Kyorochan


Kyorochan is a Japanese cartoon bird that serves as a mascot for a brand of Morinaga chocolate known as ChocoBall. He first appeared in 1967 in the anime television series Uchuu-shonen Soran. Originally, when the series began in 1965, Choco-Balls were consumed by a cartoon "space squirrel" known as "Chappy"; it was found that sales of Choco-Balls did not increase; Kyorochan was devised in 1967 as a replacement.
His popularity began to take off in 1987, when TV commercials starring Kyorochan, as well as commercial songs performed by famous artists appeared. In 1991, the name "Kyorochan" was printed on the boxes of Choco-Ball candies, and in that same year, the sales of Kyorochan stuffed animals and related products exceeded the sales of the Choco-Ball brand itself.
An anime series starring Kyorochan was produced by TV Tokyo, NAS, and SPE Visual Works and animated by Group TAC. The series was released in very limited amounts in DVD format, and, outside Japan, is found only in Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, and South Korea.
The Indian channel Pogo began showing Kyorochan from May 31, 2010. It is currently unknown if it was dubbed in Hindi, Tamil, or English, since the channel has programming in all three languages. It was most likely a Hindi dub, however.
Wario Ware, Inc.'s Pyoro was based on Kyorochan.

Characters in the anime

The "Kyorosk" is a kiosk constructed in the JR East train station at Tamachi, Tokyo, in 2003. The store features Morinaga products, focusing especially on Kyoro-chan. Since the Morinaga corporate headquarters are located near Tamachi-eki Station, this store was devised as a joint venture between the company and JR East.

Video games

There are a couple licensed Nintendo games, along with a PlayStation sequel. The games however are not related to the anime.