Anime Anime Global

April 25 is World Penguin Day.

Every year around April 25, it is celebrated as an anniversary of the frequent appearance of penguins at the United States Antarctic Station .

Penguins, which are also popular in aquariums, often appear in anime and games. There is a wide variety of characters, such as being a partner of the main character, speaking people’s words, and living in the city. Among all those penguin characters, who is the most popular one?

Here at Anime!Anime!, we conducted a reader survey entitled “When you think about ‘penguin’ characters who comes to mind?” We received responses from 197 people during the survey period from April 11 to April 18.
The male-female ratio is about 25% for males and about 75% for females. About 45% of the age group were teens, and about 25% were in their 20s.

■ People and mysterious creatures are ranked in!
1st place
1st place goes to Penguin from “Shirokuma Cafe” with an approval rating of about 25%.

Penguin-san, who is a regular customer of Shirokuma Cafe, is a popular comedy character of this heartwarming work, and readers commented, “I love the fun and free living Penguin.”, and “His sharp comedy is really interesting”. Some readers were touched by the acting of Kamiya Hiroshi, “Kamiya-san’s comedy is wonderful and the way he talks is interesting. His interactions with Shirokuma-kun and Panda-kun are fun.”

2nd place goes to Pen Pen from “Neon Genesis Evangelion” with an approval rating of about 12%.
Pen Pen is a new kind of hot spring penguin that lives in Misato Katsuragi’s house. He is popular as a comedy relief that softens the serious story, and readers also pointed on his appearance in the newly released movie, “I can’t forget how Shinji was surprised to see him while taking a bath when he first went to Misato’s house”, and “I was happy to see him in “Rebuild of Evangelion”.

3rd place
3rd place goes to Piplup of “Pokemon” with an approval rating of about 8%.
Piplup is a Penguin Pokemon that appears from the game “Pokemon Diamond and Pearl”. There were many votes because of its success in the anime “Diamond & Pearl”, “Since it’s a very cute partner of Hikari.” The remake version of the game “Brilliant Diamond Shining Pearl” has been announced.

■ Introducing other comments !!

For Pegitan from “Healin’Good Precure”, “Penguin-type healing animal. He is a little sissy, but it is great how he works hard for his partner Chiyu.”
About Tsukinohara Kuon from “DYNAMIC CHORD”, “He is a human, but he is the first one who comes to my mind when it is about penguins. His penguin hair is cute !!”.

For Penguin from “Uta no Prince-sama”, “A mascot character devised by Tokiya. I like the warm and loose feeling. It is adorable because it reflects Tokiya’s unique sensibility!”
For Suica’s Penguin “Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion” comments also have been received about his unexpected appearance, “The character known as an image on IC card tickets now in anime…”.

A variety of penguin characters appeared in this questionnaire. There was also a vote for a mysterious space creature that looked like a penguins like “Gintama” Elizabeth. Please also take a look at the overall ranking!

■ Overall ranking
“When you think about ‘penguin’ characters who comes to mind?”
1st place Penguin-san “Shirokuma Cafe”
2nd place Pen Pen “Neon Genesis Evangelion”
3rd place Piplup “Pokemon”
4th place Pegitan “Healin’Good Girl’s Pretty Cure”
5th place Elizabeth “Gintama”
6th place Pingu “Pingu”
7th Captain “Madagascar” “The Penguins from Madagascar”
8th place Penguins “One Piece”
8th place PPP (Kemono Friends) “Kemono Friends”
8th place Penguin “Teiko Penguin”
8th place Penne “Aikatsu Friends!”
12th place Eclair Ecleir Ecler “Overlord”
12th place Hiroyuki “NINKU -Ninku-”
12th place Break “Beast Wars Neo Super Life-Form Transformers”
12th place Penguins “Uta no Prince-sama”

(Response period: April 11th to April 18th, 2021)