Beako

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About

Beako (Japanese: ベア子) is a lolicon-oppising loli figure inspired by Backbeard^[1], a major antagonist in a Japanese popular Yo-kai manga GeGeGe no Kitarō^[2] written by Shigeru Mizuki. This loli girl, also recognized as a gijinka character of the Yo-kai, has been a famous moe character in the Japanese imageboard community Futaba Channel (2chan) since 2005 and she is also known as the de-facto mascot in the English-language anime/manga blog Sankaku Complex.

manga girl character dressed in black and sitting on top of a large floating red eye

Origin

Around 2004, a photoshopped image of the American Yo-kai having a giant shadow with a single large eye began to be often used as a reaction image for yelling at lolicon^[3] people in Futaba's /b/ (Nijiura) boards. The common caption to the image "Damn All You Lolicon!" (このロリコンどもめ!, Kono Rorikon Domome!) came to characterize Backbeard as the lolicon-opposing Yo-kai among Futaba users, and it also caused photoshop and exploitable memes featuring both Backbeard and this catchphrase on the Japanese largest imageboard.

"Damn All You Lolicon!"

Inspired by this Backbeard popularity on Futaba, a Japanese illustrator Torotei (とろてい) drew a loli girl as Backbeard's daughter and posted the character Beako (ベア子) to his blog on September 11th, 2005.^[4]

Spread

Beako was quickly brought into Futaba's /b/ boards, and she became a popular mascot in addition toher father. Many fan creations for this lolicon-opposing loli girl were created by anonymous illustrators in Futaba, and the fandom for her has also spread to illustrators communities pixiv^[5], Nico Nico Seiga^[6] and deviantART.^[7]

Furthermore, artist Toronei posted four-frame comic strips for Beako to his web page^[8] and releasing Beako doujin comics anually at the annual Futaba fan convention in 2006. The title of this manga Backbeard-sama ga Miteru (バックベアード様が見てる; lit. "Backbeard Watches Over Us"; abbr: ベア見て, Beamite) is a parody for Maria-sama ga Miteru.^[9] In his official manga series, Beako is depicted as a dojikko^[10] who always observes lolicon people and tries to reclaim them from their sickness. Additionally, several official Beako figures were released from Pink Company under authorization of the author.

Left: Torotei's Comic Book Art Cover | Center & Right: Official Beako Figures

Meanwhile outside of Japan, English Japanese blog Sankaku Complex has become the base for Beako^[11] and lolicon pictures^[12], and so Beako has become the de facto mascot of the blog site.

Reaction from the Official Anime

In the 5th season of GeGeGe no Kitaro TV anime series that aired in 2007, Backbeard showed up with a loli witch girl Zambia (shown below, left). In an official Neko Musume^[13] illustration published in Japanese moe magazine Megami Magazine in February 2008, Backbeard is peeping at a loli cat girl from the behind (shown below, right). It's said that these are homage from the anime staff to Backbeard's online fame and Beako.