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Gudetama (Japanese: ぐでたま), a fictional cartoon character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio. The name Gudetama in formed of two parts, the first part is a onomatopoeia “gudegude” (Japanese: ぐでぐで) which is always used to describe something lazy and lack of energy. And the second part is from the Japanese word “tamago” (Japanese: たまご) which has the meaning of egg. Therefore Gudetama can be translated to English as “lazy egg” and it is exactly the same as its name, an egg full of depression. Differs to other positive and active characters in Japanese Kawaii culture, Gudetama is always grumbling about this hard life. But its laziness and depression are the main reasons why it still becomes a symbol of Japanese Kawaii culture and its popularity spreads to the worldwide gradually.

Gudetama firstly appear in its series in 2013 in a TV program of TBS(Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings) called “あさチャン！”, which is a morning news section starting from 5:25 to 8:00. Each episode of Gudetama series only lasts for approximately one minute and at 2017 it has nearly a thousand of episodes. Gudetama is created by a 26-year-old Sanrio designer AMY with real name Nagashima Emi(Japanese: 永嶋 瑛美) who got inspiration when she was having an egg as dinner, the yolk looked cute because of its droopy demeanour.

Originally targeted at preadolescent market, but then youngsters and adults in this generation find that they are similar as Gudetama’s feeling about this difficult society to survive. Accordingly, the target group of Gudetama expands to millennials and exports to the China, Singapore, Britain, Korea etc. Within two years after the introduction of Gudetama, Sanrio has shipped nearly 2000 kinds of themed products in Japan from pencils to suitcases. Meanwhile Gudetama has its own Twitter account with 1.04 million followers, which is the most for all Sanrio characters.

Background
In 2013, Gudetama once took part in a competition held by Sanrio, which is a food-based competition and Sanrio aimed to encouraged the designers with inspiration. At last, Gudetama took the second place while the winner is a salmon named Kirimichan, which are all voted by fans. Even at the beginning Gudetama is less popular than Kirimichan but later has more fans and higher market value than that cute salmon character.

Appearance
Gudetama is normally a yolk of a raw egg with a butt crack, it is colored in yellow which is much similar as honey and ripe corn kernels. It has a head with no neck, a body with limbs but no fingers and toes. Its eyes are drawn like two black beans with laziness revealed and a mouth with no obvious teeth. Gudetama has no gender because it is an unfertilised egg, usually lays on the egg white as bed and use bacon as blanket. Meanwhile, Gudetama also has many other appearances due to there are various ways to cook eggs.

Juju
Juju(Japanese: ぎゅでちゃま) is entirely different to Gudetama even they both are yolks. It shaped almost the same as Gudetama, but it is colored with a lighter yellow. And its face is traditionally cute face of Sanrio style, which looks energetic and positive to the world. Comparing to Gudetama, Juju is more like a kid with no worries and Gudetama is similar to adults in this generation.

Rock
Rock(Japanese: ロック) is an egg cooked with oil, so it has a gold crispy coat with the same face as Gudetama. And it loves rock music just like its name reveals, this hobby forms after it is cooked with hot oil.

Hard-boiled egg
Hard-boiled egg(Japanese: ハードボイルド) is cooked as its name refers, after boiling in hot water for more than 15 minutes it becomes a Hard-boiled egg. And its personality changed to calm and positive, always think about the better side of an event. Its face looks more like a mature adult with thick straight eyebrows.

Culture
The culture factor associated with the popular trend of Gudetama can be conclude as two types: Kawaii culture and Food culture of Japan. These two cultures can explained the unstopping trend of Gudetama and reasons behind its popularity.

TV series
Gudetama series is broadcasted in a morning news section on TBS(Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings) called “あさチャン！” from Saturday to Monday. Each episode only lasts for approximately one minute and up to 2017 it has nearly 1000 episodes. On festivals, there will be special story associated with the festivals.

Video Games
“Gudetama Tap” is a game created based on the theme of Gudetama, it is a casual game or a collecting game. The game is simple but requires long waiting time, while this game is mainly about use various recipes to cook different kinds of Gudetama. A recipe requires long hours to wait can cook rare Gudetama, and players are aimed to collect all kinds of Gudetama as they can.

Products
Originally targeted at preadolescent market, but then expands to millennials and exports to the China, Singapore, Britain, Korea etc. Within two years after the introduction of Gudetama, Sanrio has shipped nearly 2000 kinds of themed products in Japan from pencils to suitcases.

High-end
In November 2016, EVA Air launched their newest Sanrio themed airplanes, a Gudetama Jet Comfort Flight. It is an Airbus A321-200 which can carry 184 passengers in one trip, 8 Business seats and 176 in Economy. Pillows and chairs are painted with the picture of Gudetama with sunglasses on its hands, illustrating a leisure atmosphere of traveling.

Cosmetics
In 2016, a Korean cosmetics brand called Holika Holika collaborated with Gudetama and invited a Korean actor Jin Soo as the model of this cosmetics series. There are 11 products in this series with adorable faces of Gudetama on the products.

Establishments
There are Gudetama themed restaurants in Japan, China, Singapore, London etc. The restaurants are decorated with the style of Gudetama and provide various egg dishes with the face of Gudetama to the customers.