CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Scott Yoshinaga wears a Nemu fluffly fleece hat, while Audra Furuichi wears the Anpan version, which are among the items the creators of the comic strip nemu*nemu will be offering at Kawaii Kon this weekend at the Hawai'i Convention Center.

Oh My Pizza! Nemu and Anpan come to Kawaii Kon

The online comic "nemu*nemu" moves into T-shirts and toys

Most women would be a bit disheartened -- to put it mildly -- if their new beau presented them with a gift of a stuffed animal that had been languishing in a car trunk for months.

"I'd carry it everywhere as a companion. I really got attached to it and put a personality on that stuffed animal, talking to it as if it were another person," Furuichi said.

"As a kid I talked to my stuffed animals in the privacy of my room, so I didn't think anything of it, even though I'm kind of old to be doing something like that."

All the talking paid off when Yoshinaga, now her husband, proposed working on a story together. Both had experience working on their own comic strips while in school, though she was working at the Legislature and he was working as a Web designer.

His story was to be a dark action-adventure tale featuring two female leads. But Furuichi had ideas of her own, favoring an episodic project rather than a single epic tale.

When she proposed introducing her stuffed dog as a major character, Yoshinaga said, "I was against it, asking, 'What are you trying to do to my story?'"

But it was too late. The stuffed pup that came to be known as Nemu already had a life of its own and needed a companion of its own, which took the form of a smaller dog the two named Anpan.

The two pups are now featured with their two female owners, Anise and Kana, in the couple's online comic strip "nemu*nemu," with new adventures posted Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at nemunemu.com, plus once a month in the East Oahu Sun. The strips also are compiled in three books, "nemu*nemu" Vols. 1 and 2, and "The Art of nemu*nemu Vol. 1."

THE LATEST adventures of Nemu and Anpan include starring in a line of T-shirts ($18), pins and soft goods like plush dolls ($20 each or $30 for a set of two) and toddlers' fleece hats ($20) created by Furuichi and Yoshinaga to introduce the general public to their world of "Peanut Butter Pirates," "Nemu Can Have Grilld Cheez Pleez" and "OMP!" -- short for "Oh My Pizza!"

"In the comic strip, Nemu and Anpan don't act like dogs, but dogs instinctively like food," said Yoshinaga, who came up with "OMP!" on one of the couple's road trips with the stuffed dogs.

"A lot of what they say would happen spontaneously," Yoshinaga said. "We'd think of what a kid might say, not 'Oh my God,' but 'Oh my pizza.' It was just a way to pass the time while waiting for food to come, and Anpan really likes pizza."

"For us the T-shirts are a way to grow our audience," said Furuichi, who now works on the strips full time.

The shirts, as well as other nemu*nemu items, will be available at Kawaii Kon this weekend at the Hawaii Convention Center. (See HI Life for more details about the anime convention.)

"I see a lot of T-shirt people out there, but none of them have a story to them," said Yoshinaga. "I hope people like the story and fall in love with the characters.

"Someday I plan to go back to my original story, but I'm kind of glad things happened this way. The characters took on a life of their own in a good way."

"nemu*nemu" books can be found at Collector Maniacs, Barnes & Noble Ala Moana, Borders.com and Amazon.com, or visit the webcomic at nemu-nemu.com for the full line.

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Their newest T-shirts featuring the rascal, hungry pups.

COURTESY SCOTT YOSHINAGA This stuffed dog, Yoshinaga's gift to Furuichi, took on a life of its own while traveling with the duo, and became the inspiration for the character of Nemu.