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The story
The penguin character familiar to everyone from JR East’s “Suica” IC card has had its potential successors narrowed down to three final candidates, and the news blew up on 5ch. Thread posters were floored to learn that the penguin was never actually created exclusively for Suica in the first place — it originated from a picture-book character that illustrator Chiharu Sakazaki has been drawing since 1998 — with many replying “had no idea.” Meanwhile, the new candidate designs drew harsh criticism like “garbage design,” and posts pushing people to vote for one candidate, “B,” appeared as well, raising doubts about how fair the selection process really is.
What people said
Did that penguin screw up somehow?
Probably some rights/licensing issue making it a pain to use, but who knows
The creator of the Suica Penguin is illustrator and picture-book author Chiharu Sakazaki. A lot of people on social media are reacting as if "the Suica Penguin was born for Suica," but that's actually a misconception.
Sakazaki has been putting out penguin picture books since 1998. If you look at those books, you'll see that the penguin in them is exactly what the Suica Penguin was based on.
https://www.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/spv/2511/14/news113.html
D-didn't know that…
What's with JR East, so heavy-handed about this
Nah, that penguin was trash too honestly
Crush JR's arrogant assumption that it'll obviously be A
https://preresearch.image.itmedia.co.jp/nl/articles/2007/05/kakokiji_07051_w480.jpg
https://preresearch.image.itmedia.co.jp/nl/articles/1208/15/ah_chokowa.jpg
This rigging
is way too blatant lol
They're steering it toward the squirrel one, aren't they?
When it's printed on the green card, anything but B throws off the color balance
Makes sense given the old Japan National Railways Swallows connection (JNR once ran the team that's now the Yakult Swallows)
Pretty sure there's a Pokémon that looks just like this
Honestly this one works fine
Where did JR even dig up those other garbage characters
This one's clearly just riding on penguin-senpai's coattails
So B's the real frontrunner, huh
Honestly you get used to anything eventually
Even Myaku-Myaku won everyone over in the end, easy as that
This penguin's already got its next gig lined up?
Guess it just changed careers
Background and Key Points of This Debate
The Suica Penguin originated from a picture-book character illustrator Chiharu Sakazaki has been drawing since 1998, rather than being an original design made specifically for Suica. In the thread, many commenters reacted with surprise (“had no idea”) at this backstory, suggesting the origins of a character beloved for over 25 years were surprisingly little known. The debate split mainly two ways. One was over how to judge the new candidate designs — while harsh criticism like “garbage design” was common, some pushed back, pointing to Myaku-Myaku (the divisive mascot of Expo 2025 Osaka) as proof that “you get used to anything once it’s familiar.” The other was distrust of the selection process itself, with posts urging people to vote for Candidate B and suspicions that the whole thing might be “a fixed match.” Note that various theories about why the penguin is being retired — “royalty costs,” “some scandal,” and so on — circulated in the thread, but none of them are based on any official statement from JR East and should be treated as unconfirmed.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyou G) thread “[Sad News] Suica Penguin’s Replacement Character Narrowed Down to 3 Final Candidates wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.”
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