On the other hand, while the product description is mostly in Japanese, the price is in won, not yen, and the writing on the actual package is Korean, so this is a Korean product and OP's just set their language to Japanese on whatever site they got the image from.
Edit: OP has said elsewhere that the first image is just something they found online, so it's not OP who has set their language to Japanese, but whoever originated the first image.
This is one of those things that get repeated constantly on reddit. But I went to Japan this last spring and this was definitely not the case. The stuff I bought from the convenience store looked nothing like the packaging.
I always assumed storage played a large part in their deformities. Most frozen treats donât have the same level of detail, so can withstand a few minutes outside the freezer during transport without turning into abominations.
The orange part was the actual ice cream, while all applications like the eye and fins were firmer, like chocolate, so they can't mix with the rest. It also came in a kind of plastic mold with a cardboard box around itÂ
Occasionally remember buying my first SpongeBob ice cream from an ice cream truck in Washington DC back in 2013 during my first trip to USA. I was shookđ
AHEMbrings out magnifying glass The outline of the eye isnât perfectly circular. The outline around the mouth looks nicked at the bottom. There are tiny craters at the top part of the side and back fins. The bottom yellow fin also has some surface imperfections. Looks like there might be a planar change on the bottom of the eye. There might be another tiny crater at the back of the head where it meets the body on the raised area. Absolute travesty of a popsicle.
Omfg I swear maybe itâs cus Iâm American but idk how they stay skinny over there Iâd b eating all the cute dumb lil snacks they have in Korea đđ¤Ł
The tenancy (and requirement in some cases) of packaging EXACTLY matching the contents in much of Asia is really something you would expect from any consumer focused economy.
I keep seeing comments about Japan and Japanese law when this product is not Japanese. It is Korean. The box has Korean writing on it, the price is in Korean won and the CU next to my apartment in Seoul has these and other PokĂŠmon popsicles for sale
That's because "Japan has laws to make the product look like it does in the package" is a factoid that made its way around reddit earlier this year, so now every redditor is an expert on this field and will trip over themselves to parrot it, even when it doesn't apply
Iâm pretty sure itâs because on mobile the first image is cropped so that half of it shows Japanese text, and the box has white Korean font on light pink so itâs like impossible to see with compression
Redditors favorite thing is to parrot or shoehorn in factoids they learned on here. They still haven't figured out that everyone else also reads the same shit they do so it's pointless for them to comment it.
Not sure what it was supposed to taste like, but I felt is was kind of blood orange/ citrusy flavored, and the fins and other application were white chocolate. It was surprisingly good!
The west has lost it's expertise in manufacturing. We don't do enough of it to be good at it anymore. I don't know anyone currently working on manufacturing design or on assembly lines.
Asian countries now have all the skill and creativity when it comes to product and package design.
Westerners are focused on how to make things cheaper with cheaper ingredients and cut corners. Products in Asian markets actually seem to be getting better. This is an especially obvious example, but it's not an outlier.
We didn't lose the expertise, we focused on corporate profits to the detriment of everything else. The manufacturers of these products are still profit driven but also have pride in their finished products.
It's not that asian countries have more skill, they have harsher laws that force them to be more meticulous. There's a law that states that the food product MUST look exactly like the immage on the package. Even the exact same size and texture. They can't cut corners or else they're subject to fines that WILL be collected.
Whereas the US has no such law and they can be as deceptive and predatory as they want with their food. Like Vitamin Water was/still kind of is.
I love how whimsical everything in Asia seems to be. The US is just turning into a Grey nightmare land thanks to unregulated capitalism and literally zero repercussions for anyone with a $50m net worth or higher.Â
I think people are purposefully missing the point of what you said so that they can feel right. Obviously day-to-day life for people in these countries is not "whimsical." But we're not talking about that, we're specifically talking about about the products available to them vs. the products available to us. So many products - objects we see and interact with daily - have become gray, bland and unfun because of our companies doing the bare minimum. Rather than actively try to appeal to the consumer, the strategy seems to be to kill the competition so the consumer has no choice but to spend their hard-earned money on shitty products.
I think what factures much more into this isn't lack of trying or capitalism, but the prevailing notion of what it means to be an "adult". Which is what mandates everything to be sleek, refined, matured. While anything whimsical is only found in products aimed at children and since they are only for children they don't actually need high quality.
In Japan many things that would immediately be called "childish" in the west are just normal things enjoyed and consumed by adults without stigma. And adults also demand more quality than children for their whimsy. And that's how you get quantity and quality of whimsy in Japan and only grey quality and shoddy whimsy in the west.
Though there's also the generally higher demand for quality particularly for food in Japan.
Calling everything whimsical is just looking at it through rose colored glasses and insanely naive. Really? You think asia isn't affected by unregulated capitalism and zero repercussions for the rich??
It's "whimsical" if you're only visiting. Living there, it's got it's share of problems, just like any other country. And I just can't see "whimsy" as being the predominate descriptor for a place that has such a high suicide rate, or a specific word for "Death by overwork."
Pretend napping at work is also a thing to show how hardworking you are
While "voluntary" nights out with coworkers will get old real fast if you don't like someone
Team meetings also get old quick + shift rituals (reciting the mission statement)
Then comes the entitled tourists who demand photos or something out of customs despite the worker looking uncomfortable or trying politely to get out of the situation
They've even started selling ice creams like these here on the West Coast and it's blowing people away. I got a peach ice cream that was not only made with real peaches rather than artificial peach flavor, but it even looked like a 3D realistic peach, on a stick.
They had all sorts of fruits, but at this Pride event, the peach one was selling really well for some reason
All these comments about a law in Japan. Product description is in Japanese, pricing is in South Korean Won, packaging is in Korean?? Unless itâs a Japanese product packaged for the Korean market? But why is the description in Japanese, unless OP is Japanese living in Korea? đ
These are sold in Korea! There are a bunch of different PokĂŠmon popsicles for sale not just magicarp. The CU near me has like 3 or 4 different ones. I keep meaning to try them.
tbf Product description also have Korean text, ěě´íš ěëĽ´ë˛ ., and its transliteration in Japanese katakana ă¤ăłăŞăăł ă˝ăŤă, which donât make sense if it were read as Japanese.
Pretty sure in Japan it's law to make the product appear like it actually does on the packaging. The price was in KRW but the description in Japanese so I'm guessing it's a JP product.
Considering that Japan has very strict regulations on false advertising and food, I'm not surprised. Excited for you nonetheless, OP!! Almost looks too good to eat
I'm genuinely curious to know how exactly this was made.
I don't see any color bleed so it doesn't look like the individual parts are dyed. As in a solid white casting with the required parts dyed.
It almost looks like a multi-part over molding injection mold. 4 part mold with the eye manually placed. Or a five-part mold if the eye is molded as well... That's like between $80k low volume single shot mold to $150k for a high volume multicast mold. Add to that a food safe refrigeration system to flash cool the mold and cooling tunnels you're looking at easily adding another $400k to $650k a cold storage clean room environment for production... For an ice cream. That is absolutely insane.
Yeah not all that surprising considering they probably had to invest about a million minimum in machinery just to start making these things. With 50% margins, they'd have to sell a half a million of these ice cream bars to break even.
this makes me appreciate how disappointing so much food is in the US. so sick of opening of a package and losing my appetite because it looks nothing like the photo. i wish grocery stores took returns.
A branded popsicle that actually looks like it's supposed to? Yeah, you definately didn't get that from America. All our popsicles based on IPs looks like Salvador Dali nightmares.
This is a Korean product made in China. The Japanese is just because OP grabbed an image from someone looking at a Korean e-commerce site with the store language set to Korean.
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u/lisham269 15h ago
I was 100% expecting one of those spongebob abominations.