(Kyoto) It’s green, hairy, bug-eyed and has limbs growing straight out of its face. But that hasn’t stopped shopping center icon “801-chan” from becoming a hit with fans of a sub-genre of gay manga, thanks to an odd coincidence.

801-chan, pronounced “Yaoi-chan,” is the mascot for the Misonobashi 801 shopping district, not far from Kyoto’s World Heritage Kamigamojinja shrine. And true to its roots, the character was inspired by Kyoto-grown vegetables.

But what really made the mascot an unexpected smash with young otaku geeks is the accident of its name. “Yaoi,” which was chosen by locals as a pun on the shopping center’s name, is also a slang term for a cult genre of manga comics on homosexual themes. The mascot has become a star among yaoi fans all over the nation. The boom has spawned a manga comic about the mascot, which has sold 100,000 copies already. And the shopping district has big plans to launch a special novelty store dedicated to the green monster.

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But in February 2006, strange things began to happen. Suddenly Misonobashi 801’s Web site was getting 20,000 hits and over 100 e-mail messages a day. Shinji Asada, 49, who is in charge of managing the Web site, discovered blogs and videos starring 801-chan springing up all over the Internet. Akihiro Ikeda, 55, president of the trade association for the promotion of the shopping district, commented: “I think the name Yaoi, which happened to coincide with a special slang term that describes male characters in anime and manga falling in love with each other, sparked the interest. And our mascot’s unique strangeness caught on.

“Most of the shoppers who visited our area were oblivious to 801-chan,” he added. “We were kind of suspicious whether the popularity was actually there.” Then in the fall an 801-chan fan began running a comic strip on a blog and it became a hit. A publisher contacted the association seeking clearance to publish the manga comic in book form. The association was surprised but agreed, hoping the publicity would bring in business.

“Tonari no 801-chan” (801-chan next door) came out in December. The response was immediate.
The comic book became a runaway hit, selling more than 100,000 copies. According to Haruna Nakae at Ohzora Publishing Co., which handled the book, “It is extremely rare to see a book from a non-general genre sell this well.”

[Kampai] Well, what do you think about tentacle sex?

[801-chan] Is it consensual?

[Kampai] I don’t think there is such a thing as consensual tentacle sex, so let’s just say non-consenual for now.

[801-chan] I am a strong believer in “no means no.” So I am going to have to say eh on the tentacle sex unless it is totally hot!