With Malice…

Japanese women tend to have a thing for ‘cute characters’… well, at least the younger ones do.
Kitty-chan (’Hello Kitty’), Miffy, and now… Doala The Koala.
Slim & svelte, Doala’s a mascot for Nagoya’s Chunichi Dragons - and the girls love him.

To be fair, Doala’s not a new character - he’s been around for about 14 years now (about when Nagoya’s Higashiyama Zoo obtained their Koalas - thus Doala’s connection to Nagoya), and has been the primary mascot for the Chunichi Dragons during that time.
Still, a decade ago Doala very nearly got sacked - when the Dragons moved to the Nagoya Dome from Nagoya Stadium (between Meieki & Kanayama). The powers-that-be decided that maybe a Dragon would be more appropriate.
Doala ended up staying, and the Dragons joined too - but Doala was transformed from a short, pudgy Koala into the acrobatic, back-flipping Doala he is today.

So now he’s attained cult status with young women - not just in Nagoya, but nation-wide. His fame is such that recently he released a book, ‘Doala no Himitsu’ (Doala’s Secrets).
Apparently tho’, his fame hasn’t spread to small children… who often are quite scared of the Dragon’s mascot.
No accounting for taste, I guess.

(HT: Mainichi Shimbun)

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::