On a recent trip to
Korea, I walked by a doll store that had a very strange
poster posted on the window. A couple of drawn mug shots of an extremely
fat rabbit who was "wanted." Under it was written:
Name: MashiMaro
Stature: To be short...
Weight: To be weighty...
Now, I was totally confused after reading this. What was
MashiMaro? Apparently, some person made a few flash movies on the internet and it just struck a chord with some of the younger people in Korea. The
flash movies are really very strange, and I'm surprised that such a mainstream following in Korea came from just a few flash movies (Just 7 of them!). I had younger cousins who were practically begging me for the dolls I had bought. I came back to the USA with a few MashiMaro dolls, keychains, and a few shirts. It's not every day you see fat rabbits with broken beer bottles or using a plunger on a stopped up toilet. I figured I might as well buy them while I had the chance.
I can't quite explain what the flash movies are like here (they're quite strange), but if you want to see for yourself, here's a URL (Korean text support required, /msg me if they ever become broken):
http://my.dreamwiz.com/changul25/swf.htm