience. These can take many forms: wearing glasses, being clumsy, being scared by ghost stories. And in some cases, being overweight, or having anxiety about weight, which can be quite cute. Here are the cutest pocchari anime girls we could think of!
One thing about living in Japan: since they have so few overweight people, they have no social rules about not commenting on weight, and will often say things no one would ever say in a Western country, like, “Have you gained a lot of weight lately?”
Anime is Kandagawa. pic.twitter.com/JDVqlnsBh1
— J-LIST 🎅 (@jlist) October 30, 2019
Manbu Kuromaru from Kandagawa Jet Girls
Kandagawa Jet Girls has turned out to be a really fun show, especially for fans of sexy anime fanservice. One of the girls, Manbu Kuromaru, is carrying a bit of extra weight, which gets her teased. It’s interesting to note that in Japan, a country that has comparatively few overweight people, many of the social rules we take for granted in the West don’t operate here. It’s quite common for people to greet a mildly overweight person with, “Hi, how are you doing? Have you put on some weight recently?”
Hibiki Sakura from How Heavy are the Dumbbells You Lift?
A truly inspirational anime, Dumbbell was about five girls hitting the gym and getting fit. The most adorable one was Hibiki, who started working out because she kept gaining weight from eating too much.
Sailor Moon
She’s not really fat, but she whines about weight gain so much it becomes part of her character’s charm.
Ai from Tawawa on Monday
An anime that specifically tries to make us feel better about Mondays by letting us see big anime oppai, one of the characters is Ai, a high school girl whose breasts are so big, she regularly pops buttons off whatever top she’s wearing. She’s concerned about her weight so she has her friend give her an assist when it’s time to get weighed.
Our Favorite Pocchari Anime Girls: Super Sonico and Pochaco
One reason we love Sonico — so much that we translated her official game — is that she’s a great character that normal-sized girls can cosplay easily, since she’s got realistic curves. Her friend Pochaco is also super cute. If you love pocchari anime girls, you will love Sonico and Pochaco!
Rihoko Sakura from Amagami
Amagami (meaning the “sweet bite” of love) is a superb school love comedy with six heroines, which is structured so that each girl gets her own three-episode arc, allowing all six girls to “win” romantically instead of just one. Rihoko is the main character Junichi’s childhood friend, and she’s always trying to lose weight so he’ll notice her. She’s super cute.
Nikuko from Oshiete! Galko-chan
Galko is a genius anime about not judging people from their outer appearances. In the show, all the characters are named after the stereotype they’re associated with. Galko is a “gal” which means she’s supposed to be a slut, yet her heart is 100% pure, while Otako is a judgemental otaku, and Ojo is an ojosama, a rich girl. One girl who’s pocchari is Nikuko (“meat child”), yet she’s also the most athletic character, able to run faster than anyone else. So don’t judge a book by its cover!
Know of any other pocchari anime girls? Got any questions on this subject or any other related to Japan? Let us know on Twitter!
If you’re the kind of fan who appreciates awesome anime magazines, filled with posters and other visuals that let you geek out over your favorite series, we’ve got good news: all the new anime magazines for the month are in stock. Browse them all here!
