{"id":58908,"date":"2026-02-20T18:52:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=58908"},"modified":"2026-02-20T18:52:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:52:42","slug":"kadokawa-to-publish-italian-brainrot-encyclopedia-for-kids-amidst-ai-generated-meme-boom-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-to-publish-italian-brainrot-encyclopedia-for-kids-amidst-ai-generated-meme-boom-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Kadokawa to publish Italian brainrot encyclopedia for kids amidst AI-generated meme boom in Japan\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Kadokawa Game Linkage, a subsidiary of Kadokawa whose business focuses on video game and entertainment media, recently announced that they would be publishing not one, but two brainrot-themed encyclopedias aimed at Japanese children. Yeah, you\u2019ve heard that right. <strong>Italian Brainrot Illustrated Encyclopedia,<\/strong> a classic illustrated encyclopedia featuring over 100 AI-generated \u201cbrainrot characters,\u201d and <strong>Italian Brainrot Encyclopedia: Tung Tung Tung Sahur and Friends Come Together<\/strong>, a picture-book-styled board book, presumably for much younger audiences, will release on April 1st this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As described in a press release by <a href=\"https:\/\/dengekionline.com\/article\/202602\/66459\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dengeki Online<\/a>, the two illustrated encyclopedias are marketed for really young children, and feature furigana (Japanese kanji readings) for those who are still learning how to read and write. Furthermore, the books are presented as an opportunity for bridging the big generational gap between children and parents who have no idea why their kid is talking about some \u201cTung Tung Tung Sahur\u201d or \u201cChimpanzini Bananini.\u201d Lastly, they also feature the lyrics to some of the \u201cbrainrot songs\u201d popular among Japanese children. Though it is not confirmed whether it will be featured in either of the books, the most popular example is the song \u201cI\u2019m in love with Tung Tung Tung Sahur,\u201d which has over 32 million views on YouTube (and even more on other platforms) at the time of writing, and initiated its own TikTok dance trend in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u30a4\u30bf\u30ea\u30a2\u30f3\u30d6\u30ec\u30a4\u30f3\u30ed\u30c3\u30c8\u66f2\u300c\u30c8\u30a5\u30f3\u30c8\u30a5\u30f3\u30c8\u30a5\u30f3\u30b5\u30d5\u30fc\u30eb\u306b\u604b\u3057\u3066\u3044\u308b\u300d\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GmXC23jARZ8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But is Italian brainrot really such a huge phenomenon in Japan? According to <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/italian-brainrot-was-japanese-elementary-school-girls-top-buzzword-in-2025-according-to-survey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a recent survey conducted by JS Research Institute<\/a> (in charge of major shoujo manga publication Ciao and girls\u2019 magazine Pucchigumi) and Corocoro Comic Research Institute (in charge of long-running shounen manga magazine Corocoro Comic), the word \u201cItalian brainrot\u201d was the most popular 2025 buzzword among Japanese elementary school girls reading Pucchigumi, while it ranked second most popular among young boys reading Corocoro comic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bizarre AI-meme movement was further spread thanks to the rising popularity of Roblox\u2019s Steal a Brainrot and Fortnite\u2019s Steal the Brainrot among young gamers in Japan. Now, you can find tons of plushies, stickers and other kinds of merch of Tung Tung Tung Sahur and friends across the country, not to mention that they are pretty much a staple in any arcade game\u2019s claw machines or capsule toy vending machines. &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\uff3c\u4eba\u6c17\u5546\u54c1\u304c\u518d\u5165\u8377\u3057\u307e\u3057\u305f\uff01\ud83d\ude48\ud83c\udf4c\uff0f<br>\u00a0<br>\u30cd\u30c3\u30c8\u767a\u3001\u500b\u6027\u8c4a\u304b\u306a\u30a4\u30bf\u30ea\u30a2\u30f3\u30d6\u30ec\u30a4\u30f3\u30ed\u30c3\u30c8\u306e\u4ef2\u9593\u305f\u3061\u3002<br>\u3042\u306a\u305f\u306f\u3044\u304f\u3064\u77e5\u3063\u3066\u308b\u304b\u306a\u2049\ufe0f<br>\u00a0<br>1\u968e\u306e\u30ec\u30b8\u524d\u30b3\u30fc\u30ca\u30fc\u306b\u3066\u304a\u697d\u3057\u307f\u304f\u3060\u3055\u3044\u2763\ufe0f<br>\u2061<br>\u5927\u4eba\u6c17\u306e <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/3D%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#3D\u30b7\u30fc\u30eb<\/a> \u3082\u518d\u5165\u8377\ud83e\udef6<br>\u7686\u3055\u307e\u306e\u3054\u6765\u5e97\u3092\u304a\u5f85\u3061\u3057\u3066\u304a\u308a\u307e\u3059\ufe0e\ud83d\udc95\ufe0e\ufe0e<br>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/TSUTAYABOOKSTORE%E6%A2%85%E7%94%B0MeRise?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#TSUTAYABOOKSTORE\u6885\u7530MeRise<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gUrYb4uRFe\">pic.twitter.com\/gUrYb4uRFe<\/a><\/p>&mdash; TSUTAYA BOOKSTORE \u6885\u7530MeRISE (@TSUTAYAMeRISE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TSUTAYAMeRISE\/status\/2022562704318435810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 14, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kadokawa announces two kids&#8217; encyclopedias featuring over a 100 &#8220;brainrot&#8221; characters, influenced by the meme&#8217;s recent boom in Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":58912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,65],"tags":[17,66],"class_list":["post-58908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-nongaming-news","tag-japan-related-news","tag-non-gaming-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kadokawa to publish Italian brainrot encyclopedia for kids amidst AI-generated meme boom in Japan\u00a0\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kadokawa announces two kids&#039; encyclopedias featuring over a 100 &quot;brainrot&quot; characters, influenced by the meme&#039;s recent boom in Japan.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-to-publish-italian-brainrot-encyclopedia-for-kids-amidst-ai-generated-meme-boom-in-japan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kadokawa to publish Italian brainrot encyclopedia for kids amidst AI-generated meme boom in Japan\u00a0\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kadokawa announces two kids&#039; encyclopedias featuring over a 100 &quot;brainrot&quot; characters, influenced by the meme&#039;s recent boom in Japan.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawa-to-publish-italian-brainrot-encyclopedia-for-kids-amidst-ai-generated-meme-boom-in-japan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-20T09:52:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-20T09:52:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260220-58908-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"895\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"439\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kadokawa to publish Italian brainrot encyclopedia for kids amidst AI-generated meme boom in Japan\u00a0\u00a0 - 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