Japan's Ministry of the Environment is employing a pair of moe mascot characters to raise awareness with younger audiences about the dangers of climate change.

The two characters are named Kimino Ima and Kimino Mirai, and their names are pun of the Japanese phrases for "Your Present" and "Your Future". The slovenly Ima represents our current world, whereas Mirai represents a potential world where people make "cool choices" that contribute to mitigating the effects of anthropogenic climate change.

The characters are designed by borges and illustrated by Maou_Illust, and they were selected by popular vote as the winners of a design contest that kicked off in October of 2016 and that featured some 135 entries.

Kimino Ima and Kimino Mirai will be featured on official websites and smart phone apps aimed at people in their teens and twenties, with the intent of raising awareness about the dangers of climate change as well as helping young people make informed decisions about how to improve their behavior to better protect the planet.

(Knowing otaku, I suspect Ima will be the more popular one.)

Sources:

TBS News via Otakomu

Net Lab

Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.