BODY: Japan's most ambitious cat—the one who just wants to become human—is now big enough to swallow your bedding.
Felissimo, the Kobe-based mail-order company, has released a new wave of collaboration goods between Nekobu, its long-running cat-themed product club, and Sony's classic talking-game franchise Doko Demo Issho ("Together Everywhere"). The standout item is a life-sized Toro futon storage case: a plush-styled shell modeled on Toro Inoue, the series' white-cat mascot, built to stash a folded futon or comforter inside while doubling as an oversized room companion.
The lineup leans into Nekobu's house formula of practical goods dressed up in cat charm. Beyond the headline storage case, the collaboration spans everyday items designed to put Toro and friends into daily routines rather than onto a display shelf—the kind of "useful but adorable" positioning that defines Felissimo's catalog.
The timing is notable. Doko Demo Issho debuted on the original PlayStation in 1999 and turned Toro into one of Sony Japan's most recognizable characters, complete with his trademark dream of becoming human. Collaborations like this keep the IP alive through merchandise even as new game entries have grown rare, tapping a wave of nostalgia among players who grew up reciting words to Toro on a memory card.
The insider take
From Tokyo, this pairing reads as almost inevitable. Toro is, after all, a cat, and Nekobu exists to monetize Japan's bottomless appetite for cat goods—so the match is less a crossover than a homecoming. Felissimo's model is worth understanding for overseas readers: it sells through monthly subscription-style catalogs where members commit to a series of themed items, a uniquely Japanese retail rhythm. A life-sized character that hides your futon also speaks to the realities of compact Japanese apartments, where storage furniture that earns its footprint by being cute is a genuine selling point, not a gag.
Originally reported by GAME Watch (Japanese).