Chocobi () is a

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. ...

confectionery that appears in the ''

Crayon Shin-chan is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshito Usui. ''Crayon Shin-chan'' made its first appearance in 1990 in a Japanese weekly magazine called ''Weekly Manga Action'', which was published by Futabasha. Due to the death of ...

'', and the prototype is

Koala's March Koala's March () is a bite-sized cookie snack with a sweet filling. The cookies are produced by Lotte. History The product was first released in Japan in 1984, to celebrate the arrival of the first koalas to the country. The snack originally ...

. The outer packaging is a green

hexagonal prism In geometry, the hexagonal prism is a Prism (geometry), prism with hexagonal base. Prisms are polyhedrons; this polyhedron has 8 face (geometry), faces, 18 Edge (geometry), edges, and 12 vertex (geometry), vertices.. As a semiregular polyhedro ...

with the

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

"チョコビ" and the

magenta Magenta () is a purple-red color. On color wheels of the RGB color model, RGB (additive) and subtractive color, CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located precisely midway between blue and red. It is one of the four colors of ink used in colo ...

crocodile character "Waniyama-san" ().

Origin

Chocobi first appeared in the animated version of the episode " Going to the Dentist" (), which aired on April 27, 1992, which was adapted from the first volume of the manga "Crayon Shin-chan". In the original book, Misae Nohara fed Shinnosuke a snack is

; In the animation due to

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

, the Koala's March was changed to a fictional snack "Chocobi".

History

On May 26, 1993, Lotte first launched the original flavor Chocobi and the royal Chocobi (almond flavor) in

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

and Tohoku region, and on July 12 of the same year, it was launched nationwide in Japan. "Chocobi" is a peanut chocolate exclusively developed by Lotte and the popular "Crayon Shin-chan" at the time. Although it was a completely different product from the Chocobi in the anime, it became the number one

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

snack in the market, surpassing

Meiji Seika , formerly is a Japanese pharmaceutical company. It is currently a subsidiary of Meiji Holdings and a Japanese leader in the area of infectious disease with 18% market share. It markets treatments for depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, ...

's "" and "", and was released with a sales denomination of 2 billion yen in the first half of the year. It is now no longer available for sale. In addition, also released star-shaped

ramune () is a carbonated soft drink served in a Codd-neck bottle. It was introduced in 1884 in Kobe as a carbonated lemonade by the Scottish pharmacist Alexander Cameron Sim. The name is derived from the English word '' lemonade''. History In 1 ...

confectionery similar to those from the anime, while

Bandai is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered ...

initially released stick-shaped biscuits. In March 2006, as a cooperative product with

Tohato is a Japanese food company that specializes in List of Japanese snacks, snack food. They are known for their variety of the caramel corn snack, manufactured since 1971. Company history In March 2003, Tohato applied for court protection from cred ...

, the second-generation Chocobi was launched; As a

puffcorn Puffcorn or corn puffs are puffed grain, puffed or food extrusion, extruded corn snacks made with corn meal, which can be baked or fried. Puffcorn belongs in the snack group products made with corn grits, rice, wheat, or other cereals. Puffcorn ...

, it faithfully reproduces the packaging and shape of the original snack. As of the beginning of 2020, cumulative shipments have exceeded 200 million. From 2014 to 2017,

Morinaga Milk Industry is a milk products and sweets company based in Tokyo, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and e ...

collaborated with the film to launch a limited

ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...

mochi A mochi ( ; Japanese ) is a Japanese rice cake made of , a short-grain Japonica rice, japonica glutinous rice, and sometimes other ingredients such as water, sugar, and cornstarch. The steamed rice is pounded into paste and molded into the ...

called "ChocobiIce" (). In addition to Japan, Chocobi is also officially sold in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and

Mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

Notes

References

External links

* {{Official
Chocobi in Tohato official website
Cookies Crayon Shin-chan Products introduced in 2006 Japanese snack food