▲Source from thegroudmage.com

Last June, the Galleria Department Store introduced a shop ‘Replica’, a renowned adult toy shop. This is yet another opening of ‘kidult’ shops after ‘Kinki Robot’, ‘Smug’, ‘Blythe’ and others. ‘Kid + Adult = Kidult’, refers to the phenomenon and/or grown-up who embraces entertainment that is made for children. This term is similar to ‘Permanent Peter Pan’ or ‘Permanent Adolescents’ in other countries. The kidults in Korea are gradually increasing among individuals, along with the culture itself and stores.

Nostalgic memories regarding childhood and an inclination to avoid the heartless society, or simply as a hobby are reasons which have brought about an acceleration of the kidult products. Yang Hyun-Suk, CEO of YG Entertainment is known to collect ‘BE@RBRICK’ figures, which are a brand of toys that assimilates the softness of bears with brick-like stiffness. ‘Barbie’, supplies dolls for young primary school girls and for adults, ranging in prices from $13.00 to $600,000 (USD). Yet dolls and figures are not all that comprise of kidult products. Comic books, especially the limited editions, can be classified as kidult items. For instance, the first edition ‘Superman’ comic book was auctioned at $2,161,000 and ‘Spiderman’ at $1,100,000.

Kidult events in Korea started in the early 2000’s with products based on ‘Hello Kitty’ and a white rabbit with sleepy eyes, ‘Mashimaro’, and ‘Dalki’. Adults, particularly females, were the main target group together with children. On the other hand, male consumers were more interested in plastic die-cast models that can be assembled into plamodels at home. However, even more demand was given toward items that can be played outdoors, such as remote-control helicopters and boats.

A survey by ‘Saramin’ website stated that 80.4% of people had a positive view towards the kidult phenomenon. From the respondents who claimed to be kidults, 50.9% were interested in animation and comic books, 27.6% in plamodels, 18.9% in remote control vehicles, 18.2% in character products such as Winnie the Pooh and Hello Kitty, 17.1% in figures and miniatures, and 13.5% in puzzles.

Some sociologists insist that the fan base of Korean girl groups is largely made up of men in their 30s or older, the Samchon (Uncle) Fan, is a part of the kidult phenomenon as well. With the advent of girl groups in the 1990’s, the men from that era are not able to let go of the young girl-group entertainment regardless of their own age.
Beyond products, other fields have adopted the kidult culture. The smartphone application ‘zibit’ is the most popular application among Korean kidults. It provides network service for the owners to share the products they possess, and a market place to buy and sell them. Furthermore, beauty corporations draw up designs that stimulate kidult culture, by introducing products with Disney characters, Hello Kitty etc.

Additionally, movies such as ‘Transformers’, ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Ted’ reveal an adaptation of kidult culture. Even Disney movies are not an exception. The movie ‘Toy Story 3’ has adult oriented humor and entertainment such as gambling. The director Lee Unkrich stated that the demographics took not only parents but also adults as primary viewers into account. The vice president and chief marketing officer of the Walt Disney Company in Korea, Jay Shim, remarked “Kidult consumers are not simply adults who purchase kid products…We no longer limit animation or character content as children’s exclusive property”.

This comment may include to the upcoming movie in September ‘Monster University’. Like the ‘Toy Story’ series, ‘Monster University’ could be assessed as a movie series where the viewers of the first movie started as children but have now grown up into an adults, and are lured by childhood memories to watch the sequels. This influences the adults to have at least one more glimpse of Disney again, and one more nostalgic memory regarding Disney, leaving more possibilities to have him/herself as part of the Disney fan base as they used to when he/she was a child. Specialists claim that the kidult industry has the capability of growing 20-30% yearly, and although there are no cases of Korean kidult movies to date, it is hard to say there never will be. Regarding individuals, industries, or specific products, the ‘kidult’ seems to remain popular and could even spread to other fields in Korea.