Maybe I should start a PingMag Thursday Series since it seems that most weeks I find one of their stories worth mentioning and expanding on.

Today, the guilty party is Picopico's Monster Suit Paradise exploring Kigurumi.

Kigurumi in general could be best described as people wearing life sized suits representing Anime and TV Show characters. Kigurumi is also used by marketers as walking advertising for their products.

The PingMag piece looks at Picopico which is the labor of love by artist Atsushi Tomura.

His creations are a blend of animals and monsters. Atsushi has been active in the field since the late 90's.

Because of the shear size of the costumes, it seems a challenge both to transport them and to wear them.

I guess the use of latex and similar products in their confection is gonna make you sweat in the summer months.

The artist first sketches his costume ideas then turns them into clay models and draws a pattern as a map to the final costume.

Atsushi estimates the process of making completing one of his creatures to take about a week.

The fun part for him is to see kids and passersby reactions when he stages public appearances for his characters.

According to PingMag, there will even be a kigurumi band playing in Shibuya on August 4 at Midnight. The club waiters will also be going kigumuri.

Must be quite a scene!

The illustration for this piece comes from the Picopico blog (the English translation might be a bit bumpy but this is the best I could find).

More Fun from Japan: This Watermelon is Almost Human