Last night I started watching the new Super Sonico The Animation series, a fun show if you like music, fanservice and the ever-voluptuous Sonico-chan. Sonico is more or less the modern embodiment of moe: stylish and feminine with amazingly large, er, eyes, and her “charm points” are her doji chara (cute clumsy girl character) nature and the AKG headphones that have apparently been surgically fixed to her ears. Sonico is the semi-official mascot of Nitroplus, the company responsible for such awesomely dark visual novels as Saya no Uta, Deus Machina Demonbane and Steins;Gate as well as the Madoka Magica anime. Sonico made her first appearance at a musical event in 2006, and since then she’s taken the company in a new direction, exploring the nature of moe cuteness and serving as a vehicle for everything from hug pillows to sexy figures. Since her name is somewhat similar to a certain famous electronics company, there’s a tendency for Japanese to think she’s an official character for Sony, which might explain why Nitroplus writes her name using hiragana rather than katakana, e.g. そに子 instead of ソニ子. Can you imagine if Sony were hip enough to make a character as cute as Sonico for their mascot? I’d kind of like to live in a world like that.
There’s a new Super Sonico anime to watch, if you like really big…headphones.
