Chiikawa Goes Global: “Kawaii” Characters Make It to the Top

From Twitter Post to Towering Popularity

Chiikawa, a contraction of the Japanese phrase nanka chiisakute kawaii yatsu, which means something like “so small and cute,” refers to the adorable animal characters that appear in a manga series launched by the illustrator Nagano on Twitter (now X) in 2017. The series, reflecting her image of an ideal lifestyle, grew so popular that she launched a dedicated account in January 2020.

Their spread is linked to an explosion in the number of yuru-kyara, as Japanese call supercute mascot characters. This was triggered in part by the explosion in social media and image-sharing tools from around 2011 onward, as illustrators posted their character and manga creations on Line, Pixiv, Twitter, and other online properties. The debut of the Line Creators Market in May of 2014 gave creators a 50% share in the revenues from the sales of digital stickers featuring their characters, which users purchased to decorate their messages to one another. This encouraged even more artists to submit their creations, in the beginnings of what is now known as the “creator economy.”

The incredible popularity of Gudetama, a character released in 2013 by Sanrio, is a perfect example. After being posted to social media, it was widely shared in the years to follow. By January of 2018, as seen in the chart below, the official Gudetama Twitter account reached 1 million followers. As the COVID-19 pandemic caused lockdowns around the world, the number of creators participating in digital spaces skyrocketed, fueling the growth of the Line sticker business. In 2021, LINE reported ¥100 billion in sales. The top ten creators took in an average of ¥1.18 billion from their creations, while 154 creators made more than ¥100 million. But with 3.9 million total participants, not even 0.01% are able to earn a sustainable income.

Becoming the Artist of Her Era

Nagano distinguished herself early on in the fiercely competitive sticker-creator business. She released a string of characters, including Jibun Tsukkomi Kuma (Joke Bear), Pagu-san, Burikko Usagi (Too Cute Bunny), and more, hitting the top spot on the Line Creator Marketplace numerous times. When she began drawing Chiikawa, she was already positioned as a top creator, with 330,000 followers on Twitter.

How does a stand-alone character gain more popularity than those that appear in high-budget, heavily marketed video games and anime? All of Nagano’s creations have a common denominator: they are caricatures, a form of satire once widely seen in newspaper cartoons and other mass media. In a Twitter post titled “Living together with cats,” Nagano writes how “Both move independently, from time to time coming into my view. What happiness!” In another post titled “Ice cream manjū,” she captures the moment of biting into the sweet with the observation, “plump vanilla; sticky bean paste,” painting a picture in the reader’s mind. In a way, her work resembles illustrated haiku poetry.

Nagano also shows her genius in capturing the happiness of everyday moments in single-panel manga. In the world of Chiikawa, the characters are engaged in a kind of survival. They are small and fragile creatures who come together to savor tiny moments of joy amid a relentless cycle of eating, working, and sleeping every day. But the reason the series resonates so deeply among so many is because it doesn’t settle for whimsical fantasy. It serves as a quiet message of encouragement to those facing the harsh realities of modern life.

From Minor Sensation to Major Hit

Nagano released Chiikawa Line stickers in July of 2020. In March 2021, Line named her as the monthly MVP in its Top Creator category, which recognizes top stickers and emojis based on number of downloads, usage frequency, and buzz.

From the press release for the Chiikawa Restaurant in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro. (Courtesy The Guest Café and Diner; © Nagano/Chiikawa Committee)

To capitalize on this momentum, Nagano partnered with Spiralcute, a company specializing in the licensing of character merchandise. Together they launched a full-scale entry into the character business, opening an online store and releasing a range of official products. In April of 2022, an anime adaptation began airing as one segment of Fuji TV’s Mezamashi terebi morning program, cementing Chiikawa’s popularity. This can be seen in the explosive growth of the number of followers on Chiikawa’s official X account.

2020: 10,000 → 400,000

2021: 400,000 → 800,000

2022: 800,000 → 1.7 million

2023: 1.7 million → 2.8 million

As you can see, Chiikawa has built an incredible following over the past four years; by the end of 2023, it reached a level comparable to megahits like the anime series Demon Slayer (2.94 million followers), Pokémon (2.34 million), and One Piece (2.06 million). As of April 2025, the account has almost 4 million followers. It goes to show that Chiikawa is an all-star among Japanese characters.

It’s important to remember that Chiikawa isn’t based on a manga or anime. It emerged organically, from the daily posts of single-panel illustrations and short stories on social media. The mass media has long treated the internet as the periphery of pop culture, but in recent years creator-driven platforms like the video-oriented sites Niconico, TikTok, and YouTube have transformed the media landscape, paving new ways for amateurs to compete on the same playing field as seasoned professionals. Chiikawa symbolizes this shift.

Chiikawa may have emerged from the fringes, but it went on to win prestigious awards chosen by professionals, including the SNS Buzzword Award (2022), the Japan Character Award (2022 and again in 2024), and the Grand Prize of the Japan Cartoonists Association Award (2024). There’s no question about it: The fringe has overtaken the mainstream.

Huge Popularity in China

Chiikawa sounds cute and cuddly, but it’s a power player in the world of Japanese characters, representing a massive franchise in its own right. An overseas merchandising initiative kicked off in March of 2024.

In China, where Chiikawa gained popularity ahead of other nations, a great deal of pirated merchandise fills the marketplace alongside officially licensed products. In order to better compete there, Spiralcute decided to partner with Miniso, a major Chinese variety store chain. They opened the first official Chiikawa pop-up shop in Shanghai at the end of March 2024; in just three days, sales reached some 8 million yuan, or over a million dollars. At one point, the line of customers grew 7,000 people long, prompting local police to break up the crowd. But the frenzy continued, quickly spreading to Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and South Korea. Additional pop-up shops in New York and Las Vegas enjoyed huge success as well.

In 2024, Chiikawa proved popular enough to enter the top 10 best-selling intellectual property franchises in China. At Minoso’s 2024 Super IP Awards, it was honored alongside globally renowned franchises such as Harry Potter and Disney characters. Chiikawa no longer belongs only to Japan, but to the whole world.

Apps: a New Frontier

Key to Chiikawa’s success is its constant presence. In the first three years after launching the account, Nagano only had 200 days when she didn’t post. New content is released on a near-daily basis, and the anime is showing on TV. And then there are the numerous events and collaborations—it’s almost impossible to walk the streets in Japan these days without a glimpse of Chiikawa.

Chiikawa merchandise released in collaboration with the MLB season opener held in Tokyo on March 7, 2025, at Tokyo Skytree Town. (© Kazuki Oishi/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect)

The combination of an easy-to-understand take on the world and constant updates is what differentiates Chiikawa from previous generations of cute characters. Today frequency and high visibility are the norm, indispensable assets in expanding new character content franchises.

And now, Chiikawa is expanding into new media. The mobile game app Chiikawa Pocket (Chiipoke) came out in March of 2025, racking up 3 million downloads in its first week. Having conquered social media, televised anime, and merchandise, Chiikawa is breaking new ground in the mobile gaming space. It’s a big new stage for the now-international star.

(Originally published in Japanese on April 28, 2025. Banner photo: A Chiikawa-themed pop-up store opens in Shanghai, China, on March 29, 2024. © Xinhua/ Kyōdō News Images.)