BART's Anime Mascots

https://www.bart.gov/news/fun/anime

73•archagon•7h ago

Comments

AStonesThrow•6h ago

This is really cute and friendly. I like it; very much in-character for the BART.

My own transit system has sort of developed two mascots. They are not as artful or clever as BART's, but they are designed with a utilitarian purpose: to demonstrate good vs. bad behavior while onboard.

https://www.valleymetro.org/blog/2019/10/quick-guide-light-r...

The characters are named "Right" and "Rong", both humanoids who are differentiated primarily by color and mood. Right, of course, does all the right things and abides by the rules, while Rong is a classic example of the scofflaw you wouldn't want sitting next to you.

bitwize•4h ago

Reminds me of the perennial standbys from Highlights for Children, Goofus and Gallant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goofus_and_Gallant

AStonesThrow•3h ago

Yes it is totally Goofus/Gallant style! Right down to the simplistic verse of the slogans in the window decals. Thanks for making that comparison. I am sure they drew from that fabled tradition, so to speak!

archagon•4h ago

(I kind of unironically want every public service to have a cute mascot that could be turned into a plushie.)

zaptrem•4h ago

Lol why do the info sheets include blood type?

creata•4h ago

Giving the blood type of the character is common in anime and manga. Wikipedia links it to a belief that blood type can predict personality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_type_personality_theory

godelski•4h ago

Okay, but why are we importing pseudoscience?

bitwize•4h ago

Because it's fun.

I don't believe astrology is real, but I've assigned birthdays to some of my characters based on zodiac signs which are said to align with their personality, simply because it's cute and fun. I was inspired by the characters of Sailor Moon, each of which have a birthday in a zodiac sign ruled by their associated planet. (So Moon is a Cancer, Mercury is a Virgo, etc.).

godelski•4h ago

I guess to each their own. I can see how it can be fun but when zodiac signs are discussed it is disproportionately about more than "fun" and that certainly biases me (and I think many others).

Lammy•3h ago

Homestuck and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race (Terezi is my fav)

29athrowaway•1h ago

You can also see it in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior.

joshdavham•3h ago

It’s from Japanese culture. Knowing a person’s (or a fictional character’s) blood type is something they find interesting. A bit like how we in the west find astrological signs interesting.

UncleEntity•3h ago

For when BART police accidentally grabs their gun instead of their taser?

romanpoet•4h ago

This has precedence for the LA Metro in 2017.

https://observer.com/2017/10/la-metro-promotes-transit-etiqu...

repeekad•4h ago

Obligatory reminder that BART is going to run out of its emergency funding by spring 2026

godelski•4h ago

I do like the idea of mascots, but truthfully I think they are better done as non-human mascots and need to be simple. I think Japan got this right with Yura-chara[0]. There seems to be a strong preference for non-human characters and when there are human ones, they're still overly simplistic.

Seems like same rule about flags[1]: a child should be able to draw it from memory.

Only Barty seems to fit these conditions.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuru-chara

[1] https://nava.org/good-flag-bad-flag

Lammy•3h ago

> I think Japan got this right

I like DPS-kun from beatmaniaⅡᴅx copula: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcfmIKKMu7Y

They made a plush of him that's very cute too

yellowapple•3h ago

Agreed. Nyango Star is another example of this sort of mascot done right. He's an apple, a cat, and a heavy metal drummer; what's not to love?

spondylosaurus•2h ago

The first BART mascot has a little blue chibi goat next to the human girl, and I can't tell if the chibi is supposed to be an alternate form of the girl or a completely separate entity, but either way it seems like it could be a solid yura-chara.

bobthepanda•2h ago

Not for a transit system per se, but the ORCA farecard in Seattle has a mascot named Boop, who is an orca: https://info.myorca.com/news/meet-boop/

throwaway314155•1h ago

> Seems like same rule about flags[1]: a child should be able to draw it from memory.

Im a grown ass man and can't draw the US flag properly from memory, much less the many far more complicated flags out there.

I don't think that definition is particularly useful.

jonchurch_•1h ago

It is a useful concept, and letting the whispers of the vexillophiles[0] into your head will lead you to see that most flags are well, pretty bad.

CGP Grey has a lot of opinions[1] about this.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vexillology

[1] https://youtu.be/l4w6808wJcU

imtringued•58m ago

They have non-human characters. The key mistake they made is that they put the human characters front and center. The human characters should appear in accompanying comics where they end up interacting with the animal mascots, not be the mascots themselves.

cosmicgadget•3h ago

> The reincarnated bunny spirit of a legacy car who has seen it all.

Not how I picture a BART car that has "seen it all".

cultofmetatron•2h ago

no kidding.. I lived in SF during the peak of the influx of tech and was a daily BART rider. there's things I can't unsee.

Lammy•1h ago

I'm glad I got to experience the carpeted cars with cloth seats even if they got gross some times.

PaulRobinson•2h ago

I'm pretty well travelled across Europe and North America, and a little bit of South America.

I've never seen anything like the BART anywhere else - and I don't mean that in a positive way.

It's late where I am, I'm about to go to bed, and now this image of a BART car that has "seen it all" is going to haunt me... I might eat a load of cheese to calm the dreams down...

spike021•2h ago

not sure about “seen it all” but definitely “screamed it all”. I haven’t ridden Bart in a while but i remember the banshee screeches.

kappasan•1h ago

We have something similar here in Kyoto! But we're Japan so there's an actual anime [1] and a character relationship chart [2], both straight from the city government.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OInuZFHeQo

[2] https://www.city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/cmsfiles/contents/0000215...

neilv•1h ago

They're all female? I wonder whether the BART officials know all the connotations of different kinds of anime/manga fandom.

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BART's Anime Mascots

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