The “Seal Kindergarten” boom, with “over 5 million yen thrown away per day,” has not cooled off… Why seals are loved so much
Last summer’s “Miracle of the Seal Kindergarten” continues to this day.
Seals are now enjoying a boom.
Seals have all the elements of cuteness. Their eyes are round and round, their muzzle is round and round, and their head is smooth and round, without even earlobes.
And their body shape is very round. They are very agile in the water, but on land, they are like a character with low fighting strength. They have all of these elements that make them beloved, so it was only natural that they would become a boom animal.
Yuko Kobayashi, the editor in charge of the “Seal Marugoto Book” (supervised by Tadaaki Imaizumi, edited by Shunsuke Minamiwidth, Tatsumi Shuppan), says so.
On August 1 last year, the word “seal kindergarten” started trending on X. The term was coined to refer to the Pieterburen Seal Center, a seal protection facility in the Netherlands. The facility takes care of injured or weakened individuals and releases them back into the wild. The facility’s live-streaming program became a sensation after a Japanese user posted on X. The seals were floating in a pool, and the user’s name was “Pieterbueren.
The videos of the seals floating and playing with each other in the pool became so popular that Japanese viewers came to watch the 24-hour live streaming any day of the week. When the ban on super chat was lifted, the amount of money thrown at it exceeded 5 million yen a day, making it the world’s largest.
Within the community, unique “terms” were born one after another. One person described a seal swimming standing up as a “tea pillar,” which led to the creation of words such as “new tea” for new seals, “icha-icha” and “wacha-wacha” for the way they play with each other, and “tea ceremony club members” for the fans. Seal Kindergarten” was even nominated for the Ryukugo Award.
Seal Marugoto Book,” published in December, was ranked No. 1 overall on Amazon and Rakuten Books when it was announced that it would be released, and the book was sold out before it was even available for pre-order. At the time of its release, it was also trending on X. Kobayashi himself, who has worked on books about cats and various other animals, was one of the people who fell in love with “Seal Kindergarten,” but until then he had not paid particular attention to seals.
‘When you stare at them, you get hooked on their personalities.’
Seals are really cute animals, but that’s not all. Since “Seal Kindergarten” is a shelter, I thought we should properly convey the background of its activities and why seals are protected. Also, although I think seals are familiar creatures, there are many things about them that I myself am surprisingly unaware of, and I didn’t really understand the difference between seals, sea lions, and fur seals. So I wanted to make a comprehensive book on the subject of seals.”
This book includes information on the activities of the Pieterburen Seal Center, also known as the “Seal Kindergarten,” and the Okhotsk Tocktori Center, the only seal protection facility in Japan, seals around the world in photographs, basic knowledge about seals, a list of facilities in Japan where you can see seals, and more. The “entirety” of the site is introduced with a wealth of photographs.
One of the donation initiatives in the “Seal Kindergarten” is the “Adoption System. For a donation of a predetermined amount of money, one can become a “foster parent” of a specific seal. Ms. Kobayashi also became a foster parent for a seal named “Chabashira” and watched over him until he was released into the ocean.
As I watched over the seals, I gradually came to understand that each individual has its own personality, such as a favorite pose or a favorite way to swim. The chubacilla I adopted often has a blank stare, but it’s cute because it’s a little funny and charming.
Other fans also paid attention to the individual seals in this way, which I found very new. I had always had the image of seals as wild animals, so it was a refreshing discovery to see that seals, like cats and many other animals, have their own personalities. It’s a natural thing when you think about it.”
A portion of the proceeds from the “Seal Marugoto Book” are donated to the “Seal Kindergarten” and the “Tokkari Center. The “Seal Kindergarten” offers the right to name a seal as part of the aforementioned adoption program, and after a fan vote on SNS, the name was decided to be “Tatsumi.
The book was the catalyst for this kind of connection. When the seal named Tatsumi is well enough to eat her own food and swim a lot, I think she will make her live-streaming debut on “Seal Kindergarten,” so I hope you will watch over her.
Looking back on the past, seals have captured our hearts with their “cuteness,” such as “Goma-chan” from the comic “Shonen Ashibe” and “Tama-chan” who appeared in the Tama River. It might be a good idea to learn more about them.
