Just launched, the Deco-Monster is a collaboration between au KDDI and Casio to promote the latter’s Exilim mobile.
The campaign revolves around the “dynamic photos” that the Exilim phone offers, and allowing you to use these as deco mail on your phone. Deco mail (”decoration mail”) is where users add tiny animations into their messages. Dynamic photos technology allows you to crop and insert moving images easily.
The strikingly designed official site has a dazzling array of grotesque characters (the eponymous “deco-monsters”) for you to use in your photos and mails, including sweet girl “merci”, “gomebuta” (ゴメブタ) and “GERA GERA” (ゲラゲラ). Currently number one on the download rankings is “burichan”, so I guess the cutest characters win out in the end. They have a mixture of facial and physical expressions, varying from “love” to “work”, or simply “reaction”.
With dynamic photos you can take your own motion photo and turn it into a deco mail, including removing the background from the photo. Pretty neat, huh?
We’ve previously done round-ups and reports on other avatars and deco-mail campaigns on phones in Japan. Clearly there is a trend for fun and cuteness that seems to show no signs of abating.
William is Editor of JapanTrends.com and a Project Manager at 
