Anime and manga Gals! was a
manga that had much influence on fashion, it is a manga that centers completely on the subculture. This manga has become once again renowned in the subculture of . Though it is said that a reboot of the series may be impossible. Other manga having ties to subculture include Gal Japon, a slice of life manga surrounding the subculture published in 2010. The 2018 manga called
My Roomie Is a Dino received an
anime adaptation in 2020. The manga Super Baby features a protagonist named Tamao, who lives near locations or near locations representing or are influenced by , such as the mall
109. This manga centers on fashion and subculture. It started publishing in 2017. Debuting in 2017 and is still being published today, the series
Yancha Gal no Anjou-san. The manga
Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! debuted in 2019 and ended in 2024. In January 2018, the manga
My Dress-Up Darling had received publishing and remains an on-going series; this manga received an anime adaptation, which aired from January 2022.
Citrus, a
yuri manga and anime, has characters. ''
cosplayers of Marin Kitagawa and Shizuku Kuroe (2022) Many other manga have characters in or related to . For example,
Peach Girl, a manga that started publication in 1997. The 2003 manga
Bijinzaka Private Girls High School (), had a titular character named Nonomiya En. In 2005, the manga
Galism: Love Supreme Sisters () was released. In 2009, the manga
KECHONPA was published, instead of being a shōjo manga, it had a drama-driven plot. Also in 2009, the anime
Hime Gal Paradise ran on Japanese television and revolves around a main character who is initially ordinary but enters a high school where every student is a . In 2014, the manga and anime series
Please Tell Me! Galko-chan was published. It mostly discusses topics ranging from gender differences, sexual behavior or body complexes, and differences in both the female and male bodies. Galko-chan, the protagonist of this manga, and her older sister are both . A
stop motion anime series named
Milpom was created to promote the lifestyle. The mall of Shibuya 109 is shown as the first shot as the scene in the
pilot and is present during its entirety. It lasted from 2015 until 2017. The
voice actresses of this series consist of magazine models, including Anna Yano who appeared in
mer and
KERA magazines, Saki Shibata from the magazine
mer as well, and the
popteen models
Hikari Shiina and Ai Matsumoto. Hikari Shiina voice-acting Milpom and Ai Matsumoto voicing the secondary lead, Pon-pon; after the pilot her name had been changed to Silky. Non--orientated series have also included characters. A non- anime, being the well known series
Pokémon has also had a representation; first in the original anime within the first season on episode 15 called . The Team Rocket members Jessie and James are disguised as a mix that might now resemble to and , respectively; but it was simply an early representation of at that time. In the 2018 movie
Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us Risa is a character. But the
Pokémon series already had a representation by the actual Pokémon,
Jynx. But fans and Pokémon company themselves disagree since the appearance of this Pokémon in 1996 for
Pokémon Red and Blue on the
Game Boy and the series since. The comedy anime
Mr. Osomatsu has a character named . The series
Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san has also had -influenced characters: two and one are customers. The first is a customer as well as a Fujoshi|. She appeared in the second chapter of the manga, titled
Yaoi| Girls from Overseas. She also appears in the first episode of the anime. The other two characters appear within later episode of the series as clients, too. In the non--oriented Shōnen manga| series
Sgt. Keroro, the character
Angol Mois takes the appearance of a in her human form. The anime series
Great Teacher Onizuka has a group of students. The manga and anime
After the Rain has a on chapter six of the manga and on episode 3 of the anime named "Raining Tears" or as an
AV Idol on a
VHS. When episode 6 of the mini anime series of the smartphone
rhythm game Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! named first premiered on YouTube in 2022, it was accused by American and English-speaking viewers in general of "doing/promoting
blackface" and "
cultural appropriation" due to a scene inspired by fashion substyle of perceived as being blackface. The next day, the episode was withdrawn indefinitely and a public apology in both English and Japanese was uploaded on the official
Twitter account. The removal of the episode is controversial and many fans of the game and show, either Japanese and American, were disappointed with the company's decision, with some blaming
Sega for its "bending the knee" and "listening to outraged Twitter who insist that everyone should respect foreign cultures while applying and imposing their own Western prejudices, views, puritanism and imperialism against foreign media and subcultures". The episode was reuploaded to YouTube on March 15, 2022, with some modifications that removed the typical tan, make-up, and the previous items.
Colourful, the 2010
anime movie, has a secondary character, , not only from her appearance and nonchalant attitude, but , forms a major part to her role.
Television Japanese television have a had an enormous amount of -based content during the Heisei era. These television programs could center on and even commercials employed . Some of these shows were made by for to boost their popularity and morale as a Japanese fashion style and to do the same for the featured models. They also popularized the magazines or the stores in Shibuya 109 that appeared in these programs since they were either the producers or had a contract with the producers. There were often single segments about within programs. One of the earliest being about and their love for tropical clothing and a new type of thigh-high socks that looked like
bell-bottoms that had at the time been released in Shibuya 109. The show GAL-TEN, created by for , was produced by egg magazine and broadcast by
TBS Television in the 2010s. Other television segments used or models to promote the show and the models themselves; such as this segment promoting model Rina Sakurai. Another example of television segments about were those about make-up application, such as the big eye trend of the early 2010s called , said to make one's eyes resemble a child's. There was also a television segment on
parapara competitions with and even nationwide who were all from a certain from the
Kantō region of Tokyo all the way to
Osaka. Another television segment regarded three and their way of making money by being
sugar babies by using older men with the older Internet system of Japan for . While doing so, one of the participants told of having made 200,000 yen and when adjusting for inflation made about 1,400 dollars with three dates in one day. Shows that were relevant to the actual lifestyle or subculture of during the
Heisei era included television specials about the or in general. For example, the Angeleek had its own episode on Japanese television, fully dedicated to their events, general outings with each-other and how they helped a younger generation participate in or join their group to continue its legacy. Western have also appeared on Japanese television: the Spanish
Hysterical appeared twice, both in Spain and while visiting Japan. The American
Diamond Gal appeared in a segment on a
Nippon TV program. This segment was created with an exaggerated situation and staged moments to provide more drama. Western have appeared on Japanese television since 2013, with a whole segment of a Japanese variety broadcast dedicated to various western who were either in Japan at the time or abroad. Others that reflected and tried to capture the daily lifestyle of on Japanese television were the Japanese
FashionTV segments known as "Tokyo Girls". The first episode of this series filmed a day in a shop-staff
one spo daily custom. The only proof of this episode existing since FashionTV's deletion of these episodes is a
tumblr with
gifs of this episode. On the same tumblr there is also proof in gif of the episode of the shop staff
Miauler Mew being followed for that episode. South Korean comedian
Park Seong-ho depicted a or in 2012 for the
KBS Entertainment Awards which was shown on
KBS2, a
sketch-comedy show called
Gag Concert. In the character of , he depicted someone so self-absorbed that she barely takes notice of those speaking directly to her and is portrayed as an idiot. But in an interview, Park Seong-ho admitted having little understanding of the phenomenon.
Movies Some movies either center around or have a influence to give it either a cult following or for a nostalgic factor for those who participated in . In 2009, Japanese model from the magazine appeared in her own film, 'GIRL'S LIFE'. The protagonist in is also a . A renowned scene in the movie is Haruka having to choose a name for herself since she started working as a hostess in a and after a minor disagreement with the hostess bar's manager regarding the nickname she originally proposed, she reluctantly decides to be nicknamed , a reference to the magazine for which she models.
Men's egg created in 2011 a movie that is reminiscent of '
Kamikaze Girls' premise; two people from completely different sides of life have to befriend or even help each-other. The movie 'men's egg drummers' is about the young teen named Keita who was suddenly become the overseer of a shrine after he's father inexplicably falls ill. Keita has to now find new members for a drumming performance before an annual festival. In 2016, or known in English as ' gals riot' was released. A group of high-school in the 1990s place a time capsule. Jump to current day, were said group are older not participants of said fashion but are reminiscing on those past events.
Flying Colors, a 2015 film, has a protagonist, . The 2018 Japanese movie Sunny: has a group of women reminiscing about their high school years in the 1990s and their time being .
Music Many genres of music are popular for and are sung or made by or for . From
Eurobeat, to
EDM,
Trance, and other genres of music or Eurobeat remixes, they are casually listened to by . Eurobeat and songs that are remixes in said genre are regularly danced to as well with . There are many albums of eurobeat music targeted towards but these aren't the sole genres of music listened or made by or for . During the
Heisei era the varying music that was produced towards a audience is now considered in Japanese . Singers such as
Koda Kumi,
Namie Amuro, and
Ayumi Hamasaki are internationally famous, and regarded as inspiration for many . Other
J-pop artists who were considered to be essential to listen to were LOVE to LOVE, GAL DOLL, KAHORI, and Juliet. Other favorites include
Sifow, who was at the time not only a model but also a singer for J-Pop as she had been a solo artist when starting her music career as Sifow.
musicians • Alice Peralta • (men's egg) ASAS • (men's egg) CiEL • () • GAL DOLL • • Angeleek • black diamond • •
HIM-egg • Hiromi, a.k.a. • Juliet • KAHORI •
Kalen Anzai •
Kana Nishino •
Lil'B • LOVE to LOVE •
Mayumi Iizuka •
Miliyah Kato • Misaki Izuoka () •
Tsubasa Masuwaka, a.k.a. Milky Bunny •
Hikari Shiina, a.k.a. Pikarin Shiina • PlayZ • Rina Sakurai, a.k.a. Rina • GAL's ( GAL's) •
Sifow • SioreeNa • Suzuki Kirei • Sweet Licious •
Tomomi Itano • Aina Tanaka and Yuma Takahashi a.k.a. yumachi&aina
Video games of
Junko Enoshima from
Danganronpa at
Katsucon in 2014 Many characters from various Japanese media have a connection. For example, in the
Yakuza series, especially in its third iteration,
Yakuza 3. It debuted a
side-mission which would then be included with its gameplay and features in later sequels. Where in fictional or as the game refers to it as , the player would need to recruit women to join a
hostess club. These women were actual from the magazine . These models are used as actual character models in the game; their whole appearance was replicated to the smallest detail to have them created and placed as 3D characters. These models from
Koakuma Ageha are
Sayaka Araki, Nemu, Rina Sakurai, Eri Momoka, Riho Nishiyama, Rina Aikawa, and Muto Shizuka. They have even been compared to their replicated three-dimensional counterparts. These characters became hostess of these
fictional hostess clubs; if the player chooses to do this side-mission and complete it. The hostess club section of the game first appeared in
Yakuza 2 in the sense of visiting the clubs themselves and not in the similar way as in the third game where the player recruited actual members for the clubs. They even have their own magazine in the games called
Kamutai magazine which is also replica of the actual magazine
Koakuma Ageha. This content was omitted in the Western releases of
Yakuza 3. In
Danganronpa, the character of
Junko Enoshima is inspired by subculture; she is called a
super high school level (in the English dub, this is changed to “Ultimate Fashionista”). The
Persona series also has a . In
Revelations: Persona, there is a named Yuka Ayase.
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle has a enemy as a character. The player must defeat her to proceed in-game; she is known as Shinobu Jacobs who is encountered later in the game. The
visual novel escape room series
Zero Escape has the character that is portrayed as a . The
Wagamama Fashion: Girls Mode series, known as Style Savvy and Style Boutique in North America and the
PAL region respectively, is based on multiple Japanese street fashion subcultures and has a main focus on brands and selling apparel. The video game has a variety of brands and styles but also some of these that can be interpreted as mimicking or representing some fashion brands. For example, the
in-game apparel brand AZ*USA (AZ-USA in the West) has a striking resemblance to the brand D.I.A.; another would be the brand CherryBerry (April bonbon in the West) also having its own representation of the style. Most probable inspiration would be the brand COCO*LULU. The video-game franchise
Animal Crossing by
Nintendo also had a , but she only appeared in a spin-off game of this series. Specifically the
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer on the
Nintendo 3DS, the character named Lottie appears in that video game for the first time, she is a character represented as an
otter. After multiple encounters with her, there will be an in-game event on the third day of
gameplay, where her uncle Lyle will state himself that she wears too much makeup in a game dialogue and in a later in-game event she can even be found without her makeup. She will state to the player character, that it was due to the fact she woke up too late for work but would often wear her makeup to impress a male colleague; the colleague's name in game is Digby. She also appears in
Animal Crossing: amiibo festival on the
Wii U. Here are her looks on in-game. This character has recently been added to the
Nintendo Switch version of Animal Crossing,
Animal Crossing: New Horizons, through the paid
downloadable content of
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise. Though that isn't supposedly the only influenced character in
Animal Crossing; but instead of a
non-playable character it is an actual villager within the series. The
gorilla villager Jane (or Fever, ) has been remarked having a like appearance in () on the
Nintendo 64 and Japanese versions of said game on the
GameCube. Another video game franchise with a character is the
Dragon Quest series. On the Nintendo DS game
Dragon Quest IX there is a as the fairy character, Sandy. The video-game company, Nintendo did not only cater to by the use of video-game promotions with or video games related to the subculture. They have a series of
applications that can be used for both the
Nintendo DSi and Nintendo 3DS. They are on the
Nintendo DSiWare and the
Nintendo eShop. It is a application for both
video-game consoles developed by the company
Atlus. In Japan this series of applications are known as and abroad as the 'Sparkle Snapshots' series. Nintendo has made an homage to by having weapons in
Wii U game
Splatoon being inspired by culture as weapons in-game such as the
.52 deco gal and
.96 deco gal; their name are Japanese puns to culture through as
.52 deco gal is
deco gal and
.96 deco gal being
deco gal; they have also used
amiibo as a costume for the same game, a outfit for female inkling characters. Besides that
Splatoon 2 octoling idol Marina
voice actress is a known as Alice Peralta and also has her own group with the voice actress of Pearl as the LAIDBACKS. The
Super Gals! anime series had its own video game, it is a series of
threequels published in 2001 and 2002; produced by
Konami for the
Game Boy color and the
PlayStation. The anime series
Hime Gal Paradise also had its own video game on the Nintendo 3DS published by Nippon Columbia-games. The
avatar fashion web
browser game and
virtual community which later became a sequel series on the Nintendo DS,
Poupéegirl, was popular amongst .
Web On the Internet, there are many makeup tutorials and event videos of meeting each other on YouTube. Many videos discuss this fashion subculture, such as article videos, history videos,
makeovers, and questionnaire videos. There is also a video that has been uploaded by the YouTube channel of the older women's magazine as the Jinsin channel; that has the twins Guri and Gura Yoshikawa giving a make-over to an elderly women to resemble them. There are also parody videos and even Japanese television program fragments remain viewable on YouTube, ridiculing and . One of the most famous is the 2011 created by the Japanese music group , which achieved brief popularity outside of Japan as an
Internet meme. A recent parody that can be also interpreted as an honoring of every notable that has appeared in manga, anime, and
hentai is the YouTube video
Sushi. It refers to an actual sushi restaurant in
Rio de Janeiro.
Products and commercial media There are many products for and products endorsed by them or their companies, such as magazines.
Make-up and beauty accessories Cosmetic products, ranging from makeup to
false eyelashes from non--owned cosmetic companies to -created and owned cosmetic companies were plentiful during the
Heisei era.
Tsubasa Masuwaka's cosmetic line and false eyelash brand are manufactured and sold by the Japanese company Koji Honpo Co. Limited (). Both of these brands still exist, but with new packaging and a different target clientele. Cosmetic company Meiko Cosmetics Incorporated (), also known by its license name SHOBIDO (), best known for its false eyelash brand , released many commercials during the 2010s with many models from that time period, including
Chinatsu Wakatsuki, Natsumi Saito (), Satomi Yakuwa (), Kurotaki Maria () and Muto Shizuka (). There are many advertisements for wigs from Japanese companies with endorsements by models. There are three notable wig brands: , , and . Aquadoll made a commercial featuring many models and actresses to promote their various wigs. LOVES WIG made multiple commercials for wigs created with
popteen model Kumiko Funayama's endorsement. And Prisila made a commercial with the endorsement of popteen model
Nana Suzuki for a smaller array of wigs such as clip-on bangs and clip-on extensions. Prisila is also known for its taglines that have appeared in Japanese television and magazines as well, such as 'No wig, no life!' Japanese hair-dye products also had -based ads during that time that now appear on YouTube. There are two notable hair-dye brands noted in the subculture: and . models Tsubasa Masuwaka and Kumiko Funayama promoted Palty and Beauteen, respectively. Tsubasa Masuwaka has even appeared in advertisements for its male hair-dye variant of Palty. And
South Korean Pop group
KARA appeared in a 2011 commercial for the Palty brand with Tsubasa Masuwaka placing the dye on her hair while KARA sing their new song, (, ). During the movement's heyday, electronic hair tools and accessories were created for . Tsubasa Masuwaka endorsed the TsuyaGla Perfect portable
hair straightener collection, which was produced by the brand . It is a hair straightener including accessories such as plastic covers to create curls with them to almost the same effect as a hair curl with a hair curler. They were produced in candy pink, midnight navy, and virgin white. CJ Prime shopping also made a professional version of the TsuyaGla Perfect hair straightener with the endorsement of Jun Komori as model, this version being simply called TsuyaGla Pro. The same Japanese company have also made a wave hair curling iron and regular curling iron with Kumiko Funayama as the endorser; this time the products were called TsuyaGla Wave and TsuyaGla Curl.
Toys and mascot items in 2018; old 109 department
logo present at the time In 2021, a selection of
gashapon were released to the market, made to resemble various folded
origami paper cranes made by . Their poor appearance was noticed by the Japanese public. But these origami were made to have this appearance due to the artificial nails of the who made them, and were sought after due to their rarity and handmade nature. Each gashapon also came with a philosophical question or phrase. In 2022, magazine
egg produced a series of capsule toys for both and collectors. The selection of these capsule toys ranged from six different magazine covers made into
keychains, plastic pins with slang and new models from the magazine in metal pins with the added bonus of all of these variants having an added magazine
logo as a
sticker. On September 14, 2022,
Sanrio made a collection of 17 items based on subculture, consisting of four mascots on keychains, accessory cases, and hair clips. A collaborative commercial between Russia and Japan was made with a photoshoot with model Natsuko Matsumoto the Russian mascot
Cheburashka. The merchandise franchise made a short featuring talking to each other, when the mascot character appears and gives worldly triva. The doll
Jenny produced by the company
Takara Tomy also had influence, adding an entirely new doll to the Jenny line named Jessica with appropriate -influenced clothes that are based on the substyle , but are misclassified in the commercial as .
Electronics In a competition for the Japanese music company,
AVEX Inc., Kumiko Funayama won a special background for Japanese
flip phones with Sanrio and , AVEX's digital music distribution company, to create a specific
Hello Kitty character that resembles Kumiko Funayama herself. Another Japanese electronic brand,
Fujitsu, collaborated with both Kumiko Funayama and three brands from the
Shibuya department store 109: Cecil McBee, COCO*LULU
, and Pinky Girls. This mutual effort was made through the use of their flip phone products from the line of
NTT Docomo. In 2011, electronics company
Panasonic produced the Panasonic Lumix FX77, a camera praised for its use of face-altering functions such as adding makeup onto a photographed bare face. This was commercialized in collaboration with then- model Yuka Obara, presented by the American news program
CBS News on their YouTube channel. The Japanese company
FuRyu, which produces machines, collaborated with then-popteen model Tsubasa Masuwaka for their new machine in 2011. In 2011, an iOS 3 "no make-up" application "
The " or "
The (, ) was released. It did the inverse of most photography
filters for
selfies, removing make-up instead of adding it. There is a version as well. The corporation
Heiwa, which produces machines, has also had collaborations with such as Muto Shizuka and Momoka Eri for making a machine; called ().
Naver corporation and
Line corporation from their software application line of
Line games being known as the
free-to-play application Line Play featured models and singers, or characters from . It is a
social networking and
avatar virtual community application that is not only used by but has influences within the game and commercial partnerships. The use of these would be through
in-game gachapon machines through either
in-game currency or by
microtransactions where items of virtual furniture or clothes could be acquired by playing them. Those to note are from
J-pop singers
Ayumi Hamasaki and
Koda Kumi; model Kumiko Funayama (),
Hikari Shiina and characters from the
Sanrio or
San-X line or the character by
Chinatsu Wakatsuki. ==Gallery==