"What about them? They are just animals costumes..." that's what you'll probably think. 🤔

That's not exactly true. I mean, yes, they are animal costumes, but like in every Pop Culture, there's always more.
It's like watching Anime. They were born in Japan, they arrived in Europe and USA, many people loves them, but others just think they are just silly cartoons. Yeah, they are cartoons (and here's where anime zealots will probably close the page. Sorry for that!) but there's always more. 💁🏻‍♂️

That's why we investigated 🕵🏻 and found out 5 interesting facts you probably didn't know about Kigurumis, we hope.
So let's get to it!

1. What does the word "Kigurumi" means?

We have always called them Kigurumi (Kigu for friends) and we never questioned about the name's real meaning.
Like the word "pizza", right? 🍕 Everyone calls it that way and so do you.
Well, we did some research and, between many translations, we thought the literal one was the most accurate: "wearing a soft toy" which is literally what you do when you wear a Kigurumi. We also wrote an article about the meaning of Kigurumi (https://www.kigumania.com/en/blogs/kigu-blog/cosa-sono-i-kigurumi), if you want to know more.

2. Did you know there is a J-Pop band called "Kigurumi"?

Well, it's more like a duo, born at first in order to make a song for a commercial: "Tarako Tarako Tarako".
That song had a great success in 2006 and so did the two Kigurumi singers, Rena Shimura and Haruka, who became two of the youngest (10 yo more or less) famous people in Japan.
Some time later the band was taken over by two new members, Miki and Kei, who inherited the band from the founders: they keep singing even nowadays.
Don't miss their hits like "Kigurumi", "Kigurumi no Kodomo no Uta" or, our favourite, "Tamagotchi Kigurumi". You won't regret that!

3. What are the ancient origins of the Kigurumis?

You can say they are from the 90s, when the whole nerd culture became a part of our society, first in Japan and in the 2000s in the rest of the world, when anime and manga started spreading in Europe and America.
But, with a deeper research, you can find out that Kigurumi's origins are more... "ancient" that you could ever imagine.

Let's go back together to the past, in the 1600, when the first Kigurumi shaped clothes ever found go back.
Those clothes were used for the Kabuki, the first ancestor of the Japanese theatre. Not so rarely the actors wore costumes that went not so far from the Kigurumis as we know them.
Maybe that's where the nowadays designers took inspiration from.

4. Do celebrities love Kigurumi?

Ok, you could have imagined this one. Of course they do, a lot. Expecially the ones who are particularly fascinated by cute things.
Cara Delevigne, Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus have even shown off their Kigurumi Outfit on the Red Carpet, and the Miley and Ariana realized a cover of "Don't dream it's over" wearing them. Miley was a beautiful unicorn, while Ariana was a tiny mouse. Which one do you like the most?

5. What is the most seen Kigurumi in anime?

"Ok I got this one. It's a unicorn, they are so cute and fluffy. And they ride big rainbows. Wait no, it's a panda, the most popular animal. Or maybe it's a sloth, so lazy and sleepy just like me."
If you thought about those, you're wrong. The Kigurumi most showed in anime is the cat, the king of the internet. The animal who made us laugh the most in history.
Should we say more?