Minoru Onoue and the little dog who always takes the long way round
Pochacco doesn't have an artist in the way Labubu does. He has a designer — and a company that has spent 37 years making sure he never changes too much.
A designer, not an artist
Minoru Onoue graduated in graphic design from Tama Art University in 1978 and joined Sanrio as a character designer. Before drawing Pochacco, he worked on several of the company's smaller characters — and afterwards went on to create Picke Bicke (1994). He eventually left Sanrio and still works as an independent illustrator, designing characters for children's TV programmes, materials for kindergartens and illustrations for children's magazines.
It's an important distinction. Labubu has Kasing Lung, who signs every series with his own name. Pochacco belongs to Sanrio — for years he has been looked after by a team of in-house designers whose names we usually never learn. Onoue gave him his shape. Sanrio gave him 37 years of life.
Pocha-pocha
His name comes from the Japanese onomatopoeia pocha-pocha — used for something plump, round and soft. Hence his best-loved detail: chubby cheeks. Add white fur, black ears that stick out and a face with no visible mouth, like most Sanrio characters.
He debuted in August 1989 not in a cartoon but on a shelf — as a line of 34 products for primary and middle-school children: school supplies, tissues, plush toys, sweatshirts. That was how Sanrio characters were born back then. Customers met them in the shop, not on screen.
Always the long way round
Pochacco loves going for walks — and always picks the longer route. He's curious, a little clumsy and likes poking his nose in where it isn't wanted. His favourite flavour is banana ice cream, his favourite flower the Chinese milk vetch. Sanrio also gives his measurements in its own style: he stands four cups of banana ice cream tall and weighs as much as three giant carrots from the family garden.
A character whose whole philosophy fits into a single habit: don't hurry, because you might meet someone along the way.
And he really has — on those walks he has gathered 29 friends, including the three chick sisters, the Piichans. He was born on 29 February, so he celebrates his real birthday only in leap years.
Five years at the top
For his first two years he grew slowly. The breakthrough came in 1991, when Sanrio's spring–summer designs featured Pochacco pulling a T-shirt on over his head. From then on the little shirt became his signature, and he won the Sanrio Character Ranking — the fans' vote — five times in a row, from 1991 to 1995.
A second life
Then came the silence. When Sanrio released a new design series for him in 2017, it was Pochacco's first series of his own in 18 years. It was helped along by the '80s retro wave and by the children of the '90s, who had grown up and started buying for themselves.
The Ice Cream series was already designed with adults in mind: mint green as the key colour and, instead of thick black outlines, thin hand-drawn lines. A year later came the oshiri series — that is… featuring Pochacco's bottom. The idea came from fans who kept saying at autograph sessions that this was what they loved most about him.
Today he's back among the front-runners: 2nd place in the ranking in 2024, 3rd in 2025 and 3rd in 2026. The designer currently responsible for the character says in an interview for Sanrio that he would like Pochacco to be loved not only by the children of the '90s, but also by their children and grandchildren.
Who's who and what to know
Pochacco and the whole Sanrio crew are waiting for you here — from figures to blind boxes.
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