In Japan, ‘cute’ is a big deal. Their own word for it, kawaii (“ka-why-ee”), is more of an ethos than an adjective. Shops and billboards are filled with big-eyed fluffy figures.

Sanrio recruited Shimizu and other illustrators to create “kawaii” characters at a time when cute, girlish styles were popular in Japan. But the word is used often in Japanese society ...

Richard Magarey, better known as Ladybeard, is a cross-dressing pro wrestler and a heavy metal singer from Adelaide who’s made it big in Japan ... He dubs his genre as Kawaii Metal (or ...