Yurito - My version

2025 was a year full of events, each with its own mascot. Today I want to focus on Yuriito, the spokesperson for the Deaflympics since 2013. When we talk about mascots, it’s easy to end up talking about Japan. In fact, Yuriito is a yuru-kyara—one of those mascots used to promote the image of cities, prefectures, and events.

yurito mascot tokyo

What does it represent? A Yurikamome seagull—that’s what the common gull is called in Tokyo, and they even named a metro line after it. It’s stylized and wears a tank top, usually light blue. In Tokyo, this character actually promotes sports in various forms, so you can spot it here and there playing rugby, baseball, and so on.

Since 2013, it’s also been the mascot of the Deaflympics; on those occasions, every two years, it wears a cherry-blossom pink (sakura) T-shirt featuring the Games emblem (a sign-language style hand + a cherry-blossom petal).

It’s a character that seems underused to me.It pops up occasionally on websites and often in a rather static, almost logo-like pose. Its design could also use a rethink.Even though it comes across as fairly charming in motion—something you can see in the “big plush” costume version too—mainly thanks to its colors and proportions, there are aspects that could stand to be revisited.

yurito puppet

I’m talking about the drawing; in particular, I personally (jokingly!) find it very annoying how the shoes were conceived and repeatedly drawn.They’re supposed to look soft, but in practice they’re stiff and flat—two-dimensional—even when they shouldn’t be.

As always, it’s also a matter of style, which is why I’m sharing my own personal revision of Yuriito. For this piece, I want to show a “conservative” reimagining.

My version of Yurito

This is the classic kind of update you could apply to an older mascot while keeping its defining traits. I wanted to respect the mascot’s original look. The figure is still simple, but more three-dimensional. The shoes are now soft and volumetric. I removed unnecessary lines, and the linework now has varied weight. I added eyebrows—which always help with expressiveness while preserving its kawaii essence—and, to add overall dynamism and break up the head’s spherical shape, a nice little forelock!

Over to you for the verdict :)