Small shapes.
Carefully made.
Yuru is an independent collection of original spherical characters inspired by Japanese nature, food, places and folklore. It takes its name from the relaxed spirit of yuru-chara. These designs are not official regional mascots and are not endorsed by the owners of existing characters.
One little engine
Each character starts with the same real 3D sphere. Authored motif recipes add ears, leaves, petals and small details. A Rust engine builds the geometry and samples short facial clips from explicit times. The library serves pre-rendered transparent images; a single optional 3D preview uses the same models and clips.
PNG downloads: 32, 48, 64, 96, 128, 256, 512 and 1024 pixels. Animated PNG: 128 and 256 pixels, 24 frames over 1.2 seconds. GLB includes genuine 3D geometry and five baked expression clips. Lighting can vary in other 3D viewers.
Free originals
Yuru code and original generated artwork are available under the MIT license. You can use and modify them, including commercially, subject to that license. This license does not cover existing mascots linked in the reference atlas. Third-party notices.
A reference atlas, not a census
The atlas maps 10,133 Japan-prefecture registrations from three public directories, checked on 27 October 2026. Overlaps and repeated registrations are retained. It is not a count of unique mascots, a cultural classification, a complete list of every Japanese mascot, or permission to redraw or redistribute their artwork.
The crawl found 4,655 current ゆるナビ IDs versus its advertised 4,660; the five-record gap is unresolved. Other sources include 719 association profiles and 4,851 third-party registrations before region exclusions. Most metadata was checked at index depth, with 345 profile checks. Published affiliations are not verified legal ownership. The atlas includes directory candidates whose yuru-chara fit is unreviewed; overseas and unresolved regions are excluded.
Source directories: ゆるナビ, 日本ご当地キャラクター協会 and yuru-character.com. No source images or biographies are bundled. Coverage snapshot.
Edition 0.2
This is an early working edition. Engine geometry, explicit-time behavior and file validation are checked separately from visual approval. Phone performance and broad browser qualification remain in progress.