World is Mirai

POSTED BY DANNY CHOO On Mon 2014/03/03 08:40 JST in Mascot

It's the 3rd of March in Japan right now which means that its also Mirai Suenaga's birthday - once again she is forever sweet 17 ^^;
Since her creation back in 2007, Mirai-chan has gained a wide following around the world and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of her supporters!

I created Mirai together with an illustrator named Azami Yuko-sensei back in 2007. Mirai's first job was to help me share Japanese culture with the world by looking after the website header for me like you see in this screenshot. Nostalgia! How many of you were reading back then?

6 years later in 2013, Mirai became an official mascot for Japanese Tourism - all thanks to your support!

A big thanks goes out to all the illustrators in and outside of Japan who have supported Mirai by taking time out to doodle her. I think folks will be very deleighted as to which sensei is currently working on illustrating our Mirai as we speak ^o^
Some of the wallpapers by various sensei can be found under the illustrator tag.

Speaking of wallpaper, here is Mirai's B'day wallpaper in full res.

Mirai's birthday is on the same day as the Hina Matsuri - a festival in Japan to wish the healthy and prosperous growth of young girls.

The following photos of Mirai fans are taken at various events around the world. My HDD is a mess right now and my photos of cosplayers are not that organized which is why I have only been able to include a few in this post.
I do try to catch Mirai cosplay photos around on the various social networks and stick them in the Mirai Suenaga Cosplay Pinterest Pool.

Not only do I want to thank all cosplayers (who also cosplay Mirai's friends) but also the folks who take time out to illustrate Mirai too - any illustration we manage to find goes in the Mirai Suenaga Fanart Pinterest Pool.

Towards the end of this post are some photos of things that Mirai has gotten up to in the past couple of years.

Thanks again for your support - it means a lot to me ><

I also want to apologize for not being able to spend time on Mirai projects such as the Mirai Online Store and Mirai Millennium. Resources are limited and I need to make decisions as to how to prioritize what the most important things for the business are - right now thats Mirai Suenaga Smart Doll.

Once Smart Doll has launched and we start to recoup costs, Culture Japan will have more resources to expand and spend time on getting more of Mirai to you.