NyaRan, the Cute Advertising Cat

I’ve written before about how Japan’s Internet is quite different from the net in the English-speaking world, with different memes being created and spread around by fans. While Internet users on our side of the cultural pond might be remixing “Call Me, Maybe” or “Overly Attached Girlfriend” images, Japanese fans are mixing MAD videos of Vocaloid and Touhou music and creating cute ASCII kaomoji art, with surprisingly little crossover between the two worlds. One thing Internet users in Japan share with the rest of the world is a deep love of cats, and cats are so popular here that they often become Internet idols in their own right. Like Tama, the calico cat who was named the official stationmaster of Kishi Station in Wakayama, which created a boom in local tourism as people came from all over to see the famous feline, or Maru, a lazy cat who loves to sit around the house while his owner makes videos of him. The newest kitteh to thrill Japanese Internet users is NyaRan, a cat character created by Japanese travel company Jaran to promote its package tours. The ads are very effective, because who can resist clicking on an image of a cat? He carries a little suitcase around his neck, and loves to take him kitten son on trips with him on trips around Japan.

Japanese Internet users truly love cats.