FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

Animated characters with Style

Animated characters with Style

A new initiative launched by the Department of International Trade Promotion focuses on licensing outlets for Thai character creators

FOR A COUNTRY seemingly obsessed by cartoon-like characters – think T-shirts, mobile phone covers and cushions emblazoned with Kumamon, Rilakkuma, Hello Kitty and superheroes like Batman and Spiderman – it comes as something of a surprise to discover that Thais know very little about locally created characters. Yes, these home-grown creations have a strong presence in the Line Stickers shop, so why do we think they are as foreign as well, Bloody Bunny.
Except that Bloody Bunny isn’t foreign at all – he’s Thai. “People are surprised to find out that Bloody Bunny is one of ours,” says Panjarat Areerattanatrakul, marketing manager of 2Spot Communications, which give birth to the knife-wielding rabbit some 14 years ago. 2Spot has introduced more than 100 characters to the market including the well-known Unsleep Shpe, though Bloody Bunny is so charismatic that he’s become the company’s flagship character.
Nine Thai animation characters were chosen for last week’s Style event, a new initiative launched by the Commerce Ministry’s Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP) to support Thai character creators on the international market and add greater commercial value to their work through character licensing. This allows for transferring the popularity of a well-known “personality” to a product/service in order to obtain instant awareness and market positioning. 
The animation characters selected are Bloody Bunny, Majory, Yak Rocket, The Mask Collection – a spin-off of the popular singing contest of the same name, Nuts So Mond’Sters, Princess Story, Rudolph the Awesome, Missnight, and Eggy Egg. 
Launched a year ago, Eggy Egg is the brainchild of The Monk Studio, a leading animation, visual effects and post-production outfit that’s behind TV commercials and movies including the animation “Khun Tongdaeng The Inspirations”. Eggy’s story begins when six baby chicks emerge from a box of six eggs and start their adventures with first-born Eggy taking charge of his younger siblings. 

Animated characters with Style
The Monk Studio is involved in licensing only and describes its creations as prototype merchandise products. “Our creatives came up with some characters and started with a story, then developed it for character licensing. It is not our expertise. The only products we do are Line stickers,” explains Umparin Boonsinsuk, the company’s Licensing & Marketing manager.
Rudolph the Awesome is the offspring of Xhabition, a company behind the visual effects for movies like “Faak Wai Nai Guy Ther” (“The Swimmers”). Its managing director, Nattakitar Satawatthamrong, says Rudolf was created more than a year ago based on the company’s naughty cocker-poodle mutt of the same name. 
“He’s independent and mischievous and so our creatives turned him into a character,” she explains, adding that Xhabition has moved from Line stickers to selling products online such as T-shirts, pillows, canvas shoes and umbrellas.
Many factors are involved in making a character successful in terms of impact, artistic value and recognition. “In Japan, using characters to promote anything and even as a city’s mascot is very popular. It’s not like that here,” says Bloody Bunny’s Panjarat.
“But if you don’t have an animation series or a shop to gain more recognition, you can create other kinds of digital content and get better known online through Instagram, Facebook and other sites,” she adds.
Indeed, Thai characters earn fame thanks to the rapid development of online content and today have many platforms on which to appear, including the oh-so-popular Line Stickers, through which hundreds of domestic creations are introduced to the market. And the market is growing: 9.5 per cent in 2017 and 8.1 per cent so far in 2018, a year in which total market value is expected to skyrocket to Bt2 billion. 

Animated characters with Style
Yet creating unique Thai characters doesn’t necessarily mean showcasing “Thainess”. Quite the opposite in fact: local creators tend to combine the style of American and Japanese mascots and turn it into one of their own. 
“When adapted to the Thai lifestyle, the character will be unique in its own way,” says Panjarat.
The Monk’s Umparin adds that even if the characters doesn’t have anything particularly Thai about them, there is still something that reflects “being Thai”.
“Each country has its own colour palette and that’s kind of its DNA. As you see, all Thai characters are all in rich and cheerful colours, while other countries prefer earth tones or pastels. It comes out naturally,” she adds.
For Prapapat Keeree, the creative director of Yaklek, the newest kid on the creative character block, creating Yak Rocket is a dream come true. The family inkjet printing business has seen a fall off in orders with the advent of more advanced technologies and she decided to create her character so that she could take part in the Top Thai Characters in Style event. She finished the characters in January.
“I know nothing about the character licensing market and wanted to learn more from this event. Coming from a ‘red ocean’ business, I have nothing to fear and above all, it fulfils my childhood dream of character design,” says Prapapat. 
And even as the DITP is working to support Thai characters, their creators are also trying to up the ante, with some companies already in discussions about opening a Thai character shop in Platinum Mall Pratunam.
Several Thai characters already have an established international presence, among them Shelldon, Mamuang and Jay the Rabbit, currently appearing in a TV series in Taiwan, but there are many more creators who lack the knowledge, understanding and skills to penetrate the international market or lease their license to overseas clients. Support from the government sector, they say, can only help them become better known internationally, especially in established markets like Japan and USA, and new markets like China and CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam).
Topping them all is that knife-wielding rabbit who has his own shop at Terminal 21 and last year was among the six characters chosen to showcase Thailand at the popular one-stop Tokyu Hands Shops in Japan.
Bloody Bunny has also worked with Japanese singers Ayumi Hamasaki and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and appeared in their music videos. Rudolf has agents in Japan and Taiwan and is a line sticker in Japan too. 
 

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