The Duffy Difference

[Locoboy5150]

I was reading one of the Disneyland updates on Miceage and I stumbled across this somewhat depressing photo from Dusty Sage:



http://micechat.com/186433-disneyland-r ... food-wine/

That was taken inside The World of Disney at Downtown Disney in CA. After having come back from a recent trip to Tokyo Disneyland, the photo was a sad reminder to me of one of the biggest differences between the US Disney theme parks and the Japanese Disney Theme parks:

The Duffy Difference.

(At least that's what I call it.)

You might be asking, "What the...???" If you're asking that then you've never been to Tokyo Disneyland (TDL) or DisneySea (DS.) If you know *exactly* what I'm talking about, then you have been to those two parks. As simple way to illustrate The Duffy Difference, just compare the above photo to this one:



That is a picture taken inside the Aunt Peg's Village Store, a large shop in the Cape Cod section of American Waterfront in DS. It's an entire store devoted to Duffy and Duffy merchandise. It also is always jam packed with people every time that I've been to DS and people have baskets and their arms full of merchandise. The cash registers are churning away from park opening until closing.

The Japanese fans just *LOVE* Duffy! They love Duffy so much, they actually have several characters over there in the Duffy universe. There's also Shellie May (who is also here in the US,) Gelatoni the cat, and now Stella Lou the rabbit. There is also a pelican character too but I can't remember his name.

For some reason poor Duffy can't get out of what look like garbage cans in CA while he's a major celebrity over in Japan. Sights like this are very common in Japan:



http://www.castlescapesandclones.com/20 ... e-cod.html



https://www.havehalalwilltravel.com/blo ... xperience/

What's interesting is that Duffy was never even originally created for the Japanese parks. He was created for Walt Disney World in 2002. For some unknown reason though, he just collects dust at the US parks but they can't keep him and his friends in stock in the Japanese parks. Over there, Dufffy is more popular than Mickey Mouse or at least it sure seems that way when I just walk around looking at the merchandise that people are buying and walking around with. It's befuddling! All of the stores in TDL and DS have large sections of their sales floor devoted just to Duffy merchandise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB7UAIoyxkM

Tom Bricker even wrote about The Duffy Difference (though he called it a "phenomenon") The Disney Tourist Blog:

http://www.disneytouristblog.com/duffy-tokyo-disneysea/

They even decorated the monorails over there:

http://www.disneytouristblog.com/duffy- ... -gelatoni/

I rode in them throughout my first trip to TDL and DS and they were Duffy-tastic!

Anyway...just another example of how the Japanese Disney theme parks are vastly different than the US ones. If you're American, you just don't get it and I guess that you probably never will. (I sure don't!) Oh well...it's just part of the fun of visiting TDL and DS. I keep saying this more and more...

Only in Japan!

[IDMT129]

Sorry, it's not a beloved character over here. It was not created by Walt Disney, it's not Oswald, it's not Mickey, it's not Donald or any other beloved Disney character. I know the story of Duffy only because you have brought it to our collective attention. Not a fan of a Snuggles Laundry Soap and fabric softener being the Mascot of the Disney Cruise Lines or ambassador for Tokyo Disney. But that's my opinion. tsum tsums are another wth?!? and Classic Disney characters as nerds.

[Locoboy5150]

Yeah, I know. If you're American and you go to the Japanese Disney parks, the obsession that the Disneyfans (and make no mistake about it, they absolutely are die-hard fans over there in Japan) have with Duffy is flat out bizarre. It's weird. Duffy is such an ancillary character in the Disney universe and one that was created strictly by the marketing suits and ties, or at least it seems like he was. It seems so strange that he has taken off like wildfire over there while he's relegated to the "bargain bin" (by Disneyland standards) over here in the US.

I don't get it - at all.

My wife thinks that Duffy's popularity has to do with the Japanese kawaii concept. There is no American definition of kawaii (pronounced like Hawaii but with a "K" sound at the beginning instead of an "H") but it can be somewhat described as "cute stuff." A good example of kawaii is Hello Kitty and all of the other Sanrio characters from Japan. Kawaii could also explain why Winnie the Pooh is so popular in Japan too, though not quite as popular as Duffy.

Mickey and Minnie may be many things, but they are not kawaii. At least they don't seem to be based on their somewhat lack of popularity in Japan. Don't get me wrong because you still see lots of Mickey and Minnie merchandise being bought and worn in the Tokyo parks, but just not nearly as much as in the US parks and nowhere near as much as merchandise related to Duffy and his friends from Cape Cod in DisneySea. (Here in the US, Cape Cod is unofficially sometimes referred to as "Duffyland.")

Before I went to the Tokyo Disney parks, I was just baffled by the Duffy obsession. What's interesting though is that, once I went there and saw first hand how much the Japanese Disney fans loved Duffy and all the related characters (Shellie May, Gelatoni, and Stella Lou) I started to just roll with it and I started to enjoy their enthusiasm. Let's face it - we all *love* Disney stuff, otherwise we wouldn't be on this forum. The Japanese fans *love* Disney stuff too. (I'd even say that they are more die-hard than we are here in the US.) That obsession is what I started to really appreciate and love about the Japanese fans. Sure, they're obsessed with a different part of the Disney universe, but they're obsessed and that's what struck a chord with me and my wife on our two trips to Japan.

As I branched out and explored Japan outside of Tokyo and the Disney parks, I learned that the Japanese people as a whole absolutely love their hobbies/interests and that they love to share that love with others - especially Americans. I loved chit-chatting with Japanese strangers whenever I saw them out and about just enjoying their hobbies. That was especially true while at the Disney parks in Tokyo. The fans there love to talk about their love of all things Disney with other fans, especially Americans. They're very friendly and even though their English might not be fantastic and I don't speak Japanese (my wife speaks a tiny bit) we had fun just getting to see the Disney parks through the Japanese fans' viewpoint. It's interesting how highly they thought of Disneyland even though most of the people that we talked to had never been there and they didn't think that they'd ever make it to California. They consider the US parks to be the holy grail of the Disney universe while I put the two Japanese parks in that category, especially DisneySea. The idea that "you always want what you cannot have" is not just an American thing evidently.

So I'll never ever fully understand the Duffy obsession in Japan but after going there and experiencing it first hand, now I certainly appreciate it. It is now just a unique part of the Japanese Disney culture and I think that that is really cool.

[p51]

I'd never heard of this character at all until just now!

[IDMT129]

You really wanna know the Japanese obsession. Sit and talk with anyone about Space Battleship Yamato. What that show means culturally to them and how their mighty warship was resurrected to become a hit series that struck a cultural chord.

The ship was sunk during WW2, her sister ship ran aground to serve as a beachhead. The loss of Yamato and her sister ship signaled the end of the Japanese reign in the Pacific and to the Japanese people the end of Japan itself. Until recently the ship that was the pride of the Japanese people lay at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, until Leiji Matsumoto remade the warship into a symbol of peace and hope. Almost 50 years later, a score of movies and TV series, multiple resurrections of the ship and crew, and a live action movie which never saw American shores, and the show is still popular across all generations. The theme song sparks incredible patriotism and is instantly recognized. The only other anime shows that come close to SBY's popularity are Akira, Super Dimensional Fortress Macross and Captain Harlock.

[ktulu]

I have a hate/hate relationship with Duffy. It started on my 2nd trip to Japan. I was trying to find a Mickey Mouse plush for my younger daughter, I had picked up a Minnie Mouse for my older daughter on my first trip to Japan (I work for a Japanese company). My 2nd trip I had a day to explore, so I went to DisneySea. Such an amazing park! Anyway, I was winding down my day and started to look for Mickey. Nothing. When I walked into the Duffy store, I was floored. Now whenever we see Duffy at the Disney parks, my kids are like, hey Dad, here's Duffy!

The story did have a happy ending, I did find ONE Mickey Mouse, but not after a while of searching!