kangaroo

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    Japan’s Mobs Of Macropod Motifs Missing Marsupials In Masterpieces

    Something strikes me about kangaroos in Japan, where companies like Seino and Nikko Kanko have made the marsupials highly visible. Kangaroos are possibly even higher profile than their native Australia, where Qantas uses the national symbol in its logo, but the macropod is a somewhat uncommon sight elsewhere in the corporate sector. I wouldn’t go so far as to say kangaroos are a ubiquitous presence in the Japanese retail or corporate sector, but it would be no exaggeration to claim they are a daily presence. Far more so, actually, than they are in Australia. That got me to thinking about the presence of kangaroos in the Japanese art world, which…

  • A Kangaroo Saves The World!

    A kangaroo in a space suit saves the world in the most amazing Chinese movie, which I have just learned about. King Kong Roo is one of the heroes in Moon Man, the delightfully hilarious 2022 movie about Yue, a guy stranded on the moon with humanity apparently obliterated by an asteroid shower slamming into the planet. King Kong Roo is a kangaroo that had been left in a moon base research lab. He forms an unlikely friendship with Yue and they strive to return to the earth. The kangaroo ends up a hero, reverred around the world. The film is an adaptation of South Korean illustrator Cho Seok’s webcomic…

  • 世界最高ＥＶがKangarooだ！

    イタリアのデザイン事務所が手掛けたGFG Style社は、この度世界で最も格好いいＥＶお披露目した。 同社は、今進行中のジェネバ国際モーターショーにてKangarooという超いきている電気自動車 （ＥＶ）を展示している。 Kangaroo車が最速時速が250キロであり、1回分の充電で走行距離が約450キロとされています。 やっぱ、kangarooがどんな形でもかっこいいよね。

  • Kangaroos Played a Part in Germans Being Big in South America BEFORE World War II

    Postwar South America became somewhat notorious as a haven for Germans fleeing the defeat of the Third Reich in World War II, but some Teutonic types had already made it big in Argentina before the Nazis…and kangaroos had something to do with it, albeit an extremely minor role. Kangaroos served as an advertising figure for Sarrasani, a world-famous German circus between the wars. Sarrasani was formed in the German city of Dresden in 1901 by Hans Stosch, a clown with the stage name Giovanni Sarrasani. The circus was best-known for its elephants, but also employed lots of “exotic” peoples such as Japanese, Javanese and Sioux Native Americans, as well as…

  • My Goodness, Guinness…It’s a Kangaroo!

    For much of the 20th century, Irish brewery Guinness used kangaroos for its advertising. There was apparently no particular reason that advertiser John Gilroy selected kangaroos for a famous series of ads featuring exotic animals that the brewer used from the 1920s through to the 1960s and still common today. The kangaroos in the ads were notorious for sneaking away a pint of stout in their pouches. In addition to posters, the kangaroos featured in early TV ads, adorned coasters and were used for Carlton Ware figurines and even a salt-and-pepper shaker. The advertisements ran under such copy as “Guinness is Good For You,” “My Goodness, My Guinness” and “Ask…

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    Strewth! Roo-ed Awakening for Unsuspecting Cyclist

    An Aussie cyclist got more than they bargained for in Australia recently. 　最近、オーストラリア人女性サイクリストが想定外の事故にあった。 While riding along at a gentle pace, the cyclist collided with a kangaroo. 　ゆっくりと走りながら、なんと、カンガルーと衝突事故した！ The kangaroo leaped out of the bush and struck the unsuspecting cyclist. 　カンガルーが道路脇にあった森から飛び出し、女性とぶつかった。 The woman hit by the kangaroo sustained minor injuries. 　カンガルーに引っかかれた女性が軽傷で済んだ。 Queensland cyclist crashes into kangaroo

  • Packing a Roo in the Days of Pac-Man

    Kangaroo was a mildly successful arcade video game released in 1982. Launched in the same year was the phenomenally successful Pac-Man and notorious Custer’s Revenge. Kangaroo also came out in the same year as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (video game), the flop largely blamed for the video game industry crash of 1983. Kangaroo required players to take on the role of a mother roo who dodged falling fruits and punched primates to rescue her joey, who had been stolen by the monkeys. The game started as an arcade game before Atari made versions for its 2600 and 5200 game consoles. The game was also later adapted for a children’s cartoon. Kangaroo…

  • A Kangaroo Was One of the Earliest Advertisers of Cognac

    A kangaroo was one of the earliest live animation advertisers of cognac. An artist called Georges Maresté (1875-1940) made the above advertisement to promote Prunier Cognac sales in Australia early in the 1920s. Many Maresté works featured his birthplace of Cognac, France, which is, of course, itself the birthplace of cognac brandy. Prunier has a history of 250 years of selling cognac, so it’s unlikely to have rued the day it roo-d the day by using Australia’s national animal to plug its wares down under.

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    Kangaroo Cooking…Roo Meat: It’s Tasty if Ya Cook It!

    Japanese have been legally eating kangaroo for longer than most Australians. Kangaroo meat was imported to Japan and being served in Tokyo restaurants from 1988, five years before meat from the national symbol was legalized for consumption by Australians in all states other than South Australia, where kangaroo could be eaten legally from 1980. (Indigenous Australians had continued eating kangaroo, a traditional food, regardless of the ban.) Despite the head start, kangaroo meat never really kicked on in Japan, despite its reputation for being a healthy, high-protein, low-fat alternative to beef or pork. RooMeat was promoted in Japan as being a preferred choice of athletes and models, but the “stars”…