Howdy y’all,

Today’s update features my very first gijinka. Exciting, isn’t it? It was inspired by Smizzley’s black and white pigs, ‘Monokuro Boo’, which are a merchandise (much like Hello Kitty). I felt as if I wanted to expand my horizons and decided that this would definitely be on the right track. So, without further ado, Monokuro Boo! Hold on! Wait a moment! I didn’t explain what the hell ‘Gijinka’ is, now did I? Well, you’ve probably already looked it up. Ah, well. I’ll explain it anyway since I have nothing better to do…

Gijinka (擬人化; western term “humanisation” and pronounced gee-jin-ka) is the Japanese meaning of “humanoid”, “personification”, or “anthropomorphic”. Rather than referring to just any animal with human characteristics, a gijinka is most often a fan re-design of an animal-like character in a human or humanoid form. The characters often seem to wear a cosplay of the base character rather than having real animal features, which can also be found back in real life cosplay of those characters.
Some examples:

I think I’ll make a page on gijinka. That sounded so good because I so did not copy someone else’s explanation…

Interesting Fact: ‘Monokuro Boo’ was not originally called that. It was at first “Monotone,” with “mono” coming from “monochrome” and “ton,” a word for pig. This was the pun that originally inspired the designer to create black and white pig characters. The name “Monokuro Boo” is also a derivation of the words “Monokuro” (“Monochrome”) and “Boo” (the Japanese onomatopoeic equivalent for “oink”).

Oh, and one more thing, if you don’t know what ‘cosplay’ is, here is the definition for your convenience:
Cosplay (コスプレ kosupure), short for costume play, is a hobby in which people dress up in costumes and fashion accessories as characters from (most commonly) manga, anime, comic books, video games, and films.
Some examples:

Anyway, so now you know what gijinka and cosplay is, as well as the origins of Monokuro Boo. You must be so happy to have learned quite a lot. Now, go enjoy this lovely picture of pig-people and think “Wow. Isn’t Chell just the best at gijinka?”

Note: None of the examples are mine… I wish they were