A gigantic 3D cat has been installed on a billboard at Tokyo’s busiest railway stations. The 1,664-square-foot curved LED screen shows a giant 3D calico cat in a 4K display between the hours of 7 am to 1 am. The 3D cat behaves like an actual cat.
It is first startled awake in the morning, by afternoon it stands and meows at people who pass by and then, in the evening, it lies down to fall asleep and rests its head on its paws.
It also greets pedestrians with “nyannichiwa” – a combination of “konnichiwa” for hello, and “nyan” for meow.
The display will officially launch next week. Test broadcasts have been going on since last month and many social media users have seen and shared how awestruck they are.
Japan is currently closed to tourists so the company behind the display has posted a live-streaming view of the billboard on YouTube. However, they said that specific angles can affect how the 3D effect is viewed.
Takayuki Ohkawa is a spokesman for Unika, one of the two companies behind the feline display. He told The New York Times that the cat does not have an official name yet, although fans have been calling it “Shinjuku east exit cat”. He explained the reason behind creating the 3D cat was to help cheer people up during the current pandemic.
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“There are many reasons we decided to display the cat, but one of the big reasons is that with corona, the world became very dark. Through the cat display, we wanted to revive Shinjuku and make it brighter,” said Ohkawa.
