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The two years of success from the debut of
"Namennayo" Cats in 1980 until 1982. In 1981, "Namennayo" Cats fever spread
across the nation, its success can be accounted to the fact that it attracted
both male and female fans. In the beginning, it was the female office workers
who started up the boom, later the popularity of "Namennayo" Cats spread to
include children thanks to cheaper character goods including "Namennayo" Cats
"driver's License". The popularity continue to soar and by now everyone was
collecting stickers, cards, posters and records of "Namennayo" Cats; stationery
items sold one after another at an incredible speed; moving "Namennayo" Cats
making television show and advertisement appearance; even the government PR
department used "Namennayo" Cats as their campaign mascot for the National
Sound Upbringing of Youth Month, which received much press attention. 
*Across the world, there were also much international media coverage of "Namennayo"
Cats by the press in the US, France and the UK. |
Children
who turned their anxieties and frustrations toward the school and society
found a way to release such tensions through "Namennayo" Cats' slogan "Namennayo",
which roughly translates to "Don't monkey around with me". At the time there
were already 500 retail products of "Namennayo" Cats and the high demands
for "Namennayo" Cats products yielded 100 billion Yen in revenue within two
years! Even the police were involved because traffic offenders would produce
the "Namennayo" Cats Driver's License which says "Invalid if someone makes
fool of you". About 12 million copies of this 'license' were sold.
