What’s New With Jinbe San?

Jinbe San the kawaii whale shark doesn’t really get big seasonal themes like Rilakkuma and Sumikko Gurashi but San-X have been adding some new characters and designs. Let’s take a look.

The latest theme is just Jinbe San’s giant face, but it’s a very cute face so I love it. You can download this design and more as free wallpapers for desktop and mobile.

This range isn’t up for pre-order yet but keep an eye on the San-X store later this month. These clear pouches are so cute – and useful too.

Baby whale Kojira features on quite a few of the new products too. If these are still available when I’m in Japan, I don’t think I will be able to resist one. It’s always handy to have a spare coin purse in Japan to save all your ¥100 coins for gashapon!

The newest characters in the Jinbe San gang are some deep sea creatures including a sea dragon, lanternfish and round pink octopus. The octopus is really popular and most of the products are sold out but there’s a few of these adorable drawstring bags left.

The closest thing Jinbe San has had to a proper theme is dressing up in sailor hats! You can buy these as plushies and on lots of water-related products like towels, pool bags and drinkware.

And my favourite – the Jinbe San plushie you can use as a pillow, even letting him eat your arm! The latest version is wrapped in a cool fabric for summer, made to look like the paper wrapping on food. Google even translates this as Mr Dinner, noooo!

You can order some of these products now direct from San-X in Japan (using a forwarding service like Tenso). You’ll also find Jinbe San at international stores like ARTBOX (UK), Cuteness (EU) and JapanLA (US).