Join the Purikura Revolution
Creative Photo Sticker Machines from Asia’s Youth Market
West can learn from cute Japan with fun concepts like Neo Print Stickers
The ‘cute’ culture from Japan should not be overlooked. The West may have Disney, but animation is still a domain largely for children and families. Animation actually has huge potential for appealing to adults, as adults have a more desperate need to keep the inner child alive. But how many adults you know will pay to watch a cartoon, such as say, ‘Ratatouille’?
Walt Disney realized years ago that by painstakingly capturing human characteristics in his cartoons, he would create an art that attracts and keeps adult admirers, not just children. A salient point for animation makers, who might consider increasing sales by reaching out to the adult market. In Japan, animation is everywhere, even in the adult sphere. Perhaps a quick look at how lifestyle is influenced by anime in Japan can give the West some ideas.
In most of East Asia today, and slowly catching on in USA/Canada, is the Purikura revolution. Purikura (poo-ree-koo-rah) - Japanese for print club - refers to the neo print sticker machines that litter the shopping malls in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. You can find whole shops dedicated to this pastime, as it is a big hobby amongst the youths. Japanese teens often hang out after school with their friends, taking snapshots turned into colorful stickers, together.
For the uninitiated, these stickers are not like the boring ID photos you take in a photo booth. The machines are candy-colored, covered with Japanese doodles. All you do is grab a friend or friends, put in a stipulated number of coins and choose screen options. Never mind that the instructions are in Japanese, or that options flash past too quickly. If you select a frame at random (such as an October calendar card) and pose, you will soon be rewarded with a unique photocard or stickers created by you! Some machines give you 16 stickers on one card - Japanese youths cut them up and distribute amongst friends. They stick these stickers on pencil cases, notebooks and files, imprinting their own identity on mass-produced stationery.
All this sounds juvenile perhaps, until you get into a booth yourself. There are a great number of options to choose from, and when you have selected your favorite photo (you get to take a few), you can edit by adding fun touches: scrawl a flower here, add words there, to customize your sticker or card.
And what is so great about this hobby? It is fun, creative, a laugh with friends and leaves all of you a unique memento. Besides, would you rather your teenage child be taking fun photo stickers with friends after school, or bullying the kid next door out of boredom? According to Tomoyuki Sugiyama, author of "Cool Japan"[1], "cuteness" stems from Japan's harmony-loving culture. Neo print stickers are a fun social expression: sans noise, sans trouble.
Photo stickers are also addictive. If you are not getting what you want, try again. Just like Facebook, fast catching on with young adults thanks to its creative applications, photo stickers are just as imaginative, without security issues. You will be surprised at the type of sticker machines that abound; some are as big as a cubicle with mock staircase, where five friends can get in at once. A pity Purikura has not caught on in Europe (in London there seems to be just one machine in Chinatown). It is a healthier, tamer and more creative social hobby than say, getting drunk or stoned with friends.
Sources
1 Cuteness in Japanese culture. Wikipedia, 2007.
2 Comment by Michael Stenmark, 10 Oct 2006. Purikura as Pervasive Media, 1 Sept 2006.
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