Over the past several months, lots of blog posts regarding kigurumi references in anime and games have been written. Some, kinda okay-ish. Others, a bit less satisfactory. Regardless of entertainment value, they were at least somewhat successful in presenting the wider design ideas that are converted into reality when equating with our actual kigurumi products.

Sadly, not all of these are approved from the drawing board. Quite a bunch of series references, in fact, never saw the light of day on this blog. Mainly due to proper relevancy issues. But also because we couldn't really discuss much from the onset.

Instead of not featuring them at all, I've decided to just collectively show them as a compendium series of sorts. We won't get into the nitty gritty of contexts, which might be boring anyway, but I'll try to introduce each one within its proper category as succinctly as possible.

1. The Ladies of Fate as Kemono Friends

Now, for exhibit A. Elegant Youkai Apartment Life wasn't exactly the headline maker during its day. But, considering that it ran for two cours (half a year), the attention given to the series was pretty good. On one very specific moment during its 20th episode, though, the Norn sisters (goddesses of fate) Skuld, Verdandi and Urd very briefly appeared wearing very, very peculiar designs for a kigurumi.

As the subheader spoils, these are actually references to the three most popular (primary?) characters of Kemono Friends franchise. Urd wears the Common Raccoon kigurumi, Skuld wears the Serval Cat kigurumi, and Verdandi wears the Fennec Fox kigurumi.

Not exactly a blink or mist it reference, but it only lasted for a few seconds at the beginning of episode 20 until the opening theme of the series starts.

2. Ranka Lee's Signature(?) Hippo Kigurumi

I vaguely remember that this isn't the first time a kigurumi was featured in any Macross series. But in any case, for this particular specimen in the world of Macross Frontier, we witness Ranka Lee don a Hippo kigurumi. Nothing much was explain for this however, and since it was just a very brief snapshot cameo, I kind of just tossed the reference aside for a long while.

Of course, anyone who is familiar with our product archives will immediately realize that indeed, an equivalent item perfectly matching the reference exists! Some of the contours and color sections may be quite different. But are still true Hippo kigurumi all the same.

Oh and, it would seem that another alternative official artwork also made its way supporting this style even further. 

 3. Nohohon's Foxy Kigurumi Snaps

Honne Nohotoke, affectionately referred by her classmates as Nohohon, is mostly known for signature yellow fox kigurumi. The yellow fox theme in general is part of her identity, and she gets to have different variations of it whenever her cameos present enough opportunity to sport the designs.

Of course, we've already covered two other kigurumi wearers in Infinite Stratos with significantly more detail. But as for her appearance, there just wasn't any dedicated episode or even scene where the prime focus was on her kigurumi. Her in-game appearance on the mobile game kind of counts, but static character images on visual novel backgrounds is mostly out of our discussion scope. So the concept was just left collecting dust.

Which is a shame, since she's obviously more of a kigurumi specialist than Charlotte or Laura. Maybe not to the level of Kuu-chan, but at least she always wears a kigurumi whenever she's not wearing her school uniform.

4.  Izumi Brothers' Monster Treat

Last but not least, this one had the potential to have its own segment, but the opportunity was brutally crushed by Iori before things even had the chance to roll. To give more context... well, there wasn't really that much context. For that particular scene in IDOLiSH7's anime adaptation, it would seem that the monster kigurumi was simply brought randomly by Momose to poke a bit of fun with the two Izumi brothers.

To be fair, if Mitsuki was the only one asked, we would probably get a 50/50 response. But as mentioned, Iori just smashed the idea right onto Momose's face.

Should an actual photoshoot of the kigurumi took place, we would have had an entire gallery to gander at. The designs also aren't that bad. Brightly colored dinos are always welcome within our kigurumi theme rotation list.

Oh the possibilities...