Riding on the success of their hit 2007 “Infinite Bubblewrap” toy, Bandai is pushing the Puchi Puchi even more this year with the upcoming release of the new Puchi Moe versions.

Puchi Moe has four new color schemes, but also four distinct female anime characters to go along with them, obviously to tap into the lucrative market of otaku that like to spend money on such things.

The characters represent four major archetypes in Japanese anime:

• Osonanajimi: The childhood friend, loyal and at your side.
• Meido: Your stereotypical anime maid, at your service.
• Tsundere: A character type that is tough on the outside, but vulnerable.
• Imouto: The adoring younger sister.

While the original Puchi version (and subsequent color varieties) were complete media creations from the get-go, Bandai is taking the publicity for Puchi Moe into its own hands. Each character has her “own” blog (ex. Osonanajimi) and even downloadable promo graphics to decorate your geeky desktop.

There are also the obligatory “blog parts” (see below) of embeddable html character clocks to put in any of the millions of Japanese blogs out there…

…and this is just the marketing campaign! The actual Puchi Moe are just like the original PuchiPuchi, but instead of fart noises and dogs barking (between pops of course) you get character-specific expressions like “I really like you big brother!” which might be a little weird for those of us without younger sisters, but is a nice compliment nonetheless.

Puchi Moe will be available on March 8th and, if it gets the same attention as last time, will be out of stores and dangling from laptop and PSP cases before nightfall.

Posted by Michael Keferl

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