It’s about a week old – but I just saw that the Japan Self Defence Forces are trying to win over opnion in Iraq with cute cartoon characters. Right, It should work better than shock-and-awe, or even torture and indefinite detention. I’m now waiting or them to use cartoons of 16-year-old girls giving fanservice in giant mechas: that might have an even greater impact on Iraqi culture.
Hello Kitty would definitely be less nauseating in a burqa, or even a chador.
He has round eyes. 
Big round eyes are standard in anime and manga. Why Do Manga and Anime Characters Look the Way They Do?
Thanks for the link. I recall seeing an historical Japanese (from the article, perhaps predating Perry) illustration of various whale and dolphin species that showed folds in their eyes.
“'Prince Pickles is our image character because he’s very endearing, which is what Japan’s military stands for,” said Shotaro Yanagi, a Defense Agency official."
O tempora! O mores!
So, do they let them have firearms?
No – they’re insufficiently cuddly.
Well, they let Mahoro Ando have a gun – why wouldn’t they let the SDF soldiers in Iraq have them too?
(And for those who are not familiar with Mahromatic, – Mahoro doesn’t need a gun, she can defeat large battle robots with her bare hands).
It definitely worked on me!
Cartoon characters have an extended history of successfully participating in military operations - Snoop shooting down the Red Baron; Daffy Duck outwitting Hitler; Bugs Bunny nipping the “Nips”; the Care Bears running black ops in Central America.
It’s good to know that their royalty aren’t exempt from military service.
I’m gonna get flamed, but I just can’t see Prince Pickles at the Rape of Nanking, or executing the enlisted men from the Doolittle raid.
Me either, but I could see him diving his Mitsubishi Zero straight into the control tower of an aircraft carrier, his happy little face just beaming all the way down.
No flaming from me on your pointing that out. There has been an immense change in perception of the Japanese since the 1930s and 1940s, caused (in part) by a big change in Japanese military policy. Of course, the change was imposed on Japan by the US in 1945, but on the whole the Japanese embraced the change. It’s more fun manufacturing better and cheaper exports than sending young men to fight overseas while people at home half-starve. The Germans worked that one out too at about the same time, and from the same teacher.
From what I’ve seen some Japanese cartoons do, I certainly wouldn’t want to be fighting them, and their many dirty, dirty tentacles.
No, no, that was “My Little Pony” that way the Sandanistas could associate them with llamas.
Tripler
The FARC ended up running with it and introducing “My Little Alpaca”, and you see how far that got 'em.
As I learned when I was there in October- Everything in Japan has a ‘cute’ version and institutions all have a cartoon mascot. The bullet train has a cartoon mascot as do Police Stations.
Snoop Dogg fought in World War Wizzle?
As for Japanese cartoon characters fighting in Iraq, how about Pokemon? A bunch of Pokemon in Iraq could get rid of the insurgents faster than you can say “Pidgeotto.” And if all else fails, Pikachu could give 'em seizures.