About
Paras Chiyo is a fan-made character based on a crossover between Paras, an original first-generation creature featured in Nintedo’s Pokemon universe, and Chiyo Sakura, the protagonist character from the Japanese four-pane comedy manga series Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, both of whom share similar color schemes in their appearance.
Origin
On August 17th, 2014, Twitter user @oshirukouji uploaded a side-by-side doppleganger image highlighting an apparent visual similiarity between Paras and Chiyo Sakura. The accompanying text roughly translates to “I cannot forgive an Otaku who calls Sakura Chiyo-chan a Paras."
佐倉千代ちゃんの事をパラスって言ったヲタク絶対に許せねぇ pic.twitter.com/1PwssyQlsr
— おしるこうじ (@oshirukouji) August 17, 2014Spread
On September 8th, 2014, Pixiv user 車 uploaded a fan art illustration of a hybrid character featuring Chiyo Sakura’s disembodied head and Paras’ claws and legs, with her iconic red hair bows replaced with the red mushrooms donned by the Pokemon creature.[2]. In the illustration, the character’s hair is drawn to form the legs of a Paras, in a similar style to that of Megurine Luka’s tentacle hair as depicted through the fan-made Vocaloid character Tako Luka.
Beginning on August 23rd 2014, the tag ちよパラ (“Paras Chiyo”) became associated with this particular strand of crossover character fan art[3]. In addition, the volume of the tag パラス (“Paras”) also saw a spike as it became linked to fan illustrations of Chiyo Sakura without an obvious connection to the Pokemon creature.
On August 20th, 2014, the English-language anime news site Seventh Style[4] published an article stating “Otaku have discovered… Sakura Chiyo from Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, holds many resemblances to the Pokemon known as Paras.”
Various Examples
External References
[1]Twitter – 佐倉千代ちゃんの事をパラスって言ったヲタク絶対に許せねぇ
[3]Pixiv – Images tagged as ちよパラ
[4]Seventh Style – Chiyo Sakura Resembles a Pokemon
[5]Archive Moe – Would you a Paras?