Haguruman Style: they brush, they grind, they floss
Every morning, before we come to the DEJAPAN office, we make sure to brush our teeth. (It’s good hygiene, kids.) Makes us wonder, sometimes, about teeth in general.
If we were teeth and not humans, going to work early in the morning, would we brush ourselves?
Well, the Haguruman Style office team does, so maybe we should look at their example.
A whole mouthful of new friends
‘Haguruman Style’ is… a group of Sanrio characters. 9 main teeth with their own personalities, and the rest as support. Official birthday (for everyone): the day they grew into the mouth as adult teeth. Aww.
They’re ‘salaryman teeth’, working hard and doing overtime inside the mouth every day. Instead of ‘dental care’, their work’s ‘mental care’ – helping stressed human office workers relax.
The Haguruman Style department’s never topped a Sanrio Character Ranking. In 2018, they came 44th. And left a comment: “In any case, let us stay employed as your teeth forever～”
What they did win, back in 2015, was Sanrio’s Chara-ryman (salaryman character) general election. It was their debut year, a massive start-up victory. They even beat Aggretsuko – she came 8th.
Polished and ready to get to work
At the office, the teeth gather in the ‘inside the mouth meeting room’, taking their seats around the edges of the gums. The room capacity’s 32 toothy employees max. That’s more like classroom size…
It’s a pretty diverse office, at least.. There’s even a diagram, showing where every ‘main character’ tooth sits. And where the 3 ‘fired’ wisdom teeth used to be. That last one’s hanging in there ’til retirement!
Spot the blue ‘zombie’ tooth, the screw-in implant, the pointy lipstick-wearing businesswoman tooth, and the ‘trendy’ pink plaque tooth. Oh yeah, and… the jet black front tooth that ate too much squid ink…
You can tell who’s in charge – that gold tooth with the moustache. Said to be super ‘blindingly’ rich, but nobody knows how. Maybe a lottery win? Gold acts like a leader, and holds a lot of power and influence.
Putting ‘funny’ where their mouth is
Follow these hard-working molars, canines and incisors on their Twitter account. It’s where they make all kinds of corny Japanese tooth-themed jokes. Phrases with ‘teeth’ in we – and the Hagurumen – use a lot:
- ‘ha wo kuishibatte’ (歯を食いしばって) – clench your teeth, get on with it
- ‘ha ga yui’ (歯がゆい) – sincere, or impatient
- ‘hadome’ (歯止め) – checking yourself, showing some restraint, keeping your cool
- ‘ha ga tatanai’ (歯が立たない) – can’t compete with… literally ‘the tooth can’t stand up’
- ha ni kinuki senu (歯に衣着せぬ) – to say what you mean, literally ‘without putting clothes on a tooth’
A lot of Haguruman Style tweet pics are teeth saying ‘otsukare’ (おつかれ) – thanks for your hard work today. It’s a casual version of what people say to each other when they’re going home.
Not a tooth pun this time, but any Japanese worker browsing Twitter on their way home’s gonna appreciate it.
Grit your teeth and keep searching?
Finding official Haguruman Style goods by Sanrio online’s like pulling teeth. Take a look on Rakuten, or Yahoo! Auctions Japan, and you might not see many options.
It’s okay! We’re here to help you look on as many Japanese shopping websites as possible. Ask DEJAPAN whenever you’re trying to find Sanrio merch from Japan.
