Pompompurin’s charm point apparently can’t be concealed.
Late last year, Sanrio unveiled its collaboration with the Japan Sumo Association, in which Hello Kitty and her friends wear sumo-inspired outfits for a line of merch to offered through SuMALL, the association’s official online shop. Cute characters and a sport that involves burly near-naked men grappling with each other might not seem like the most obvious partnership, but the team-up has proven popular enough for a second round of merch that once again features four Sanrio stars, with one of their buttholes receiving even more attention that usual.
Part of the new Sanrio sumo offerings is a collection of rubber character keychains. In keeping with the designs for the collaboration, Hello Kitty is still dressed in the kimono and billowy hakama pants of a sumo yobidashi, or ring announcer, and Kuromi has donned the traditional garb of the gyoji/referee.
That leaves it up to Cinnamoroll and Pompompurin to strap on the kesho mawashi aprons worn by sumo wrestlers before the start of their bouts.
While we’ve previously seen the Sanrio characters wearing these costumes on towels, pouches, and other flat-surface illustrations, the keychains are the first time for them to be rendered in three dimensions, which means we can circle around back and see the mawashi (sumo loincloth) that Pompompurin is wearing…
…which somehow still leaves his butthole visible?!?
It’s unclear exactly what’s supposed to be happening here. Has Pompompurin’s loincloth been wrapped so tightly that it’s riding up between his cheeks and showing the contours of his cavity? Is his loincloth made out of some sort of semi-see-through green material? Is it tailored with a strategically placed cutout? Or is it just that, with Pompompurin’s Japanese fanbase widely considering his butthole to be an especially charming point of his appearance, the hole is somehow able to bend spacetime and always make itself visible to fans? Whatever the reason, he’s managed to pull off the feat of simultaneously wearing a loincloth that still leaves the most iconic part of his anatomy visible.
▼ For those wondering, Cinnamoroll’s tail would block the line of sight to his cavity, and it isn’t customarily depicted in illustrations of him anyway.
The Sanrio sumo keychains go on sale April 27, priced at 1,430 yen (US$9.25) through the SuMALL online store here, meaning you can sport one while visiting the Sanrio Exhibition: The Beginning of Kawaii even that’s going on in Tokyo this spring.
Source: SuMALL via Hachima Kiko
Top image: SuMALL
Insert images: SuMALL (1, 2, 3)
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