Japanese Man In Collie Dog Costume / Toco The Dog

About

Japanese Man In Collie Dog Costume refers to a self-proclaimed furry who runs the YouTube channel I want to be an animal, as well as the Twitter and TikTok pages @toco_eevee, who is estimated to have paid roughly $15,000 USD (2 million Yen) for a realistic dog costume that resembled the rough collie breed. He named himself Toco but kept his real name and identity hidden. He started his online presence in 2022, growing a large following going into 2023. Online, he gained comparisons to furries, as well as generating discourse about the uncanny and subjectively creepy nature of his cosplay hobby's appearance, specifically achieving mainstream virality after a video of him meeting other dogs in real life.

Online History

On April 10th, 2022, the Twitter^[1] account @zeppetJP, an account for the Japanese modeling studio Zeppet,^[2] posted three photos of a then-recently commissioned and completed costume that resembled a rough collie dog, made for a human to wear. The tweet gained roughly 10,000 likes in one year. On the following day, April 11th, Twitter^[3] user @toco_eevee quote retweeted @zeppetJP, showing themself in the costume with the caption, "I ordered a costume! Thanks to you, I was able to fulfill my dream of becoming an animal!" (translated from Japanese). The tweet gained roughly 55,200 likes in one year (shown below).

着ぐるみをオーダーしてました！　おかげさまで動物になってみたいという夢を叶えることができました！ https://t.co/jUFxSWW6cl pic.twitter.com/zJIX8VcWfm

— トコ（toco） (@toco_eevee) April 11, 2022

On the collie costume's page on the Zeppet^[2] website, it was priced at approximately 2 million Yen or roughly $15,000 USD. Zeppet^[2] also stated that the production time for the costume was approximately 40 days. The costume was completed and added to the Zeppet^[2] website on March 1st, 2022.

On April 12th, the same owner of the Twitter^[3] account started their own YouTube channel called I want to be an animal. The channel's first YouTube^[4] video was titled "I tried to become a collie【Realistic dog suit】" and received roughly 3.2 million views and 6,500 likes in one year (shown below, left). On April 16th, the channel posted another YouTube^[5] video titled "Rough Collie's self-introduction," receiving roughly 1.5 million views and 2,700 likes in one year (shown below, right).

On August 7th, 2022, the man behind Toco posted his first TikTok^[6] video, gaining roughly 566,900 plays and 6,200 likes in 11 months (shown below, left). Toco's page continued to go viral, evident in the channel's second TikTok^[7] video posted on August 11th, which received roughly 1.4 million plays and 22,900 likes in 11 months (shown below, right).

News Coverage

On May 20th, 2022, the Daily Mail^[8] published an article about the Japanese man behind the Toco dog costume, relaying information and images from the man's YouTube and Twitter accounts. On July 28th, 2023, the New York Post^[9] also published an article on Toco.

Online Reactions

In 2022 and early 2023, Toco and his dog costume gained virality on TikTok^[10] through various videos that covered him and his content. However, viral discourse about Toco didn't surface en masse until July 28th, 2023, directly following a video posted to Toco's YouTube^[11] called "Dogs and people's reactions to seeing a realistic dog costume!" The video gained roughly 4 million views in two days and showed Toco walking around in public and meeting other dogs and people (shown below).

Various reactions to the video spawned soon after, directly inspiring the previously mentioned New York Post^[10] article. Also, on July 28th, 2023, Oli London reposted the video to Twitter,^[12] gaining roughly 1,700 likes and 783,200 views in two days. The news spread through more viral tweets^[13] as well.

Over the following days, memes and reactions ensued online, such as a reply posted by Twitter^[14] user @Reedh98 on July 29th, 2023, that humorously compared the man's hobby to Animorphs, gaining roughly 7,800 likes in two days (shown below, left). On July 30th, Twitter^[15] user @Bmangall20 tweeted a picture of his pet rough collie, saying, "I fear my parents dog looks too much like that Japanese guy," gaining roughly 22,000 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Following

By July 31st, 2023, Toco had amassed roughly 38,700 subscribers on YouTube,^[16] roughly 3,800 followers on Twitter^[17] and roughly 156,000 followers on TikTok.^[18]

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References