Mamegoma (まめゴマ) is a series of seal characters created by the Japanese company San-X. The prefix mame, meaning bean in Japanese, is used to refer to miniature versions of things; the suffix goma is an abbreviation of gomafuaazarashi, or sesame seed-mottled seal, which is the Japanese name for the spotted seal.
Mamegoma are available in a variety of different colors including, white, blue, pink and black. The seals are often depicted as being small enough (12 cm, weighing around 200g) to live in a common goldfish bowl, usually with a few ice cubes to keep the water nice and cool. They are also shown in advertisements and merchandise in bath tubs and relaxing on a wheel in a hamster cage among other activities.
The mamegoma characters are available as plush toys from UFO catcher machines. There are also many different products with the Mamegoma seals as a decoration, like stationary, calendars etc.
The 2009 anime Kupū~!! Mamegoma! (クプ~!!まめゴマ!) is based on Mamegoma, revolving around 'Mameta' the bean seal and some other seals going by Soda-kun, Cherry-chan, Lemon-chan and Candy-chan.
Three Nintendo DS games have been released in Japan featuring Mamegoma: Qupu!! Mamegoma!, Mamegoma 2: Uchi no Ko ga Ichiban! and Mamegoma: Honobo no Nikki (ja:まめゴマほのぼの日記)[1][2][3]
Several Mamegoma themed picture books have also been released in Japan.
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