The cutest, lazy egg from Sanrio, Gudetama is getting their own Netflix CGI+ series coming out soon.
If you are a fan of Hello Kitty and her Sanrio friends, then you may have heard about Gudetama. If not, I can be sure you have seen the cute yellowed egg in some form of plush in various stores—especially plush stores. Now, the loveable yellow yolk will be starring in their own Netflix live-action and CG hybrid series called: “Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure.” But, how did this yolk-y little friend become so famous? Here is everything you need to know about Gudetama.
Simply, Gudetama is a character in the shape of a normal, raw egg yolk with its big, glistening booty-licious butt sticking out and does not have an assigned gender. It is genderless because it is an unfertilized egg. It has a head with no neck, simple dot eyes and a small white mouth for a teeth-like effect. It also contains tiny arms and legs without fingers or toes. Many variant versions of the yellow friend could be shown with the iconic egg using the egg whites as a bed and bacon as a blanket.
Gudetama was created by the 26-year-old Sanrio designer Nagashima Emi (aka AMY) when she graduated from Joshibi University of Art and Design in 2012. She noted how she was inspired to create the character while in the process of preparing dinner after her long working hours. “The yolk looked cute…because of its droopy demeanor,” Emi shared in The Wall Street Journal back in 2016.
In 2013, Sanrio held a food-based competition to design new characters related to food, which was where Gudetama was first displayed. The eggy icon came in second place as the happy salmon, Kimiri-chan, took first place. However, the unmotivated egg ended up coming out on top as it grew more popular and higher market value.
Gudetama has gone on to inspire various sponsorships and partnerships: from being on the side of EVA Air’s new Airbus A321-200 back in 2016, to clothing collaborations with Stayreal and UNIQLO. Sanrio’s vice president of marketing and brand management stated how after the 2013 competition “Gudetama, the lazy egg actually came in second, but we [still] released products based on Gudetama, and they really, really took off. It has really, really expanded and blown up over the last year.”
Based on a count back in 2017 from VOX.com, Gudetama was already featured in over 115 different types of products such as “a skateboard, a desk fan and a talking tissue box cover. To compare, Hello Kitty had 226 products out at the time.
At the end of the day, it seems people enjoy Gudetama for its accurate representation and personality of a lazy “mood”—you know the one. It is that warm, fuzzy feeling of curling up under a blanket and just letting life’s worries melt away. The little friend has warmed the hearts of many and has shown how it has sympathized with all the human struggles we all tackle in our daily lives.
The Netflix Gudetama show theme song was revealed to be the Southern All Stars band member, Yuko Hara. The company described the show:
“A lethargic, empathetic road movie about finding one’s parents — for everyone who just wants to laze about!
Having resigned itself to the fact that it will just end up on someone’s plate, Gudetama just wants to be lazy all the time. But, swept up by the go-getting, overbearing chick Shakipiyo, it leaves the refrigerator and heads out into the world. Together, these polar opposites go on an adventure to find their mother!”
Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure is expected to come out later this year with no exact release date yet. The character has already appeared in various animated shorts since March 2014 and continued airing on TV until the end of 2020. Then, Sanrio launched a new line of animated shorts called “Gudetama Freestyle” on YouTube in January 2021.
