LINE friends Seoul

Franchise stores have become increasingly popular with M&M's leading the way with their M&M World flagship stores popping up around many large capital cities in the world. In East Asia, the preference for cartoon aesthetics differ along with the culture. Most people in the West (and East for that matter) are familiar with M&M's, perhaps more so as sweets but familiar never the less. But the same cannot be said of Line friends.

Perhaps the most recognised characters from the East would be the LINE friends lineup. In particular (but not limited to) Brown. The big cuddly bear with a slight mood inflection showing neither happiness or sadness whilst looking very cute all the same. Yes, in the far east, Korea, Japan and Taiwan for instance, LINE friends have become very well known as the primary messaging app in these territories also happen to be "LINE".

I visit the flagship store in Seoul to get my very own taste of how strong the "LINE" culture is there. The first to welcome me is their most famous character, "Brown".

Brown is considered one of the main members of the LINE-up of friends. A silent and quiet bear, Brown is reserved most of the time, silent in nature, but when agitated, can become furious and even scarier than his wife Cony.

Cony is Brown's wife, and despite being a diferent species (she's a rabbit). The two are officially married. That's not to say she doesn't have her eyes on other characters such as James. We often associate rabbits as being well tempered animals, but this is not true for Cony. She is a bad-tempered and violent. She likes to punish her friends by beating them up. Like her human counterparts, she constantly battles with weight problems. Being a glutton makes it almost impossible for her to ever lose weight.

Below are some "Brown" lamps. To get the most amount of light into the room, the bear is white. We know that neither "Moon" or "Cony", who are both white, are bears and so these must be of brown.

These are cakes of Brown, Cony and the Chick known as Sally. Sally is the 5th member of LINE friends and is often seen along side Brown as a tag-along friend who gets most of his attention. Her greatest motivation is to steal Brown's heart by being by his side.

With so many sweets to choose from, it was difficult for me to part without having something sweet tasting. Some chocolate "brown" biscuit on vanilla ice cream with a cone will suffice!