Switzerland Presents their own Moe Character with Japan/Switzerland Collaboration

First it was a character type found in anime/manga, then it became something used for promotion of products and concepts all over Japan. Now,the moe phenomenon has spread beyond Japan’s borders with a collaboration work with the country recognize for its chocolates, Switzerland.

What is moe? Moe is generally defined as a Japanese slang word to describe strong affection towards characters in anime, manga and video games. In the anime/manga community the word moe is usually associated with a character that is considered as highly “cute and innocent” looking. This character type is usually asociated with young female characters but there have been a few cases of young male characters working the character type, for example, Haninozuka Mitsukuni is to be considered.

As part of the promotions for the 17th JapAniManga Night convention, a celebration of Japanese culture, including food, cosplay, and music events, which will be held from May 26 – 28, 2017, in Davos, Graubünden, Switzerland, the character Nozomi, was created.

In regards to the collaboration, Nozomi, whom was illustrated by Pixiv artist Nekogamirin_c holds the role of being a representation of the Swiss Rhaetian Railway company. Recognized as a transport company that owns the largest network of all private railway operators in Switzerland, it is located almost entirely within Graubünden, with one station across the Italian border at Tirano.

When it came to the creation of Nozomi, it is noted that she is based on a civil servant in Zurich named Rayun, who is said to be moonlightinh as an otaku cultural ambassador. As for her uniform, the design was meant to be a combination of the both the Railway employees in Switzerland and the Hakone Tozan Railway employees in Japan.

Other than the information given, not much else was given on the characterization or personality of this Swedish transport company representation.

For any other details, they can be found at: Crunchyroll News