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This has been something that has been bugging me for a while:

Why are there so many llamas in anime and in anime fan culture?

Some specific anime examples:

Stein's Gate Paca Plus (Game) enter image description here

You can buy alpacas at conventions too:

enter image description here

Where is this coming from? Why do I keep seeing llamas?! I don't believe llamas/alpaca are even native to Japan? (Although I did find a farm in Nasu)

Toshinou Kyouko
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    please forgive my lack of knowledge on how to distinguish between the two – Toshinou Kyouko Aug 24 '15 at 18:34
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    I found a similar topic of this on reddit, and theres an answer there that's rather interesting conserning the alpacamania. See here: https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1mfgs8/why_are_alpacas_so_popular_in_animeconventions/cc8tvok – Chen Orihara Aug 25 '15 at 00:39
  • I believe it's alpaca, not llama, which is popular in Japan culture. I also often see the Japanese refer to alpaca while watching videos on NicoDou... though I'm not sure if [NicoNicoPedia](http://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AB%E3%83%91%E3%82%AB) (Japanese) could give a hint why alpaca is popular there. – Aki Tanaka Aug 26 '15 at 06:39

1 Answers1

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@ChenOrihara's link seems to be correct - it's not just an anime thing, there is an overall trend in Japan that sees alpacas being included in unlikely situations.

There's even a company that leases alpacas for weddings:

enter image description here

Their popularity may have been triggered when the alpaca farm in Nasu was built in 1999 - bringing 200 alpacas into the country. Subsequent farms have been built also. The Nasu farm currently has >400 alpacas

Toshinou Kyouko
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