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Pochacco

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Pochacco (ポチャッコ, Pochakko) is a character of Sanrio, designed by Minoru Onoue, and is the main protagonist of the Pochacco universe and also part of the Hapidanbui counterpart. He lives on Uguisu Alley on the outskirts of Fuwafuwa Town and was born on February 29th, on a leap year.[1] Pochacco is a white dog with black floppy ears and, like Hello Kitty and Chococat, does not have a visible mouth. He has a black nose, eyes, and paw pads, as well as a short tail with a black tip. Pochacco has a short muzzle and a chubby, round body.[2] He often wears red or blue t-shirts or hoodies.

One of Sanrio's older chief characters, Pochacco made his debut in 1989, and as suggested by his appearance, he is based on the iconic Beagle character Snoopy, who is one of the two mascots of the long-running Peanuts franchise alongside Charlie Brown, which is a major contributing factor to Pochacco's high popularity. Ironically, Snoopy himself was once used in Sanrio's earliest business days in the 1960s before making their very first original character, Coro Chan in 1973, as they lost the rights to said franchise at the time.

Originally known as "The Yorimichi Dog," Pochacco is a curious and clumsy boy who sometimes sticks his nose in where it isn’t wanted.[1] He loves going for walks and does skateboarding like Badtz-Maru.[3] A vegetarian[4], his favorite food is banana ice cream, and he dreams of being filled with such a meal. Though he enjoys walking, he has trouble walking straight and often totters from side to side (though this is not the case in some media). Being anthropomorphic, Pochacco can walk on two legs, but he tends to fall a lot, even though he is a dog. His favorite flower is renge-so. [1][3] Pochacco is also athletic and proficient in sports, especially soccer.

History

Pochacco's debut appearance, giving himself a strong resemblance to Peanut'"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000008-QINU`"''s Snoopy

Pochacco's debut appearance, giving himself a strong resemblance to Peanut's Snoopy

In August 1989, a product series targeting elementary and junior high school students introduced Pochacco. He debuted without a shirt.

Incidentally, 1989 was the year when the Showa era ended and the Heisei era began. At that time, many of Sanrio's characters debuted as products, and the main way they met customers was through Sanrio shops and the Strawberry News. To catch customers' attention among the many goods lined up in the store, new characters often debuted in a wide variety of products, such as stationery and lunch items. A wide range of 34 "Pochacco" items were sold, including stationery, handkerchiefs, stuffed toys, and sweatshirts. Therefore, Pochacco rose to fame among the likes of Keroppi (who debuted one year prior).

Due to the later introductions of other dog characters such as Pompompurin and Cinnamoroll, in 1996 and 2002, respectively, who themselves are stars of Sanrio in their own right, Pochacco's popularity waned, and no stand-alone merchandise series has been released since 1999. However, due to demand, the company resumed production in 2017 with the Ice Cream design series. Since then, Pochacco has become beloved among fans once more - even reaching the top 3 in the 2020, 2021, 2024, and 2025 character rankings.

In 2020, Pochacco began his career as a Hapidanbui member, along with Tuxedo Sam, Keroppi, Badtz-Maru, Hangyodon, and Pekkle.

Media Appearances

Pochacco has been featured in various animated Sanrio shows such as Hello Kitty's Animation Theater or Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures, where he often plays sports with his friends.

He also makes an appearance in some official video games, including Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

Pochacco is also featured in the Sanrio multimedia project Fragaria Memories. In this project, he is the ruler of the Pochacco Kingdom, as well as the lord of the Fragaria Chaco.

Ranking in the Sanrio Character Ranking

Pochacco winning 2nd place in 2024, his highest position in recent years

Pochacco winning 2nd place in 2024, his highest position in recent years

In the 2013 Sanrio Character Ranking, If Pochacco reaches the top 10, he will save money. However, he failed to reach that rank, as he was in 14th, while Hello Kitty was the winner. Over the decades, Pochacco's rankings have been a bit rocky, but in the early 1990s and 2020s, he proved himself a worthy contender. He has officially won a total of 5 times between 1991 and 1995, making himself currently tied with Cinnamoroll with the number of consecutive wins (5).

  • 1990: 6th place
  • From 1991 to 1995, he was 1st place.
  • 1996: 2nd place
  • 1997: 4th place
  • 1998: 6th place
  • 1999: 8th place
  • 2000: 9th place
  • From 2001 to 2009, he was below top 10.
  • 2010: 8th place
  • 2011: 10th place
  • 2012: 13th place
  • 2013: 14th place
  • 2014: 14th place (3rd place in Group C)
  • 2015: 15th place
  • 2016: 11th place (12th in Nade Time Ranking)
  • 2017: 10th place
  • 2018: 6th place
  • 2019: 5th place
  • 2020; 3rd place
  • 2021: 3rd place
  • 2022: 4th place (2nd in China)
  • 2023: 4th place (1st in Hong Kong; 3rd in China and South Korea; 7th in Taiwan, the United States, and Australia; 8th in Singapore; 9th in Thailand; 10th in the United Kingdom)
  • 2024: 2nd place (1st in South Korea; 3rd in China; 4th in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States, and Singapore; 5th in Italy and Australia; 7th in Brazil and Germany; 8th in France and Thailand; 9th in the United Kingdom and Spain)
  • 2025: 3rd place (1st in South Korea; 4th in China; 5th in Brazil; 6th in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and Spain; 7th in Germany and Thailand; 8th in France; 9th in Italy)

Official description (2001)

Pochacco is the most popular purebred in the neighborhood. This sports-minded pup is the best three-on-three basketball player on the playground and a not so shabby soccer goalie too. He's got a few quirks; how many vegetarian canines do you know? Carrots rank high on Pochacco's list of favorite foods but banana ice cream is his all time favorite! He is a leap year pup, celebrating his birthday on February 29th.[5]

Gallery

Pochacco/Gallery

Trivia

  • Pochacco's name comes from the onomatopoeia pocha pocha (ぽちゃぽちゃ) meaning chubby and cute. [1]
  • According to his profile, Pochacco is four cups of banana ice cream tall and weighs as much as three obake carrots. However, some media depicted significantly larger sizes.
    Pochacco with a visible mouth, as seen in Hello Kitty's Animation Theater

    Pochacco with a visible mouth, as seen in Hello Kitty's Animation Theater

  • In the older 2D animation shows such as Hello Kitty's Animation Theater, Pochacco is depicted with a visible mouth. In the aforementioned show, he also has a mother.
  • He shares the same birthday as Baku, Kuromi's sidekick.
  • In Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures, he is skillful enough to defeat Cinnamoroll at table tennis, as seen in the "Cinnamoroll the Champion" episode.
  • As he is indeed inspired by Peanut's Snoopy character, it is likely that one of Pochacco's friends, The Pi-chans, are based on his sidekick and best friend Woodstock, as the trio are small yellow birds.

Sources

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 https://web.archive.org/web/20130926221414/http://www.sanrio.co.jp/english/characters/detail/pochacco/index.html
  2. ↑ https://dic.pixiv.net/a/%E3%83%9D%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%83%E3%82%B3
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ポチャッコ
  4. ↑ https://www.sanrio.com/blogs/sanrio/sanrio-friend-of-the-month-pochacco
  5. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20031002020554/http://www.sanrio.com/main/charactersection/pc.html
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