Deko Boko Friends facts for kids

Deko Boko Friends (でこぼこフレンズ, Deko Boko Furenzu, lit. "Uneven Friends") is a collection of 30-second Japanese shorts created by advertising creators Momoko Maruyama and Ryotaro Kuwamoto to promote acceptance of people of different personalities and appearances. The shorts are focused on 12 different creatures, meant to show certain personalities, likes, dislikes, and quirks.

Deko Boko Friends originated on NHK's oldest running children's programming show, Okaasan to Issho in 2003, superseding previous short cartoon series, Yancharu Moncha. It was distributed in English by Viz Media and shown in English on Nickelodeon's children's programming block, Nick Jr. and Noggin in the United States, and on Treehouse TV in Canada.

Characters

• Acorn Tots (どんぐりん Dongurin from 団栗 donguri meaning acorn. (Adding an 'n' makes the name not only cute sounding, but more personal.)

The Acorn Tots are five small acorn-children who hold one large walnut in both hands. They are best friend and rivals. Each tries to be better than all the rest. When the Acorn Tots say their name, the first one says "We", the second one says "are", the third "the", the fourth "a", the fifth "corn" and finally the first one says "tots". When they aren't holding anything after a few steps the first acorn tots falls down, stays there for a couple of seconds, picks himself up, and continues on with his role. When they say goodbye, they say "Thank you very much for spending time with us. Bye." When they're about to slide from the orange boot they say "We're gonna slide from this boot."

• Belly Boing A.K.A. The fat kid (くいしんボン Kuishinbon from 食いしん坊 kuishinbou meaning glutton.)

Belly Boing is constantly thinking of food. He likes eating sweets, and he can create a drum sound by pounding on his large stomach. When he walks he says "1,2,3, boing. 1,2,3, boing."

• Big Oggo & Mu Mu (オオガーラとムクムク Ōgāra to Mukumuku literally Ōgāra and Mukumuku from 大柄 ōgara meaning large build and 尨犬 mukuinu meaning shaggy dog)

Despite his image as a lumbering giant, Big Oggo is very sweet and lovable with an affinity to anything cute. He wears big blue shorts with white polka dots on them. When Mu Mu steals them he says "Hey, Mu Mu, those are my shorts. Give 'em back." After Mu Mu stops mooing he says "I've got some shorts that are just your size." and after that he moos seven times while jumping up and down. After that he moos while walking left and right. When he says goodbye he says "We'll see you all later." When MuMu walks a lap around Big Oggo's hat, he says "MuMu likes it a lot. It's the perfect shape for his bed, you know." When he says hello, he says "Hi, everyone, they call me Big Oggo."

Mu Mu is his friend, a very fluffy pink toy poodle who curiously moos like a cow instead of barking. He wears little shorts also with the white polka dots on them. He sleeps in Big Oggo's hat because it's the perfect shape for his bed and he likes it a lot.

• Disabear (あなくま Anakuma from 穴 ana meaning hole and 熊 kuma meaning bear, and あくま "akuma" is Japanese for "demon")

Disabear uses plates he tosses on the ground to make holes. He whistles while he walks and speaks with an accent. He also washes his plates on a washtub and a washboard and hangs them up to dry after washing them like clothing. He uses the holes to play Peek-A-Boo. When he plays Peek-a-boo with multiple plates his first saying when he pops out of a plate is "Peek-A-Boo." the second one is "Yoo-Hoo" the third one is "Over here" the fourth one is "Here I am" When he greets himself, he says "Hi. I'm Disabear."

• Fofo (フォッフォ Foffo)

Fofo has a face shaped like a pizza or a biscuit. He likes pizza. He is able to stretch his face into different shapes.

• Grandma Fuji (ふじおばば Fuji Obaba from 富士 fuji meaning Mount Fuji and お祖母さん obāsan meaning grandmother)

Grandma Fuji is the epitome of Japanese tradition. She enjoys singing enka, writing haiku, calligraphy, and hosting tea ceremonies. When she has a sour plum with her, she walks up close to the viewer and sings "Can you guess...what I'm holding in my hand? It's called a sour plum." She takes a bite out of her sour plum, which makes her lips pucker up for a few seconds. After that, she held one out to the viewer and said "One for you."

• Kaki Kaki (サボサボ Sabosabo from サボテン saboten meaning cactus)

Kaki Kaki is a shy, crybaby cactus-like boy. He is nervous and timid, and his spines fall off whenever he is surprised or scared. He normally speaks with a stutter. When he holds maracas, he starts dancing. After he dances, his thorns fall off, which he says embarrasses him. However, there was no reason to be embarrassed. Before he throws a ball, he says "D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-do you-you-you-you s-s-see this ball? I-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i th-th-throw the ball. A-a-and then you....you-you-you-you-you c-catch it. Ready? Here it comes." After the ball lands not very far his thorns fall off and he says "I-i-i-i-i-i-i g-guess I need to work on my p-pitch a little bit." with a tear falling from his eye. Before his thorns fall off, he makes a noise with his mouth closed and his flower goes up. When he greets and says his name, he walks out a few steps and says "Hello." walks some more and says "M-m-m-my name is Kaki Kaki." or he says "Hello." then hides behind the door then is seen again and says "Hello" then hides again and is seen and says "M-m-m-my name is." hides again, is seen and says "K-Kaki Kaki."

• Ken Bahn (ケン・バーン Ken Bān from 鍵盤 kenban meaning keyboard)

Ken has a keyboard for teeth and he plays them whenever he is in a good mood. He likes to wobble and lean as he walks. When it rains he sings " It's raining raining raining and pouring pouring pouring. It's raining raining raining. It's pouring rain." When his time comes to say goodbye he says "Thank you." When he greets himself he says "Hi. I'm Ken Bahn." then giggles. When he has a cavity on his do-re-mi tooth he says "I have a cavity right here on my do-re-mi tooth."

• Klinki Klunki (カランコロン Karankoron from カラン コロン karan koron meaning an onomatopoeia for the reverberating sounds of tinkling bells or a glass tapped by ice)

Klinki is very laid back and hates when juice falls out of his glass, because his face shrinks. He likes to see everyone as laid back as he is. His trick is making his straw bend down to his mouth then taps two times, and sucks some of his juice out. When he drinks too fast he says "Oops. I guess I drank too fast." When he says hello he says "Hi. I'm Klinki Klunki." and when he says goodbye, he says "I'll see you later."

• Maru Bento (まる Maru)

Maru has a strap bag she uses for carrying some stuff in. Her bag sometimes gets a hole in it. She is also held by tsuchi at times.

• Melodina (メロディーヌ Merodīnu from メロディー merodī meaning melody)

Melodina is very musical. She even makes her speech resemble a melody. She likes to skip and when she does she makes sounds like a toy piano. She has button eyes and winks. She is responsible and is loved by everyone. Her voice sounds like Cream the Rabbit from Sonic the Hedgehog. When she says goodbye she says "I know you'll have a great day. Thank you." She says "Hi. I'm Melodina" when she greets herself.

• Nani Nani

Nani has big purple ears which she can flap to fly with. She has red overalls.

• Nut'n Nose (はなはなマロン Hanahana Maron from 鼻 hana meaning nose and マロン maron meaning chestnut)

Nut'n Nose resembles a chestnut, quite possibly from his love of Mont Blanc, an Italian dessert cake made with the nut. His nose can be inflated like a balloon, in which sometimes it starts to tickle his nose a bit which causes him to sneeze but after he sneezed he said "Sometimes it tickles my nose a bit." but sometimes he inflates his tail by mistake after he says "I wonder how that got there" he says "I'll show you another time.", and when he tries hard to do something, his tail swings. He can jump rope but before he starts he gets out his jump rope and says "I can jump rope." then he asks "You wanna see?" whilst holding the rope and showing its length while being cute and blinking really fast with his little eyes. He puffs up his nose really big and couldn't fit in the door. After some jumps he gets his nose smacked by the rope first time he felt the rope smack his nose he went "OW!" then says "Let me try that one more time. I'm sorry." then tries again but little did he know that after the same amount of jumps he got his nose smacked again. That made him go "THAT HURT!". Finally he had enough and said "I'll show you when I have a longer one." When he greets he says "Hello there. My name is ol' Nut'n Nose."

• Pettan (ペッタン Pettan)

Pettan leaves footprints wherever he goes. He can make a large pettan face with his footprints.

• PokkonPakkon (ポッコンパッコン Pokkonpakkon)

PokkonPakkon can make themselves shorter or taller by giving a segment or more to the other one in front of him.

• The Egg Prince (たまごおうじ Tamago Ōji literally Egg Prince from 卵 (also 玉子) tamago meaning egg and 王子 ōji meaning prince)

The Egg Prince is a prince of an unknown kingdom. His egg hat boils and cracks when he gets angry. When the pieces fall to the floor, he picks them all up, using a broom and he walks very briskly using tiny quick steps. When his crayon breaks he says "Oh no. My crayon broke." Before that happened he says "I'm gonna draw you a picture." while getting out his note book. After he says he was gonna draw you a picture he begins to draw until his crayon breaks, and he said "Oh no, my crayon broke." When he's angry, he says "That makes me boilllllll." While he boils he says "Oooooooooooo." then his shell cracks. When he picks the pieces up with a broom, he says "Sorry about the mess." When he says hello he says "Hello it's me. I am the Prince Egg." When he sees a butterfly he says "Whoa. It's a butterfly." then gets out his net. While he chases the butterfly he says "Wait for me butterfly! Come back!" Then as the butterfly lands on his head, he gets the net on his head instead of the butterfly and that makes him boil.

• Tsuchi (つぼちん Tsubochin)

Tsuchi has an orange triangle shaped nose which he puts his finger under often. He often holds Maru Bento. He has a pot head in which stuff goes in.

• Water Chap (じょうろう Jourō from じょうろ jouro meaning watering can)

Water Chap has a head like a watering can, which he uses like one to grow flowers and give them as gifts. He says "Wola" after what he does is done. After he opens the red door he closes it behind him then turns around and walks. After he stops walking he says "Hi. I'm Water Chap"