Extra Edition: The Story of a Cat Drawn in Windows XP Paint 20 Years Ago Becoming a Hero in the AI Era
About 20 years ago.
I bought my first
laptop computer.
The OS at the time
was Windows XP.
And I
opened Paint.
There was no particular reason.
Just for some reason,
I tried drawing a circle with the mouse.
Then,
• I drew ears
• I drew eyes
• I drew a nose
• I drew a mouth
What I finished just like that was
"Nyankichi"
.
Looking at it now,
the drawing is quite sloppy.
The outline is jagged.
It's slightly asymmetrical.
The balance is also weird.
But,
for some reason, I liked it.
After that,
I made a car homepage.
I love cars, so
I made a hobby homepage there,
wrote diaries,
and had my friends look at it.
It wasn't like social media today,
it was the "personal homepage era"
.
Nyankichi became
the character for that homepage.
At first, it was just a still image.
But after that,
• Waving hands
• Moving
• Changing expressions
and so on,
I started connecting many still images together,
and even making things like simple animations.
However,
the goal at the time wasn't to "become popular."
Rather,
it was the feeling of
"it's enough if just my friends see it."
At the time,
there was also an affiliate boom.
Revenue is generated with one click.
Hearing stories like that,
there was a time when I thought,
"I can make money with a homepage."
But,
by the time I started,
that kind of era
was almost over.
In the end,
the idea of making money fell through.
But,
Nyankichi remained.
And time passed.
• Personal homepage era
• Blog era
• SNS era
Things changed in many ways.
And then the COVID-19 pandemic.
Going out decreased,
and I started
YouTube
in earnest.
At first,
it was videos for friends,
like RC car videos and play videos.
I just showed them to friends to that extent.
But after that,
I started making car videos.
I have
• Ferraris
• Lamborghinis
• Lotuses
and so on,
continued my car hobby for a long time.
I filmed with an iPhone,
edited with iMovie,
and uploaded videos.
That diary-like feel still remains today.
But actually,
there is something that has always been in my heart.
That is,
the dream of "I really want to make Nyankichi into a mascot costume."
Actually, at car events,
I want to wear this costume and appear at events.
Traffic safety activities.
I get inside the costume,
and acting as "Nyankichi"
I thought it might be interesting.
But,
making a mascot costume is expensive.
If you make it quite authentically,
it costs a lot of money.
So I thought,
"I'll make it once YouTube is monetized."
And I was thinking,
normal Nyankichi transforms into
"Super Nyankichi,"
and furthermore,
evolves into
"Hyper Nyankichi."
I also made an enemy character.
His name is
"Kero-Kero Leader."
Actually,
he is not a real villain.
He is plotting world domination...
it looks like that,
but actually,
he just wants to be
"popular all over the world."
Fighting with Nyankichi is also
like a feeling of "I want to do a hero show together."
※ I also added a story that it changed into a cute character so it could appear in traffic rule classes for children, etc.
It was such a
laid-back worldview.
And the era
became the AI era.
Here,
a big change happened within me.
It's AI image generation.
20 years ago,
the cat I drew in Paint,
that has now
become "live-action style."
Moreover,
• Mascot costume style
• Hero style
• Tokusatsu style
In that form,
it started moving.
Honestly,
it was a strange feeling.
Looking at it from my past self,
I think it was the "future."
And now I am
starting to write about this world
on note.
Actually,
YouTube is still not growing.
I've been doing it for over 5 years,
but the number of channel subscribers
is still in the hundreds.
But,
Nyankichi didn't disappear for 20 years.
That's why I
think "it's not over yet."
Actually, someday,
• Mascot costume show
• Traffic safety activities
• Hero event
I want to try doing things like that too.
And if,
this work spreads,
I want TV and video professionals
to seriously make
"Masked Driver Nyankichi" (tentative).
I have a dream like that too.
20 years ago.
In Windows XP Paint,
a cat I drew just because.
That is now,
in the AI era,
starting to move little by little.
(Creation) Masked Driver Nyankichi
is here ~ ↓