Fast-food king McDonald’s has launched numerous anime and manga collaborations over the years involving Happy Meal toys and other merchandise, from Jujutsu Kaisen to Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh. Now, one of the cutest Japanese mascots of them all is celebrating the history of the restaurant chain through an adorable new set of mealtime collectibles.
Available starting on Aug. 30, 2024, the new Chiikawa Happy Meal set sees the titular character and their friends dressed up in various McDonald’s uniforms — with a twist. The illustrations draw from the uniforms seen at the restaurant throughout the past decades, with these designs shown on stickers for a retro flavor. Given that the Chiikawa franchise is itself fairly new, it shows just how popular the series and its title character have become among anime and manga fans.
McDonald’s Japan’s Newest Happy Meal Collaboration Stars Chiikawa
The “Chiikawa” x Happy Set” collaboration features several of the characters from the Chiikawa manga series, including the titular Chiikawa creature themselves. These kawaii Happy Meal sets come with stickers depicting the cast as McDonald’s employees from throughout the decades, going all the way back to the 1970s. These are original designs for Chiikawa, Hachiware, Usagi, Momonga and Rakko, with some of the stickers showing them in situations described as “I want to work like this” and other nostalgic themes. The stickers are available in sets of three, with five stickers each for the different themes. The collaboration is set to be made available alongside other Japanese Happy Meal options on Aug. 30, 2024, and will run for two weeks, with the other collectibles being a tie-in to Tomica Heroes Job Labor.
Chiikawa began as a sort of gag manga series in 2020 by Nagano, with the strange book about a cute yet peculiar creature becoming extremely popular in its four years of existence. This is especially the case in China, where Chiikawa-themed merchandise is all the rage. An anime adaptation was released in 2022, although the manga hasn’t yet been officially released outside Japan.
Source: McDonald’s Japan